<p> The purpose of this arts-based, and Indigenous research study was to explore how Native Americans understand &lsquo;place-based imagery&rsquo; through an Indigenous art making and storytelling experience in order to illuminate perspectives and experiences of a &lsquo;sense of place&rsquo;. Storywork, an Indigenous research method directed the culturally grounded research project. The Native American moccasin was the symbolic cultural catalyst used to create a multimedia art piece to express and reflect traditional cultural knowledge rooted within this symbol. Native Americans representing five federally recognized tribes participated in the study. As a result of a pilot study, a definition of place-based imagery was developed. Place-based imagery is making or creating meaning of symbols, shapes, colors and designs, related to P-People, L-Land, A-Ancestry, C-Culture, E-Experiences that may foster, awaken and/or deepen one&rsquo;s connection and understanding of self and a sense of place. </p><p> The research findings were examined and derived using an Indigenous paradigm. A culturally based understanding of a &lsquo;sense of place&rsquo; was developed from the stories and imagery. Perspectives relating to unwavering support, interconnection of culture and land, intergenerational knowledge transfer, deepened cultural knowledge, balance, and an understanding of a felt sense of place, emerged as a result of the moccasin making and storytelling experience. Secondly, an approach was developed using &lsquo;response art&rsquo; as a technique that may be used to mitigate secondary trauma. The study showed that Expressive Arts is an effective intervention used with Native Americans to inspire strength based cultural stories and images that encouraged self-understanding. </p><p>

<p> Health disparities and substance misuse are increasingly prevalent, costly, and deadly in Indian Country. Although women historically held positions of influence in pre-colonial Tribal societies and shared in optimum health, their current health is relegated to some of the worst outcomes across all racial groups in the United States. Women of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma (CNO) have some of the highest prevalence estimates in physical inactivity and excessive drinking in the United States. Building on the Indigenous Stress Coping model of indigenous health, &ldquo;Our Vision of Health for Future Generations&rdquo; explores the intersection of a historical event, the Trail of Tears, and its lasting impact on the contemporary health outcomes in tribal members. This inquiry is positioned within the Yappall&iacute; Choctaw Road to Health project that explores these broader issues. This culturally-centered study explores proximal and settings-based/intermediary motivations of twenty-three women who completed the Yappall&iacute; project, walked the Trail of Tears, and developed a <i>holitobit ibbak fohki</i> &ldquo;sacred giving&rdquo; community health event. Analysis was conducted using the Listening Guide method, that highlighted the contrapuntal voices of embodiment, motivation, challenges, and transformation. Participants shared stories in relation to both their individual health concerns (proximal), and deep love and commitment for the health of their family, community and for future generations (intermediary). This study provides another framework for the development of indigenized research, by using in-depth interviews, <i>haklo</i> &ldquo;listen deeply&rdquo; as a form of indigenous storywork that is centering of the experiences of marginalized people, and reflexivity as <i>anukfilli</i> &ldquo;Deep Reflection&rdquo;.</p><p>

<p> This research replicated Dunlap, dePerczel, Clarke, Wilson, Wright, and White&rsquo;s (1994) single-subject ABAB reversal design using choice/no choice conditions with a 3 year-old Native American boy exposed to trauma. The IV consisted of the child being able to select books to be read during story time vs. no choice. The dependent variables consisted of 2 target behaviors impeding his learning in his Head Start classroom: disruptive and aggressive behaviors. Rate of Behavior 1 during Baseline 2 was 10% higher than during Intervention 1, and considerably higher than Baseline 1. During Intervention 2, rate of Behavior 1 was 10% lower than during Baseline 2, but 24% higher than Baseline 1. Therefore, Behavior 1 responded as expected to the 3 final experimental phases, but was unexpectedly low during Baseline 1 due to uncontrollable, extraneous environmental variables. Rate of Behavior 2 during Intervention 1 was 57% lower than during Baseline 1. During Baseline 2, rate of Behavior 2 was 50% higher than Intervention 1. During Intervention 2, rate of Behavior 2 was 43% below Baseline 1 but 40% higher than Baseline 2. Because occurrence rates for Behavior 2 were low, often 0-3 per session, minor changes in occurrences inflated change percentages. In essence, Behavior 2 improved substantially between Baseline 1 and Intervention 1, then remained stable at low rates across the remaining study phases. During Intervention 2, half the sessions had 0 occurrence rates for Behavior 2, spiking in the final 2 sessions due to an uncontrollable extraneous variable. Overall results appear promising. Future research, with greater observation times and control of extraneous variables, is needed to fully demonstrate intervention effectiveness with young Native American children exposed to trauma. </p><p>

