This thesis contributes to our understanding of the impacts of political, social and economic dynamics of contemporary “free-market cities” on indigenous people that leave their traditional territories to settle on Latin American metropolises. The thesis examines the case of indigenous Shipibo migrants from the Amazon that have occupied in Lima, Peru a landfill site owned by the municipal government, and developed there a shantytown. The analyzes of the case sheds light on the innovative strategies that the Shipibo resort to in order to survive in the absence of formal jobs and social programs, and even despite recurrent threats to their social and cultural rights. Through the production of traditional handicraft, they collectively become ethnic entrepreneurs and enter the vast urban informal economy. Beside its interesting consequences for local politics and gender relations, this ethnic economic practice also becomes a way of group making and community building. After prolonged waits –during which the state appeared intermittently and with ambiguous messages–, the Shipibo finally face they most dreaded fear: eviction. Upon confronting this situation, and lacking the clientelistic networks in which Andean migrant peasants could count on in past decades, the Shipibo utilize a innovative repertoire of contained contention to appeal to the leftist municipal authority and thus articulate functional alliances with the goal of gaining land tenure. / text

This dissertation investigates the impacts of the mining economy on the lives of indigenous peoples in the city of Calama and Atacameno villages in the Loa River basin in northern Chile. It explores overlapping ethical systems that shape views of fairness and the environment: indigenous communities and mining corporation's views. The central inquiry revolves around reaching an understanding of how different underlying ethical systems and interrelated ideologies influence political decisions regarding what communities and lives will be allowed to persist and which will have to perish. This relationship between economics, politics, and morality will advance knowledge of the status of corporation-community relations and identify the main obstacles to sustainable positive relations in the future.

This dissertation reports findings from a study documenting the use of multimedia technology among Indigenous language communities to assist language learners, speakers, instructors, and institutions learn about multimedia technologies that have contributed to Indigenous language revitalization, education, documentation, preservation, and maintenance. The overall study used an adapted technacy framework to investigate how Indigenous language advocates holistically understand, skillfully apply and communicate creative and balanced technological solutions that are based on understanding of contextual factors (Seemann & Talbot, 1995). The research presented is based on a survey of individuals who used technology for Indigenous language revitalization purposes, as well as on case studies of students of the American Indian Language Development Institute (AILDI) who enrolled in the technology course, Computer Applications for Indigenous Language Communities. The survey provided an overview of the types of technologies Indigenous communities are using for the revitalization of their language. In the study, case studies were also conducted to provide an in-depth understanding of where, when, why, and how users are implementing these technologies in their home, communities, and schools. Research questions, participants, and data collection were organized and analyzed according to three levels: multimedia technology use among Indigenous language communities, Indigenous language institutes and technology training, and AILDI student case studies.Many Indigenous communities are facing language endangerment and extinction and are looking for ways to preserve, document, revitalize and maintain their languages. One way is the integration of technology. Findings from the study suggest that the language goals of the community need to be determined prior to the incorporation of technology in these efforts. The study also found that regardless of the size of the community, opportunities for using technology in Indigenous language revitalization efforts were shaped by literacy and oral proficiency of the community, as well as linguistic and cultural, social, economic, environmental, and technological factors as expressed in the adapted technacy model. Overall, the study underscored the importance of taking context into consideration in order to make grounded choices about technology as a component of contemporary language revitalization efforts.

This research reviews Diné governance with an eye towards forecasting reform. What do traditional Diné institutions of governance offer to our understanding of the contemporary challenges faced by the Navajo Nation today and tomorrow? The research is part history, and part political science while pioneering applications of cutting edge research methods. Primary and secondary research will detail where Navajo Nation has been. Diné history is explored via creation stories, the Naachid systems, and the various contemporary councils. Unclear aspects of Diné history are illuminated by relying on oral accounts. Analysis pinpoints what is missing in governance today while questioning whether looking to the past alone will help make governance work better tomorrow. Sometimes adopting traditional Diné governance institutions is not feasible, not wanted, or not possible. New methodological territory offers insight when the past and the future do not work well together. The concept building method is utilized as a way of mitigating the loss that occurs when English words fail to capture the essence of Navajo language. Concepts organic to Navajo culture such as Naachid, Naat'aanii, War Naat'aanii, Peace Naat'aanii, etc, are turned to for assistance in dealing with contemporary issues. Navajo concepts are represented in three-level-view depictions. Three-level-view expressions require that concepts be observed on three-levels. Level one is the name. Under the name level are the set of necessary and sufficient conditions which must be present or you do not have an actual concept. Under each of the conditions are the data/observations which must be present in order to verify that the condition is present. Concept building displays where Navajo Nation has been in order to better understand where Navajo Nation needs to go. The visual presentation of traditional concepts of Diné governance makes them more understandable. Interestingly, when the concept building method is applied to post 1922 Diné governance, the true motives of the United States become obvious. A clearer path is presented toward incorporating chapter house government into national government. Developing contemporary concepts of Navajo governance based on traditional teachings equips us to deal with contemporary issues.

