Indigenous Studies Commons^™

Cultural Model Of Indigenous Custom Marriage, Maria G. Stapleton

Graduate Research Theses & Dissertations

This thesis examines and documents the tradition of Indigenous Custom Marriage (ICM) practiced in a semi-rural community in central Mexico. The arrival of Spaniards to Mesoamerica during the sixteenth century brought new forms of marriage to the region, those of the Christian religion and of the Spanish crown’s laws. While these new forms slowly gained acceptance, the traditional pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican form of getting married has endured over the intervening centuries up through the present. This traditional form of marriage is not monolithic, but shows variation across the diverse ethnic groups, communities, and geographic regions of Mesoamerica. The community studied, Tlanalapa, …

Feminine Felons: Violent Offenders' Intersectional Experiences In Twentieth-Century Montana, Cassidy Ann Vander Voort

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper explores the treatment of violent female offenders in Montana in both the media and prison system from 1900-1960. Women of all races faced gender discrimination from both the carceral system and popular media. Local newspapers sensationalized crimes committed by female offenders, portraying them as women who lived outside of the expectations of womanhood in the twentieth century. Newspapers and courts placed women into two categories: “mad/sad” female offenders, who received forgiveness for their crimes; or unforgivable, “bad” offenders. Crime did not determine these categorizations; instead, gender expectations of the white middle class shaped female criminals’ treatment. If these …

Indigenous Access And Use On Private Land: A Toolkit For Heart Of The Rockies Land Trust Members, Ian James Craighead

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

"A Changed Understanding Of Our Present": Moby-Dick As Prophetic Ecological Activism, Katie Ann Schini

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Moby-Dick: Or, The Whale is a classic of American literature, spanning multiple genres and remaining culturally relevant nearly 175 years after its original publication. Though on the surface Moby-Dick reads as an adventure story of a man who experiences the whaling industry firsthand, Herman Melville’s text continues to invite new generations of readership through the framework of the twenty-first century climate crisis.

In this thesis, I position Moby-Dick as a text that can be used to understand our modern society’s current dispositions of ecological grief. My thesis operates at the intersection of three main literary critical theories: ecocriticism, affect, and …

America's Highest Stage: Utopians, Capitalists, And Trail Runners On Pikes Peak, Mitchell Morris

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Since ancient times, Pikes Peak’s prominence on the land has endowed it with prominence in the minds of all who have lived around it. This ancient dynamic was reinforced in the nineteenth century by the famed expedition of Lieutenant Zebulon Pike in 1806 and the Pike’s Peak Gold Rush in 1858. Since then, the mountain has become a stage. Standing tall, visible from hundreds of miles around, and known from coast to coast, Pikes Peak is a platform that has attracted diverse historical actors to come and perform, elevate their endeavors to new heights, and demonstrate what they, and people …

The Devil In The Forest: How Le Guin Subverts A Tired Trope, Andrew Debella

UKL: The Journal of Ursula K. Le Guin Studies

Scholars understand Ursula K. Le Guin's 1972 The Word for World is Forest as a critique of settler-colonial history, but no academic interest has been given to how this novel also comments on the American religious imagination. This article reveals that Le Guin's allegory to Vietnam replicates the 'devil in the forest' trope to expose how a religiously inspired good/evil dichotomy shaped xenophobic attitudes toward the Vietnamese during the 1970s. By tracing the depictions of Native Americans through American fiction and Captivity Narratives, this article further demonstrates how Le Guin’s novel deploys similar tropes to expose and critique their influence …

Art/Place Making In A Settler Colonial Context: A Critical Place Inquiry On The Haldimand Tract/Kitchener-Waterloo From A White Settler Perspective, Haley Sheppard

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

Although critical place scholars implicate artists in settler colonial processes of placemaking, there is little information on how white settler artists (WSAs) might use their creative practice to support practices of accountability and solidarity with Indigenous resurgence. This research responds to this gap by investigating the creative practices of WSAs located on the Haldimand Tract/in Kitchener-Waterloo (KW), and how they might approach critical, contextual practices in their creative work. A critical place inquiry was combined with ethnographic research principles and a transformative critical research paradigm. Six WSAs participated in mobile interviews, which took place in a location significant to them. …

