Indigenous Studies Commons^™

Reawakening Waⁿdat: Community Research & Reclamation, Darcy Allred

Theses and Dissertations

The Wyandot(te) have undergone language dormancy due to settler colonial impacts of warfare, refugee relocation, forced removals, and U.S. assimilation projects. One of the most pressing priorities among our people today is reawakening our ancestral language, Waⁿdat. The common follow-up question is: how? Through the conduit of Waⁿdat language reclamation, this project grapples with the above question in collaboration with the Wyandot(te) community, and in adherence to the tribal sovereignty of the Wyandotte Nation. The project engages with diasporic perspectives, community-based pedagogy design, and tribally specific research protocols and policies. The living collective knowledgebase with which I engage in this …

"Cultural Identity And Economic Challenges": The Socio-Economic Impact Of The Texas Kickapoo Reservation In The South Texas Borderlands, Diana P. Medina-Rendon

Theses and Dissertations

The Kickapoo Traditional Tribe of Texas holds a significant place in Texas history. Facing conflicts with other tribes and experiencing broken treaties with the United States government, the Kickapoo slowly migrated from the Great Lakes region in the 16th century to the Midwest, then to the South, and into northern Mexico. Along the way, the Kickapoo encountered the French, British, Spanish, Americans, Texans, and Mexicans. They became involved in historical events such as the French and Indian War, the Battle of Tippecanoe, the War of 1812, the Battle Creek Massacre of 1838, and the Battle of Dove Creek of 1865. …

Realistik Heaven, Alexa H. Senan

Theses and Dissertations

“Realistik Heaven” processes the traumas, forced transformations and the cannibalization of womanhood and culture as a result of colonization. Inspired by Oswald de Andrade’s Cannibalist Manifesto, Senan writes to evoke the literal meaning of Andrade’s description of the cannibalization of culture and having to become someone new cannibalizing themselves while still longing for the remains of the past.

Cuentos De Barro, Daniel Anthony Vasquez

Theses and Dissertations

Cuentos de Barros addresses the complexities of creating art and processing indigenous heritage and personal history as a Salvadoran immigrant within a neo-colonial society. Centering ritual, care, and healing, the artist imbues sculptures with tenderness using abstract forms and the tactile manipulation of unfired clay and graphite.

Hemispheres Of Faith: Mapping The Global Journey Of An Ivory Rosary Bead At The Metropolitan Museum Of Art, Mary M. Thompson

Theses and Dissertations

Hemispheres of Faith reattributes a carved ivory rosary bead in the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the Quito School in 18th-century Ecuador. Through examining the trade history of the Manila Galleons, material analysis, and iconographic study, Hemispheres of Faith challenges the bead's European origins and reveals the object as a product of global exchange, devotional practice, and colonial artistic collaboration within the Spanish Empire.

The Tales Of Maruni, Sikuma Rai

Theses and Dissertations

Sikuma Rai journeys into the fading indigenous genre of Maruni—an eastern Nepali song and dance form—narrating letters to her late grandfather. Accompanied by her father, and a devoted folk musician from an upper-caste background, she traces echoes of memory, identity, and the fragile inheritance of indigenous culture.

The Curse Of El Dorado: How The Californnia Gold Rush Shaped The History Of Hawai'i, Ernesto Coronado

Theses and Dissertations

In the discourse of Western historiography, we fail to account for the importance of the Hawai’ian Islands. American imperialism did not stop with the occupation of the Pacific Coast but continued into the Pacific. In the mid-nineteenth century, Hawai’i and its monarch, King Kamehameha III, stood at the center of a dispute between Britain, France, and the United States. King Kamehameha III used the California Gold Rush and Hawai’i’s location to his advantage to garner capital and prevent the imperial powers from annexing his kingdom. However, even he knew he could not stop the mass wave of Hawai’ians leaving the …

The Romani People In The European Cultural Imagination: Alexander Pushkin, Prosper Mérimée And Virginia Woolf, Nadya Siyam

