Master of Science / Department of Horticulture, Forestry, and Recreation Resources / Charles J. Barden / Due to health and nutritional disparities, prevalence of obesity and related diseases among American Indians is found to be higher than the U.S. general population. To promote a healthy lifestyle, the long term goal of this project is to increase fresh fruit and vegetable availability through gardening for the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation (PBPN) tribe in Kansas. In achieving this ultimate goal, two studies were conducted with the objectives of: 1) Evaluate the nutritional and behavioral health indicators for the residential population of the tribe and identify key constraints of gardening activity in the reservation; and 2) Conduct vegetable cultivar trials comparing different open pollinated (OP) and hybrid cultivars of tomato (Lycopersicon lycopersicum), pepper (Capsicum annum) and eggplant (Solanum melongena var. esculentum) to identify best yielding cultivars. Three surveys were conducted to assess the residential population with respect to gardening activity, fruit and vegetable consumption, health status, physical activity and socioeconomic status, using convenience samples. Cultivar trials comparing 6 pepper, 3 eggplant, and 5 tomato cultivars were conducted in 2012 and 2013 growing seasons. PBPN respondent group revealed significant health disparities compared to the general U.S. and Kansas populations. A higher proportion of this group was in poverty which had strong correlations with land ownership, gardening experience, and attendance to gardening workshops. “No knowledge” and “no space” were identified as key gardening constraints. Hybrid Jetstar was the best tomato cultivar identified, while Cherokee Purple was the best yielding OP cultivar. No difference in performance was observed among the three eggplant cultivars tested. Sweet pepper hybrids Flamingo and Alliance outperformed OP California Wonder which was moderate in production. OP chili pepper cultivars Anaheim 118 and hybrid Chili G76 outperformed hybrid Charger. Identified best yielding cultivars could be distributed among tribal members to support in-place gardening initiatives. Gardening limitations of “no land” and “no knowledge” could be mitigated by increasing participation at the community garden and attendance for gardening workshops. Strategic approaches should be implemented to attract people in poverty to engage in gardening and increase gardening activity in the reservation for nutritional, health and economic benefits.

Doctor of Philosophy / Department of History / Bonnie Lynn-Sherow / American Indian material culture collections are protected in tribal archives and transnational museums. This dissertation argues that the Plains Indian people and Euroamerican people cross pollinated each other’s material culture. Over the last two hundred years’ interpretations of transnational material culture acculturation of the 19th - Century North American Plains Indians has been interpreted in venues that include arts and crafts, photography, museums, world exhibitions, tourism destinations, entertainments and literature. In this work, exhibit catalogs have been utilized as archives. Many historians recognize that American Indians are vital participants and contributors to United States history. This work includes discussions about North American Indigenous people and others who were creators of material culture and art, the people who collected this material culture and their motives, and the various types of collections that blossomed from material culture and oral history proffering. Creators included Plains Indian women who tanned bison hides and their involvement in crafting the most beautiful art works through their skill in quillwork and beadwork. Plains Indian men were also creators. They recorded the family’s and tribe’s histories in pictograph paintings. Plains Indian storytellers created material that was saved and collected through oral tradition. Euroamerican artists created biographical images of the Plains Indian people that they interacted with. Collections of objects, legends, and art resulted from those who collected the creations made by the creators. Thus today there exists fine examples of ethno-heirlooms that pay tribute to the transnational acculturation and survival of the American Indian people of the Great Western Northern American Plains. What is most important is the knowledge, and an appreciation for the idea that a transnational cross-pollination of cultures enriched and became rooted in United States history.

abstract: Belonging to a tribe or American Indian Indigenous group in the United States, even if one has already been enrolled or accepted into the community, is a lifelong endeavor. Belonging may be achieved by meeting specific criteria during one life stage yet one must continue to behave and act in ways that align with community expectations to maintain a sense of belonging throughout all life stages. This descriptive qualitative case study presents the findings of in-depth interviews, with five individual tribal members, two male and three female participants, ranging in age from 25 to 55, who are college graduates and tribal members. The study aimed to understand the different forms and ideas of belonging for tribal members, how the notion of belonging is understood and achieved over the life course, and how phenotypic arguments, blood quantum, the role of schooling and demonstration of tribal knowledge influences the extent to which belonging is earned and how that can change over time. The study sought to answer the following questions: How do tribal members define “belonging”? How and in what ways do tribal members learn how to become members of the community? And, what can tribal communities and tribal members do to foster a sense of belonging for members who have left to obtain professional or academic training and seek to return to serve the nation? The study focused on participants the Gila River Indian Community, a tribal community in southwest Arizona with approximately 23,000 enrolled members, who completed a higher education degree and sought to return to serve as professionals and/or leaders at their tribal nation. Interviews were conducted off-reservation in the Phoenix metropolitan area within a 30-day window and held during the month of September 2015. Interviews were analyzed using three iterative levels of content analysis. Findings suggest there can be three methods of belonging within Gila River: belonging by cultural practices, belonging by legal definition, and belonging by both cultural and legal definition. However, the three methods of belonging do not automatically equate to being accepted by other tribal members. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Educational Psychology 2018

