Educational Sovereignty: Creating Community By Ensuring Belonging, Merisa K. Jones

Ed.D. Dissertations in Practice

The purpose of this research is to look at how we can use the education system as a tool to restore tribal identity and create belonging. To successfully see this work through the Lummi Nation, I will have to look at ways to challenge the formalized Western Education System and acknowledge its impacts on identity development. Pre-contact, the Lummi people had education systems in place that ensured the transmission of sacred knowledge, the learning took place within the house, and it was the family's responsibility to ensure the children grew up knowing the family values. The house of learning was …