Digital Commons Network^™

The Evolution Of Ritual Violence And Identity At Paquimé, Lacy Jaide Hazelwood

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The prehistoric site of Paquimé, located in the Casas Grandes region of northern Mexico, was a major regional center characterized by its complex sociopolitical organization, distinctive architecture, and evidence of ritualized behavior. Previous research has documented skeletal trauma and processing patterns consistent with ritual violence within the Paquimé skeletal assemblage, including human sacrifice and cannibalism. However, questions remain regarding the identities of these individuals and the reasoning behind their selection for targeted violence by the community. Did an individual’s age, biological sex, kinship affiliations, and/or migrant status predispose them to these ritually violent acts? To address these gaps, this dissertation …

A Psychogeography Of The Lower Colorado River Basin, Arren L. Kimbel-Sannit

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Dried-up canals. Superheated strip malls. Proliferating data centers. Infinite appetite for growth despite its apparent circumstances. Arizona may well be the state of the American future. This multi-genre series of essays from Arren Kimbel-Sannit offers a personal, political-economic and ecological critique of growth and accumulation in Arizona — from the perspective of someone who grew up in its suburban expanses, reported on its politics, and long sought to clarify his relationship with home.

Continental Violence And The "Oregon Question": George Frederick Ruxton And The Nineteenth-Century Pacific Northwest, Rory Orion Johnson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This paper builds on recent efforts to depict Indigenous polities across North America in their international relations with European and Euro-American colonists and their centralized governments. It examines George Frederick Ruxton, a private English citizen and former army lieutenant, as he developed his response to the U.S.-British Oregon dispute while living in London in early 1846. He concluded that continental warfare was imminent and took overt steps to influence British policy, which he believed could halt U.S. expansion and definitively resolve the “Oregon Question.”

"More Boldly I Shall Go:" Jacobites, Hanoverians, And The Fabrication Of Nostalgia, 1745-1766, Jacob Louis Shropshire

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This study investigates how Jacobites and Hanoverians constructed competing forms of nostalgia, identity, and political meaning in the decades after the rebellion of 1745. Although the defeat of Prince Charles Edward Stuart at Culloden ended any realistic hope of a Stuart restoration, it sparked a cultural struggle in which both supporters and opponents of the Stuarts depicted the Highlander as a symbol of heroic resistance or barbarism. A psychic struggle emerged as a result, and the Highlander became beloved by Jacobites and loathed by Hanoverians. These representations circulated through paintings, engravings, clothing, glassware, newspapers, pamphlets, and verse, which became central …

The Birth Of Afghanistan: From Ancient Persia To A Modern-Day Multiethnic And Linguistic Country, Tyler A. Worm

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis offers a comprehensive historical analysis of the formation and evolution of Afghan identity from antiquity through the early medieval period, emphasizing the region’s role as a dynamic crossroads of civilizations. It traces the origins of Afghan populations to Indo-Iranian pastoralist migrations and examines the successive influence of major imperial formations, including the Median and Achaemenid Persian empires, the conquests of Alexander and the Seleucid period, and the rise of the Kushan, Parthian, and Sasanian states. Through this longue durée approach, the study demonstrates how Afghanistan’s geographic position facilitated continuous cultural interaction, economic exchange, and political contestation, producing a …

Eros And The Sublime: Tools For Reaching Toward An Altered Ecological Consciousness, Aineka Carlson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis explores connections between the Kantian sublime and Anne Carson’s ideas regarding “eros.” Since Kant’s Critique of Judgement was published in 1790, the Kantian sublime has grown in popularity and been utilized by theorists and creative writers alike. While the Kantian sublime is often associated with nature in popular culture, there are certain egocentric and phallocentric elements of this mode of thinking that might inhibit a biocentric mindset. Through a character study of Oryx from Margaret Atwood’s novel Oryx and Crake, this thesis draws relations between the subjugation of women, nature, and the ways in which the popularized …

The Creative Front, Aleksandr O. Barrett

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Abstract

In this paper, I will discuss my thesis exhibition, The Creative Front, focusing on my materials, content, and context as they relate to each piece or body of work. This exhibition is the culmination of my work, which centers on my experience with the Russo-Ukrainian war. My work can be interpreted metaphorically, poetically, and directly through sculpture, installation, sound, and film. I am portraying very human stories and experiences from a full-scale war raging in Europe. My work is immersive, placing the viewer in an atmosphere of war, and conveying a sense of urgency and compassion for those who …

The Heart Of The University: Student Clubs And The American Colonization Of The Pacific, Eli Arnold

