<p>This critical rhetorical critique interrogates rhetorics of memory in negotiations of national identity, especially as they address race and colonialism. We need to rethink race in more complex ways that disrupt homogenous conceptions of who belongs in the U.S., instead embracing the possibilities offered in those liminal spaces of racial national identities, such as (Native)American. Doing so requires acknowledging the reverberations of past rhetorics in contemporary sense-making and how those echoes vary across communities. In exploring how we (mis)remember race and colonization in relation to nation, my concern lies in exposing some of the persistent rhetorical strategies that impede social justice efforts by marginalized communities, as well as the resistive rhetorics these communities respond with. </p><p> Pursuing this project, I rely on investigating rhetorical mnemonic strategies of race, nation, and colonialism in everyday discourses about the relationship(s) between a Euro-American community in Lawrence, Kansas and a pan-Indian community associated with Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU) to reveal how we negotiate national identities in relation to the past and to one another. At its core, this ideological critique of rhetorics of race, nation, memory and colonialism is an investigation of identity negotiation among two representative communities in disparate positions of power, their places constituted across several centuries of racist discourses that we too-often continue to rely on. In examining historic Assimilation Era discourses from Haskell Indian Boarding School as well as recent discourses produced by the Lawrence, Kansas, and HINU communities about a local land controversy, I interrogate the role of memory in contemporary negotiations of identity and reveal ways the normative assumptions of U.S. citizenship are profoundly raced. I also propose the idea of &ldquo;enabling uncertainty&rdquo; as a perspective that explicitly troubles narrow and limiting conceptions of racial identities, highlighting the idea through discussion of the complex ways (Native)Americans navigate the interstices between Native and American identities. </p>

<p> This thesis explores how the Haliwa-Saponi Indians Halifax and Warren County, North Carolina, challenged the Jim Crow black-white racial classification system between the 1940s and 1960s. To seek political autonomy the Indians worked with and against the dominant strategies of the civil rights movement. The Indians strategically developed Indian-only political and social institutions such as the Haliwa Indian Club, Haliwa Indian School, and Mount Bethel Indian Baptist Church by collaborating with Indians and whites alike. Internal political disagreement led to this diversity of political strategies after 1954, when school desegregation became an issue throughout the nation. One faction of Meadows Indians embraced a racial identity as "colored" and worked within the existing black-white political and institutional system, while another group eschewed the "colored" designation and, when necessary, asserted a separate political identity as Indians; as such, they empowered themselves to take advantage of the segregated status quo.</p>

<p> Using a memory archaeology paradigm, this dissertation explored from 2010 to 2012 the ways people used place-based narratives to create and maintain the sacredness of four historic battlefields in Montana: Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument; Nez Perce National Historical Park- Bear Paw Battlefield; Nez Perce National Historical Park- Big Hole National Battlefield; and Rosebud Battlefield State Park. This research implemented a mixed-methods approach of four data sources: historical research about on-site interpretation and land management of the battlefields; participant observations conducted during height of tourism season for each battlefield; 1,056 questionnaires administered to park visitors; and 32 semi-structured interviews with park personnel. Before formulating hypotheses to test, a preliminary literature review was conducted on three battlefields (Culloden, Fallen Timbers, and Isandlwana) for any observable patterns concerning the research domain. </p><p> This dissertation tested two hypotheses to explain potential patterns at the four battlefields in Montana related to on-site interpretation of primary sources, the sacred perception of battlefields, and the maintenance and expression of place-based cultural heritages and historical knowledge. The first hypothesis examined whether park visitors and personnel perceived these American Indian battlefields as nationally significant or if other heritage values associated with the place-based interpretation of the sacred landscapes were more important. Although park visitors and personnel overall perceived the battlefields as nationally important, they also strongly expressed other heritage values. The second hypothesis examined whether battlefield visitors who made pilgrimages to attend or participate in official on-site commemorations had stronger place-based connections for cultural heritage or historical knowledge reasons than other visitors. Overall, these commemoration pilgrims had stronger connections to the battlefields than other park visitors. </p><p> Closer comparisons of the four battlefields demonstrated that they had both similar patterns and unique aspects of why people maintained these landscapes as sacred places.</p>

<p> Drawing on critical currents in the study of contentious politics and the formation of class, racial and political identities, this dissertation seeks to account for the intellectual origins and global resonance of Zapatismo, the distinctive political discourse and practices of the <i> Ejercito Zapatista de Liberaci&oacute;n Nacional </i> (Zapatista National Liberation Army or EZLN) in Chiapas, Mexico. It is an historical sociological case study that combines archival research and interviews with participants in, and observers of, the indigenous campesino movement in Chiapas to construct an intellectual history of the indigenous Mayan communities that form the EZLN's bases of popular support. It elaborates a theoretical account of anti-systemic social movements and other forms of contentious politics as expressions of what Marx called the realization of "species being," "the real movement which abolishes the present state of things" or communism. The study finds that the training of catechists by the Diocese of San Crist&oacute;bal de Las Casas produced a layer of organic indigenous campesino intellectuals who became first the leaders of the indigenous campesino movement and later of the EZLN. The study argues that Zapatismo is a product not only of transformations in the political economy of Chiapas and Mexico but of a process of emergent collective revolutionary political subjectivity on the part of the indigenous communities that occurred in the context of a global crisis in revolutionary theory arising out of the contradictory experiences of the socialist revolutions of the 20^th century. Specifically the study argues that Zapatismo is a synthesis of proto-communist elements from the traditional religious worldview of their communities, the liberation theology of the Diocese, the Maoism of several organizations that assisted the communities in the construction of independent peasant organizations, and the left-wing revolutionary nationalism of the EZLN's parent organization, the <i>Fuerzas de Liberaci&oacute;n Nacional </i> (FLN) inspired by the Cuban and Nicaraguan Revolutions. The dissertation is a contribution both to the literature on the origins of the Zapatistas and to the development of a Marxist theory of revolutionary social movements and peasant insurgencies.</p>

<p> The purpose of this study was to examine why diabetes is persistent in Native Americans using demographic characteristics, physical activity, self-reported health status, socio-economic status, and race. This study used secondary data from the California Health Interview Survey. There were 47,614 adults who participated in the survey, of which 1,369 participants identified themselves as American Indians. </p><p> Chi square analysis was used to substantiate the association between diabetes in Native Americans with diet, exercise, obesity, self-reported health status, and socioeconomic status. Statistical test results found that there was an association between all independent variables suggesting that diabetes in Native Americans is more complex than other races. There were limitations to the study. due to the small number of Native Americans participating in the survey. A further study is recommended at a national level to look more closely at underlying causes of the persistence of diabetes in Native Americans. </p>

<p>In my dissertation, I interrogate the ways blood influences identity construction and how it shifts into a paradigmatic story, known as a blood narrative, that further determines belonging. In five chapters, I argue that the use of a blood narrative undermines sovereignty as well as the creative evolution of nations. I move from an examination of a blood narrative throughout American literature (chapter 1), through a study of legislation and science (chapters 2 and 3). In these latter two chapters, I turn to the Cherokee Nation's expulsion of Freedmen and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians' new membership requirement of DNA testing, which demonstrate influences of a blood narrative upon policy and legislation, and how biotechnology maintains this narrative through DNA and genomics. Finally, I explore novels from Gerald Vizenor (White Earth Anishinaabe) and Thomas King (Cherokee) that offer alternatives to a blood narrative (chapters 4 and 5). I use the term alternarrative here instead of counternarrative to focus on original alternatives, particularly from the alter position of the Native, not on reactionary or countering stories. The alternatives to this blood narrative emerge in both the modern and traditional stories of Native American peoples, providing recourse to understanding identity in ways other than blood. This new sense of belonging is especially important in a world where so many identities are determined by national boundaries, and limited by blood. These alternative narratives provide a new way of moving forward by embracing a survivance for the future, not just reacting to the past.</p> / Dissertation

<p> While the primary goal of the northwest Alaska Native village maternal transport program is safe deliveries for mothers from remote villages, little has been done to examine the impact of transport on the mothers and communities involved. I explore how present values (Western and I&ntilde;upiat cultural values) can influence the desire of indigenous women of differing eras and northwest Alaska villages to participate in biomedical birth practices, largely as made available by a tribal health-sponsored patient transport system. The work that follows portrays the varying influences on these women and their communities as they determine the level of importance for mothers to get to the hospital to deliver. I have enlisted viewpoints of Alaska Native families and women of different generations from various I&ntilde;upiat villages to help paint a picture of the situation. With this research, I ask, how do generations of mothers, transport situations, and villages compare in terms of experiences during the processes of these I&ntilde;upiat women becoming mothers? What gender, ethnicity, and power interplays exist in this dynamic helix of social and political elements (embodiment) during their periods of liminality? What are influences (biomedical and community) that contribute to a woman's transition to motherhood in this community? Moreover, how do women, families, and community members perceive the maternal transport policy today? I examine how the transport policy figures into stages of liminality, as these mothers and communities produce future generations. With theoretical frameworks provided by medical anthropology and maternal identity work, I track the differences concerning the maternal transport operation for I&ntilde;upiat mothers of the area. I compare the influences of cultural value systems present in each of the communities by birth era and location. Using content analysis to determine common themes, I found connections among presence of I&ntilde;upiat values, community acceptance of maternal transport, and expressed desire for community autonomy in maternal health care.</p>

Recent genetic studies have confirmed that there was admixture between African early modern humans and archaic populations throughout the Old World. In this dissertation, I examine European early modern human dental morphology to assess the evidence for Neandertal-human admixture. The focus of this study is not on the question of taxonomic designations of Late Pleistocene Homo, but rather on the interactions of these populations in Europe. This focus on gene flow itself redefines the Neandertal question. Rather than asking if Neandertals are a different species from H. sapiens, I focus on the nature of the interactions between archaic and modern populations, which is essential to understanding the history of modern H. sapiens regardless of species definitions. I recorded dental metric measurements and morphology observations on 85 fossil Neandertals and early modern humans and a recent modern human comparative sample of 330 Native Americans and Spaniards. I examined each trait distribution individually and through the use of Mahalanobis D2, mean measure of divergence, principle components analysis, discriminant function analysis, k-means cluster analysis, and a population genetics program, structure. Through these methods, I found evidence of admixture in the dental trait distributions of European early modern humans. However, it is not evident in traditional distance measures or cluster analyses. The earliest European modern humans do not follow the trend of dental reduction found throughout the Pleistocene and into the Holocene and do not uniformly classify with any fossil population in discriminant function analysis of metric traits. The non-metric trait sample size is too small to make any definitive conclusions, but a mosaic pattern of trait frequencies also suggests admixture. The recent modern human sample shows that while increased variation and a mosaic of non-metric traits persist through many generations after admixture has ceased, traditional methods of distance analysis cannot detect low levels of admixture within 200 years. The program structure is effective in finding patterns of variation within and among populations using morphological data. It will be useful for future analyses of dental traits and other fossil data, given the ability to use it with an incomplete data set.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-06, Section: A, page: 2529. Adviser: R. Barry Lewis. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 186-215) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Capella University, 2007. / (UMI)AAI3278060. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-09, Section: B, page: 5890. Adviser: Kit Johnson.