abstract: Abstract   Everyday living, as an Indigenous person, is an act of resistance. On December 21, 2012, there was a national day of action that included rallies and demonstrations happening all over the world to stand in solidarity with First Nations Indigenous peoples in Canada under the banner Idle No More (INM). The pressure of the movement all came to an end after the cooptation from a few First Nation leadership on January 11, 2013. Despite the failures, the INM movement brought hope, the urgency to act, and ideas of the decolonization and resurgence process. This movement was educational in focus and with that, there is the need to explore essential roles to advance Indigenous resistance to ensure Indigenous liberation. Here I explore the role of the intellectual, and in particular three scholars who provide next level warriorship. Their contributions redirected the conceptualization of decolonization to a process of resurgence. In this manner, authentic Indigenous nationhood is possible. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis American Indian Studies 2018

abstract: The coyote of the natural world is an anthropomorphic figure that occupies many places within Southwestern Pueblo cultures in oral traditions as well as the natural environs. The modern-day coyote is a marginalized occupant of Southwestern milieu portrayed as an iconic character found in cartooned animations or conceptualized as a shadowed symbol of a doglike creature howling in front of a rising full moon. Coyote is also a label given to a person who transports undocumented immigrants across the United States–Mexico border. This wild dog is known as coyote, Coyote, Canis latrans, tsócki (Keresan for coyote), trickster, Wylie Coyote, and coywolf. When the biology, history, accounts, myths, and cultural constructs are placed together within the spectrum of coyote names or descriptions, a transmergent materiality emerges at the center of those contributing factors. Coyote is many things. It is constantly adapting to the environment in which it has survived for millions of years. The Southwest landscape was first occupied by rudimentary components of life evolving into a place first populated by animals, followed by humans. To a great extent, the continued existence of both animals and humans relies on their ability to obtain food and find a suitable niche in which to live. This dissertation unpacks how the coyote that is embedded in American Pueblo literature and culture depicts a transmergent materiality representing the constantly changing human–animal interface as it interprets the likewise transformative state of food systems in the American Southwest in the present day. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation English 2019

To date, only seven known objects both depict and hieroglyphically name the ruler of Tenochtitlan, the huei tlatoani or 'Aztec Emperor.' All of these objects were commissioned by the last three pre-conquest rulers. Oddly, these seven objects, five of which are at the core of this study, have little direct relation to the early colonial written accounts of Aztec nobility and royal material culture. They do have as a compositional base earlier Central Mexican visual traditions wherein artists depicted generally nameless nobles and elites engaged in timeless ritual activities, yet during the reigns of these last three rulers, an innovative imperial style was developed that proclaimed a new (semi)divine nature for Aztec royalty and posited a central place for Tenochtitlan in Aztec sacred history. The current study not only argues this point, but also demonstrates the causal factors in the development of these visual arguments and illustrates the sophisticated way in which they were put forth In this work I argue that this late imperial style has at its root three dependent central concerns. The principal causal concern in its early development was the perceived need to proclaim the legitimacy of the heirs of Moteuczoma I. This followed the investiture controversy that gave birth to the 1469-1473 Tenochca-Tlatelolca civil war. Quotations of earlier works and the referencing of crucial dates and events in the reigns of Moteuczoma I and his predecessors were key to this visual strategy and made necessary the referential strategies employed by royal artists in the other two fundamental areas of concern At the center of the second concern were complex calendrical reckoning and a nascent interest in historical precision, the later required the use of date glyphs as well as individual ruler name-glyphs. The inclusion of auspicious dates allowed for depictions to simultaneously reference multiple past religio-historical milestones, present activities, and even forecast future propitious periods and events I then argue that it is this polysemy that is at the heart of the third concern of Aztec artists and patrons addressed in this study. Born of the performative nature of Aztec historical 'literature' this strategy also served, in a tautological way, to illustrate the divine nature and continued relevance of these works, as only divine inspiration could allow for such unrelenting complexity to be expressed with such visual economy / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation is a regional study of community, indigenous politics, and state formation in nineteenth-century Guatemala. Drawing on primary source material and ethnographic accounts concerning Q'anjob'alan-speaking Maya peoples in the northern Huehuetenango region during the period 1800-1871, it charts a series of transformations and struggles over the meaning of community, nation, and indigenous identity as these were contested by local and national actors in a specific place and time. Taking a broad anthropological approach to Maya political action and state formation, it examines a diverse array of phenomena on a variety of temporal and spatial scales, including ritual practices, ethnic and racial classification, law, office-holding, alcohol use, and land tenure. Based on this examination, new anthropological, historiographic, and theoretical insights are reached into the nature of ethnic relations, Maya community organization, state formation, and indigenous politics in Guatemala over time / acase@tulane.edu

