<p> This thesis examines resilience among the Point Lay I&ntilde;upiat in the context of climate change. Resilience is manifest in the ability of community members to maintain meaningful subsistence practices and activities despite ongoing changes in weather, ice, and resource conditions. Twenty-one Point Lay I&ntilde;upiat were interviewed for this thesis. Respondents were divided into three cohorts: youths (ages 18-29), adults (ages 30-49), and elders (ages 50-70+). Respondents shared changes in weather, ice, and resource conditions. Respondents also shared community concerns, including concerns not attributable to climate change. Received responses were sorted and compared by cohort to identify trends in weather, ice, and resource conditions, as well as to identify adaptive and maladaptive strategies for coping with climate change and other stressors impacting the community. Whether the community can maintain meaningful subsistence practices and activities if local changes in weather, ice, and resource conditions remain unchanged or intensify is also questioned.</p>

<p> The enslavement and persecution of African and Native peoples has been occurring in the U.S. since the 1600s. There have been justifications, explanations and excuses offered as to why one race feels superior over another. Slavery, according to the Abolition Project, refers to "a condition in which individuals are owned by others, who control where they live and at what they work" (e2bn.org, 2009). Dr. Maria Yellow Horse Braveheart researched the concept of historical trauma as it relates to American Indians, whereby she found that trauma due to unresolved grief, disenfranchised grief, and unresolved internalized oppression could continue to manifest itself through many generations. This thesis will examine the intergenerational effects of historical trauma as they are depicted in selected African and Native bildungsromans. These specific works were chosen because they allow me to compare and contrast how subsequent generations of these two cultures were still being directly affected by colonialism, especially as it pertains to the loss of their identities. It also allows me to reflect on how each of the main characters, all on the cusp of adulthood, make choices for their respective futures based on events that occurred long before they were born. </p><p> Chapters One and Two highlight specific works from African American authors Toni Morrison and Alice Walker. Walker's novel, <i>The Color Purple, </i> depicts the life of an African American girl in the rural South of the 1930s. In this work I will examine how the loss of the male traditional role of provider and protector has affected the family dynamics and led to the male assuming the role of oppressor. In Morrison's <i>Song of Solomon, </i> I will examine the importance of identity and how one man's flight from slavery has affected the family structure of four subsequent generations. Both of the protagonists, Celie and Milkman, were born free, and yet still feel enslaved, just as their ancestors were, by their lack of choices as well as their quest for purpose and personal justice. </p><p> Chapters Three and Four will discuss literary works by Native American authors Louise Erdrich and Sherman Alexie, both vocal advocates of educating the lost generations&mdash;those who were forbidden to learn of and practice their language or tribal rituals due to colonialism&mdash;as well as Anglo-Americans on the importance of preserving the culture and heritage of their people. In Erdrich's <i>The Round House,</i> young Joe Coutts' family is tragically ripped apart by a physically violent attack on his mother. In an attempt to discover the truth of what really happened and who harmed her, Joe embarks on a journey in which borders, both literal and figurative, jurisdiction, and justice will be defined. The choices made by Joe, the adolescent, will have a direct impact on the evolution of Joe, the adult. In Alexie's <i> Flight,</i> Zits is a fifteen year old boy who seemingly belongs nowhere and to no one. It is this lack of identity that initially leads him down a path of destruction and on a magical journey of self-discovery where he will learn that he has within himself the ability to overcome his own personal tragedies, define who he is, and find happiness. The final chapter introduces the concept of restorative justice, a legal term that emphasizes repairing the harm done to crime victims through a process of negotiation, mediation, victim empowerment and reparations. I will also briefly discuss how both African and Native people are reclaiming their cultural identities through naming, ceremony, and traditions. I will briefly define a new concept developed by Dr. Joy Deruy Leary, referred to as post traumatic slave syndrome, and will show that like historical response trauma, its symptoms can be traced back generations to the enslavement of African people. I will argue that justice, identity and the lack of choices are major themes identified in each of these works which tie them all together. I will also argue that these themes have a direct correlation to the signs and symptoms of both Historical Response Trauma and Post Traumatic Slave Syndrome as defined by Dr. Braveheart and Dr. Leary, and how ultimately each of these protagonists used some means of restorative justice to stop the cycle of trauma and begin the process of healing </p>

