Indigenous Studies Commons^™

La Lengua No Miente, Pero Guarda Secretos: Rigoberta Menchú Y Lecciones De La Memoria Colectiva Desde La Perspectiva Del Feminismo Transnacional, Mildred Ciprian

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Este ensayo explora las lecciones del poder de la memoria colectiva, el poder del testimonio, y el poder de la lengua y los secretos en el testimonio de Rigoberta Menchú, Me llamó Rigoberta Menchú, y así me nació la conciencia (1992). Menchú es una mujer indígena maya que vivió en Guatemala durante el genocidio contra la población indígena. Al estudiar Menchú, uno llega a cuestionar cómo se producen el conocimiento y la verdad, especialmente en el occidente frente al resto del mundo. Las experiencias que cuenta Menchú vienen de memorias colectivas que comparte y cría su comunidad. Este concepto de …

Haunting As Heritage: Mapping The Interior And Indigenous Ghosts, Koda L. Animkii

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

Within Stephen Graham Jones’ novella Mapping the Interior, the connections between history and identity are analyzed and emphasized through the exploration of identity formation and the impacts of settler colonialism on the self. These connections are heightened through the novella’s use of horror, as the rhetoric of the normative and monstrous within the genre holds the potential for both resistance and oppression. Looking at the genre of horror as a whole, and at the subgenres of ghost stories and hauntings more specifically, the shifting structures of the Self and the Other as established by Robin Wood’s “An Introduction to …

Girlhood, Interrupted: An Intersectional Feminist History Of Decolonizing And Reclaiming Womanhood, Ayden Kelly

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In the past few decades, social and political discourse surrounding womanhood and who is considered a "real" woman has led to the execration of transgender women. This work will explore how recent discourse and rhetoric surrounding who is and who is not a “real woman” can be traced to nineteenth century notions of “true womanhood” that excluded women of color. In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with westward expansion, settler colonialism, residential schools, slavery, and post-emancipation serving as backdrops, this work will also analyze how ideologies of womanhood have interrupted and suppressed women of color throughout Western American …

Art As Resistance, Art As Hope: The Crane, The Nopal, And The Knowledge They Carry, Mayra Urbina

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This reflection explores the crane-and-nopal motif in Talavera Poblana ceramics as a lens for understanding artisan knowledge, cultural identity, and the impacts of globalization on Indigenous communities. Through my own painting of a Talavera-style vase, I trace the layered colonial history embedded in this motif — including the quiet resistance of Indigenous artisans who encoded Aztec memory into colonial art forms by replacing the eagle with the crane. The reflection examines how globalization threatens artisan traditions through fast-fashion appropriation, the limitations of Mexico's 2022 cultural heritage protection law, and the displacement of Indigenous artisans in Mexico City. Ultimately, I argue …

Home: Transforming A Public Arts Grant Into A Community Project, Scarlett G. Baily

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

Home is a 2,535 ft² site-specific mural in San Diego’s Liberty Station that reconnects the site’s military history with Kumeyaay Indigenous heritage and maritime culture. Through depictions of native flora and fauna, the work foregrounds overlooked origin stories and ecological knowledge of Point Loma. Developed through deep community collaboration, including Kumeyaay advisors and over 100 local participants, the mural fosters shared authorship and cultural continuity. It invites viewers to engage with alternative histories while supporting language revitalization and environmental awareness.

Amor, Art, And Advocacy: Un Conversación With Chicanx Mother, Grammy Award Artivist, Macarthur Fellow, And Scripps Professor Martha Gonzalez, Belén S. Yudess

The Transdisciplinary STEAM+ Journal

This Spotlight features a conversation with Professor Martha Gonzalez, a Chicana artivista (artist/activist) musician, feminist music theorist, and Associate Professor and Chair of the Intercollegiate Department of Chicana/o Latina/o Studies (CLS) at Scripps/Claremont College. The conversation draws from Prof. Gonzalez’s background as a Chicana, and the  Chicanxs, Mexicanxs, Latinxs, and Indigenous communities in Mexico and Los Angeles that have shaped her work. She shares her practice in teaching and engaging with collective songwriting, her critique of western paradigms, and explorations of boundary crossing that music facilitates as part of championing the hope and flourishing that comes from within communities and …