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Abstract Framed within a wholly Indigenous paradigm - Gayanehsragowah - my dissertation is a counterstory constructed to engage colonialism in a decolonizing research and writing project. I chose story, an autoethnographic novel, as form to represent Indigenous reflexive method; a metaphoric text performed to unlock metaphor’s meaning, once known, I see through to and refract truth upon my own life story implicit within that text. To illustrate human potential for healing and self-change, I construct pedagogical relationship between lived experience and theoretical meaning in interlocking and entangled threads inseparable from form, not possible in conventional thesis organization. Tadoda:ho, the Great Law icon for transformation centers my inquiry into effects of cultural, social and political disconnection from Hodinohso:ni: systems; in particular, I examine historical unresolved grief carried both over the life span and across generations. I use Denzin’s approach to critical personal narrative, Ellis’s autoethnographic method and Richardson’s creative analytical practice to create an interpretive text comprised of short stories, poetry, conversations, dialogue, visual representation and layered accounts. My inquiry reveals Battiste’s transforming energy flux, which I call spirit, manifests in Indigenous language structures, and similar to Ellis’s evocative and analytical texts, once voiced through writing, creates change in the universe and in self. Critical reflection and representation of an Indigenous world in constant motion to renew livingness lends key knowledge that reconnection to ancestral histories, lands, and cultures restores Indigenous identity to resolve the trauma of historical grief. As Gayanehsragowah is performative healing narrative, my inquiry intends to add new knowledge of Indigenous story as form with power to inform self-change. / Thesis (Ph.D, Education) -- Queen's University, 2013-03-06 14:34:46.945

This thesis presents a study of people’s relationships with their material world.  It is based on fifteen months of ethnographic fieldwork with Inupiaq and Yup’ik residents of northwest Alaska and on three months of ethnographic collections-based research in British museums.  The central focus of this thesis is how materials and objects are used and what they mean to the people who use them.  It explores how people come together in material practices to create social worlds and individual realities.  While Bering Strait Eskimo tools and garments have long been acknowledged for their ability to ensure survival in what many southerners believe to be unforgiving landscapes, the practices which produce, use, and consume these objects have received less attention.  Each chapter casts light on different sets of maternal practices, including: procuring materials, processing them, crafting products, conserving and keeping objects, and exhibiting objects in public places.  Indigenous residents participating in these practices readily transform materials and objects, applying them to various circumstances to meet shifting needs.  Tracking people’s involvement in such practices over time and across spaces reveals that material practices simultaneously forge relationships, shape individuals and communities, and resolve problems.  This thesis argues that because multiple developments transpire at once in material practices, Inupiat and Yupiit of northwest Alaska use them to coordinate diverse aspects of their lives and to harmonise their lives with others.  Grounded in this understanding of how things are used, this thesis develops an account of how things become socially meaningful; things acquire meanings for practitioners based on their roles in coordinating lives.

Sacred story has historically been essential to the proper functioning of Anishinaabe society. These represent the ways humans should live and act in the world in harmony with others, the land, and the spirit world. The transmission of these essential codes of conduct through sacred story is what has sustained identity and culture throughout history. As Indigenous languages were stolen from Indigenous people through the residential school system, so too were stories. My thesis argues that Aadisookewin such as Baagak can foster the recovery of Indigenous identity and help heal the wounds of colonization and facilitate reconciliation. To make this point I include a historical examination of existing research on Baagak derived from written accounts from theearly 1900's to the present day and analyze these narratives in their own spaces and places, asserting they provide important understandings to what constitutes Anishinaabe identity, community, and culture. / February 2017

The current lack of federal heritage policy and legislation in Canada is examined through a comparative study with two other formerly colonial Commonwealth countries, Australia and New Zealand. The full responsibility for protecting the nation’s cultural heritage has been left to individual provinces and a comparative study of policy and legislation across Canada is undertaken. The archaeological excavation at the site of the Canadian Museum for Human Rights has proven to be one of the most significant in the province of Manitoba and serves as the case study for this research. All of this comparative research aspires toward a single goal; the creation of a best practices model broadly applicable to the provinces of Canada, which aims to provide a basis for the creation of federal heritage policy and legislation in meaningful consultation with Indigenous communities. / February 2017

Bolivia's indigenous groups achieved an unprecedented level of political power in the latter half of the twentieth century. Traditional explanations for this phenomenon (elite alliances, deprivation, matter-of-time)have proven insufficient. This thesis argues that the ascendancy of Bolivia's groups can be best understood though he application of organization and social movement theories, and it uses the political economy framework as a backdrop. Data are drawn from scholarly analyses, official documents and historical texts. This thesis concludes that Bolivia's indigenous movement is not a single movement, but a coalition of many social movements. It demonstrates that ethnicity frameworks have in some cases hindered the progress of movements because of different understandings of ethnicity. Variegated interests, visions of the future, and geography, have exacerbated these differences. This thesis concludes with recommendations for strategic level policy-makers and tactical level operators.