abstract: ABSTRACT Diné Education is equal and is as valid as this nation's mainstream education, yet it does not share the same ideas, processes or goals as its counterpart. It is more complicated because it is based on oral traditions and the philosophies of Hózhó, a construct that requires a learner to embrace one's surroundings, actions, interactions, and being. A central part of Diné education focuses on spirituality and self awareness which are intertwined with every dimension of this universe. In order to become educated in the Diné world a learner must first learn to "walk in beauty" and have a positive self image. Being Diné, this researcher sought to capture his own childhood memories, including the special teachings and teachers that have guided his learning, as a way to document the process of acquiring a Diné education. The methods of inquiry for this research included self-reflection documented in a journal and an extensive literature review. The literature review was guided by three research questions: 1. What is Diné Education? 2. How important is it to today's Diné people? 3. What are the future prospects for the existence of Diné education? / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. Curriculum and Instruction 2010

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, the United States government, in its relations with Native Americans, implemented a policy of assimilation designed to detribalize Indian peoples and absorb them into the dominant society. Subjected to this colonial agenda, the Cayuse, Walla Walla, and Umatilla tribes of Oregon's Umatilla Indian Reservation, as a matter of survival, endeavored to maintain community cohesion and retain their indigenous identity. In this context, I argue that the tribes confronted federal initiatives with a strategy of adaptive resistance that allowed them to approach these onerous impositions on their own terms. This study examines their diverse responses to assimilation and colonialism, specifically accommodation, adaptation, and diplomacy. Employing the investigative frameworks of education, religion, and economics reveals the variety of tactics applied within these categories, which range from incorporation to evasion. Through these actions and reactions, the tribes reaffirmed their capacity to assert native agency.

abstract: In this dissertation, I engaged the doctrine of cultural sovereignty to demonstrate that an operational paradigm of cultural sovereignty exists at Taos Pueblo, a federally-recognized Indian tribe in New Mexico, which was capable of application to contemporary decision-making practices and policy. I turn to the knowledge, history, and principles of my people of the Taos Pueblo for creating such a model. To be clear, I am not advocating for a wholesale return to a pre-European existence. Rather, I am advocating for the development of a culturally-grounded approach to evaluating the various aspects of modernity to determine what to embrace and/or continue to adapt. I produced an evaluative model that answers what is Taos epistemology, ontology, methodology, and axiology (EOMA)? And, what does Taos EOMA mean for Taos sovereignty, self-determination, and self-governance? What is the Taos pedagogy of sovereignty, self-determination, and self-governance? And, third, what is the Taos praxis of sovereignty, self-determination, and self-governance? By constructing a Taos sovereignty model that continues, repatriates, or reclaims our history, tradition, and cultural identity, we are in a better position to integrate and align the Taos way of life and our political sovereignty. My hope is that this model can help not only the Taos people but Pueblo people of New Mexico imagine a collective future that balances modern/contemporary non-Pueblo practices and systems with our own rich traditions and heritage. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Liberal Studies 2015

abstract: This thesis will examine the novels and poetry of Leslie Marmon Silko (Laguna) and Luci Tapahonso (Navajo), exploring how they are working to maintain, control, protect and develop their spiritual Indigenous identities. I link their literary work to Article 31.1, from the United Declaration of the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), which states that “Indigenous people have the right to maintain, control, and protect and develop their cultural heritage, traditional knowledge and traditional cultural expressions, as well as the manifestations of their sciences, technologies, and cultures, including human and genetic resources, seeds, medicines, knowledge of the properties of fauna and flora, oral traditions, literatures, designs, sports and traditional games and visual and performing arts. They also have the right to maintain, control, protect and develop their intellectual property over such cultural heritage, traditional knowledge, and traditional cultural expressions.” I argue that both Silko and Tapahonso create narratives and characters that illustrate how indigenous identity is self-determined and maintained through resistance to colonization and assimilation. I examine how these stories and characters incorporate new knowledge, about modern lifeways, into traditional Indigenous oral traditions and histories. Both Silko and Tapahonso connect nature and history, as they illustrate how oral traditions are passed down through the continual sharing of inter-generational stories and ethnobotanical information about plants, animals and food. This study will track how oral stories help the characters (re)connect with the land, and with foodways, by re-establishing a relationship of resistance against the exploitation, assimilation, and colonization of indigenous peoples, lands, and resources and the maintenance of spirituality through oral traditions. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis English 2016

No description available.