Land Epistemic Ethic: Exploring The Complex Intersection Of Human Bodies, Land, And Identity In Middle Belt Nigeria Cosmologies, Fwangmun Oscar Danladi

International Journal on Responsibility

The Indigenous cosmologies of Nigeria’s Middle Belt emphasize the relationship between human bodies and the land, transcending Western epistemological binaries and revealing profound socio-religious insights into environmental responsibility. Practices such as the burial of newborns’ umbilical cords, often dismissed as animistic or fetishistic, embody a sacred connection to the land that emphasizes belonging rather than ownership. Using an autoethnographic approach, this study critically examines these cosmologies and identifies how the sacredness of land can serve as a repository of communal memory and potential. By reframing land not as a possession but as a relational entity, this research challenges dominant narratives …

Quantifying And Navigating The Potential Impacts Of The Mvp Southgate Extension On North Carolina’S Mmiw Crisis, Ryan Collins

ATU Scholars Symposium

Across the United States and Canada, there is an ongoing crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (MMIW). While there are multiple intersecting factors that create these statistics, a considerable factor found across both nations is pipeline construction projects. The establishment of temporary worker camps for these projects has been shown to coincide with an increase in violent crime including human trafficking, sexual assault, and harassment against local women. In North Carolina, the proposed Southgate extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline has been met with tremendous pushback from Indigenous North Carolinians, who remain concerned about the potential establishment of these …

Discussion From Andrea Smith's Book, Conquest: Sexual Violence And American Indian Genocide, Alexis M. Auman

Student Publications

Discussion from Andrea Smith's book, Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide

Identity Restoration Theory: Reclaiming Cultural Identity As A Pathway To Reintegration, Sigifredo Castell Britton

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

This article introduces Identity Restoration Theory (IRT), a new theoretical framework that explains what formerly incarcerated individuals need to reconnect with disrupted cultural identities as a pathway to reintegration. Grounded in qualitative fieldwork with Raizal ex-offenders and community leaders on San Andrés Island, Colombia, IRT is designed to conceptualize reintegration, not as institutional resettlement, but as a culturally rooted process of re-embedding identity within community and place. The framework delineates five interdependent constructs—cultural memory, place reconnection, narrative repair, communal belonging, and agency activation—that emerged inductively from participant narratives. Anchored in the postcolonial context of an Afro-Caribbean island society, IRT provides …

The Migrant As A Pilgrim: Decolonising Identity And Belonging, Susan Nemec

International Journal of Religious Tourism and Pilgrimage

This paper responds to pilgrimage scholar George Greenia’s assertion that meaningful intersections exist between pilgrimage and various forms of displacement, such as migration or involuntary exile due to famine, war, or political unrest. Greenia proposes that vulnerable, displaced individuals might find shelter, both conceptually and emotionally, within the framing of pilgrimage. By extending concepts of pilgrimage, it can be understood as a deliberate and intentional journey, simultaneously emphasising the transformative potential inherent in migratory movement. By adopting a working definition of pilgrimage as ‘any form of travel that is intentional, purposeful, or transformative,’ the paper considers how migrancy, particularly within …

Between Peaks And Traditions: Indigenous Andean Women Mountaineers, Hybrid Identities, And Decolonial Resistance Through Sport, Ilina Arsova, Lars Dzikus

Journal of Global South Sport Studies

This paper explores the hybrid identities of Indigenous Bolivian women mountaineers, focusing on how they embrace and resist elements of both Indigenous and Western traditions through sports. Challenging dominant Western narratives of mountaineering (Rak, 2021), these women engage in climbing as an act of cultural preservation (Haynes, 2013; Rak, 2021) and gender advocacy (U.N. Women, 2021). Informed by Indigenous feminism (Caravajal, 2019; Green, 2020) and social identity theory (Tajfel & Turner, 1979), the study explores the intersections of gender, culture, and mountain sports in the South American Andes. Through an interpretivist lens, this study uses narrative inquiry (Clandinin & Connelly, …

Courts Of Indian Offenses, Courts Of Indian Resistance, Alexandra Fay

Michigan Law Review

In the late nineteenth century, the Department of the Interior created the Courts of Indian Offenses with the express goal of eliminating elements of Native culture through the coercive power of criminal law. The courts stood on dubious constitutional grounds, were almost universally replaced by tribal courts in the twentieth century, and have been widely derided as crude assimilationist tools.

