Indigenous Studies Commons^™

Le Jeune Dreams Of Moose: Altered States Among The Montagnais In The Jesuit Relations Of 1634, Drew Lopenzina

English Faculty Publications

This article explores ruptures of colonial representation in the 1634 contribution of Paul Le Jeune to the Jesuit Relations, particularly in regard to Le Jeune’s intense antipathy to the faith Native Americans placed in dreams and dream interpretation. Native peoples had highly ritualized frameworks for interpreting dreams that stood in stark opposition to the expressed evangelical agendas of the Jesuits. The Montagnais, with whom Le Jeune wintered in 1633–34, used dreams to speak to manitous, who would assist them in finding game and other endeavors. Dreaming itself, with its claims to prophetic vision, was a phenomenon that threatened to override …

Questions Of Methodology: A Review Of The August 2014 History Of Education Quarterly Special Issue, Abigail Gundlach-Graham

Education's Histories

This methodological review examines the August 2014 issue of History of Education Quarterly, which focuses on American Indian education history.

John Evans Study Committee Recommendations, Ramona Beltran, Richard Clemmer-Smith, Tamra D’Estree, Steven Fisher, David Fridtjof Halaas, Alan Gilbert, Dean Saitta, Billy J. Stratton, Adam Rovner, George E. Tinker, Nancy D. Wadsworth, Amanda Williams, Julia Bramante, Viki Eagle, Sara Schwartzkopf, Dave Buchanan, Gail Ridgely, Otto Braided Hair, Joe Big Medicine, Karen Little Coyote, Henry Littlebird, Chief Willey

John Evans Study Report

With the completion of this report the University of Denver is presented with an opportunity to reflect on our institutional origins, history, and legacy. We have an opportunity to provide a model of transparency, accountability, and transformation for institutions that have directly profited or indirectly benefited from the displacement of the indigenous communities whose lands and histories they occupy. This moment invites us to bend the arc of history away from the clamor of old apologetics that have caused deep wounds for those whose voices have been silenced and toward justice, healing, and peace. This likewise holds for those whose …

University Of Denver John Evans Study Report, Richard Clemmer-Smith, George E. Tinker, Alan Gilbert, Nancy D. Wadsworth, David Fridtjof Halaas, Billy J. Stratton, Steven Fisher

John Evans Study Report

"Universities are dedicated to the discovery and dissemination of knowledge. They are conservators of humanity's past. They cherish their own pasts, honoring forbears with statues and portraits and in the names of buildings. To study or teach at a [university] is to be a member of a community that exists across time, a participant in a procession that began centuries ago and that will continue long after we are gone. If an institution professing these principles cannot squarely face its own history, it is hard to imagine how any other institution, let alone our nation, might do so."

-Report …

Framing Identity: Repudiating The Ideal In Chicana Literature, Michael A. Flores

All NMU Master's Theses

In the 1960s Rodolfo “Corky” Gonzalez penned his now canonical, epic poem “I Am Joaquin.” The poem chronicles the historic oppression of a transnational, Mexican people as well as revolutionary acts of their forefathers in resisting tyranny. Coinciding with a series of renewed, sociopolitical campaigns, collectively known as the Chicano Movement, Gonzales’ poem uses vivid imagery to present an idealized representation of Chicanos and encouraged his reader to engage in revolutionary action. Though the poem encourages strong leadership, upward mobility, and political engagement the representations of women in his text are misogynistic and limiting.

His presentation of the “black-shawled …

French And Indian Cruelty? The Fate Of The Oswego Prisoners Of War, 1756-1758, Timothy J. Shannon

History Faculty Publications

This article examines what happened to approximately 1,200 prisoners of war taken by the French and their Indian allies at the British post Fort Oswego in August 1756. Their experiences illuminated the contrast between traditional methods of warfare in colonial America and the new rules of war being introduced by European armies fighting in the French and Indian War. Although European armies claimed to treat POWs more humanely than Native Americans, their supposedly civilized rules of warfare actually increased the suffering of the Oswego prisoners.