Indigenous-Industrial Heritage: Centering Indigenous Voices In Minnesota's Iron Range, Larissa A. Juip

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Industrial heritage refers to the material remains, sites, landscapes, and practices associated with industrial and extractive activities. As a field, it has historically been concerned with the conservation, management, and interpretation of industrial sites and activities and forms a central narrative within Minnesota's museums. Yet such accounts often privilege object-centered narratives while silencing the presence, knowledge, and contributions of Indigenous and Descendant communities, obscuring their enduring relationships to extractive landscapes. In recent decades, critiques of traditional industrial heritage approaches have identified gaps in the discipline related to the exclusion of marginalized populations, including Indigenous Peoples. Minnesota is home to eleven …

Ancestors In The Archives: Decolonizing Archival Research, Willow White

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

Bringing together my identities as an Indigenous woman (Métis Nation of Alberta) and as a scholar specializing in eighteenth-century women writers has involved the continual unlearning of colonial research practices. The following essay reflects on my efforts to work with/in archives in a decolonizing way. I will share some of the practices that I have adopted, not to provide a checklist, but to join the ongoing conversation of many eighteenth-century studies scholars who share a decolonizing desire.

Introduction: Intergenerational Thinking, Katherine Binhammer

ABO: Interactive Journal for Women in the Arts, 1640–1830

This introduction to a conversation on Intergenerational Thinking that first began at the American Society of Eighteenth Century Studies in Toronto, March 2024, establishes the importance of dialogue across generations in feminist eighteenth-century studies. It synthesizes the methods the participants engage to think with past scholars, rather than disavow such work. While the topics discussed are diverse -- feminist history, Phillis Wheatley, Indigenous eighteenth-century archives, climate catastrophe and Charlotte Charke – the writers share an approach to generational thinking grounded in a critique of the assumption that the new is always better.

Impacto De La Pandemia De La Covid-19 En Las Familias De Los Jóvenes Universitarios De Las Poblaciones Rurales Mayas Del Estado De Yucatán, Jorge Atocha Pacheco Castro

Journal of Maya Heritage

Abstract. This study examines the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on the families of university students from rural Maya communities in Yucatán, Mexico. Utilizing an anthropological framework, the research highlights the interplay of structural vulnerabilities and cultural resilience. It explores how families navigated economic challenges, social interactions, and cultural practices amid the crisis. Key findings include the reliance on traditional subsistence practices such as small-scale agriculture and backyard farming, which provided a safety net during economic downturns. Socially, rural families reported lower stress levels and stronger communal bonds compared to their urban counterparts, owing to expansive living spaces and outdoor …

Indigenous Metal: Rage, Rejects, And The Reconstruction Of Culture, Louis W. Asbury

Master's Theses

Metal music’s latest frontier is Indigenous metal, combining explorations of Indigenous identity with the heavy and aggressive stylings of the music genre. To explore this new subgenre, this study asks to what extent can metal music be used as a political tool and what are some of the broader effects of metal bands working to better their communities. This thesis utilizes case studies of two notable Indigenous metal scenes, the Rez metal scene in the Navajo Nation and the Māori metal scene in Aotearoa. By collecting data from these scenes, including lyrics, videos, interviews, and audience interactions, this thesis thoroughly …

Re-Indigenizing And Collaboratively Tending Urban Greenspaces, Divinity Nnenne Adewale

University Honors Theses

This work details the active process of land tending with the intention of re-Indigenization in the Pacific Northwest at several Portland sites; The Native American Student Community Center, PSU Oak Savanna, and the Ridgefield National Wildlife Refuge. Land tending is an intuitive process, one rooted in love and respect for life of all forms as well as becoming the perpetual student; land tending is not a skill to be mastered, only practiced. Unlike environmental management, tending cannot be done separate from the earth, in a classroom or otherwise. Connections are what tending is built on top of: the foundation; effort …