<p> Since the mid-1970s, the indigenous ritual dance known as Danza has had a profound impact on the self-identification and concept of space in Xicana communities, but how is this practice received in the powwow space? My project broadly explores how studentorganized powwows at UC Davis, UC Riverside, and UC San Diego (UCSD), are decolonizing spaces for teaching and learning about Native American identities. Drawing on Beverly Diamond&rsquo;s alliance studies approach (2007), which illuminates the importance of social relationships across space and time, as well as my engagement in these powwows, I trace real and imagined connections between Danza and powwow cultures. Today, powwows are intertribal social events organized by committees and coordinated with their local native communities. Powwows not only have restorative abilities to create community for those who perform, attend, and coordinate them, but they are only a small glimpse of the broader socio-political networks that take place throughout the powwow circuit. By inviting and opening the powwow space to indigeneity across borders, the University of California not only accurately reflects its own native student body who put on the event, but speak to the growing understanding of "Native American" both north and south of the United States border. Ultimately, I argue an alliance studies approach to historical ethnography and community-based methodologies in music research are crucial, especially in the case of indigenous communities, who are committed to the survival and production of cultural knowledge embedded in music and dance practices.</p><p>

<p>How do the weak win political victories? The dissertation answers the question of how, why and when very weak groups are able to win concessions from the strong. Specifically, the research offers an understanding of how indigenous peoples have been able to gain recognition and extension of their land rights. Through comparative case study analysis, the first section explores why the governments of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States have begun to recognize and return rights to land for the same indigenous populations whose rights have been denied or ignored for centuries. The second section further tests the proposed explanations in relation to specific claims outcomes and land transfers in 17 American Indian land claims cases in the United States. </p><p>The research concludes normative changes following World War II led to new attention to the rights of minority groups. Indigenous peoples were redefined as deserving of limited rights and protections from the state. At the same time, the growth of cohesion among indigenous peoples on a national and international scale and the success of other minority groups encouraged them to bring their claims against the state. Economic, demographic, and political trends established that indigenous peoples were no longer a threat to the security of the dominance of the strong. This made it possible for elites to recalculate the costs and benefits of concessions to indigenous peoples, which were now seen as more affordable. Similar forces are at play in the outcomes of individual claims to for the return of land in the United States. The calculations of elites include the normative pressures to act (in this case, often legal pressure), the tangible and economic costs for transfers, whether or not the dominant population sees the recipient group as deserving, and whether or not the claim itself challenges the legitimacy or moral authority of the state.</p> / Dissertation

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Texas at Arlington, 2009.

The modernization decade of the 1990's marked the beginnings of irreversible political and economic changes that shifted away from the revolutionary legacy, for a liberal market-base system. New laws and constitutional amendments were designed to alleviate the country's economic stagnation. Decentralization programs hoped to relieve the financial burdens endured for years. Although, these plans were supposed to be inclusive, the most vulnerable populations were often left out or limited in their participation. In the case of irrigation district transfers, the changes were immediate and successful except for five indigenous irrigation districts. After a decade in limbo, Colonias Yaquis is still a zone of contention where land, water and autonomy demands confront historical legacies in the midst of modernization. The district exemplifies a revolutionary promise that is yet to be achieved. It is then the purpose of this study to evaluate historical, social and political factors that hinder the transfer process.