Theses and Dissertations

Scholarly literature on Roma is scarce compared to other racial groups as a lack of academic interest, financial limitations, and other social and political factors has constrained it. This resulted in a cross-cultural circulation of misinformation about Romani people and the reproduction of Romani myths and stereotypes in fiction. This project aims to analyze selected literary works on Gypsies from three Eastern and Western European countries and two periods to unpack the cultural and political roots of Romani literary misrepresentation. This research employs a range of theoretical frameworks chosen to put the Gypsy protagonists under maximum spotlight without unnecessary repetition, …

The Fall And Rise Of Bengali Muslim Conciousness: Conceptualising The Identity Of The Bangla Universal, Habib Khan

Theses and Dissertations

The emergence of modern-nation states saw the end of the empirical era of exploitation and exercise of inherent racist tendencies towards the 'other'. However, the effect of that colonial system is still ever-present in the creation and governance of these newly independent states. While every new state aims to be 'modern', they adopt the international legal framework of the West as their own - a system they had initially wanted to escape. The concept of Muslim universality in the form of the ummah should have freed Pakistan from the shackles of its former colonial masters. Instead, this phenomenon was replaced …

Historical Trauma: Literary And Testimonial Responses To Hiroshima, Mariam Ghonim

Theses and Dissertations

The concept of trauma is controversial in literature. While one may be able to come up with ways to describe trauma in fiction, representing historical trauma is a hard task for writers. Some argue that trauma can not be described through those who did not experience it, while others claim that, provided some elements are added, one can represent trauma to the reader. This thesis focuses on twentieth-century historical traumas related to a nuclear catastrophe and explores the different literary and testimonial responses to the catastrophic man-made event of Hiroshima (1945). In this thesis, Kathleen Burkinshaw’s historical fiction The Last …

“Tribal Rights Are Important Rights”: The Origins, Travails, And Impact Of The Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribe V. The State Of New Jersey, Brianna Marie Dagostino

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis was to study the lawsuit case of the of Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape Tribal Nation V. John J. Hoffman and to showcase how modern-day racism ultimately led to their federal lawsuit in 2015. Racism and racist biases over Indian gaming has affected not just the Nanticoke Lenni-Lenape tribe, but tribes all over the country and has severely hindered tribes in the state and federal acknowledgment process. There are also other tribes that have had lawsuits over racial biases of Indian gaming, which will be discussed within the thesis. By using oral histories from tribal members and allies …

Dulce Sueños De Tierra, Sweet Dreams Of Earth, Jordany Genao

Theses and Dissertations

Jordany's paper congregates their archival research into an art practice that examines the decolonial impulse to excavate the self and produce autonomy. Using ceramics to reference and re-animate Taino ritual objects found in museums, resulting in alternative museology, their work seeks to honor Caribbean ancestors by subverting colonial history.

The Flow Of (Re)Memory In African American And Nubian Egyptian Literature: Morrison, Oddoul, And Mukhtar, Bushra Hashem

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this thesis is to define the term rememory, which Toni Morrison coins in her novel Beloved, and explore its interplay with water imagery in the novel and in two Nubian short stories, namely Haggag Oddoul’s “The River People” and Yahya Mukhtar’s “The Nile Bride.” The three narratives have core common features: they centralize water bodies as key sites of events, they depend heavily on the retelling of history and mythology, and they are told predominantly from the perspective of women. How do the writers weave rememory, history, and mythology to produce these narratives? Are they attempting to …

Formations Of The Mayan Diaspora In Guatemala And The Us: Land, Migration, And Linguistic Ideologies As The Markers Of Diasporic Separation., Daniel Antipov

Theses and Dissertations

This work examines the phenomenon of diaspora formation among the indigenous Guatemalan population as a major identity marker in the new Guatemalan immigrants in the US. This work provides: definition of diaspora, its historical frames, juxtaposition of the self and the Other, and separation and differentiation of the indigenous languages

Boundary As Borderland: Mexico City’S Central Plaza And The Politics Of Presence, Re'al Christian