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Students have travelled across the Pacific Ocean to study at the University of Montana for over a century, and the contributions of these students deserve to be studied. This thesis explores the educational and community building roles that the historic International Club and Filipino Club, as well as the contemporary Pacific Islanders Club fulfilled. Students from the Philippines and Hawaiʻi provide clear examples of the potential for college campuses to be gathering places for broader community. This thesis is also a study of the global phenomenon of colonialism as seen from Filipino and Native Hawaiian students who travelled to Missoula …

Indigenous Placemaking, Colonial Placetaking, And Indigenous Data Sovereignty: Implications Of Environmental Data Collection On Tribal Lands, Paige Nizhonii Kya'iyo Johnson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This project investigates how Indigenous Data Sovereignty protocols apply to environmental data collected on Tribal lands by federal and state entities. The 2011 and 2014 flooding of the Missouri River and a need for further soil moisture data led the United States Army Corps of Engineers Omaha District to implement a Mesonet weather station monitoring network across the Upper Missouri River Basin (UMRB). Historically, the Army Corps of Engineers has not included Indigenous perspectives into their decision-making, and this has caused Tribes to be distrustful of partnerships with them. The UMRB monitoring network will span across the Upper Missouri River …

Niipáitapiiyssin: How Blackfeet Ways Of Knowing Impact Identity And Well-Being, Mikalen Running Fisher

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis explores the vital role of history, traditional knowledge, traditional ecological knowledge, artifacts, and language in shaping the identity and well-being of Indigenous communities. It emphasizes how these components are vital for the survival and growth of Indigenous cultures. Using the Blackfoot Confederacy as a case study, the research highlights the significance of these elements in maintaining cultural continuity and resilience. The analysis is grounded in literature authored from an Indigenous perspective, ensuring an authentic representation of the values and insights inherent in these communities. This work aims to bridge existing gaps in the literature by demonstrating the profound …

Cultural Matching And Identity Safety In K-12 Schools: An Indigenous Research Paradigm, Ashton T. Smith

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Native American and Alaska Native (NA/AN) persons are resilient and have learned to overcome the intergenerational effects of colonization and find new ways to be Native American and Alaska Native in this contemporary life. Learning and well-being are integral values for Native American and Alaska Native people, but finding an appropriate way to approach education and learning can be difficult for Native American and Alaska Native people, especially when historically, the colonial-based systems have been created for them to fail. Because cultural matching and identity safety (CM/IS) for Native American and Alaska Native people in other environments (e.g., psychotherapy, child-welfare …

Andrew Tate, Matt Walsh, And The Discursive Production And Policing Of Gender, Alan J. Bandyk, Alan J. Bandyk

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis utilizes the works of Judith Butler, Simone de Beauvoir, Frederic Jameson, and Edward Said in a discourse analysis of influencers and writers in the right wing "manosphere." The figures analyzed herein are Andrew Tate and Matt Walsh. Their rhetoric aims to create a discursive woman who embodies traditional notions of gender and sex that de Beauvoir critiqued in 1949. The constant adherence and reference to a mythical past exhibits ways of thinking that coincide perfectly with Jameson's own theoretical work with the term and its inherent false nostalgia. Tate's and Walsh's efforts also fall into discursive attempts at …

Using Ethnobotanicals For Language Preservation And Cultural Connections, Riza James Mcclurkin

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The creation and implementation of interpretive ethnobotanical trails can be used to help preserve and teach about the use of native, and in some instances, non-native plants that were brought into use, both historically and in present day by Indigenous peoples. As examples, I will use my work assisting on the Reserve Street Trail in Missoula, Montana and the Pioneer Park Campground Interpretive Trail on the Colville National Forest in Washington. The Reserve Street Trail is still in its beginning phases but has the goal to cultivate plants identified as being culturally significant to Indigenous peoples and to create trail …

Breathing Hard In Beautiful Places, Lars Chinburg

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Chinburg, Lars, M.S., Spring 2024

Breathing Hard in Beautiful Places, Abstract

In Breathing Hard in Beautiful Places, Lars Chinburg explores his connections to the people and places that have made him who he is in a collection of personal essays. The collection is inspired by the talents of many writers–Bill Bryson’s wry travel observations, Norman Maclean’s lyricism on the interplay of nature and family, Sigurd Olson’s gorgeous descriptions of place, and David Sedaris’ knack for drawing hilarity out of the prosaic, among many others.