Product Of The Past: The Struggle Between The Lakota Sioux Nation And The United States Government, Brittany Lombardo

Pell Scholars and Senior Theses

Many may be familiar with the national landmark that is Mount Rushmore, located in South Dakota. The heroes represent the leaders of the United States, the founding fathers. However, it shadows a rich history that is what came before the United States' invasion. The Lakota Sioux roamed freely throughout the Midwest, that is until the the US began to expand westward. The rich history of the Lakota lingers throughout their lives today, but is suppressed under a thick lair of oppression and mistreatment by the United States Government.

Cherokee Freedmen: The Struggle For Citizenship, Bethany Hope Henry

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In 2011, the Cherokee Nation Supreme Court voted to exclude freedmen (descendants of former slaves) from voting, overturning a constitutional amendment that gave freedmen tribal rights. Cherokee freedmen argue that the Cherokee Nation is ignoring the Treaty of 1866 which granted all freedmen "rights as Cherokee citizens", and they call upon federal support to redeem their rights as equals. The Cherokee Nation, however, claims they are exercising tribal sovereignty and have a right to determine who is a member of their tribe. Using a comparative historical approach, the goal of this paper is to explore the institution of slavery among …

Ella Deloria: A Dakota Woman’S Journey Between An Old World And A New, Susana Grajales Geliga

Department of History: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The subject of this thesis is a Yankton Dakota Sioux woman named Ella Cara Deloria who lived from 1889 to 1972. The intent of this thesis is to use her own construct of an educated Indigenous woman to examine her personal and professional life as a middle figure between a world of Dakota traditionalism and a modern academic arena during an era of intellectual curiosity about Native Americans. She flowed between these worlds to become a distinguished author and accomplished Dakota woman who built bridges of understanding between cultures. Ella initially set out to follow the patriarchs in her family …

Indigenous Women, Mother Tongues, And Nation Building In New England: A Tribal Policy Leadership Series, Amy Den Ouden, Chris Bobel

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

In collaboration with the Wôpanâak Language Reclamation Project (WLRP), Indigenous women educators and leaders, the Dept. of Women’s and Gender Studies is redesigning WOST/WGS 270, Native American Women in North America, to incorporate a lecture series on nation building and a semester-long community engagement project fostering student leadership in a research and policy formation project focused on legislating and funding a Native American language education law in Massachusetts.

“Gentiles By Nature”: Indian–Dutch Relations In New Netherland/New York, 1524–1750, Stephen Staggs

Dissertations

This work evaluates the evolution of the cross-cultural encounters that took place between the Eastern Woodland Indians and the Europeans living in and around the Dutch colony of New Netherland during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. It challenges a common view that the Dutch generally lacked curiosity about Indians, made no serious attempt to convert them, maintained a social distance from them, and were only interested in establishing commercial relationships with them. Using the extensive pamphlet and sermon literature and the records of the West India Company, Classis of Amsterdam, and patroonships available in the Netherlands as well as the …

American Indian Activism And The Rise Of Red Power, Rachael Guadagni

Graduate History Conference, UMass Boston

Recent historical scholarship has determined that the socio-political environment of post-World War II America provided the necessary catalyst for Native American activism which when combined with the socio-political atmosphere of the civil rights era lead to the development of the Red Power Movement. In the thirty or so years immediately following World War II America witnessed profound social and political change. Initial fear of communism lead to strict, pro-capitalist Indian legislation resulting in the termination of hundreds of tribes and the relocation of countless Indian people. From this same environment rose strong leaders, including many veterans, influenced by Cold War …

Telling The Whole Store: Native Americans And The Development Of Urban Spaces, Paul T. Fuller

Graduate History Conference, UMass Boston

This paper places the subject of urban Indians in North America within the historical reality of their existence and emphasizes the need to rework current assumptions about Native peoples. Not only were Native peoples intimately involved in the act of building up villages, forts, and trading posts – which would eventual evolve into the cities that dot the continent today – but they have also very much been a part of the urban scene in major cities since the middle of the twentieth century. The cities around Puget Sound would not have been able to exist without the direct aid …

Puritanism And American Exceptionalism: A Genealogy Of Their Impact On Native Americans 1620–1864, Jeremiah Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work traces the influence that a strand of Protestant Christianity had upon the idea of American Exceptionalism and its effect on the treatment of Native Americans. From Puritans to the Founding Fathers, to expansion into the west, this paper investigates instances where Indians have been forced to assimilate, removed from their homelands or exterminated outright in massacres. It specifically looks at the removal of the Cherokees, the Navajo Long Walk, the Pequot War, the Gnadenhutten Massacre, The Battle at Blue Water Creek and the Sand Creek Massacre