This Will Not Be Generative, Sehrish Naudhani

Intersections: Critical Issues in Education

This Will Not Be Generative by Dixa Ramírez-D’Oleo critiques Western feminist narratives, revealing how concepts like generativity and symbiosis often disguise violence against Black and Indigenous communities. Through analysis of works by feminists such as Donna Haraway and references to films like Get Out and Midsommar, Ramírez-D’Oleo argues that Black and Indigenous lives are cyclically exploited to uphold white supremacy. Rather than depicting these communities as mere victims, she emphasizes their resilience and acts of resistance. This review underscores Ramírez-D’Oleo's call to rethink the narratives shaping our understanding of race, ecology, and feminism, making it a critical read for …

Book Review: Mayalogue: An Interactionist Theory Of Indigenous Cultures, Arcia Tecun

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Mayalogue: An Interactionist Theory of Indigenous Cultures by Victor Montejo

Albany: State University of New York Press, 2021. 248 pp

Arcia Tecun analyzes and interacts with Montejo’s discussions and logics, resulting in a postcolonial indigenous conversation between reviewer and book author.

Corazón De Maíz Un Tributo A Los Pueblos Mayas, Patricia López

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

English Abstract:

Corazón de Maíz gathers the stories and recipes for traditional Maya cooking in the regions of Huehuetenango, and is designed to promote the survival of the culinary system of the grand-mothers, and the food that they prepared with love for the whole family. This “culinary novel” contains myths, legends, stories of the origin of some foods, cooking tech-niques and methods. The foods prepared in the altiplano region developed from millenary traditions, the Hispanic invasion, the ravages of climate change bringing droughts and plagues that destroy life, and the various consequences and influences of migration. For the Maya, corn …

A Wīnak Perspective On Cosmovisíon Maya And Eco-Justice Education, Arcia Tecun

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

This article responds to questions of relational ethics in Indigenous mobility with a critically conscious approach to cosmovisíon Maya in Soonkahni (Salt Lake Valley). An urban and mobile Mayan positionality, identified as Wīnak, guides an analysis of complex Indigenous experiences, and possibilities found in Eco-Justice. The limits from the prevailing and dominant colonial logics of conservation and environmentalism are re-imagined through Indigenous approaches to ‘Earth Wellbeing’. The application of critically conscious cosmovisíon Maya reveals a simultaneous challenge to systems of power, and to formations of an Indigenous relational ethic that is both locally meaningful and globally relevant. This essay concludes …

Revisiting Men Of Maize: Historical Truths, Literary Distortions, And Asturias In Today’S Guatemala, Elaine Elliott

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

In 2024, a renewed appreciation for the Guatemalan Nobel Prize winner Miguel Ángel Asturias is taking place to mark the 50th anniversary of Asturias’ death. This essay examines the historical and literary context of the author’s groundbreaking novel Hombres de maíz (Men of Maize), and the book’s portrayal of indigenous Maya resistance against ladino landowners in Guatemala. Evidence indicates that Asturias obtained his views of ladino – Maya conflict from historic land conflicts in Ilom, Chajul. Asturias distorted the events, but his book inspired a generation of revolutionaries, some of whom organized and fought in the Ixil region and Ilom. …

Book Review: Hojas Sueltas., Emil' Keme

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Hojas sueltas. by Daniel Caño.

Quetzaltenango Guatemala. POE, 2024. 204 pp

ISBN 978-9929-732-17-9.

As an alternative to the standard book review, Maya America has reprinted the prologue to Hojas Sueltas, which was written by Emil’ Keme. Also, this year, Daniel Caño published another new book, Versos improvisados. Daniel can be reached at [email protected].

Document is in Spanish.

Maya America Vol. 6 Iss 2 - Front Matter, Maya America Editors

Maya America: Journal of Essays, Commentary, and Analysis

Front Matter includes the covers and Introductory Note