Digital Commons Network^™

Thipsinna Dakhod Wichohan Wakhan – ‘Turnip Dakhota Way Of Life Is Sacred’: A Dakhota Model For K-12 Pedagogy And Curriculum, Ramey Leigh Escarcega-Growing Thunder

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The term “cultural place-based” is used to ground this research—a specific spiritual place linked to cultural and language-based education within the homelands of the Dakȟóta, Nakoda, and Lakota peoples who inhabit territories in Montana, South Dakota, North Dakota, and Canada: The Native people regard these as their homelands. In the Dakȟóta language, itȟáŋčhaŋ translates to “a leader, boss, person in charge, position of authority, office, management, and political power,” (Lakota Language Consortium, Llc., 2013). The author utilizes the word itȟáŋčhaŋ as the cultural–educational leadership view in creating a cultural place-based model. This research identifies the impact indicators of implementing a …

Navigating The Soviet Experiment: Travels And Writings Of John Dos Passos And Edmund Wilson In Soviet Russia, 1928-1935, Robert Allan Winslow

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The travel accounts of Soviet Russia by John Dos Passos (1896-1970) and Edmund Wilson (1895-1972) vividly demonstrate how Western writer-travelers were drawn into Soviet cultural experiments. Only rarely was this process one of literary influence. This thesis focuses on published travel writings by Dos Passos (In All Countries, 1934) and Wilson (Travels In Two Democracies, 1936), as well as journals, letters, and essays, in terms of Soviet cultural developments both writers noted as historically significant in shaping Western views of the Soviet state, and of the methods involved in building socialism and Communism.

In the …

Badass Beauties: The Culture Of Rebellious Femininity, Natalia L. Boise

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This project is an explorative multi-media essay aimed at capturing diverse individual expressions of femininity. It was conceptualized out of frustration and also admiration. I saw many beautiful women I admire struggle with beauty norms and standards and the constraints of the modern conceptualization of femininity. Some of the universals of womanhood--menstruation, public hair, aging-- have come to be seen as entirely unfeminine, and many of the women around me were beginning to challenge that. These women’s experiences, my own education, our discussions, and my personal struggles as a woman trying to establish my own identity in a world that …

A Quantitative Study On The Influence Of Persistence Factors On American Indian Graduate Students, Aislinn Rae Heavy Runner-Rioux

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The underrepresentation of American Indian students continues to exist at the undergraduate and graduate levels of postsecondary education despite increases of American Indian student enrollment. The purpose of this quantitative survey study was to identify correlations between academic factors and graduate student persistence, as well as to understand how likely graduate degree completion is based on known academic factors for American Indian students. The analyses of the data included survey results, descriptive statistics, bivariate correlation, and multivariate regression. A sample of n=63 American Indian Graduate students represented 41 tribes and villages with over 32 unique tribal languages. The respondents indicated …

The Pioneer Spirit: Missoula Entrepreneurship, Joseph Desch

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

Recent developments in technology and connectivity have allowed locations not typically thought of as hubs of entrepreneurship to grow and develop the entrepreneurial spirits within their cities. Locales such as Missoula and Albuquerque have recently made steps towards becoming more robust centers of startup culture while giants like Boston continue to set the standard for cities that foster entrepreneurship. No matter the location, each city takes a very similar approach to developing startup culture and businesses within their city, but each location has its own unique advantages and disadvantages when it comes to developing new businesses. Missoula is a unique …

Another Day, Another Donut: Political Economy, Agency, And Food In A Montanan Homeless Shelter, Jacqueline Devereaux Semmens

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Despite widespread undernutrition among the homeless, there has been little anthropological research on the experience of food insecurity in this population. Between 20 and 40 percent of the homeless population is undernourished and one third regularly miss meals (Gelberg 1995). This thesis addresses the significant problem of food insecurity in the homeless from a political economic perspective, analyzing how larger social structures influence the individual person. Fifteen residents at a shelter in Missoula, MT were interviewed about their dietary practices and experience of social service programs. The macro-social level influences the diet of the individual in two important ways: first, …

Acceptance Through Art And Technology: Learning, Linking And Creating Waves In The World From The Root Of Personal Culture, Tami Rene' Thomas Mehus

