An investigation was conducted to show the number of American Indians in the field of conservation, through a quantitative and qualitative analysis. The research investigated the primary question, why are there so few American Indian conservators. In addition, the following secondary questions were examined: 1) How many conservators of American Indian ethnicity are there? 2) What factors influence the number of American Indian conservators? 3) How will American Indians qualified to practice conservation benefit museums? The findings for this study were collected through an online survey, personal interviews, and observations. The results showed that there was a significant relationship between education, conservation, and being American Indian. The study proved the hypothesis that there were not a lot of American Indian conservators. An earlier report investigating the status of American Indians in professional positions in museums nationwide revealed similar results (Rios-Bustamante, 1996). Other publications mentioned Indigenous people as collaborators and participants in various museum practices such as curatorial work, preservation, conservation, and exhibits; but did not specifically name an American Indian as a professional conservator (Bloomfield, 2013; Clavir, 2002; Erickson, 2002; Lonetree, 2012; Odegaard and Sadongei, 2005).A total of eleven participants were interviewed. Of the eleven participants interviewed, nine identified as American Indian from the United States, one identified as Maori from New Zealand working temporarily in the United States, and one as Italian-American (Table 13). Of the eleven interviewed, three identified as trained conservators qualified to practice conservation as a professional conservator. Of the three identifying at trained conservators, two were American Indian, Navajo/Assiniboine and Navajo. A total of ninety-three participants responded to the online survey. Univariate analysis using the standard t-test was used to compare each variable to the dependent, binomial variable (variable of interest=American Indian Conservator, yes or no) to determine its initial significance (Table 12). Significant variables were then added into the model and logistic regression analysis was performed to capture any effect a variable might have on the dependent variable. As a result, the data showed that a conservator was 8.6 times more likely not to be American Indian than conservators who were not American Indian in this study. This analysis and interpretation of the data was used as a preliminary study for future research.

Purpose: Describe the Suquamish cultural influences on defining living a life worthwhile and to describe the compatibility of a culturally modified Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) with a Native American community's culture and context. Background: Native Americans experience serious psychological distress, suicide, and substance abuse at higher rates than other racial groups. Studies using DBT found a significant decrease in parasuicidal risk behavior and substance abuse. However, research has not demonstrated that DBT is efficacious or compatible within the Native American culture. Specific Aims: 1) Describe the Native American cultural influences on defining living a life worthwhile. 2) Describe the compatibility between Healthy and Whole, a culturally modified DBT intervention with Native American culture. Methodology: Critical ethnographic study with in-depth interviews (13) and participant observations (10 months) was conducted. Sample was tribal members and clinicians exposed to the Healthy and Whole and tribal members who are identified as knowledgeable regarding tribal tradition. Analyses included semantic domain, taxonomic, and theme analysis for aim1 and compared DBT curriculum to results of aim 1 to accomplish aim 2.Findings: An intergenerational cycle of relational trauma was initiated by structural cultural genocide with systematic abuse and neglect of Native Americans especially children. Relational trauma of abuse and neglect is the source of a variety of maladaptive behaviors. These maladaptive behaviors lead to relational trauma in the next generation. A dual process of maintaining and revitalizing Suquamish cultural values coupled with skills taught in a culturally modified DBT intervention, Healthy and Whole, help Suquamish members live more worthwhile lives and recover from intrapersonal trauma. Implications: Healthy and Whole is a community approach to healing from relational trauma. Healthy and Whole approach to DBT may help other indigenous people live more worthwhile lives and recover from relational trauma and break the cycle because Suquamish cultural values are collectivist and many indigenous peoples share similar values and histories of historical trauma.

This study examines whether Tribal Colleges and Universities impact hope and pride within their surrounding communities. As part of the investigation, data was gathered through the distribution of a ten question survey to three participants at both Diné College and Comanche Nation College: the president, a student, and a community member. Further data was collected through testimonials gathered from articles within the Tribal College Journal from the past six years (2008-2013). The goal of the study is to broaden the understanding of Tribal College and University impacts within their communities, and to provide valuable information for the college-community relationship throughout Indian Country.

"Traditional Navajo Culture is a Protective Factor" is intended for those who have a stake in Indigenous spiritual, mental, physical, and emotional health. Native Americans, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians are Indigenous minorities in the USA that tend to consistently top the charts in deficient measures like depression, diabetes, heart disease, obesity, domestic violence, substance use/abuse, and suicide. The West does not offer any explanation as to the cause but is trying to fight these diseases and disorders by allocating federal funds for tribes, urban Indians, and Native groups to devise ways to minimize negative health effects by employing prevention practices that respect and are informed by the local Native cultures. This thesis examines these public health issues from a modern Indigenous perspective that use Navajo specific examples that combine both Western and Indigenous philosophies and paradigms to propose a solution that is strength-based, culturally-informed, and locally-driven.

In recent years, increasing numbers of Indigenous communities in the United States have embraced charter schools as an alternative to traditional federal, district and parochial schools. Often this has been part of an effort begun to further such goals as language and cultural preservation, improved educational programs, and community control of schooling. This study presents, through a single qualitative, ethnographic case study, a detailed portrait of one urban, Indigenous-serving charter school with primary focus on graduates' educational experiences and an exploration of its meaning for them. A portrait of the school is presented, including: the school's history; its mission, goals, objectives; its organizational framework; its curriculum and instructional practices; and its structure and support services. Demographic information about the school's graduates is included. Next the alumni experience is explored in depth. Findings include alumni perceptions of their relationships with staff, alumni perceptions of the curriculum and instruction at the school, and alumni perceptions of school climate. Finally, the characteristics of the schooling occurring at the case site are described in light of the theoretical framework of the study which is based on Jim Cummins' (1989, 1992, 2000) theory concerning empowerment of minority students and the concept of subtractive and additive schooling as described by Angela Valenzuela (1999). Lessons from the case site are also considered more broadly in terms of the challenges and possibilities of Indigenous-serving charter schools in the current educational context.

<p>The Central American population consists of a majority of indigenous people and the parties to the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA-DR) must strive to protect the culture, heritage and rights of the region&rsquo;s people. Trade agreements must recognize the rights of the indigenous peoples that are affected by environmental degradation resulting from trade activities, which can result in the forceful removal of their lands. The balance between the three pillars of sustainable development must be struck because international trade is necessary by fueling much of the economic growth in the developed world. Public engagement of the indigenous people through participation, information, consultation and consent are necessary to fulfill the goals of sustainable development and protect their right to property and traditional lands. We have to continue to incorporate the objectives of sustainable development in free trade agreements in order to preserve the global environment for future generations. </p>

<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>