Student achievement is a significant issue for American Indian communities across the country (State Advisory Council on Indian Education, 2006). This is particularly true for American Indian students in North Carolina who represent the largest percentage of dropouts in that state (Feaste, 2002). Student performance is based on many different factors, of particular interest to this researcher is the relationship between personality and student performance. This study had two aims: a) to examine the development of personality across adolescence and b) to examine the relationship between personality and school success among American Indian youth. This study examined two models of personality, ego development and the five factors. The results of this study indicate that ego development increases significantly across adolescence. Three of Hauser's (1991) theoretical trajectories describe ego development among participants in this study. With the exception of Extraversion, the five factors remained stable across adolescence. Ego development, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience were significantly related to school performance; however, the direction of these relationships was not entirely expected. This study highlights the important role individual differences in personality play in student performance. Teachers should therefore consider individual differences in personality among their students when planning lessons and executing these lessons in the classroom because differences in personality affect classroom learning / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation investigates the role of the seasonal wetlands in the political economy and subsistence strategies of the ancient Maya of Chunchucmil, Yucatan, Mexico. A combination of pedestrian surveys and remote-sensing tasks were performed in order to better understand the settlement patterns and potential communication routes in and through the wetlands between Chunchucmil and the Gulf of Mexico. These western wetlands had been proposed as the principal avenue for interregional trade between coastal merchants and inland consumers, yet were thought to be uninhabited and uncultivable. Following the survey tasks outlined in this dissertation, these wetlands were found to contain an abundance of archaeological settlements and features indicating habitation, utilization, and trade throughout this diverse ecological zone The remote-sensing platforms utilized in this study include both multispectral (Landsat) and synthetic aperture radar (AirSAR), combined with additional remotely sensed resources. One of the goals of this survey was to test the capabilities of these two sensors for the direct detection of archaeological features from air and space. The results indicate that Landsat can be highly successful at detecting site location and measuring site size under certain environmental conditions. The Airborne Synthetic Aperture Radar proved to be adept at detecting large mounded architecture within the Yucatecan karstic plain, but its further utility is hampered by limitations of resolution, scale, and land cover One of the salient features of the landscape west of Chunchucmil is a network of stone pathways called andadores. These avenues through the wetlands outline a dendritic network of communication, trade, and extraction routes. The following dissertation places this network and its associated settlements (from suburban centers to diminutive camps) within their regional context, examining the roles they may have played in supporting a large mercantile economy centered at the site of Chunchucmil / acase@tulane.edu

Domestic violence and sexual assault rates are higher on Indian reservations than anywhere else in the country. This text works toward an understanding of sexual violence as a legacy of colonialism. Rather than being rooted in inherent racial or cultural differences, current rates of sexual violence on Indian reservations are a continuation of a historical pattern in which colonizers used rape as a weapon to control, contain, and conquer the Indians. The unique history of racist and sexist oppression inflicted on Native Americans through the institutionalized denial of kinship, culture, sovereignty, and body autonomy has exacerbated the violence while frustrating the healing process. This paper describes how the boarding schools, Indian child removal, PL 280, the Oliphant decision, cultural appropriation, and the sexualized stereotyping of Indian women led to high rates of sexual violence on Indian reservations. It then explores how the Tulalip Tribes of Washington State have been proactive in fighting to end sexual assault and violence on their reservation, through retrocession, a holistic approach to batterer reform, and victim advocacy, while simultaneously lobbying in support of legislation such as the Violence Against Women Act, which would allow the Tribes to acquire criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians.