The purpose of this ethnographic study was to examine the process of a family therapist entering and then navigating the cultural system of working with substance abusing Seminole tribal clients. The study also utilized two tribal members sharing their opinions about how Seminoles view therapy. As noted in the interview questions and responses, the research presented guidelines for family therapists to follow when working with tribal members. Because there has been no study conducted with family therapists providing clinical services to tribal members, this study introduced tools for clinicians to keep in mind and utilize when working with tribal clients. The interviews illustrated what specific routes therapists may take with tribal clients in order to join and connect. This study provided the field of family therapy an opportunity to become familiar with the Seminole tribe, and guidelines of how to remain mindful when working with this unique population. These results were supplemented by the researcher providing personal reflections on her experiences with tribal clients.

Comanche Boys is a novel that was written and revised during Benjamin Honea’s time at the University of Kentucky. The novel focuses on Brandon, who lives in rural southwest Oklahoma, and how the arrival of two people in his life, one old and one new, changes his future irrevocably. Taking place at the intersections of modern American and Native American life, the narrative explores history, culture, mythology, faith, despair, racism, poverty, vengeance, and justice. The struggles of the past and present, the lost and reclaimed, propel and pervade the lives of the characters.

abstract: Advancements in marine and aerospace technology drive legal reform in admiralty and air law. The increased accessibility and affordability of these technologies demand and motivate lawmakers and federal agencies to anticipate potential threats to peoples’ rights and resources in the seas and skies. Given the recent applications of unmanned aircraft in the public and private sectors, developments in aircraft and air law are rapidly becoming more relevant to American Indian and Alaska Native tribes. In anticipation of legal reform, tribal nations are taking steps to assert, expand, and secure their air rights before agencies or the courts attempt to divest their sovereign authority. An analysis of two case studies through a lens of water and federal Indian law locates spaces in American jurisprudence that have the legal foundation and structural capacity to support a greater presence of Indigeneity in airspace. Research findings from these studies answer the following inquiries about tribal airspace sovereignty: where does Indigeneity reside in the US national airspace system and domestic air law, how are tribal air rights strengthened or weakened by American jurisprudence, what strategies do tribes employ to exercise their sovereignty in airspace, and how are tribes planning for future developments in aircraft and air law? Answers lead to proof of how meaningful consultation through collaborative rulemaking produces far greater mutual benefits than burdens for federal agencies and tribes, and much more. Most importantly, these discoveries celebrate a diverse and accumulative strategic legacy of strengthening and expanding tribal sovereignty in the face of imminent threats and possibilities in tribal airspace. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis American Indian Studies 2019

abstract: Located in Southwest Alaska on the Bering Sea, Bristol Bay covers the area of land and water that lies north of the Alaska Peninsula. The Bristol Bay region consists of more than 40 million acres and is home to approximately 7,400 people of mostly Alaska Native descent. Many Natives still maintain a subsistence lifestyle. The region’s Indigenous inhabitants include Aleuts, Eskimos, and Indians. Bristol Bay’s Indigenous cultures developed around the abundant salmon runs. The Bristol Bay watershed, with its extensive lake and river systems, provides the ideal breeding grounds for all five species of Pacific salmon. As a keystone species, salmon directly or indirectly impact many species in the ecosystem. This dissertation focuses on the ecology and environment, culture, and economy in the Bristol Bay salmon fishery from its beginnings in 1884 until the present. The arrival of Euro-Americans altered the human/salmon relationship as Alaska Natives entered the commercial salmon fishery. The commercial fishery largely marginalized Alaska Natives and they struggle to remain relevant in the fishery. Participation in the subsistence fishery remains strong and allows Bristol Bay Natives to continue their cultural traditions. On a global scale, the sustainable Bristol Bay’s salmon harvest provides over half of the world’s wild sockeye salmon. Salmon cultures once existed throughout the Atlantic and Pacific. With the decline of salmon, few viable salmon cultures remain today. I argue that because of the ecological, cultural, and economic factors, salmon in Bristol Bay deserve protection from competing resource development and other factors that threaten the valuable fishery. The unique ecology of Bristol Bay needs clean water to continue its bountiful production. As a member of the Bristol Bay community, I include my own experiences in the salmon fishery, incorporating “writing from home” as one of my primary methodologies. I also include ethnohistory and oral history methodologies. I conducted interviews with elders in the Bristol Bay community to incorporate Indigenous experiences as Natives faced changes brought on by the commercial salmon fishery. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation History 2019

Researchers have found that minorities suffering from traumatic stress report increased levels of stress in the absence of supportive and committed work environments; however, a paucity of empirical research exists for First Nations Peoples (FNP). The purpose of this quantitative correlation study was to examine the nature of the relationship between FNP's associated symptoms of historical loss, assessed by the Historical Loss and Associated Symptoms Scale, and organizational commitment, as measured by the Three Component Employee Commitment Survey. A total of 118 residential school survivors completed surveys. Correlation analysis was used to determine the significance of historical loss in relation to organizational commitment among survivors. Results showed an inverse relationship between affective commitment and associated symptoms of historical loss and between continuance commitment and associated symptoms. No statistically significant correlation was found between normative commitment and historical loss or associated symptoms. Findings can help inform targeted engagement, recruitment, and retention initiatives designed to accommodate FNP perspectives and experiences into organizational culture and systems. Implications for positive social change include better understanding of factors impacting career progression among FNP, such as organizational commitment. Results may also inform culturally safe interventions that help FNP to be successful.