Examining The Historical Representation Of Native Americans Within Children’S Literature, Lauren Hunt

Undergraduate Honors Theses

In this research, I evaluated the historical representation of Native Americans in children’s literature. The portrayal of Native Americans in children’s literature is important because Native Americans are commonly included within elementary school social studies curriculum. For this reason, teachers should know how the literature they select historically represents Native Americans. This historical representation includes—but is not limited to—their interactions with European explorers, colonists, and eventually Americans. Teachers must be aware that publishers of children’s books are businesses; their job is to sell books. As a result, these companies do not always ensure that the books they sell are historically …

A Foray Into Library Digital Publishing: The British Virginia Project At Virginia Commonwealth University, Kevin Farley

VCU Libraries Faculty and Staff Publications

The British Virginia project involves a collaboration between Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Libraries and faculty members in the departments of English and History at VCU, with the project led by Dr. Joshua Eckhardt (English). As of April 25, 2013, the project has published its first title: an online edition of a sermon preached to the Virginia Company by William Symonds. To ensure the success of this project, a number of details required careful planning, including library outreach, IT involvement, and digital publishing protocols. Our example has deepened a move toward a dynamic and creative digital environment for researchers across campus. …

Fred Kabotie, Elizabeth Willis Dehuff, And The Genesis Of The Santa Fe Style, Jessica W. Welton

Theses and Dissertations

Those scholars who have overlooked the relevance of Fred Kabotie and the Santa Fe Style he developed have missed an important historical segment of early Native American painting. This dissertation underscores the convergence of diverse intellectual, artistic and cultural backgrounds, especially those of Kabotie and Elizabeth Willis DeHuff, his first art teacher, which led to the formation of the Santa Fe Style in 1918. This style was formative for Dorothy Dunn’s later Studio School at the Santa Fe Indian Boarding School.

This first generation of the Santa Fe Style of watercolor painting was empowered by highly educated men and women, …

Germs, Pigs And Silver: King Philip's War And The Deconstruction Of The Middle Ground In New England, Benjamin M. Roine

Graduate Masters Theses

Early in the seventeenth century Algonquians peoples of southern New England and English colonists built a middle ground which benefitted both groups. Trade, the existence of competition from Dutch and French colonies and powerful Algonquian tribes maintained this middle ground. However, as trade items, such as beaver pelts and wampum became rare or lost value and continued English immigration to New England weakened Dutch claims to the area, the middle ground began to crumble. As English-style farms and livestock changed the ecology of New England and the colonists sought to assert their will, Algonquians lost the ability to live as …

Appendix: Thoughts On John Evans And Sand Creek, Gary L. Roberts

John Evans Study Report

Apart from political rivalry, there was little reason to oppose John Evans as governor of Colorado. He was a success by almost any standard one chose to apply. He was a self-made man, a son of the Middle West. He grew up in a Quaker family in Indiana, and although he converted to Methodism later, Protestant evangelism was a central feature of his character and experience. As a young man, he set his goals high—to build a city, to found a college, to create a fortune, to become a governor, to be elected to the United States Senate, and to …

''I Want My Agency Moved Back ... , My Dear White Sisters": Discourses On Yakama Reservation Reform, 1920s-1930s, Talea Anderson

Library Scholarship

This article discusses the multiple, competing discourses surrounding the relocation of the Yakima Indian Agency during the 1920s-1930s. Specifically, it considers whether Yakama Indians were able to exercise agency in their fight against government officials and businessmen during the relocation debate, and how they did so by appropriating the discourse of the women's clubs in the Pacific Northwest. As an entry point to these discourses, the article uses the work of a particular women, Margaret Splawn, who stood at the nexus between business, women's club, and indigenous interests in her West.

Evans Study Committee Update, Dean Saitta

John Evans Study: Supporting Materials

Letter from Dean J. Saitta, Professor and Chair, Department of Anthropology to John Evans Study Committee.