Many of the essays touch on the power of play as a force for good and …

Blood And Oil: How Vampiric Literature Bolsters Big Oil’S Power, Sarah Marie Demond

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis examines the relationship between blood and oil, that is, the multitude of ways in which the petromodernity industries harvests and threatens vitality. The introduction of this thesis is concerned tracking how petromodernity is a byproduct, offspring, or extension of colonialism. In this way, petromodernity can be thought about as “petro-colonialism.” Ursula K. LeGuin’s “Carrier Bag Theory of Fiction” informs the argument that the way thay petro-colonialism came to be and also maintains itself is by utilizing the “killer story.” This thesis also employs autorheoretical techniques informed by Lauren Fournier to show how petro-colonialism or “oiliness” sticks to its …

“How Do We Carry All These Stories On Our Backs?” An Investigation Of Violence In Native American Literature As Seen In The Works Of James Welch, Joy Harjo, & Louise Erdrich, Madison R. Hinrichs

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Monstrous Oil: Theorizing Petromodernity's Monsters, Madalynn Lee Madigar

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Petroleum, a primary global energy resource, serves as a foundation of our contemporary society. However, the pervasive influence of oil as substance, commodity, and industry in our petromodern lives often goes unrecognized. In the present moment of biogeocultural crisis surrounding fossil fuels, recognizing and understanding our multifaceted engagements with petroleum is critical. This thesis contributes to the growing field of Petrocultural Studies by considering the conceptualization of petroleum through the associated tropes and figure of the monster. Through the petromonstrous, a term that encapsulates the massive scale, haunting effects, and human-other entanglements of petroleum, cultural attitudes and anxieties about oil …

Haunted Forms: Intermediality, Trauma, And Literary Memory, Gabriella Graceffo

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

This thesis considers contemporary literature’s use of intermediality as a method to heighten the affective embodiment of PTSD symptoms represented in text. Using the meaning-making structures of photography and film, the analysis examines how the writing of Georges Bataille, Annie Ernaux, Michael Ondaatje, and Bhanu Kapil use formal implicit reference—the type of intermediality in which the characteristics and semiotics of one medium are translated to another without direct reproduction—to represent both traumatic experiences themselves and the symptom domains of PTSD. Caroline Levine’s work on affordance theory from Forms: Whole, Rhythm, Hierarchy, Network provides a theoretical foundation as to how the …

Sharing The Medicine Of Resilience: Honoring The Work Of Dr. Gyda Swaney, Matthew Martin Croxton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

American Indians are a unique population that have been historically understudied in psychology. However, research in this field with this population has been growing and researchers are beginning to explore facets of American Indian mental health. There is a movement for American Indian psychologists themselves to conduct this research and to begin to develop culturally adapted and Indigenous research frameworks. There have been many Native psychologists who have helped push this work forward. One such Native psychologist was Dr. Gyda Swaney (Salish) who was a professor at the in the Psychology Department at the University of Montana and directed and …

Flicker Feather Films: Visual Anthropology, Indigenous Film, And Documentary Filmmaking, Martin I. Lopez

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

In order to contribute 21st-century tools to educational settings, this dissertation draws from the growing subfield, multimodal anthropology, which includes, but is not limited to visual anthropology and film. This dissertation is composed of a series of documentary films created by an Indigenous filmmaker. When combined with Indigenous filmmaking, tribal cultures can begin to share their points of view through self-representation. Indigenous methodologies helped to frame the documentary films I made for my dissertation by aiming to combat the perpetuation of stereotypes and misrepresentation by non-Native filmmakers. Documentary films within anthropology still have validity in academia if the goal is …

The Introduction Of Veteran Service Organizations To The State Of Montana’S Department Of Corrections, Zachary C. Rehm

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Veteran Service Organizations (VSO) exist throughout the United States and serve veterans, service members, dependents, and survivors. Some VSOs provide programming for veterans in their communities, such as job fairs, organizing fundraising events, raising awareness around the issues affecting veterans, assisting in the application process, and assisting in rehabilitation efforts. The American Legion specifically was chartered by Congress in 1919 as a 'patriotic veterans organization'. Since its conception, the Legion stands at nearly 2 million in membership, scattered throughout 13,000 posts worldwide. Most recent studies from the Justice of Bureau Statistics indicate that 8% of all incarcerated inmates are United …

Linear Programming Analysis And Diet Breadth Modeling At Bridge River, British Columbia, Sean Patrick Boyd

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Studies in diet breadth modeling and patch choice have been and continue to be a hot topic of interest among practitioners of human behavioral ecology and the set of data available at Bridge River can certainly add to these debates and discussions that have been dominating anthropology in the past few decades. The faunal assemblage of Housepit 54’s 17 anthropogenic floors have provided researchers with a plethora of data that clearly indicates periods of resource depletion and partial to full site abandonment. Using Linear Programming and Diet Breadth Modelling I analyze the most represented species in the record and establish …