<p> Modern studies of site distribution, utilization of near-coastal riverine resources, and the development of cultural complexity during the Holocene in southwestern Washington are hampered by the limited amount of data from previous archaeological investigations. This study of Willapa River Valley archaeology provides a context in which to interpret southern Northwest Coast near-coastal pre-contact archaeological sites. </p><p> Three areas for investigation became evident during the initial research phase and directed subsequent inquiries. The first dealt with prehistoric site distribution in the Willapa region landscape, the potential for locating sites, and site distribution patterns on the Willapa River Valley alluvial terraces. Bayesian GIS modeling and geomorphologic-based survey techniques identified a new sample of 26 localities representing approximately 10,000 years of occupation. Eustatic sea level rise, seismic movement, tsunamis, and fluvial processes formed the Willapa region's landscape, and promoted natural redox reaction formation processes within submerged archaeological contexts. </p><p> The second involved the pre-contact utilization of lithic, floral, and faunal natural resources, and how these adaptations relate to what we know from past work at coastal-adjacent midden sites. Excavation at the Forks Creek terrace site revealed a detailed chronology of a 2700 BP Willapa River Valley camp oriented toward the seasonal hazelnut, bitter cherry, elk, deer, and salmon resources of a fire-maintained prairie "garden" and the Willapa River. Microblades were manufactured for their technological qualities, illustrating similarities to Salish Sea "Locarno Beach" assemblages. </p><p> The third encompassed the archaeology of the Athabaskan Kwalhioqua, and addressed the potential for recognizing cultural enclaves in the archaeological record through the study of exotic obsidian and blueschist artifacts. Obsidian "wealth blades," blueschist clubs, and nephrite adze artifacts define a pattern of late prehistoric long-distance trade and exchange. The "Pacific Athabaskan coastal trade network" hypothesis poses that direct sea-going canoe trade occurred between Athabaskan cultures of the southern Northwest Coast within a counter-seismic ceremonial dance network prior to the great earthquake of AD 1700. </p><p> New insights into the prehistory of the Willapa River Valley are provided with consideration given to site location, age of occupation, cultural landscapes, and the position of the Willapa River Valley prehistoric occupation within the Pacific Northwest.</p>

American Indian traditional art forms have been reincarnated by contemporary Native designers and placed on human bodies in the form of haute couture. This project examines culture and identity through a historical and sociocultural analysis of contemporary Native American clothing design. This project focuses on the use of clothing design and adornment to promote cultural traditions and maintain a `Native' identity. I equate this communicative use of design with the traditional role of storytelling: it allows Native designers to express, interrogate and subvert notions of Indianness; to create and perpetuate cultural traditions; to enhance aesthetic aspects of dress design; and to build and maintain community.This project explores the world of Native high fashion, and provides a cultural contextualization and analysis pertaining to identity, creativity, and tradition. I hypothesize that these contemporary designers continue the long practice of incorporating the new with the old, and, in effect, creatively carry on their cultural traditions. Whether they update Native clothing styles of the 1800s, or Indianize contemporary fashion, these designers explore how modern cuts and materials can be blended with traditional cultural design concepts and symbols to create unique, expertly constructed, artistic, and highly valued garments. These artists have taken up new materials to display their traditional art forms in innovative ways to uphold and maintain their unique cultures, and to celebrate their heritage by educating a non-Indian buying public.Using an interdisciplinary approach, I attempt to gain an insider's understanding of Native fashion by interviewing principle actors in the industry, by observing and participating in cultural and trade events, and by researching its history in archived records, stories and garments. The goal of this research is to add to the sparse literature on Native clothing, art, creativity, and identity by providing the only comprehensive critical scholarship on contemporary Native American fashion design.

My dissertation, "The Princess Production: Locating Pocahontas in Time and Place," critically evaluates the succession of representations of Pocahontas since her death in 1617. Pocahontas has become the prototypical "Indian Princess," through which the indigenous "other" is mapped onto Eurocentric constructions of gender and race, and subsequently transformed into the object of desire to be colonized. Chapter One begins with an introduction to the Pocahontas myth, and continues with an overview of the representation of Native Americans in cinema. Given that Native Americans have been the subject of the romanticization of the passing frontier, then the image of Pocahontas, standing in for the gendered "virgin" frontier, has been problematically used to represent American nationhood. In the second chapter, I investigate the commodification of the image of Pocahontas, by way of a critical assessment of Disney's Pocahontas (1995). Due to its extreme popularity and plethora of commercial tie-ins, this animated film was able to cement mainstream attitudes of Native Americans and especially of indigenous women. Critical discussion, however, was ameliorated through "politically correct" associations of Indians with ecological balance and moral purity versus European decadence. I analyze the symbolic association of Pocahontas with nature in Chapter Three, particularly in Terence Malick's recent film The New World (2005), where this association is most blatant. Malick has been heavily influenced by such philosophers as Martin Heidegger, and his resulting romantic and pantheistic vision clouds gender difference and racial antagonism. The image of Pocahontas in The New World, therefore, simply becomes a signifier for the grand impersonal workings of Nature. Finally, in Chapter Four, I discuss attempts by indigenous writers and groups to reappropriate Pocahontas for Native Americans, and I conclude that this is of strategic importance for transforming Indian identity. Since the image of Pocahontas has played such a large role in the shaping of mainstream attitudes and government policy toward Native Americans, then retrieving it from its colonial legacy will go a long way toward preserving Indian culture and identity in the future.