Indigenous Studies Commons^™

Local And Indigenous Knowledge, Innovation, And Sustainable Development: Creating Sustainable Futures Amidst Crisis Conditions At The Community Level, Carlos Andrés Arias

Dissertations and Theses

In 1987, the Brundtland Commission's Our Common Future (1987) made clear the need to reject longstanding development processes and focus on sustainable development. The Commission stressed that actual sustainable development integrates three elements: social development, economic development, and environmental protection. Though developed nations have achieved economic growth through conventional and extractive development practices, these practices have intensified natural disasters driven by climate change, increased food insecurity, and deepened poverty. This has acutely impacted Indigenous and local communities, many of whom face crisis conditions, such as war, terrorism, civil disorder, and their aftermath. Even so, many of these communities successfully implement …

Haapxtàm Ka'Ál Yimisapʰíkʰ We Dream For Our Children Indigenous Pedagogies In Early Childhood Education: Survivance, Truth Telling, And Healing On Native Land, Sara Anne Koyano

Dissertations and Theses

Since Time Immemorial, Indigenous Peoples have lived, learned, and thrived on this continent, exercising their inherent sovereignty as Original Peoples and passing down Indigenous ways of knowing, being, and learning across generations. US settler colonial violence and assimilation policies have had historical and contemporary detrimental impacts on Native children, families, and communities by attempting to disrupt the intergenerational transmission of Indigenous knowledges. Consequently, many young Native children in Oregon do not have access to educational opportunities that value, honor, and affirm their Indigenous identities and cultures, nor do they see themselves reflected in their classrooms and curricula. Furthermore, in 2019, …

Applying Decolonizing Theories And Methodologies In Archaeology To Two Collaborative Cultural Resource Management Projects, Cydney K. Lanthier

Dissertations and Theses

Decolonizing theories and methods were employed during two separate graduate research projects. The methods of the initial project were informed by political ecology, the landscape-level historical ecology theory, Tribal sovereignty, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), Indigenous archaeology, and community based participatory research (CBPR). The initial project was based entirely on CBPR and purposed to gain National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) nomination as a Traditional Cultural Property (TCP) over a portion of the traditional landscape. This project was cancelled before completion. However, several methods involved in CBPR were employed before then. The second project took on more of the historical ecology …

Corporatizing Violence: Targeted Repression Of Indigenous Dissent In Democratic States, Laikaika Layne Rivera

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis explores state repression of disruptive protests against private development projects in democracies. Using a mixed methods approach, including logistic regression and case studies, the research identifies key factors influencing repression. Indigenous leadership, fragmented public opposition, and private elite influence increase the likelihood of violent repression. The findings suggest that when public resistance is insufficient against powerful private interests, coercive institutions resort to violent strategies to quell disruptions and signal increased costs for future dissent. State repression is more likely when the protest movement is comprised of Indigenous groups than compared to those of the general public. The study …

Resilience And Resistance: Culture, Conversion, And Survival Among The Stockbridge Mohicans, Mariah N. Ramdeen

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis investigates the history of conversion among the Mohican band in Stockbridge, Massachusetts from the 1730s to the 1740s. Focusing on the praying town under the ministry of Reverend John Sergeant at Stockbridge in 1736, I seek to reconstruct the resistance and survivance at the heart of the Stockbridge Mohicans’ experience. My research will explore why the Mohicans chose to establish the Stockbridge praying town and why they chose to convert to Christianity, the religion of the Puritan colonizers. I will also explore how they used their conversion to promote their own community goals. While praying towns were designed …

How Are Oregon's Rural Indigenous Communities Overcoming Water Access Issues?, Tyren John Thompson

Dissertations and Theses

This study investigates how water insecurity affects Indigenous communities in Grand Ronde, Warm Springs, and Umatilla, Oregon, through loss of clean drinking water, access to culturally significant foods, and exposure to pollution. Each community offers innovative solutions drawing on their Indigenous knowledge to overcome water supply challenges. Communities with more resources are better equipped to cope with water insecurity and environmental degradation.

