No description available.

The Anthropological Papers of the University of Arizona is a peer-reviewed monograph series sponsored by the School of Anthropology. Established in 1959, the series publishes archaeological and ethnographic papers that use contemporary method and theory to investigate problems of anthropological importance in the southwestern United States, Mexico, and related areas.

The Indian New Deal of the 1930s changed official policy from assimilationist attitudes to acculturation on the reservation and an emphasis on tribal culture. John Collier's program included self-determination in tribal matters and advancements in health, education, and the economy. Despite improvements in these areas, many critics charged that Collier's administration increased bureaucracy and hampered Indian attempts at decision making. The American Indian Federation, one of Collier's most relentless critics and a group with extreme right-wing, Fascist connections, succeeded in publicizing the Indian Bureau's deficiencies but failed to gain many followers among Indians. Native Americans appeared oblivious, puzzled, or overtly hostile to this group which undermined its own efforts with its blatant racism, anti-Semitism, and un-American attitudes which struck at the very heart of American Indian patriotism. This deep-seated patriotism, manifested in World War II by a ninety-nine percent registration for the draft, accompanied a resurgence of tribal sovereignty as Indians demanded the right to refuse to enlist. Based on government violation of treaty rights, this refusal emerged as a philosophical argument, because Native Americans enlisted in numbers comparable to their white peers. Politicians critical of the Indian New Deal exploited the Indian war effort to push their own agenda of reversing the Indian Reorganization Act. The enormous wartime sacrifices and contributions offered by civilian Indians further convinced the public and politicians that Native Americans no longer needed supervision. In postwar America Indians who had willingly given labor, resources, and finances found that their role in America's war would be all too easily forgotten. The Indian veteran and his civilian counterparts soon realized that their fight for freedom did not end in Europe or in the Pacific. When they returned to their homes and encountered injustices which had always existed, Native Americans refused to passively accept these situations. In the 1940s American Indians asserted their rights and began the fight for equality which would continue for the next three decades.

This study was undertaken to assess and describe a unique aspect of liberal studies in the curricular of American Indian community colleges. The emergent curricula genre, designated as tribal studies, deals with subjects specific to the ethos of a particular tribal group and is derived from the indigenous culture of the tribe or nation involved. Data were obtained from Indian college practitioners and from organic documents of seventeen tribally-chartered institutions located in seven states. Research questions were formulated to address (1) the nature and status of tribal studies curricula, (2) principal problems and issues, (3) curricular innovations, (4) current trends, (5) the incorporation of tribal ethos in formal academic programs, and (6) attendant research needs. The findings were derived from a descriptive analysis of the data with respect to each research question. Tribal studies curricula were found to be in a formative stage on certain theoretical and normative levels. Innovations were perceived as such owing mainly to their introductory and contextual application rather than any particularly unique methods or approach outside of existing curriculum development practices. The lack of an applicable taxonomic program classification structure hindered the systematic examination of tribal studies curricula, but it was evident that the current trend is toward the teaching of courses dealing with the history, language, philosophy, and literature of a particular tribe. The data indicated very strong support among those surveyed for the idea of inculcating tribal ethos into curricular programs, but the process by which this is done was not clearly articulated. Two principal problems emerged (1) the accreditation of tribal studies, and (2) the dearth of applicable curriculum development research activities. While such curricula have strong philosophical and emotional appeal among Indian college professionals, tribal studies remain somewhat underdeveloped compared with other academic programs. Inasmuch as the academic dimension of the tribal sociocultural milieu was not well elucidated in the data, the specifically Indian, or tribal, content of such curricula eluded precise definition. Tribal studies represent meaning and significance to Indian college practitioners in their own environments, but their evolving role with respect to the cultural/educational processes occurring in contemporary Indian life is subject to further exploration.

This study focuses on the wealth stratification system of the Navajo of the Kaibeto Plateau. The Kaibeto Plateau was settled by the Navajo in the mid-nineteenth century. By the 1930s they had developed an economically and socially stratified society rooted in a livestock economy and influenced by institutions of the surrounding society. In the years since livestock activities have been severely constrained by the federal government: Holdings have been radically decreased and pastoralism has ceased to be the main source of income and subsistence. These changes are described and analyzed. Wealth stratification is conceived of as a phenomenon to be explained and one which has implications for the study of social change. In the 1930s a handful of families owned most of the livestock in the region. These families were, uniformly, descendants of the wealthier and more prominent early settlers. Even after federal programs destroyed the economic advantage these wealthy families possessed, the children of the relatively wealthy have, at least until recent years, continued to prosper (relative to their poorer neighbors) in various ways. They have, on average, higher levels of educational attainment and better occupational profiles. The different responses of individuals at different levels in the social hierarchy have effected the composition of the rural population. More descendants of the wealthy have moved away and/or married individuals from distant communities. Social structures which functioned in the livestock economy to integrate families in the region have disintegrated. The chapter has emerged as an important social and political unit. Although the wealthy families seemed to have dominated chapter politics initially, recent elections indicate a declining influence. The historical facts reported here indicate the importance of social variability in the study of social change. It is argued that the Navajo were never a socially homogeneous group. Thus institutional pressures and shifting government policies have not affected all families in the same manner. Such findings have implications not only for the way in which anthropologists theorize about tribal people and social change, but also have implications for those responsible government officials who seek to formulate solutions to perceived problems on contemporary American Indian reservations.