He, She, They, Other: An Examination Of Gender Associations With The Chatelaine In The Anglo-Saxon Culture, Dane A. Williams

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The purpose of this paper is to study the chatelaine as a marker of gender attribution and overall usage within the Anglo-Saxon culture. Chatelaines are artifacts used to suspend multiple items to be employed for such purposes as grooming, tools, or keys and have been used widely from the Roman occupation of England during which it was used by all genders, to the Ninth Century when it was primarily used by women. As such, it is asserted that a single artifact should not to be solely relied upon to assign a gender identity to a burial, that these should be …

"A Blacker List Of Crime Was Never Looked Upon": Mormon Violence, Utah Statehood, And The Memory Of The Mountain Meadows Massacre, Lerene K. Mcfarland

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

No abstract provided.

Mansfield, Marines, And Mothers: The Politics Of Resistance To The American Intervention In North China From 1945-1946, James Robert Compton

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

At the conclusion of World War II, American citizens, including millions of deployed servicemen, reasserted the democratic freedoms they sacrificed to win the war. The American intervention in North China during the Chinese Civil War presented a ripe opportunity for civic restoration in late 1945. Controversial and seemingly at odds with the stated goals of the Second World War—namely the “Four Freedoms” and the Atlantic Charter—the US military presence in North China faced formidable domestic political obstacles. This thesis explores the nexus of domestic politics and foreign policy in the post-World War II era. Focusing on 1945-1946, this project steps …

Epistemoligical Uncertainty And Political Ideology: Exploring The Relationship Between Temporal Threats And Ideology, James Donald Mcfarland

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Research in motivation suggests that individuals are highly attuned to perceived risk and danger and tend to form groups (physical and ideological) on the basis of the threats they collectively share with like-minded others. These initial stages of threat detection and evaluation are often found to occur through subtle environmental cues. This study examined the relationship between feelings of uneasiness and political ideology through the framing of temporal cues (e.g., past- vs. future-tense). Participants (n = 181) were recruited through Amazon’s Mechanical Turk (MTurk) and were randomly assigned a short vignette about a relatable life experience (e.g., purchasing a car). …

Gigi, Helen Wesley Kapp

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

Francis’s grandpa taught her how to wrestle alligators. By the time Francis was sixteen, she could hold her own, but all it takes is one gator. Just one gator who almost gets the best of you, and suddenly you’ve got a dead animal; somebody’s getting stitches; you’re getting haunted by the ghost of the alligator you just killed; and your mom’s making you move to Charleston to attend a swanky prep school where the kids don’t wrestle gators, but surviving the gossip is even harder.

Hyflex: A Leaderships’ Perspective Of Self-Efficacy Post-Pandemic, Sandra Marie Adams

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The HyFlex model for instruction allows for a student to choose if they will attend class in person, online synchronicity, or asynchronously. The aim of this mixed-method study was to answer the central question “to the central question, “How does the HyFlex delivery method impact faculty self-efficacy regarding teaching?” at Keweenaw Bay Ojibwa Community College (KBOCC). Sixteen members of the leadership at KBOCC completed a Likert scale survey and six participants agreed to be interviewed. Based on the results of this study, the leadership at KBOCC are open to the idea of implementing the HyFlex model. The faculty and administration …

“Making A Science Of Cooperation”: Labor, Business, Government, And The Defense Council System In The Wartime American West, 1916-1921, Robert Michael Joseph Lambeth

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

“Making a Science of Cooperation”: Labor, Business, Government, and the Defense Council System in the Wartime American West, 1916-1921” examines the socioeconomic and political transformations that occurred in the American West as a result of homefront mobilization for World War I. While those transformations happened at the national level as well, they were the most impactful in and inherently informed by the political and socioeconomic developments occurring in the western states at the time.

The vehicle in which those transformations were delivered was the Defense Council System (DCS), a unique federal mobilization program that enlisted the help of the nation’s …

A Moral Influenza: An Historical Archaeological Investigation Of The Prohibition Era In The United States 1920-1933, Kelli Michele Casias

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The following exploration of National Alcohol Prohibition in the United States employs an interdisciplinary approach to understand the impetus of the large-scale defiance of liquor laws and to identify the physical manifestations of the social process of mass resistance in the archaeological record. Historical documentation, newspaper publications, oral histories, landscape analysis of road development in Montana, and an archaeological survey of a mountain homestead site where manufacturer of illicit alcohol took place are used to contextualize the Prohibition Era from the perspective of the offender. The research goals of this work are varied and include documentation of the archaeological footprint …