Cherokee Abstract Artist Leon Polk Smith: A Convergence Of Traditions, Danielle Montanino

Dissertations and Theses

This paper analyzes how Leon Polk Smith's Indigenous roots and upbringing in Indian Country had a significant impact on his artistic practice in a time of discrimination and segregation in the United States. Through examination contextualizing his work within the history and political events of the Cherokee, Chickasaw, and Choctaw Nations it is revealed how Polk Smith developed a formal language that could navigate both worlds and be viewed through a pure abstraction lens or a lens embodying his Indigenous traditions. In addition to his Indigenous philosophies, Mesoamerican Inca Nation’s cultural motifs further ground Polk Smith’s Indigenous aesthetic, and avant-garde …

La Cofradía De Artes Y Artesanos Hispánicos: 1978 To 1983 Redefining Tradition In The New Mexican Art Market, Ethel Mercedes Everett

Dissertations and Theses

La Cofradía de Artes y Artesanos Hispánicos: Redefining Tradition in the New Mexican Art Market. May 2019.

This master’s thesis explores the 1978 founding, existence, dissolve, and the legacy of the Santa Fe, New Mexican artist exhibition group, La Cofradía de Artes y Artesanos Hispánico (La Cofradía). La Cofradía was formed by six Santa Fe Hispano artists in reaction to creative limitations first imposed on Hispano artists in 1926, when the annual Spanish Market was formed. The Spanish Market was the sole arts sales venue available to Hispano artists in the exclusionary Santa Fe gallery and museum market. The Spanish …

Writing Indigenous Identity In Herman Melville And Joseph Conrad's Polynesian And Malay Archipelago Novels, Catherine L. Black

Dissertations and Theses

The thesis of this paper is that cross-cultural writing can be done with the right methods of communication, such as engaging narrator and education—or simply sensitive, imaginative writing. Herman Melville and Joseph Conrad’s five books set in the Polynesian and Malay Archipelagos—Typee and Omoo and the Malay Trilogy (Almayer’s Folly, An Outcast of the Islands, and The Rescue)— are used as master models of how to write indigenous characters with rich characterization in pivotal roles, even circa 1846 and 1896. The unique perspective and technique by which they did this is explored, a technique and perspective not …

Study Of Prestige And Resource Control Using Fish Remains From Cathlapotle, A Plankhouse Village On The Lower Columbia River, J. Shoshana Rosenberg

Dissertations and Theses

Social inequality is a trademark of Northwest Coast native societies, and the relationship between social prestige and resource control, particularly resource ownership, is an important research issue on the Northwest Coast. Faunal remains are one potential but as yet underutilized path for examining this relationship. My thesis work takes on this approach through the analysis of fish remains from the Cathlapotle archaeological site (45CL1). Cathlapotle is a large Chinookan village site located on the Lower Columbia River that was extensively excavated in the 1990s. Previous work has established prestige distinctions between houses and house compartments, making it possible to examine …

Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute) Ecological Knowledge Of Piñon-Juniper Woodlands: Implications For Conservation And Sustainable Resource Use In Two Southern Nevada Protected Areas, Brian John Lefler

Dissertations and Theses

Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute) have inhabited the southern Great Basin for thousands of years, and consider Nuvagantu (where snow sits) in the Spring Mountains landscape to be the locus of their creation as a people. Their ancestral territory spans parts of Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and California. My research identifies and describes the heterogeneous character of Nuwuvi ecological knowledge (NEK) of piñon-juniper woodland ecosystems within two federal protected areas (PAs) in southeastern Nevada, the Spring Mountains National Recreation Area (SMNRA) and the Desert National Wildlife Refuge (DNWR), as remembered and practiced to varying degrees by 22 select Nuwuvi knowledge holders. I focus …

Racism, Heterosexism, Depression, And Hiv Risk Behaviors Of Native Men Who Have Sex With Men: Findings From The Honor Project, Matthew Alan Town