This Article examines the Courts of Indian Offenses to study how law and legal institutions operate as sites of colonial struggle. The Courts of Indian Offenses were formally created to criminalize Native culture. In practice, they were more complicated. Native …

Tuktuit: Caribou, William L. Blizek, Monica Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a review of the short film, Tuktuit: Caribou (2026), directed by Lindsay Aksarniq McIntyre.

Taga, William L. Blizek, Monica Blizek

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a review of the short film, Taga (2026), directed by Jill Marie Sachs.

Aanikoobijigan [Ancestor/Great-Grandparent/Great-Grandchild], Sheila Nayar

Journal of Religion & Film

This is a film review of Aanikoobijigan [ancestor/great-grandparent/great-grandchild] (2026), directed by Adam Khalil and Zack Khalil.

Los Sistemas De Apoyo Para Personas Indígenas Con Discapacidad Como Garantía De Derechos Lingüísticos Y Justicia Epistémica En México, Antonio R. Uc Galera

Journal of Maya Heritage

La derogación formal de la figura de interdicción consagrada en los Códigos Civiles Sustantivos y la implementación de figuras jurídicas novedosas como sistemas de apoyo y personas, representa de los avances más trascendentes en materia de discapacidad. Su aplicación legislativa impacta a las personas de las Comunidades Indígenas con discapacidad como garantía de derechos sus lingüísticos, ya que estas nuevas figuras jurídicas en materia civil brindan herramientas de comunicación, apoyos cognitivos y de comprensión, incluyendo lectura fácil, implementación de traductores, instrumentos que apoyan la movilidad, entre otros, según las necesidades de la persona en particular. Este artículo propone un análisis …

Introducción, Victòria Solanilla, Anabel Villalonga Gordaliza

Actas seleccionadas del SIMPOSIO ARTE 4.2: Migraciones en la imagen prehispánica: transitando territorios del pasado al presente. 58º Congreso Internacional de Americanistas, Novi Sad, Serbia, 2025.

El presente volumen reúne una selección de contribuciones derivadas del simposio «Migraciones en la imagen prehispánica: transitando territorios», coordinado en el marco del 58º Congreso Internacional de Americanistas (ICA58). Este congreso, celebrado en distintas sedes en Novi Sad, Serbia, del 30 de junio al 4 de julio de 2025, conmemoró los 150 años del ICA y reunió a investigadores de todo el mundo bajo el lema «Nuevos desafíos, Nuevos espacios», incorporando además una valiosa «mirada balcánica» al estudio de las Américas. En ese escenario — un cruce de lenguas, trayectorias y tradiciones académicas — nuestro simposio propuso detenerse ante un …

Chapter 3: Diamonds In The Rough: The Development And Occurrences Of The Rhombus Motif, Its Components, And Its Variations In Olmec And Olmec-Related Textiles, Billie J. A. Follensbee

Precious Pattern: The Dotted-Diamond Motif in Indigenous American Textiles, Explorations in Mesoamerica, the American Southwest, and the Andes

Discusses the development of textiles in the Mesoamerican Preclassic/Formative period from the Gulf Coast, the rhombus textile patterns and motifs in Olmec and Olmec-related imagery, and includes further reflections on the dotted-diamond motif, its components, and their correlations.

Imagining The Inuit: Myth, Market, And The Making Of The Contemporary Inuit Sculpture Canon, Kristen Sara Davidson-Schwartz

MA Theses

This thesis explores how qallunaat institutions used sculpture to shape and define Inuit life. I argue that contemporary Inuit sculpture, as conceived of by outsiders to support Inuit economic enfranchisement and modernization, became a vessel through which qallunaat institutions circulated ideas about Inuit culture and Arctic lands. Although purported to reflect the voice of Inuit, the meanings attached to Inuit sculpture rarely reflected Inuit intention and consistently aligned to qallunaat priorities: a performance of primitive, ancient, and authentic Inuit life; a gesture of indigenous gratitude and cheerful participation in state-designed development programs; or a masterful expression of the formal concerns …