What has become known to the world as the Baby Veronica case (2009-2013) involves several parties including the biological father, Dusten Brown, who is a Cherokee citizen, the Non-Native adoptive parents, the Capobiancos, the Cherokee Nation, and most importantly the baby who is now a child getting ready to start school, Veronica. It is a complex child custody case, but one that is well supported in Federal Indian Law and Policy with the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) of 1978 and Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians v. Holyfields (1989). In the beginning of the Adoptive Couple v. Baby Girl et al case (or famously known simply as the Baby Veronica case), the South Carolina Family Court and Supreme Court used the legalese of the ICWA to uphold the biological father's parental right to stop the adoption of his child. However, in an interesting turn of events the case was then taken up by the United States (U.S.) Supreme Court where it was ruled that the biological father was not an Indian parent as defined by ICWA (before the child was placed with the prospective adoptive couple there was no preexisting custody of the newborn child by the father) and stating that state law applied and not ICWA in this case and since the father was not married to the birth mother and had not paid child support he was not deemed a parent by South Carolina’s definition of the word. The most recent decision came from the South Carolina court stating that Baby Veronica, after two years of living with her father, must be returned to the prospective adoptive parents. Most everyone out there felt sadness for the prospective adoptive couple who had loved and provided for this child for two years, but all adoptive/foster parents know there is always a chance for the natural parents to object to the placement (it is called legal risk in child welfare). Each state sets their own laws on how long the natural parents have to change their mind, but in this case the biological father was not even aware that the biological mother was planning on giving the child up for adoption. Once he discovered the adoption, four months after the child was born and had been living with the Capobiancos since birth, he filed a petition to stop it and regain custody. This action would lead to a four year long custody battle. While it is important to look at all the facts and the history of the ICWA (and now the future of the ICWA) this dissertation focuses mostly on the public perception of the case. This case has received a fair amount of media coverage throughout the United States including a one-hour episode on Dr. Phil which aired on CBS. It is not often that something happening in Indian County makes it to mainstream media/attention, but when it does there is usually a great deal of misunderstanding on the issue. This is also true for most of the coverage and public responses from the media. This time around it was also true of the U.S. Supreme Court who focused too much attention on Dusten Brown’s blood quantum and not his cultural upbringing. Further the majority of the Supreme Court Justices held that the problems that existed pre-ICWA are not really a problem anymore which is reverberated through the public's perception. It is the intention of this dissertation to follow and analyze the media and the public of this particular case and the ICWA in general through the theories of framing and Red Power. In the social sciences framing is the social construction of a social phenomenon (the Baby Veronica case) by mass media sources (newspapers and television shows), political or social movements, political leaders (Chief John Baker of the Cherokee Nation), or other actors and organizations (National Indian Child Welfare Association). The individual's perception of the facts and meaning attributed to words or phrases will be influenced by some or all of these entities. A frame creates rhetoric in a way that can either encourage or discourage certain interpretations. Stereotypes are one example of framing and are seen in the Baby Veronica case especially as people try to define what it means to be Cherokee. Red Power can be seen as a frame, but is also an American Indian theory that links ethnic pride and political activism to a resurgence of Indian identity. There was a lot of ethnic pride and political activism that took place in favor of Dusten Brown retaining custody of his daughter which no doubt heightened the Cherokee Indian identity, but unfortunately in this case this resurgence would not be enough to keep Veronica, now at the age of four, living with her biological father. However, this dissertation will conclude with some possible recommendations for the Indian Child Welfare Act and the future of American Indian child custody cases.