Dissertations and Theses

Racial minority men who have sex with men (MSM) experience greater levels of discrimination and higher rates of HIV infection. However, little is known about the associations between racial and heterosexist discrimination and HIV risk behavior. Further, little is known about the mechanisms of the association between racial and heterosexist discrimination and HIV risk behavior. There is some evidence to suggest that depression may be a mechanism that mediates the relationship between racial and heterosexist discrimination and HIV risk behavior. Thus, one purpose of this study was to investigate the extent to which discrimination based on both race and sexual …

Trauma-Informed Research And Planning: Understanding Government And Urban Native Community Partnerships To Addressing Substance-Exposed Pregnancies In Portland, Or, Amanda Mercier

Dissertations and Theses

In 2011, representatives from the Multnomah County Health Departments and several Native-serving organizations came together to address substance-exposed pregnancies among urban Native Americans in Portland, Oregon. From these partnerships, the Future Generations Collaborative was formed representing a significant shift toward community-led maternal child health research and planning. Additionally, the Future Generations Collaborative adopted a historical trauma-informed community based participatory research and planning process. This is particularly significant considering government agencies' role in colonization within Native communities. The purpose of this case study is to explore partnerships between government agencies and the Portland Native community within the Future Generations Collaborative. Given …

Exploring Colonization And Ethnogenesis Through An Analysis Of The Flaked Glass Tools Of The Lower Columbia Chinookans And Fur Traders, Stephanie Catherine Simmons

Dissertations and Theses

At the end of the 18th century, Anglo Americans and Europeans entered the mouth of the Columbia River for the first time. There they encountered large villages of Chinookan and other Native Americans. Soon afterwards, the Chinookan People became involved in the global fur trade. Pelts, supplies, and native made goods were exchanged with fur traders, who in return provided Chinookans with a number of trade goods. Over the next 40 years, life changed greatly for the Chinookans; new trade and political alliances were created, foreign goods were introduced, and diseases killed large portions of the population (Hajda 1984; Gibson …

Lifeblood Of The Earth: Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute) Hydrological Knowledge And Perceptions Of Restoration In Two Southern Nevada Protected Areas, Kendra Lesley Wendel

Dissertations and Theses

In the arid landscapes of the southern Great Basin and northern Mojave Desert, issues surrounding water resource management are often politically contentious. Nuwuvi (Southern Paiute) have known and managed these resources for thousands of years prior to Euro-American arrival in the region. A variety of factors, including federal policies that resulted in the creation of reservations and forced placement in boarding schools, as well as contemporary resource commodification, have influenced Nuwuvi knowledge and practice.

In this thesis, I examined the character of Nuwuvi ethnohydrological knowledge, including management knowledge, of two protected areas: Spring Mountains National Recreation Area (SMNRA), managed by …

Disruptions In The Dream City: Unsettled Ideologies At The 1905 World's Fair In Portland, Oregon, Kat Cleland

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis examines the experiences of fairgoers at the Lewis and Clark Centennial, American Pacific Exposition and Oriental Fair held in Portland, Oregon from June to October of 1905. Historians have framed world's fairs and international expositions as sites of legitimating narratives and restagings of empire and nationhood. This thesis focuses on women, Asian Americans, and Native Americans who interrupted and disrupted the performance and exhibition of U.S. imperialism in the specific case of Portland, Oregon. It considers who benefitted from or endured loss in the demonstrations of imperial culture at the Fair. Following the premises that metropolitan and colonial …

Attitudes Toward Science (Ats): An Examination Of Scientists' And Native Americans' Cultural Values And Ats And Their Effect On Action Priorities, Adam T. Murry

Dissertations and Theses

Science has been identified as a crucial element in the competitiveness and sustainability of America in the global economy. American citizens, especially minority populations, however, are not pursuing science education or careers. Past research has implicated `attitudes toward science' as an important factor in the public's participation in science. I applied Ajzen's (1991) Theory of Planned Behavior to attitudes toward science to predict science-related sustainability-action intentions and evaluated whether scientists and Native Americans differed in their general attitudes toward science, cultural values, and specific beliefs about science. Analyses revealed that positive attitude toward science and the cultural value of individualism …