Theses and Dissertations

In the postcolonial era, the land surrounding national borders—the borderland—has inherited a specific identity and relationship with those who navigate it. While national borderlands are oft discussed amid conversations on globalization, land disputes, and war, the Spanish colonization of the Americas in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries saw the new establishment of borderlands from within in the form of segregative boundaries that purported to separate Indigenous and European peoples. This thesis concerns the manifestation of the borderland as not only an external entity, but an internal one as well. Using Mexico City, the center of the Spanish colonial empire, as …

The Adobe Frontier, Christopher J. Gauthier

Theses and Dissertations

The Adobe Frontier is a documentary film about Ronald Rael and Virginia San Fratello—together known as “Studio Rael San Fratello” —and their work connecting contemporary technology with the legacy of pottery making and adobe architecture in the Southwest United States.

Time Machine Research And Approach, Tarek Bouraque

Theses and Dissertations

Time Machine is a hybrid documentary that explores the logics of enslavement, colonialism, eurocentrism and their interconnectedness in our globalized world. Mustapha Azemmouri, born in 1502, undertakes a journey to the 21st century to recount his own story of enslavement and exploration, and reflects on a collective puzzle of 500 years of hidden history.

Learning The Land: Indians, Settlers, And Slaves In The Southern Borderlands, 1500-1850, William Cane West

Theses and Dissertations

Between 1500 and 1850, Native Americans, Europeans, and enslaved African Americans competed for territory within the landscape of the lower Arkansas Valley. The complex transitional environment between delta bottomlands, interior highlands, and Great Plains fostered the co-existence of competing Native and Euro-American claims to regional sovereignty and settlement well into the nineteenth century. The geopolitical divides often hinged on debates over environmental resources and scientific practices. Indigenous polities from the Mississippians to the Quapaws and Osages adapted to environmental changes to establish and maintain their borders in the face of European colonial presence. In the nineteenth century, Cherokees and white …

"Let The Castillo Be His Monument!": Imperialism, Nationalism, And Indian Commemoration At The Castillo De San Marcos National Monument In St. Augustine, Florida, Claire M. Barnewolt

Theses and Dissertations

The Castillo de San Marcos is the oldest stone fortification on the North American mainland, a unique site that integrates Florida’s Spanish colonial past with American Indian narratives. A complete history of this fortification from its origins to its management under the National Park Service has not yet been written. During the Spanish colonial era, the Indian mission system complemented the defensive work of the fort until imperial skirmishes led to the demise of the Florida Indian. During the nineteenth century, Indian prisoners put a new American Empire on display while the fort transformed into a tourist destination. The Castillo …

The 1622 Powhatan Uprising And Its Impact On Anglo-Indian Relations, Michael Jude Kramer

Theses and Dissertations

On March 22, 1622, Native Americans under the Powhatan war-leader Opechancanough launched surprise attacks on English settlements in Virginia. The attacks wiped out between one-quarter and one-third of the colony's European population and hastened the collapse of the Virginia Company of London, a joint stock company to which England's King James I had granted the right to establish settlements in the New World. Most significantly, the 1622 Powhatan attacks in Virginia marked a critical turning point in Anglo-Indian relations.

Following the famous 1614 marriage of the Native American Pocahontas to Virginia colonist John Rolfe and her conversion to Christianity, English …

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, …

Brigham Young's Indian Superintendency (1851-58): A Significant Microcosm Of The American Indian Experience, Wayne Miles Eckman

Theses and Dissertations

This thesis provides a detailed study of Brigham Young's Indian superintendency within a framework of the federal Indian policy of his era. It focuses on Brigham Young's personal challenges and successes in instituting a conciliatory policy with the natives of the Great Basin. Experience taught Brigham Young that it was "cheaper to feed the Indians than to fight them." Brigham Young pursued his policy in spite of opposition from some Mormon constituents until finally his determination overruled pleas to forcibly remove the Indians from their lands.