<p> 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.</p>

<p>This thesis explores the American Civil War in Indian Territory, focusing on how clashing visions of sovereignty within the Five Tribes&mdash;Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole&mdash;led to the one the most violent and relatively unknown chapters of the Civil War. Particular attention is paid to the first two years of the war, highlighting why the Five Tribes allied with Confederacy, and why those alliances failed over time. Chapter One examines Indian Territory as a borderland, unveiling how various actors within that borderland, including missionaries, Indian agents, white neighbors in Arkansas and Texas, and Indians themselves shaped Native American decision-making and convinced acculturated tribal elites to forge alliances with the Confederacy. These alliances, however, did not represent the sentiments of many traditionalist Indians, and anti-Confederate Creeks, Seminoles, and African-Americans gathered under the leadership of dissident Creek chief Opothleyahola. Cultural divisions within the Five Tribes, and differing visions of sovereignty in the future, threatened to undermine Indian-Confederate alliances. Chapter Two investigates the Confederacy&rsquo;s 1861 winter campaign designed to quell Opothleyahola&rsquo;s resistance to Confederate authority. This campaign targeted enemy soldiers and civilians alike, and following a series of three engagements Opothleyahola&rsquo;s forces were decisively defeated in December. During this campaign, however, schisms with the Confederate Cherokees became apparent. In the weeks that followed, Confederate forces pursued the men, women, and children of Opothelyahola&rsquo;s party as they fled north across the frozen landscape for the relative safety of Kansas. The military campaign waged in 1861, and the untold suffering heaped upon thousands of civilians that winter, exposes how a hard, violent war rapidly emerged within the Confederate borderland, complicating historians&rsquo; depiction of a war that instead grew hard over time. </p><p> Chapter Three documents the return of Federal forces to the borderland via the First Indian Expedition of 1862. Although the expedition was a military failure, the sudden presence of Union forces in the region permanently split the Cherokee tribe into warring factions. The Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole tribes spent the next three years fighting their own intra-tribal civil wars. Moreover, the appearance and retreat of Federal forces from Indian Territory created a geopolitical vacuum, which would be filled by guerrilla violence and banditry. The failure of either Confederate or Union forces to permanently secure Indian Territory left Indian homelands ripe for violence and lawlessness. The thesis concludes by evaluating the cost of the conflict. One-third of the Cherokee Nation perished during the war; nearly one-quarter of the Creek population died in the conflict. By war&rsquo;s end, two-thirds of Indian Territory&rsquo;s 1860 population had become refugees. Urged to war by outsiders and riven with their own intra-tribal strife, Native Americans of the Five Tribes suffered immensely during the Civil War, victims of one of the most violent, lethal, and unknown chapters in American history. </p>

<p> This study examines the tradition of beaded capes among the Lower Colorado River Yuman groups, with the goal of understanding the meaning and cultural significance that the capes held in the past and continue to hold for those that wear and create them today. Questions posed by this study ask how and to whom do beaded capes hold meaning; and why were the beaded capes overlooked by collectors if they are culturally significant? As a marker of River Yuman identity and artistic expertise, the lack of historic beaded capes that are held within museum collections is surprising, with only twenty-two museums across the United States and Europe housing a composite total of fifty-eight River Yuman beaded capes. This study attempts to answer the proposed questions by conducting interviews with River Yuman beadworkers and community members, regarding their perspectives on the meanings and symbolism presented by beaded capes, and the cultural significance of these items. In contrast, this study examines the views of Euro-American collectors that were collecting beaded capes in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries when others were not. An understanding of outsider perspectives and motivation for collecting beaded capes is achieved through analysis of collector's field notes, journals, and museum accession files. Combining ethnography, archival research, and museum collections-based research, this study seeks to present a more detailed understanding of the River Yuman beaded cape as a marker of gender and ethnic identity. This research addresses the existing voids in knowledge about the cultural significance that the beaded capes hold for Quechan (Yuma) and Pipa Aha Macav (Mojave) people, and introduces that information to outsiders, creating a record of the views of River Yuman community members on the contemporary meanings that the beaded capes hold.</p>

<p> Grounded in the transformative paradigm (p. 35), this study asked, &ldquo;In what ways might a group of non-Natives be individually and socially transformed by encountering the Bear River Massacre from within Indigenous Worldviews?&rdquo; The methodology incorporated Indigenous Worldviews and ceremonial processes (Wilson, 2008) into Queensland University&rsquo;s Indigenous Australian Studies&rsquo; model (Mackinlay &amp; Barney, 2010), interweaving transformative learning processes with Indigenous elements such as a traditional Shoshone sweat lodge, visiting a massacre site, and listening to a Shoshone elder. During ceremonially centered mini retreats data was collected via individual journals, group email and process notes, art-based expressions, videotaping, individual and group written evaluations and surveys, and follow up interviews. Findings established &ldquo;perspective transformation&rdquo; (King, 2009) in 80% of participants within the dimensions of better understanding the Bear River Massacre, the Shoshone people, the colonization process, and the loss of their own Indigenous roots. Follow-up interviews revealed that 87.5% of respondents believed that the integration of Indigenous elements into the project impacted their learning experience &ldquo;a great deal.&rdquo; 87.5% reported sustained behavioral x change in relation to the topic and 71% stated they wanted to get to know Native people and culture better. In addition, 43% stated they were interested in obtaining a public Presidential apology to Native people. Unconscious shadow transference material (Romanyshyn, 2007) emerged and was discussed from a depth psychology perspective. Limitations to this study include sample size and lack of funding. The theoretical development of ceremonial research potentially expands this method into other areas of inquiry.</p>

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: A, page: 1582. Adviser: Dianne Harris. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 392-436) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: A, page: 1847. Adviser: Timothy R. Pauketat. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 203-227) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2006. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-07, Section: A, page: 2727. Adviser: Frederick Hoxie. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 217-226) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

<p> The transformative benefits of cross-cultural interaction and the &ldquo;disruption&rdquo; caused by the confrontation with injustice, poverty and culture shock for students through immersion experiences are well-documented. In contrast, however, there is very little research that documents the experience of host communities - those into whom the traveler is immersed. What is the experience of individuals from these host communities? What is the value or significance to them of hosting educational travel groups? What opportunities exist for educational travel programs to be venues for decolonization and social justice work that is mutually beneficial to student groups and host communities? This project is a phenomenological study consisting of in-depth interviews with six native or indigenous community partners who worked with two high school educational travel programs&mdash;one internationally and one domestically. Participants reported a clear understanding of their co-educational role and attached broader global and spiritual significance to that. A number of recommendations emerged for building mutually beneficial relationships in the context of educational travel.</p>