This dissertation contrasts the development of Indian and non-Indian water development. Indian water rights, although based upon long-standing legal principles, have had a minimal impact on the actual development of Indian water resources. As a result, Indian water resources remain largely undeveloped. In contrast, non-Indian water development has proceeded at a rapid pace. A tripartite alliance of congressional subcommittees, federal agencies, and water user interest groups have provided the political support for continued high-level funding for non-Indian water projects. In the American west, where water must be diverted to be used, Indians and non-Indians are competitors for both water and water projects. Until recently Indians could not compete effectively in the political milieu of water policy. However, changes in approach, methods, and political conditions have made Indian tribes more competitive in the struggle for water rights and water projects.

The educational disadvantages of the Native American Indian student throughout history has been a source of academic concern. This paper addresses the historical and contemporary aspects of Indian education. The contemporary context of the study examines the efficacy and impact of preservice instruction of a Native American Indian Studies course on the teachers in North Dakota. One thousand, three hundred and sixty-nine (1,369) teachers receiving instruction in the course from 1981 through 1988 were surveyed. The survey focused on five key areas: teacher attitudes about the course, planning and use of the course in the classroom, application of the course to multicultural education and application of Native American values and learning styles. The findings suggest that the course is not having a positive effect on the attitudes of heightening teacher sensitivity toward stereotypes and there is an apparent indifference to adjusting curricula to reflect cultural diversity.

The manner in which human settlements are arranged across the landscape holds clues to a society's internal social relationships and may indicate how a society fits into its environment. This research investigates settlement patterns during the formative pre-historic periods in Southeast Florida, the three Glades Periods (BC 500- AD 1750). During this time span, the inhabitants of the region adapted to a changing climate and environment by occupying places that were conducive to their particular hunter-gatherer way of life. However, while the Glades people moved from one locale to another, they never altered the manner in which they primarily sought sustenance; fishing and hunting. Evidence suggests substantial population increases beginning in the Glades II Period and shift of habitations due to flooding of earlier and lower sites. / by Paul Callsen. / Thesis (M.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2008. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2008. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

Over the past 30 years, obesity has increased rapidly as an epidemic and major public health concern in the United Stated, particularly among Native American children and adolescents. Native American adolescents have the highest prevalence rates of obesity of all ethnic groups in the United States. Although there has been an increasing effort to develop and evaluate obesity prevention programs for children and adolescents, very little attention has been devoted to understanding culturally effective approaches for ethnic populations. There is a significant gap in the research literature regarding effective obesity intervention and prevention studies for Native American children and adolescents. The purpose of this study was to explore the impact of a culturally based talking circle approach, KCTC-O, for the prevention of obesity among early adolescent Native American (Keetoowah-Cherokee) and to examine the relationships between Cherokee self-reliance; perceived stress levels; and obesity knowledge, attitudes, and behavior. A 7-week intervention in which a 2-condition quasi-experimental design was implemented to compare the KCTC-O experimental condition with a standard school health education (SE) control condition on three outcome variables (Cherokee self-reliance; perceived stress levels; and obesity knowledge, attitudes, and behavior at pre- and post-intervention. A total sample of 100 participants were recruited for this study, 50 participants per condition. The participants were distributed almost evenly in terms of gender: 55 females compared to 45 males for both groups combined. Participants ranged in ages from 10 to 13, with a mean age of 11.5 years of age, and ranged in grades from 4 through 7, with Grade 6 being the most frequently reported grade in school. The results of this study revealed the effectiveness of the KCTC-O condition was not significantly greater than the SE condition. However, although not statistically significant, the results of this study provided some evidence that a culturally based intervention was slightly more effective for the prevention of obesity than a non-culturally based intervention for Native American early adolescents. This study helps to validate the need for more robust obesity prevention programs from a cultural perspective among Native American early adolescents. / Includes bibliography. / Dissertation (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2016. / FAU Electronic Theses and Dissertations Collection

My research examines the prehistoric subsistence of native peoples of the Willamette Valley, Oregon through an analysis of the regional zooarchaeological records, and then modeling regional diet breadth. Through this analysis, I challenge commonly held stereotypes that the indigenous people of the Willamette Valley were strictly root eaters, and the basis for this claim, that salmon were not part of Native subsistence. The results of my research indicate that given the incomplete nature of the ethnohistoric record, very little can be said about expected cultural behaviors, such as salmon consumption, that appear to be absent in the Willamette Valley. In addition, since the faunal assemblage is so small in the Willamette Valley, zooarchaeological data are simply inadequate for studying the relationship between prehistoric peoples and their animal resources. Finally, optimal foraging modeling suggests that salmon is one of the higher ranked resources available to the Native People of the Willamette Valley.