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

As an educator, my role is not only to teach academia, but to also create lessons that encourage personal growth. My goal is to help my students find a new interest or perspective on life, and gain greater self-awareness and appreciation. Initially the objective of my final creative project was to introduce the art form of photography and have my students explore and document personal culture. My students used epals.com to exchange their photographs with students from other countries to make cultural connections. I wanted this electronic exchange to exhibit differences and similarities my students shared with students across the …

Discourse, Identity, And Culture In Diverse Organizations: A Study Of The Muslim Students Association (University Of Montana), Burhanuddin Bin Omar

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study examined the relationship between discourse, identity and culture within the diverse membership of the Muslim Students Association, University of Montana. Previous organizational identity research has discussed how identity is fluid, how identity regulation occurs between the organization and membership, and that identity is formed through discourses. Additionally, the literature also shows us how these identity influencing discourses are themselves influenced by culture. This study expands the literature through an exploration of the identity formation of organizational members who share Islam as a religion within a culturally diverse MSA. This study utilizes a poststructuralist lens to explore the discursive …

On The Road: Struggling, Searching And Opportunities Young Asians In Missoula Seek Their Cultural Identities, Suhan Chen

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Where are you from? When do you use ¡°we?¡± The answers to these two questions are easy for people from a single cultural background, but may not be so simple for those young Asians who have grown up and lived in the U.S. but aren¡¯t sure where they belong. This project includes two stories of two young women from Missoula. They have been searching for their cultural identities and have found that the searching will never end. They will probably always be on the road back and forth between the U.S. and their ancestry countries.

Native American Tourism In Montana, Vicki Ann Plemmons

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This professional project is composed of three magazine articles on the topic of Native American tourism in Montana. The first article is about Blackfeet artist Leonda Fast Buffalo Horse, a successful porcupine quill artist over the past 15 years, and the prospect of cultural tourism in Browning. The second article explores three Native American groups and how they are using tourism to create changes on the Crow and Northern Cheyenne Reservations. The third article examines German tourists, the largest group of overseas visitors to Montana, and the irony as to why several groups are making a profit from the German …

Guidelines For A Pluralist Society: Could Rawls Help With Struggles Over Identity, Blake Benjamin Francis

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

According to Kwame Appiah, “the great liberal struggle” since the Enlightenment has concerned whether the state should treat citizens as self-directed individuals or acknowledge them in terms of social identities—ethnicity, culture, religion, or gender. Some thinkers, Appiah among them, have proposed solutions to this struggle and advocate for amending liberalism to include space for the recognition of difference. These “solutions” share at least one thing in common: critiques of John Rawls. However, Rawls seems to have a palatable answer to “the great liberal struggle,” though it seems he would frame it differently. Indeed, he acknowledges “the fact of pluralism,” as …

Debating Identity: Urban Indians In The Healthcare System, Erin J. Klahn

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In recent years, the public health sector has recommended that healthcare practitioners become culturally competent in order to reduce health disparities in minority groups. It was reported later in the Surgeon General's Report (1999) on mental health, that culture shapes the healthcare experience for minority groups and in turn may influence the treatment course. Cultural competence models have been proposed in conjunction with the development of ethnic-specific mental health clinics, where practitioners and patients are ethnically similar, and programs are designed with the groups’ unique cultural needs in mind. This poses a particularly unique dilemma for urban Indians as their …

Bringing African Dance And Drumming To Rural Northern Colorado, Melissa Claeys

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

For my Final Creative Project, I set out to bring change to a rural Colorado school. I was to propose and pilot a unit in African Drumming. My eventual goal was to have this class offered for the fall of 2008 in the student class handbook and be able to teach this course. I began my process in the summer of 2007 engaging in conversations with my future colleagues asking for their support in this goal. We were able to come upon an agreement that I would be able to write and propose a new course with an accompanying curriculum …

Resiliency And Risk In Native American Communities: A Culturally Informed Investigation, Annjeanette Elise Belcourt-Dittloff

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper reviews recent research findings and empirically investigates resiliency and vulnerability factors within two Native American communities. The primary factors under consideration are related to American Indian psychosocial factors. This project is an exploratory investigation of pathology and wellness for understudied American Indians, and it examines the nature of resiliency and risk for American Indians. The factors under investigation include adversarial growth, spirituality, ethnic identity, communal identity, social support, historical trauma, stressors experienced, hope, quality of life, and general psychological status for American Indians sampled. Numerous statistically significant relationships emerged, providing empirical support for culturally embedded aspects of resiliency …

Mandan Amerindian Culture| A Study Of Values Transmission, Philip Arthur Zemke

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.