This study examines the impacts of the United States federal policy Public Law 93-531, the Navajo Hopi Land Settlement Act, which was passed by Congress in 1974. P.L. 93-531 forced many Navajo families and their children who had resided on their traditional homeland for generations to relocate elsewhere. Today, Navajo residents who were minors when they relocated with their parent(s) find themselves dispossessed of their cultural heritage. Basically, P.L. 93-531 dispossessed and displaced the Navajo minors (now adults) from their inherent traditional homelands, thus creating a second generation of Navajo relocatees. The relocation plan was not inclusive of second generation Navajo relocatees as stakeholders, leaving them in an indeterminate legal, economic, political, and social state. The primary questions addressed are these, 1) How has the relocation experience, due to Public Law 93-53, impacted the lives of second generation Navajo children, now adults, living in towns or cities off the Navajo Nation? What have been the perspectives and challenges of the participants after relocation? 2) What has the federal and Navajo government’s role been in the lives of Children of Relocation? The study utilizes a modified theoretical framework, Peoplehood Matrix, which encompasses the components of, language, ceremonial cycle, land, and sacred history, with the addition of livelihood. The components of the modified Peoplehood Matrix are interwoven and dependent upon one another which contribute to a group or individuals identity (Holm, Pearson and Chavis 2003). Qualitative and quantitative methodologies of collecting artifacts, a Q-method survey, and in-depth interview are used to study the second generation Navajo relocatees as adults living away from the Navajo Nation to document the challenges they experienced as a result of compulsory relocation. Although few studies address Navajo adult relocatees, there are no significant studies addressing second generation Navajos relocatees.

Few activities have the power to bring people together as sports; victory is contagious, defeat unifies, and the concept of a team can create common goals and unbreakable bonds among teammates, communities, and even an entire nation. In a sense, sport has the power to change lives. The lessons that athletics can teach--preparation, competitiveness, overcoming obstacles, persistence, mental and physical health, problem solving, and setting life goals--seem particularly apt for American Indian youth today. Athletics can serve as a pathway to college for American Indian students who participate in individual or team sports. Access to higher education, in turn, offers the opportunity for larger income and greater economic opportunities. The American Indian students' college experience, including statistics on enrollment, retention and drop-out rates, is prevalent in both quantitative and qualitative research. Moreover, research concerning the roles athletes and athletics have within higher education institutions is historically rich. The intersection of these two topics however, has received little to no attention. This dissertation will explore the impact of sports on American Indian collegiate athletes to determine the factors that both inspired and inhibited them from the pursuit of athletics in college. It will provide the first in-depth look at several American Indian collegiate athletes who can document how sports helped or failed to help them reach their educational aspirations.

This dissertation explores the adaptation of traditionally objectified women's spaces, into an arena for leadership development, research which incorporates the development of culturally relevant mechanisms of leadership training within Indigenous societies. Cultural pageants offer a place for young women to become spokespersons on social justice issues, without the sexual objectification of entering beauty pageants. Such pageants also provide a glimpse of how cultural groups wish their national identity to be portrayed to the general public. Fifty years in the making, today's Native Nations cultural pageants have been decolonized to present images of young leaders, confident in their heritage, introducing themselves in their Native language, and committed to cultural continuity and sustainable Nations. This research examines a state-wide Alaska Native pageant, Miss World Eskimo Indian Olympics, from three perspectives: 1) The young women who develop culturally based leadership skills; 2) The community, who gains language and cultural, revitalization and maintenance role models; 3) And the general public, who gains a much needed positive representation of a contemporary Indigenous women. This study draws from interdisciplinary theories and research methodologies (including observation, in-depth interviews, questionnaires, surveys, and archival research) and follows the young women through to the contest at the national level, Miss Indian World, run annually in Albuquerque, through Gathering of Nations. The underlying hypothesis is that women use cultural pageants as a stepping stone to advance their cultural leadership. In doing so, they promote factors of community well-being affecting Indigenous communities, such as suicide prevention, substance abuse, and language and cultural revitalization.

