Ethnic Studies Commons^™

A Home Shielded By Laws: Freedom Suits And Enslaved Mothers, Heidi Martin

Digital Legal Research Lab

This project collects, digitizes, and makes accessible the freedom suits brought by enslaved families in the Circuit Court for the District of Columbia, Maryland state courts, and the United States Supreme Court. This project places families in the foreground of our interpretive framework of slavery and national formation.

Using TEI encoding, we focused on outcomes, relationships between individuals and the claim for freedom made. Using these data sets, I focused specefically on mothers petitioning for their children. Of the 508 cases I utilized, 131 included children and a parental figure. I set out to distinguish the additional burden mothers had …

In The Waiting: The Role Of The Slave Bastille In Antebellum D.C., Ellyzabeth Morales-Ledesma

Digital Legal Research Lab

In 1808 the Transatlantic Slave Trade ended and in turn the government created a federally protected human market. As the South's demand for human labor force increased the domestic slave trade rocketed and in turn created even more turmoil for the Black population if the United States. Slave Traders and Man-Dealers took advantage of the market and kidnapped Free Black men women and children. While waiting to be sold enslaved people would be admitted into holding cells and jails; this was the creation of slave jails and Slave Bastilles. Slave jails served as places where the horrors of a human …

Paternalism To Partnership: The Administration Of Indian Affairs, 1786–2021, David H. Dejong

University of Nebraska Press: Sample Books and Chapters

Paternalism to Partnership examines the administration of Indian affairs from 1786, when the first federal administrator was appointed, through 2021. David H. DeJong examines each administrator through a biographical sketch and excerpts of policy statements defining the administrator’s political philosophy, drawn from official reports or the administrator’s own writings.

The Indian Office, as an executive agency under the secretary of war (1789 to 1849) and secretary of the interior (1849 to present), was directed by the president of the United States. The superintendents, chief clerks, commissioners, and assistant secretaries for Indian affairs administered policy as prescribed by Congress and the …

Habeas Corpus As A Means For Economic Freedom In The Progressive Era, Janana Khattak

Digital Legal Research Lab

Habeas corpus protects individual freedom by allowing detained individuals proper trial. Economic liberty, or the “right to earn a living in an occupation of choice without unnecessary government interference,” is a key component of individual freedom. Following the depression of 1893, the Progressive Era ushered in a sharp increase in productivity. This was in part because of an immigration boom. While immigrants sought economic opportunities for the betterment of themselves and their families, ideologies of nativism rose.

Advisor: Katrina Jagodinsky

Roots Of Justice: Historical Truth And Reconciliation In Lincoln And Nebraska, Veronica Nohemi Duran, Crystal Dunning, Kathleen A. Johnson, Paul Olson

Truth and Reconciliation History Project

A bibliography of resources about the history in Nebraska of Native Americans, African Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans and Recent Refugees

We hope that these five bibliographies will prove fruitful in helping us to understand what our history has been, where we have gone astray, and what we can do to help bring about reconciliation in our community and in our state.

The discovery of what has happened in Nebraska in the last hundred and seventy years is not an easy task, but it is our goal in putting together this bibliography to begin that task. By putting together a picture …

Englishness Within: Navigating The Colonial And Patriarchal Motives In Prospero's Daughter And Wide Sargasso Sea, Zainab A. Saleh

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

With the arrival of postcolonial theory and studies surrounding culture and identity, the increased awareness of English cultural identity found itself rooted in the attempts to set the narrative of how identity is a mere checklist of qualifications that presumably leads one to be deemed as one of the “English.” Fixating on the spaces formerly colonized by the British, Englishness has come around to define and establish a discourse of Otherness. From language and dress to food and environment, Englishness finds itself present in postcolonial retellings of colonial texts that set the tone for what is presumably and hegemonically filled …

Defining Authentic: The Relationship Between Native Art And Federal Indian Policy, 1879-1961, Aurora Kenworthy

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Between 1879 and 1961, non-Native perceptions of what constituted authentic Native art shifted. These changing perceptions were influenced by, and then in turn influenced, federal policy and legislation. While non-Native individuals and groups worked to improve conditions for Native communities and to protect “authentic” Native art forms, Native reformers also attempted to enact change to help Native communities and Native artists exercised control over their own art and identity.

Black Lives Matter: An Analysis Of Social-Political Activism In Social Media, Ivy Lutz

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Using the contexts of institutionalized racism, ideological dogmatism, and oppression of people of color, this paper will argue the following hypothesis in regards to the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement and social media activism. People who post on social media about social-political issues have positive relationships with boycotting, protesting, or attending political meetings outside of the online sphere. However, this positive relationship does not correlate to a positive relationship or engagement in regards to their feelings on BLM movement, discrimination of blacks, and police treatment of blacks. If this is the case, then the data for social media postings will …

Ethn 201: Introduction To Native American Studies--A Benchmark Portfolio, Margaret Huettl

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio traces the process of the design, teaching methods, and assessment tools I used in reconfiguring ETHN 201: Introduction to Native American Studies. “Introduction to Native American Studies” (INAS) is an introductory survey course taken either as an elective or as the foundation of a Native Studies minor. The class size is relatively small, capped at twenty-four students. Students who take this course come from a broad cross-section of disciplines in the College of Arts and Sciences and beyond, although perhaps the greatest portion comes from the Humanities. The course serves as an introduction to the interdisciplinary field of …

Breve Acercamiento A La Cuestión Morisca En La Temprana Edad Moderna En España, Farah Dih