Motivation In The Portland Chinuk Wawa Language Community, Abigail Elaina Pecore

Dissertations and Theses

Throughout the world, languages are becoming extinct at an alarming rate. Perhaps half of the 6,000-7,000 languages worldwide will go extinct in the next 50-100 years. One of these dying languages, Chinook Jargon or Chinuk Wawa, a language found in the Pacific Northwest of the United States, is in the process of being revitalized through the concerted efforts of the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde (CTGR). Reasons to revitalize endangered languages often seem irrelevant to our modern daily lives, and revitalizing these languages is a difficult process requiring much dedication, commitment, and persistence. In light of this significant struggle, understanding …

Writing Chinuk Wawa: A Materials Development Case Study, Sarah A. Braun Hamilton

Dissertations and Theses

This study explored the development of new texts by fluent non-native speakers of Chinuk Wawa, an endangered indigenous contact language of the Pacific Northwest United States. The texts were developed as part of the language and culture program of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Community of Oregon for use in university-sponsored language classes. The collaborative process of developing 12 texts was explored through detailed revision analysis and interviews with the materials developers and other stakeholders.

Fluent non-native speakers relied on collaboration, historical documentation, reference materials, grammatical models, and their own intuitions and cultural sensibilities to develop texts that …

Sustainability From The Perspectives Of Indigenous Leaders In The Bioregion Defined By The Pacific Salmon Runs Of North America, David Edward Hall

Dissertations and Theses

Extensive research suggests that the collective behavior of humanity is on an unsustainable path. As the evidence mounts and more people awaken to this reality, increased attention is being dedicated to the pursuit of answers for a just and sustainable future. This dissertation grew from the premise that effectively moving towards sustainability requires change at all levels of the dominant Western culture, including deeply held worldviews. The worldviews of many indigenous cultures offer alternative values and beliefs that can contribute to addressing the root causes of problems related to sustainability. In the bioregion defined by the Pacific Salmon runs of …

Public Outreach And The "Hows" Of Archaeology : Archaeology As A Model For Education, Jon Darin Daehnke

Dissertations and Theses

There is growing awareness of the importance of public outreach in archaeology. Many professional archaeologists argue that in order to ensure continued funding we must communicate the relevance of our discipline to the public in a more effective manner. Furthermore, it is often argued that public outreach and education provides perhaps the only reliable defense against looting and rampant psuedoarchaeology.

Current outreach activities, however, tend to focus on what archaeologists have discovered about the past. While this type of outreach is important, a more effective model for public outreach would focus on the methods of archaeology, rather than the results. …

Tribal Constructs And Kinship Realities : Individual And Family Organization On The Grand Ronde Reservation From 1856, Aeron Teverbaugh

Dissertations and Theses

This project examines marriage and residence patterns on the Grand Ronde Reservation between 1856 and the early 1900s. It demonstrates that indigenous cultural patterns continued despite a colonial imagination that refused to see them. Members of the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde continued to live in family groups much as they had in the pre-reservation era. They continued to exhibit patterns of marriage and kinship that were described in the ethnographies and by the earliest explorers in the Oregon area.

Justice Delayed: A Sixty Year Battle For Indian Fishing Sites, Roberta Ulrich

Dissertations and Theses

The Army Corps of Engineers promised in 1939 that it would provide six fishing sites totaling 400 acres for Indian fishermen to replace 40 sites that would be flooded by the pool behind Bonneville Dam on the Columbia River. The agreement with the Warm Springs, Yakima and Umatilla tribes and Columbia River Indians also included construction of living quarters, boat launches, drying sheds and sanitary facilities. Only five sites were ever acquired and drying sheds and sanitary facilities were built on only two.