This thesis employs Foucaultian and postcolonial theories to identify, discuss, and trouble discourses surrounding leadership styles in two communities in the Northwest Territories: the Town of Hay River and the nearby community of K'atlodeeche First Nation/Hay River Reserve. The thesis is composed of two papers. The first paper analyzes the tendency of lifeguards at the Hay River swimming pool to embody an authoritarian leadership style. Further, this paper discusses how an authoritarian leadership style can foster an unwelcoming environment for Aboriginal patrons. The second paper looks at Dene women's leadership in K'atlodeeche First Nation/Hay River Reserve's Summer Day Camp and discusses its impact on one particular Eurocanadian leader. Both papers shed light on the necessity for southern-based, Euro-Canadian recreation leaders to understand Aboriginal communities' practices and norms surrounding culturally appropriate ways of leading in order to plan and implement effective and inclusive programming.

<p> Wailaki, a Dene language of northwestern California, is known as what is referred to in academic literature and sources such as the <i>Ethnologue </i> as an &ldquo;extinct&rdquo; language. While Wailaki descendant people may remember an older generation of relatives who spoke Wailaki to one another, as far as is known, there are no people alive today who grew up speaking this language (Golla 2011:81). This term <i>extinct</i> used to describe such languages, however, does not reflect the desire of communities for languages to be spoken again, and the efforts many are taking towards language revitalization. Extinct conveys finality to language loss and shift; however, the term <i> sleeping</i> is today used to describe dormant languages with substantial documentation that may be spoken again (Leonard 2011). Wailaki is one such language. </p><p> For Wailaki, documentation exists; however, no detailed description of the language exists prior to this work. For any scholar and language learner interested in the language, published materials on related languages such as Hupa or Mattole are referenced in order to make sense of available Wailaki documentation. This dissertation puts forth a phonological, morphological, and limited syntactic description of Wailaki, which is a cover term, used by many tribal descendants, for a dialect continuum also known as Eel River Athabaskan/Dene (Golla 2011). </p><p> Chapter 1 gives background information regarding the people, the resources available for analysis. Chapter 2 is a description of phonological processes within the dialect continuum. Chapter 3 is a description of word classes in Wailaki, and what criteria and behavior (either morphological or syntactic) that may be given to delineate classes. Chapter 4 describes the verbal morphology, and Chapter 5 describes the nominal morphology. Chapter 6 titled Clitics and Syntax describes clitics that express categories such as tense, aspect or mode, or perform syntactic functions. In addition, Chapter 6 gives limited description of aspects of Wailaki syntax such as conjunctions, negation, question formation, and some discussion of word order.</p><p>

This dissertation explores the artistic expressions of Native womanhood by Native women artists. The intention is to offer further examples of creative acts of resistance that strengthen Native identities, reinforce female empowerment, and reclaim voice, and art. This qualitative study utilized the narratives and the artwork of six Native women artists from diverse artistic practices and tribe/nation affiliations. Visual arts examples included in this study are digital images, muralism, Ledger art, beadworks, Navajo rugs, and Navajo jewelry. Through Kim Anderson's theoretical Native womanhood identity formation model adopted as framework for this study, the results revealed three emergent themes: cultural connections, motherhood, and nurturing the future. Native women artists lived experiences shaped their visual expressions, influencing their materials, approach, subject matter, intentions, motivation and state of mind. This dissertation discloses Native womanhood framework is supportive of visual expressions created by Native women.

<p> This research focuses on the problem of how early pottery in New York State is defined and analyzed. Many traditional models suggest early pottery developed from an earlier steatite stone bowl technology. Thus far, studies that examine early pottery in the Northeast, called the Vinette Type Series, focus on the potential functions, archaeological contexts, and surface appearance of these vessels and fail to account for the social practices and technological choices inherent within these artifacts. This dissertation reevaluates early pottery using a non-typological approach. In the place of descriptive analysis, this research uses petrography, experimental geo-archaeology, and technical choice and agency theories to identify the different types of temper present in early ceramic vessels. This study also looks at the patterns of different technical choices made by early potters. The redefinition of early ceramic technology using post-modern theories allows the author to better understand the social practices involved in the rise of ceramic technology. The ceramic technological patterns identified are then compared with steatite stone bowl technology. This study concludes that early ceramic technology is more closely related to the practices of earth oven convection cooking than it is to any other cooking artifact. A reclassification of early ceramic fabrics is presented and the traditional early ceramic Vinette type categories are rejected.</p><p>

Abstract not available.