Department of Modern Languages and Literatures: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this thesis is to provide a brief historical overview of the Morisco issue in Early Modern Spain, as well as to analyze some of the most prominent literary production related to it. This study is organized into four chapters that explore the topic from the perspective of three different disciplines: history, historiography and literature. The first chapter establishes a historical framework for the foundation of the Spanish Inquisition, and highlights the ideas of Américo Castro about the coexistence of the three Spanish “castas” (the Christian, the Muslim and the Jewish). The second chapter reviews Francisco Márquez Villanueva’s …

Dreaming Free From The Chains: Teaching The Rhetorical Sovereignty Of Gerald Vizenor Through Bearheart, Lydia R. Presley

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this thesis is to examine Gerald Vizenor’s novel Bearheart, through the lens of rhetorical sovereignty. What this means is that the crux of my understanding of Bearheart begins with the knowledge that the language, terminology, and style used by Vizenor are not only his choices, but also his inherent Native right to use. I argue that it is important to teach Vizenor’s theoretical ideas through Bearheart because each of its relatively short episodes, or series of episodes, deals with a key theoretical idea that can be explored not only in a Native American literature setting, but in …

Construction Of An Anti-Mexican American Bias Scale And Its Validation, Leslie N. Martinez

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of the dissertation is to develop a meaningful measure of Anti-Mexican American attitudes and to test that measure for its utility in predicting biased attributions for Mexican Americans. Attention has mainly focused on bias against Blacks, and this has produced important gaps in the understanding of race/ethnic bias that must be addressed. For the past few decades, the number of racial minorities, especially the number of Latinos/Hispanics, has been on the rise. The psychometric properties and validation of the new Anti-Mexican American Attitude Scale (AMAAS) were investigated through study 1 and study 2. The principal components analysis pulled …

Black Radicals And Marxist Internationalism: From The Iwma To The Fourth International, 1864–1948, Charles R. Holm

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This project investigates historical relationships between Black Radicalism and Marxist internationalism from the mid-nineteenth through the first half of the twentieth century. It argues that contrary to scholarly accounts that emphasize Marxist Euro-centrism, or that theorize the incompatibility of “Black” and “Western” radical projects, Black Radicals helped shape and produce Marxist theory and political movements, developing theoretical and organizational innovations that drew on both Black Radical and Marxist traditions of internationalism. These innovations were produced through experiences of struggle within international political movements ranging from the abolition of slavery in the nineteenth century to the early Pan-African movements and struggles …

Understanding Bioprospecting: Can Indigenous Populations Benefit From The Search For Pharmaceuticals In Areas Of High Biodiversity, Emily Schwindt

Department of Environmental Studies: Undergraduate Student Theses

Bioprospecting is a controversial issue, and anthropologists and other scientists are quick to take sides. The idea of large corporations pumping money into conservation and development programs, while developing what could be the latest life-saving drug simply sounds too good to be true, and often times is. However, if all parties work together and proceed with caution, these benefits could become more than a fantasy. Looking at case studies from Costa Rica, India, South Africa and Panama this paper attempts to find patterns among successful bioprospecting agreements and note shortcomings and identify risks. This information will be used to suggest …

Healers And Helpers, Unifying The People: A Qualitative Study Of Lakota Leadership, Kem M. Gambrell

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this critical grounded theory qualitative study was to explore Lakota Leadership from a Native perspective. Interviews were conducted with enrolled members of a Lakota tribe in an urban setting as well as on the Rosebud reservation to gain better awareness of leadership through a non-mainstream viewpoint. Previously, in order to understand leaders and followers, research limited its scope of discernment to dominant society, implying that non-mainstream individuals will acquiesce, or that differences found are inconsequential. Leadership scholars also have implied that leadership theory is “universal enough”, and can be applied globally regardless of influences such as race, …

Transcultural Transformation: African American And Native American Relations, Barbara S. Tracy

Department of English: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The intersected lives of African Americans and Native Americans result not only in Black Indians, but also in a shared culture that is evidenced by music, call and response, and story. These intersected lives create a dynamic of shared and diverging pathways that speak to each other. It is a crossroads of both anguish and joy that comes together and apart again like the tradition of call and response. There is a syncopation of two cultures becoming greater than their parts, a representation of losses that are reclaimed by a greater degree. In the tradition of call and response, by …

Ethnicity On The Great Plains: Preface & Introduction, Frederick C. Luebke

Department of History: Faculty Publications

Immigrants from Europe formed a major element in the population that settled the Great Plains in the nineteenth century; their descendants constitute the majority of persons in many parts of the region today. A century ago, as the agricultural frontier moved across central Nebraska onto what is considered the Great Plains, foreignborn persons consistently formed a much larger proportion of the inhabitants on the western edge of settlement than they did in the state as a whole. Some years later the census of 1890 revealed that in North Dakota, for example, 42.7 percent of the population of that newly admitted …

Introduction To Ethnic Voters And The Election Of Lincoln, Frederick C. Luebke

Department of History: Faculty Publications

A twofold purpose informs this anthology of essays on ethnic voters in the presidential election of 1860. First, it gathers together a great quantity of factual information about immigrants and politics on the eve of the Civil War. Naturally, the Germans receive the greatest amount of attention. Not only did they rival the Irish in numbers in 1860. but they were also the most diverse ethnic group in America. The essays of this volume also offer much data about politicians and their perceptions of the democratic process, about political parties and the social bases of their support, and about political …