There is a disparity in educational attainment among American Indian youth in the U.S. when compared to the general population. American Indians' rates of high school retention, college enrollment, and college retention are lower than those for any other ethnic group in the country (Cole & Denzine, 2002; National Center for Education Statistics, 2005). This study examined the roles of ethnic identity and perceived discrimination in relation to academic achievement and educational attainment in a community sample of American Indian adolescents living in the southeastern United States. Ethnic identity exploration (EI) was assessed using the Ethnic Identity Achievement subscale of the Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure (MEIM; Phinney, 1992). Race-based rejection sensitivity (RRS) was assessed using a modified version of the Status-Based Rejection Sensitivity Questionnaire (RS-Race; Mendoza-Denton, Downey, Purdie, Davis, & Pietrzak, 2002). It was hypothesized that low levels of RRS and high levels of EI would be associated with high GPAs during high school. At high levels, EI was hypothesized to attenuate the negative association between RRS and college enrollment. Data was collected over two time points. GPA was assessed while participants were in high school and college enrollment was ascertained three years later. Results indicate that high levels of EI were associated with high GPAs during high school. The probability of attending college was high among individuals who had low levels of RRS and high levels of EI. The probability of attending college was also high among those with high RRS and low EI. Two profiles were associated with a high probability of college enrollment in this sample. The first profile (Low RRS, High EI) was expected to lead to high educational attainment. The second profile (High RRS, Low EI) was an unexpected result. Findings are discussed in terms of two distinct paths to high educational attainment that were identified in this sample. The dual role of ethnic identity is discussed in the context of perceived discrimination. Future work is needed to further clarify the role of ethnic identity in educational attainment in this sample / acase@tulane.edu

This dissertation addresses how retaliation norms develop within adolescent subcultures in schools. Social accounts of violence that are shared amongst peers are examined as natural-setting processes, and are hypothesized to increase group consensus about the appropriateness of face-saving violence. A survey utilizing video vignettes included 139 rural Alaska Eskimo and Black New Orleans high school students. Participation in violence-related social accounts predicted perceived peer violence norms, dependent upon peer relationship variables; and anticipated account-sharing predicted self-reported willingness to use violence, especially for students with pro-violence friends. Post-survey interviews allowed students themselves to assess the study validity and conceptual models, which they generally identified with as common school experiences. Interviews also produced student-generated hypotheses not initially tested by the researcher. These emphasized how perceived violence norms are affected by past violence exposure, peer ridicule, and household violence and alcoholism; the role the student tends to take as either account-giver or account-receiver, and general sociability as a predictor of violence-related account sharing. Second-round quantitative tests analyzed these student propositions, some confirming relevant associations. A broader theoretical perspective discusses why violent subcultures tend to arise in the context of structural-level variables associated with crime, such as poverty, community disorder, and lack of police presence; and lack of escape resources. These factors influence violent subcultures by shaping the objective consequences of violent offending, which only become meaningful as normative violence prescriptions through social account sharing about incident outcomes / acase@tulane.edu

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Lehigh University, 2008. / Adviser: Grace I. L. Caskie.

The purpose of this project was to record the private archaeological collection of the Keene family, which was previously unknown to the professional community. While at the two sites, Keene Redfield site (8Ja1847) and Keene Dog Pond site (8Ja1848), in Jackson County, northwest Florida, USF archaeologists also conducted field investigations to look for prehistoric cultural materials in undisturbed contexts. This research was conducted at the request of the Keene family. The field crew systematically documented, cataloged and photographed each artifact in the Keene collection while at the sites. Surface survey and testing were also carried out in order to determine site boundaries, occupation and function. Over 1,000 artifacts from every time period from the transitional Paleo-Indian/Early Archaic through the Mississippian were documented from the collection. Field investigations resulted in the location and investigation of undisturbed cultural strata below the plow zone, enabling the researchers to obtain radiocarbon dates from these deposits. Evidence of hunting and gathering activities and of tool processing including repair, sharpening and possible re-use was found at both sites. This work allowed for the publication of two previously unknown, rich archaeological sites and for a better understanding of the prehistoric activities and functions of this region of the southeast. While participating in this public archaeology project, several other similar opportunities presented themselves, providing USF archaeologists with the ability to maintain a presence in the area to continue public archaeology efforts to engage the community and encourage appropriate participation and good stewardship of these types of private sites.

Food deserts are low-income areas lacking access to nutritious and affordable food. Such limited access has various implications for public health, particularly diet-related diseases such as diabetes. Among American Indian communities, diabetes is particularly rampant at nearly twice the rate of white populations in the U.S. On the Navajo Nation, diabetes incidence has been estimated to be as high as 1 in 3. According to the USDA, the majority of the Navajo Nation is considered a food desert. This paper utilizes food sovereignty as a lens for decolonization to identify the underlying causes of hunger and nutrition-related diseases within Diné communities. This paper will explore the histories of the change in the Diné diet and how colonial processes and the loss of traditional food systems affects current food and health patterns on the Navajo Nation. By expanding the scope of public health issues such as obesity and diabetes in Native American communities from food access and nutrition to power relations embedded in colonial structures that have resulted in the loss of indigenous sovereignty and power, I hope to pinpoint entry points for future indigenous researchers to develop and enact policies that will expand access to healthy and culturally significant foods on the Navajo Nation and contribute to efforts to restore food sovereignty of the Navajo Nation by rebuilding local food economies.