Intelligence and creativity are concepts used to describe the efforts of human beings to achieve the highest aspirations of the human brain-mind-spirit system.Howard Gardner, intelligence and creativity researcher, applied his Multiple Intelligence theory to case studies of creative masters from seven intelligence domains developing a template for research: Life Course Perspective: A Framework for Creativity Analysis. The framework consists of four sections: Child and Master, Creation of a Work, an Analysis of Creativity, The Creator and the Field, and Fruitful Asynchronicity. This case study uses Gardner's framework in examining cognition and creativity in a Navajo/Dineh university student creating in fine arts and nominated in bodily-kinesthetic and intra-personal intelligence. This explorative case study reveals that he also excels in other intelligence domains: linguistic and spatial. Meta-cognitive interviews with the case study subject, and his notebooks provide the data sources concerning his cognition and his creativity.Indigenous educators and researchers assert that there is a discernible difference in perspectives concerning western science conceptions and Indigenous experience. This research discovered points of resonance as well as tangential trajectories of cultural difference from Gardner's research conclusions. Discoveries in this exploration confirm the importance of culture and zeitgeist in knowledge development, pedagogy, schoolingand the creativity process. Emerging themes emanating from these discoveries areChild of the Holy People, Sacred Geography, and Fruitful Asynchronicity from an Indigenous Perspective.Conclusions from this inductive research support Gardner's framework in the cultural study of cognition and creativity, underscores the value of Multiple Intelligence theory, and provide examples of praxis consonant with Indigenous learning processes for Gifted & Talented Education. The American Indigenous symbiotic and synergetic perspectives are novel in the examination of intelligence and creativity in the American education system. The American Indian perspectives are possibly prophetic as they proceed beyond culture and Gifted education intersecting and informing other fields: psychology, educational anthropology, philosophy, and Indigenous studies both in American populations as well as Indigenous gifted students worldwide.

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.

Between Women: Alliances and Divisions in American Indian, Mexican American, and Anglo American Literatures of Protest to Colonialism investigates nineteenth- and twentieth-century women writers' negotiation of women's rights discourses. This project examines the split between nineteenth-century women's rights groups and the Equal Rights Association to assess how American Indian, Mexican American, Anglo women, and, more recently, Chicana writers provide theoretical insights for new directions in feminisms. This study is grounded historically in order to learn from the past and continue efforts toward "decolonizing feminisms," to borrow a phrase from Chandra Mohanty. To that end, current feminist theories about alliances and solidarity are linked to ways that writers intervene in feminisms to simultaneously imagine solidarity against white male colonialist violence and object to racism on the part of Anglo women. Like all the writers in this study, Sarah Winnemucca's Life Among the Piutes: Their Wrongs and Claims (1883) challenges Anglo women to not be complicit with Anglo male colonialist violence. Winnemucca's testimony illuminates the history of alliances between Anglo and Native women and current debates amongst various Native women activists regarding feminism. Between Women traces how Anglo American writer Helen Hunt Jackson's Ramona (1884) protests effects of U.S. colonialism on Luiseno people and her negotiation of feminisms compared with Winnemucca's writing and Maria Amparo Ruiz de Burton's The Squatter and the Don (1885) and Who Would Have Thought It? (1872), novels that protest the effects of U.S. colonialism on Mexican Americans, particularly women. It then compares Ruiz de Burton's writing to Helena Mari­a Viramontes's Under the Feet of Jesus (1995) and Cherri­e Moraga's Heroes and Saints (1994), texts that acknowledge the difficulties of forming alliances between women in the context of exploitation, pesticide poisoning of Chicanas/os, and border policies. The epilogue points to Evelina Lucero's Night Sky, Morning Star (2000), demonstrating how an understanding of the history that Winnemucca engages elucidates American Indian literature in the twenty-first century. By looking deeply at how nineteenth-century conflicts effect us in the present, scholars and activists might better assess tactics for feminisms in the twenty-first century that enact an anti-colonialist feminist praxis.

Both novels expose the "fake idea" that Aboriginal people in Canada can freely choose their identities. The dominant discourse forces a choice on them: assimilate or vanish. Those who refuse the choice face harsh racism. In April Raintree, April assimilates and her sister commits suicide; both "choices" forced on them by racism. In Slash, the hero realizes that it is crucial to retain his identity as an Okanagan person rather than to exhaust himself as an activist. Both novels end with a baby who will be raised in the traditions of his culture. Activism is seen as a dangerous choice for those too young to understand their identity.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Pennsylvania State University, 2007.

Thesis (M.A.)--East Tennessee State University, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 79-82). Also available as PDF document via Internet at the East Tennessee State University website.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Indiana University, 2009. / Title from screen (viewed on August 27, 2009). School of Nursing, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). Advisor(s): Melinda M. Swenson, Kathleen M. Russell, Deborah Stiffler, Larry J. Zimmerman. Includes vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 169-185).

Thesis (D.W.S.)--Institute for Worship Studies, 2006. / Abstract and vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 206-211).

The purpose of this study was to explore the influence of family worldview and cultural socialization on indicators of positive youth development in American Indian youth. Hierarchical linear modeling was used to determine whether cultural socialization moderated the relationship between family worldview and indicators of positive development in American Indian youth as measured by ethnic identity, pro-social activity, positive family relationships, hope, self-regulation, and future orientation. Individual and family differences were also examined. Participants included a community sample of 311 American Indian children and youth from 174 American Indian families from three tribes in the Pacific Northwest. Results demonstrated that the amount of variance between families for each of the positive youth outcomes was significant enough to warrant hierarchical linear modeling (HLM). Family worldview was not significantly related to any of the positive youth outcomes and when entered into the HLM models did not significantly explain any variation in mean scores between families. The relationship between cultural socialization and ethnic identity was significant and positive and when entered into the HLM models significantly explained 10% of the variation in mean scores between families. There was a significant difference between the ethnic identity scores of males and females, with females having a higher mean than males. Positive family relationship scores were negatively correlated with age. Older youth tended to report less positive family relationships than their younger counterparts. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

abstract: In the university setting, when a person wants to conduct research that deals with human subjects, they are required to receive the approval of their Institutional Review Board (IRB). This process takes place to ensure the proposed research is ethical and poses minimal risks to the willing subject. In Indian Country, there is a growing trend where American Indian nations are taking control over regulating research that is conducted within their jurisdictional boundaries. In my thesis, I discuss the historical background that has led to the IRBs academics are familiar within universities they see today. In addition, I discuss the body of literature that addresses IRBs, human subjects, and the debate on which research should or should not be regulated by universities. I will then, critically analyze the established research protocols that exist in Arizona American Indian tribes. I use Darrell Posey's (1996) idea of Community Controlled Research (CCR) as the framework for my analysis. CCR dictates the people of the community decide the ways in which research is conducted. The purpose of my research is to create recommendations that will assist and inform tribes how to either, strengthen their existing protocols, or create a research protocol that will promotes Community Controlled Research. / Dissertation/Thesis / Masters Thesis Social Justice and Human Rights 2015