The Hawaiian Constitution of 1840 has often been portrayed as the inescapable end-result of missionary led efforts to overthrow traditional Hawaiian ways of life. This thesis argues that the Constitution was in fact the result of deliberate steps taken by the Hawaiian leadership to defend against growing European and American colonialism in the Pacific. Further, this work will demonstrate that while the Hawaiians adopted the trappings of Euro-American government, the institutions they used to govern themselves remained primarily Hawaiian. Primary source material will be used to detail the process by which the Constitution was written and conduct an in-depth analysis of many of the structures embodied in the Constitution. Contemporary Hawaiian diplomatic efforts will also be discussed as a way of contextualizing the Constitution's place in the midst of colonial ventures and as proof that the Hawaiians were engaged in several efforts to protect their sovereignty.

The concept of cosmopolitics identifies a multispecies political practice within the framework of multinaturalism. The dissertation, "Multispecies Thinking from Alexander von Humboldt to Leslie Marmon Silko: Intercultural Communication Toward Cosmopolitics," is concerned with understandings of multispecies relationships, with the human intercultural communication that could prepare for a cosmopolitical practice, and with the ways Native American fiction supports this endeavor. This research draws from Native American literary studies and ecocritical scholarship to illustrate the potential of transdisciplinary thinking about multispecies ethnography, cosmopolitics, and Indigenous paradigms as providing a promising communication zone against the grain of scientific imperialism. It thus traces the development of pluralist and multispecies-oriented thought and its points of connection to Indigenous paradigms from Alexander von Humboldt's Cosmos Studies of the early 19th century to 21st century Indigenous cosmopolitics. First, this study discusses the insights and obstructions to Western pluralist and multispecies thinking in relation to Native American paradigms from Humboldt via 19th century nature writers-Henry David Thoreau, Margaret Fuller, and John Muir-to contemporary interdisciplinary research. Opening to wide potential with Humboldt's holistic Cosmos Studies, intercultural communication was tempered by the colonial enterprise in the 19th century United States, including a nature-culture dualism and the notion of degenerated, vanishing Indigenous peoples. The resulting conceptual understandings, terms, and attitudes have been influential until today and are what contemporary Native American authors and activists are confronted with when engaged in their work. Detailed textual analysis of exemplary Native American literature outlines how contemporary authors criticize, counter-narrate, and/or integrate Western intellectual traditions. Furthermore, this study outlines 20th and 21st century scientific concepts that refine much earlier ideas, provide helpful terminology regarding Western approaches to Indigenous ontologies and multispecies thinking, and facilitate a new, insightful reading of contemporary Native American fiction as cosmopolitical texts. The analyses of works by Louise Erdrich, Linda Hogan, Louis Owens, and Leslie Marmon Silko demonstrate the value of these works to enhance multispecies thinking and respective political practices. Therefore, Native American literature plays a major role worldwide as an educational and critical tool for an intercultural communication toward cosmopolitics.

This study focuses on the theme of technology-based Indigenous language revitalization and maintenance efforts by looking at new developments in mobile technology and how they are used within Indigenous communities for language learning and teaching. I assessed four mobile apps through the use of an evaluation rubric, online user reviews, and developer consultations. The findings from the assessments were then used to determine what essential themes are important when developing an effective and successful language application model (Appendix C), with the intention of developing a user-friendly template for use by other Indigenous communities. Three essential elements were found to be common among the four language applications assessed: (1) successful integration of interactive and digital media that provides a purposeful learning environment for the user; (2) accuracy and testing of both media and the user-interface, and; (3) successful usability and functionality of the mobile platform.