Many Worlds Converge Here: Vision And Identity In American Indian Photography, Alicia L. Harris

School of Art, Art History, and Design: Theses and Student Creative Work

Photographs of Native Americans taken by Frank A. Rinehart at the Trans-Mississippi and International Exposition in 1898 were then and continue to be part of the construction of indigenous identities, both by Anglo-Americans and Natives. This thesis analyzes the ramifications of Rinehart’s portraits and those of his peers as well as Native American artists in the 20^th and 21^st centuries who have sought to re-appropriate these images to make them empowering icons of individual or tribal identity rather than erasure of culture.

This thesis comprises two sections. In the first section, the analysis is focused on the historical …

The Impacts Of Colonial And Environmental Processes On Ceramic Plainware At Salinas Province, New Mexico, Lindsey Elizabeth Daub

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

This thesis investigates whether Spanish demands on native time, labor and diet resulted in changes to the plainware ceramics used by the Salinas Pueblo Indians of New Mexico from the early 1600s to the 1670s. Increased pressures on native women's time may have resulted in a decline in the quality of the ceramic pastes, an increase in the presence of mend holes, changes in household size and composition that may have resulted in changes in the sizes of cooking vessels, and a decrease in food availability that may have resulted in decreased sizes or quantities of storage jars. While the …

Report Of Meeting With Chancellor And Provost, Dean Saitta

John Evans Study: Supporting Materials

Meeting notes regarding formation of a John Evans study.

Memo To Du Provost And Chancellor, Dean Saitta

John Evans Study: Supporting Materials

Memorandum sent to the University of Denver's Provost and Chancellor about interest in a study on John Evans and the Sand Creek Massacre.

Faculty Email Exchanges, Dean Saitta, Richard Clemmer-Smith, Billy J. Stratton, Gary A. Fine, Paul Colomy

John Evans Study: Supporting Materials

Email exchanges between University of Denver and Northwestern University on studies of John Evans and the Sand Creek Massacre.

Recognizing The 150th Anniversary Of The Dakota-U.S. War Of 1862 And Declaring 2012-2013 The Year Of The Dakota In Redwood Falls, City Council Of Redwood Falls

John Evans Study: Supporting Materials

Resolution adopted by the city of Redwood Falls in response to the city's history with the Dakota People. This resolution was used as a precedent in the University of Denver's study of its relationship with John Evans and the Sand Creek Massacre.

"Kill The Indian, Save The Man," Americanization Through Education: Richard Henry Pratt's Legacy, Lindsay Peterson

Honors Theses

"Even wild turkeys only need the environment and kind treatment of domestic civilized life to become a very part of it.” Richard Henry Pratt made this observation while preparing for Thanksgiving with his family in 1867 in response to his interactions with Native Americans on the frontier. He served out West as second lieutenant in the 10th United States Cavalry, an African American regiment. The basic idea behind Pratt’s mentality was that the Indians’ inferiority was cultural, not racial, and that even Native Americans could become educated and “civilized” if only given the same opportunities provided to white Americans, African …

Native Newspapers: The Emergence Of The American Indian Press 1960-Present, Russell M. Page

CMC Senior Theses

During the 1960s and 1970s, tribes across Indian Country struggled for tribal sovereignty against “termination” policies that aimed to disintegrate the federal government’s trust responsibilities and treaty obligations to tribes and assimilate all Indians into mainstream society. Individual tribes, pan-Indian organizations, and militant Red Power activists rose up in resistance to these policies and fought for self-determination: a preservation of Indian distinctiveness and social and political autonomy. This thesis examines a crucial, but often overlooked, element of the self-determination movement. Hundreds of tribal and national-scope activist newspapers emerged during this era and became the authentic voices of American Indians and …

Subsistence In The Shrinking Forest: Native And Euro-American Practice In 19th-Century Connecticut, William A. Farley

Graduate Masters Theses

Southeastern Connecticut in the 19th century represented a setting in which Native Americans living on reservations were residing in close proximity to Euro-American communities. The Mashantucket Pequot, an indigenous group who in the 19th century resided on a state-overseen reservation, and their Euro-American neighbors both utilized local and regional resources in order to achieve their subsistence goals. This thesis seeks to explore the differences and similarities of the subsistence practices employed by these two groups. It further seeks to examine the centrality of forest landscapes to both Mashantucket and Euro-American subsistence, and to interpret the importance of the reservation to …