Another important emphasis of the thesis is the personal interaction between Brigahm Young and …

A Pale Reflection: American Indian Images In Mormon Arts, P. Jane Hafen

Theses and Dissertations

American Indians in Mormon arts suffer from the imposition of the white man's traditional ideas, images and stereotypes. An examination of Mormon literature since 1941, Mormon hymns and music, and Mormon visual arts reveals little consideration of Native American values: tribal affiliation, significance of place and community, myth and ritual. While the mainstream of American art has incorporated Native American values into Indian representations, and even found a place for Native American artists, Mormon arts adhere to historical misinterpretations, despite a number of fine Mormon Native American artists.

Origin And Development Of The San Juan Mission In Southeastern Utah In Its Work With Indian People (Principally Since 1940), Lyle S. Heinz

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to present the origin and development of the San Juan Mission in southeastern Utah in its work with Indian people, principally since 1940. One of the responsibilities of the San Juan Mission was to teach the Indian people the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It is also the purpose of this study to show what has been accomplished in regard to the original call and also determine what remains to be completed. The history of the San Juan Mission has been indexed under the following chapter headings: Introduction to San Juan and the Call …

A Study Of The Influence Of The Mormon Church On The Catawba Indians Of South Carolina 1882-1975, Jerry D. Lee

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study is to discuss the origin and development of the Southern States Mission of the Mormon Church as it relates to the Catawba Indians of York County. The primary purpose of this relationship was to teach the Indian people the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. It is also the purpose of this study to show the significance of the change in the Catawba society resulting from this mission. From the time the first Mormon missionaries came into contact with the Catawbas, their lives have been deeply influenced by the teachings of the LDS Church. Every aspect …

An Analysis Of Attitudes Navajo Community Leaders Have Toward A Religion Sponsored Program Based Upon Membership Of That Faith And Amount Of Information Attained, Howard Rainer

Theses and Dissertations

The problem is to analyze the opinions of the Navajo community leadership towards a religion sponsored program, as related to their exposure to information about the program and to othether social variables. Specifically, this study is concerned with two main questions:
1. Is the reaction among Navajo community leaders towards the LDS Indian Placement Program related to the amount of information they have available about that program?
2. Is the attitudes of Navajo community leaders concerning the Placement Program related to their social economic status of age, religious affiliation, and other such variables?

Changes In Scholastic Achievement And Intelligence Of Indian Children Enrolled In A Foster Placement Program, Linda Ouida Willson

Theses and Dissertations

This study examines the long-term effects of the Indian Placement Program on the enrolled students' scholastic achievement as measured by standardized tests given in the schools. It also examines intelligence test scores and changes in them during years in the Program. The following effects on achievement were also examined: sex, age and grade at initial placement, and the child's adjustment as measured by number of foster homes in which he had been placed.

Zadok Knapp Judd: Soldier, Colonizer, Missionary To The Lamanites, Derrel Wesley Judd

Theses and Dissertations

Zadok's membership in the church directed the course of his life, and he contributed to the success of those movements of the church in which he participated.

A Course Of Study For The Lds Indian Seminary Program Of Northern America For Junior High School Students, Eldred Bruce Preece

Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of writing this teacher's manual was to provide a course of study for the junior high school Indian Seminary students living mainly in Northern climes of North America. In more recent years, a greater emphasis by the Church has been placed on preaching the Gospel to Northern Indian tribes, as evidenced by the organization of the Northern Indian Mission in 1964. With the conversion of hundreds of Lamanites, came also the need to provide religious education and character development for the children of these new converts and for the children of older Church members. Many non-LDS students, with …

A History Of Mormon Missionary Work With The Hopi, Navaho And Zuni Indians, David Kay Flake

Theses and Dissertations

Through their contacts with the Utes and other local tribes the Mormon people became aware of the presence of the Hopis, Navahos and Zunis soon after their arrival in the Great Salt Lake Valley in 1847. Their first actual contact with the Navahos occurred in connection with their Elk Mountain Indian Mission near what is now Moab, Utah, in 1855. During that same year another Indian mission was established in the Cedar City area called the Southern Indian Mission. As president of this mission in 1858, Jacob Hamblin led the first exploring-missionary party to the Hopi villages. Succeeding visits to …