The racial violence between Navajos and whites in Farmington, New Mexico is historical. One of the first documented acts of racial violence was in 1875, when white settlers would take gunshots at Navajos for entertainment. This violent atmosphere continued throughout the years, and most notoriously in 1974 with the murders of three Navajo men by three white teenagers. This violence was part of an ongoing cycle of racism and hostility between Navajos and whites. The murders ignited local and national media frenzy, and Farmington was dubbed the "Selma, Alabama of the Southwest." Navajo citizens responded to the murders with activism and demonstrations in the streets of Farmington, and demanded justice and change. Throughout subsequent years, racism and racial violence continues and Navajos are still the targets of hate crimes. The purpose of this study is to examine and investigate the hate crimes that have been committed against Navajo people in Farmington and its neighboring towns. This study, in particular, analyzes the impacts that hate crime has on Navajo citizens. Interviews with Navajo victims of hate crime expand on the findings of a pilot interview. The research in this dissertation shows that the affects of hate crime are long lasting and impact not only the victims but also the entire Navajo Nation. As a result of the unrelenting hate crimes in Farmington, the Navajo Nation has created a human rights commission to investigate race relations in Navajo Nation border towns. This study addresses what steps the Navajo Nation and Navajo citizens have taken to combat and recover from racism and racial violence. Finally, this study proposes interventions to improve race relations.

This research is the result of a long-standing interest in the work of one individual, George Sword who composed two hundred and forty-five pages of text in the Lakota language using the English alphabet in the period 1896 through 1910. In the past scholars have studied Lakota narratives and songs and with each study new insights are gained. However, the focus generally in oral literary research has been in the study of content and not process in Lakota oral traditions. In order to better understand the characteristics of Lakota oral style this study shows how it is composed and structured in the work of George Sword. The research focus is from a qualitative perspective concerned with exploring, describing, and explaining a culturally specific Lakota oral narrative more commonly found in history and ethnographic disciplines, where it is a special type of case study research. The primary method used is an analysis of historic documents and original text in Lakota to address the issues raised in the general research problem: How do you define Lakota literature? In the end this study shows the way in which Lakota oral narrative is composed, how its practice produced a distinct form. During the course of this study, what became apparent in George Sword's Lakota narratives were the formulaic patterns inherent in the Lakota language used to tell the narratives as well as the recurring themes and story patterns. The primary conclusion is that these patterns originate from a Lakota oral tradition. This analysis can be used to determine whether any given written narrative in Lakota oral tradition is oral or not; and leads the way for further research

An investigation was conducted to show the number of American Indians in the field of conservation, through a quantitative and qualitative analysis. The research investigated the primary question, why are there so few American Indian conservators. In addition, the following secondary questions were examined: 1) How many conservators of American Indian ethnicity are there? 2) What factors influence the number of American Indian conservators? 3) How will American Indians qualified to practice conservation benefit museums? The findings for this study were collected through an online survey, personal interviews, and observations. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between education, conservation, and being American Indian. The study proved the hypothesis that there were not a lot of American Indian conservators. An earlier report investigating the status of American Indians in professional positions in museums nationwide revealed similar results (Rios-Bustamante, 1996). Other publications mentioned Indigenous people as collaborators and participants in various museum practices such as curatorial work, preservation, conservation, and exhibits; but did not specifically name an American Indian as a professional conservator (Bloomfield, 2013; Clavir, 2002; Erickson, 2002; Lonetree, 2012; Odegaard and Sadongei, 2005).A total of eleven participants were interviewed. Of the eleven participants interviewed, nine identified as American Indian from the United States, one identified as Maori from New Zealand working temporarily in the United States, and one as Italian-American (Table 13). Of the eleven interviewed, three identified as trained conservators qualified to practice conservation as a professional conservator. Of the three identifying at trained conservators, two were American Indian, Navajo/Assiniboine and Navajo. A total of ninety-three participants responded to the online survey. Univariate analysis using the standard t-test was used to compare each variable to the dependent, binomial variable (variable of interest=American Indian Conservator, yes or no) to determine its initial significance (Table 12). Significant variables were then added into the model and logistic regression analysis was performed to capture any effect a variable might have on the dependent variable. As a result, the data showed that a conservator was 8.6 times more likely not to be American Indian than conservators who were not American Indian in this study. This analysis and interpretation of the data was used as a preliminary study for future research.