This paper traces the delays through war, congressional appropriations, negotiations over sites, law suits, construction of new …

Predictors Of Depression In American Indian Adolescents, Quang Duong-Tran

Dissertations and Theses

Discriminant analysis was conducted to examine the empirical use of psychosocial variables and stressful life events scales in classifying depressed and non-depressed American Indian adolescents using a standardized criterion measure. Subjects attending a Bureau of Indian Affair boarding school were administered a mental health screening survey and were interviewed within four weeks using the Diagnostic Interview Schedule f or Children-Revised (DISC-R). Three models of discriminant analysis were used to determine the overall and incremental variance contributed by the stressful life events scales and the related psychosocial variables (i.e., gender, perceived social support from family and from friends, self-esteem, and depressive …

The Introduction Of European And Asian Cultural Materials On The Alaskan And Northwest Coasts Before 1800, Herbert Kyle Beals

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis concerns the introduction of exogenous cultural materials among the native inhabitants of the Alaskan and Northwest coasts prior to the and of the 18th century. It is an investigation of the sources of these materials and the manner and chronology of their introduction. The research is based primarily on data drawn from accounts of native life by explorers and fur traders who visited the coasts of northwestern North America in the 18th century. These accounts are supplemented by ethnologic and archaeologic data collected by anthropologists in the 19th and 20th centuries.

Tillamook Indian Basketry : Continuity And Change As Seen In The Adams Collection, Ailsa Elizabeth Crawford

Dissertations and Theses

In the Adams Collection at the Tillamook County Pioneer Museum, Tillamook, Oregon, there are 29 baskets that were probably made between 1880 and 1940. They are mostly of raffia, are somewhat faded from their original, bright, commercial colors, and are generally quite small. Despite the fact that these baskets are well-documented and were made by Tillamook women, they are the sort that have been overlooked by anthropologists and by collectors because of their non-"traditional" appearance. In order to determine what relationship these baskets have to Tillamook basketry made earlier, I analyzed them and 39 Tillamook baskets from four other museum …

Assessment Of The Health And Social Service Needs Of The Elderly Of The Confederated Tribes Of Warm Springs, Bruce K. Cannon, Jan C. Goslin

Dissertations and Theses

The purpose of this study is to examine what the elderly of the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs reported as their health and social service needs in the Tribal Health and Social Service Needs Assessment. It will also review the elderly's concerns and those of the general population in regards to future planning of services for the elders.

A Comparative Study Of Language Deficits Of Reservation And Urban Indian Children, Lezlie Kaye Pearce

Dissertations and Theses

This study sought to determine if there are any differences in an analysis of language samples between urban Indian, reservation Indian, and urban White first-grade children. The Mean Length of Response (MLR), Developmental Sentence Score (DSS), and individual DSS items were used to analyze language used by the three groups of children. The study involved thirty-nine children, thirteen children in each group, between the ages of six years, six months, and seven years, four months. All subjects were screened to determine grade, residency, Indian blood, speech, language, hearing, and physical status. Testing for hearing vocabulary was performed at the beginning …

Perceptions Of Indian Tribal Leaders Regarding The Indian Self-Determination Act (Public Law 93-638), Ramona O'Connor

Dissertations and Theses

This study is an analysis of a policy, The Indian Self-Determination Act (Public Law 93-638), and consists of a survey designed to examine the perceptions of selected Indian tribal leaders regarding the policy. The findings of the survey are reviewed and analyzed and the study is concluded with a consideration of the implications of the findings for social work. In general, the study is concerned with an aspect of the social policy process. A specific policy is addressed and a survey of perceptions of people effected by that policy was taken. The policy itself is an indication of a seemingly …

Alternative Living Situation For Indian Youth, Colleen Lynn Langer Yost, Lloyd Blackstone Pinkham

Dissertations and Theses

This thesis includes a proposed program that is designed to provide alternatives for Indian youth, allow for the creation of a residential treatment facility for the diagnosis, placement, and treatment of Indian juvenile delinquents, establish reporting and operating procedures with various courts, and help reduce the delinquent behavior of the resident youth.