This thesis addresses and critically reviews American Indian protest art as a legitimate art genre. Brief discussions of the Studio (the first formal American Indian art school), the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA), and the American Indian protest movements of the 1960s and 1970s, as well as irony, satire, and humor in Indian art are included. The concept of the "Indian" identity as a motivating factor of the art, and the redundant use of stereotypical imagery as it relates to cultural conflicts are addressed. Descriptive interpretations of the art of David Bradley, Alex Jacobs, and Stan Natchez, and the three fundamental elements of this art style are presented in detail.

This thesis attempts to determine what local and national issues between 1937 and 1986 influenced the Tohono O'odham decision to revise their constitution. The Tohono O'odham Nation is still in a transitional phase of constitutional revision. Thesis suggests a number of factors that hinder the smooth transition of the revisions into the 1986 revised constitution. Such factors include the fact that there seems to be an unequal distribution of power among the Executive, Legislative, and Judicial branches allowing too much power to reside in the Legislative branch of the government, and continues to instill political weight in the Legislative council even after the pre 1986 tribal council. Two recommendations are offered for future consideration of the revisions in the present constitution. They are, (1) to create a more representative constitutional review committee that includes tribal elders, and (2) an equal distribution of power in the three branch form of government.

This thesis focuses on the roles of Native women in children's literature. The study explores the works of five Native women writers in the United States that have successfully published adult literature and at least one children's book since 1990. The purpose of the research is to gain a better understanding of what these writers reveal about the roles of Native women in their literature for children. The data was collected using content analysis on the books and a questionnaire to determine (1) what roles the Native writers convey in their children's literature; and (2) what these women are writing in this field and their perspectives on the writing process. The findings of this research discuss these writers' portrayals of the complexity of Native women's roles as well as offer insight into their craft.

This thesis is based on 31 interviews and one focus group conducted with Jewish bisexual women and men in the San Francisco Bay Area. While there is much academic discussion and theory about interlocking oppressions of race, class, gender, and sexuality, I explore the complex ways that these systems weave together with religious and ethnic identification in the lives and speech of study participants. Interviewees discuss their multiple and shifting identities, difficulties that they encounter in conceptualizing the intersection of their ethnicity, religion and sexual orientation, and demonstrate the ways that these identifications intermingle in their speech and stories in spite of these difficulties. They compare the liminal status of both Jewish and bisexual identifications on the boundary of privilege, and their decisions about passing or acting in solidarity with the oppressed. Participants' experience and practice of both Jewishness and bisexuality are changed and influenced by each other.

Throughout the history of United States' policy towards Native people, the strongest underlying methodology for effectuating conquest has had its roots in the control of the tribal identity. Because the United States Census counts people and categorizes them into racial groups, the relationship of the identity of Native people to the Census and Federal Indian policy would seem to be closely associated. When analyzing the process of the United States Census as it applies to Native Americans, a greater understanding develops regarding the ultimate control of Indian identity and the resultant effects of that control upon tribal people. By understanding this relationship, tribes may choose to further strengthen the meaning of self determination and demand that they be the ones to count their own people. By taking control of the tribal identity, tribes are taking control of the disposition of rights and resources within the federal-tribal structure.

Turn of the century Native American women's published writing is examined for the elements which presage contemporary Native American women's writing. In particular, three writers' works and biographies are examined in order to determine why they wrote, how they wrote and what they wrote. Pauline Johnson, Zitkala-Sa and Mourning Dove made early contributions to the field of Native American women's literature.

Western political thought is Eurocentric in world view. Since Western thought has been accepted as universal, there is the need to respond to this situation. This thesis will examine egalitarianism from a perspective of North American tribal society. It is my hypothesis that since the discovery of the Americas, indigenous people continue to have a contradictory experience of egalitarianism. Although certain elements of equality were common to the thinking of indigenous people and Western man, Western nations oppressed indigenous people through egalitarian policies.

<p> John Taylor was an ex-slave and Civil War veteran who settled in Southwest Colorado in the early 1870s. Taylor claimed that he was "the first white man to settle the Pine River Valley." Taylor was not passing for white and his claim was never a rejection of his African American self. Taylor's claim emerged out of a unique racial niche available to a handful of African Americans who appeared in the Southwest borderlands during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This study, using family oral histories and archival documents, looks at two historically situated social forces operating in the formation of his identity. The first includes what Omi and Winant describe as "racial projects." A number of the racial projects of the "frontier" created in some cases a racial divide, which buffered the oppression of African Americans because whiteness was based on not being regarded as an American Indian, "Mexican" or Asian. This racial dynamic was one of the social forces informing the logic of Taylor's claim. Indigenous culture and language constituted a second influence on Taylor's identity, particularly indigenous articulations of whiteness and the concept of the black white man. In previous studies focusing on the African American experience in the West, the concept of the black white man received little attention by historians. Even the history concentrating on the interaction between American Indians with the African Diaspora have not fully explored this concept, nor has it been considered in looking at the formation of white identity in North America. One of the unique contributions of this study is to seriously consider indigenous voices from a variety of sources, which include oral history and tribal languages, in the construction of identity. John Taylor's claim that he was a black white man remains a prime example of how one's identity takes form, changes and persists within the context of social historical structures.</p>

<p> This research was conducted in collaboration with rural Yup'ik residents of the Yukon River delta region of Alaska. The thesis explores traditional knowledge and conservation ethics among rural Yup'ik residents who continue to maintain active subsistence lifestyles. From the end of July through August of 2012, ethnographic field research was conducted primarily through participant observation and semi-structured interviews, documenting Yup'ik subsistence hunting and fishing practices. Research participants invited me beluga whale hunting, seal hunting, moose hunting, commercial and subsistence fishing, gathering berries, and a variety of other activities that highlights local Yup'ik environmental knowledge, practices, and ethics. Through firsthand examples of these experiences, this thesis attempts to explore what conservation means through a Yup'ik cultural lens. Documenting Yup'ik traditional knowledge offers an opportunity to shine a light on the stewardship of local people's relationship with their traditional lands. The importance of maintaining direct relationships with the natural world, eating Native foods, and passing on hunting and gathering skills to future generations help develop the narrative of my analysis. In many ways, the cultural heritage of the Yup'ik people are embodied in such practices, providing a direct link between nature and culture.</p>

As Canada, and particularly metropolitan cities like Montreal, becomes increasingly diverse, it is important to explore and understand the culture and needs of immigrant communities. This Masters thesis focuses on the mental health of South Asian immigrant women in Montreal, Quebec. This original research is a qualitative descriptive study based on in-depth interviews with nine women from India and Pakistan. The interviews focus on the intersection of gender and culture with post-migration experiences, help-seeking patterns and coping strategies for distress in South Asian women. The women's narratives provide pertinent information for researchers and practitioners that could be applicable to the design of future research, outreach, health promotion, and models of care on mental health. The following four chapters provide a thorough discussion of the methodology, findings and conclusions.