This exploratory study sought to understand how spirituality influences the experiences of loss, grief, and finding meaning for seven Indigenous women following the death of a loved one. Writing from an Indigenous research paradigm with storytelling as the research method, five recurring themes emerged from the transcripts: 1)dreams; 2) honouring memory; 3) healing; 4) making space; 5)meaning. In addition, three central themes were present in the five themes: 1) connection; 2) relationships; 3) we are not alone. The research exposed a story within a story, as each storyteller revealed a history of trauma related to colonization, and their healing journey of coming to see, coming to know, and coming to be as Indigenous women. The study found that spirituality positively influenced the experiences of loss, grief, and finding meaning through the maintenance of connections and relationships with their loved one, and affirming meaning or purpose in their life.

The study explores why some Indigenous students succeed in higher learning despite challenges faced and to what extent was wholistic success impacted by efficacy of wholistic learner supports. Through Indigenous Wholism that integrates the Circle Teaching (Rice, 2005, p. xi) and Mino-Pimatisiwin defined by Hart (2002), experiences of seven graduated and present post-secondary Indigenous students were explored. Special attention was focussed on strengths and challenges. Primary data collection methods consisted of Sharing Circles that provided group learning interaction; and semi-structured interviews that provided personal space for in-depth conversations. The factors that affect and promote wholistic success were grouped under three main areas: systemic and structural, social and cultural, and personal. Findings indicate six areas affecting wholistic success: (1) colonial relationships; (2) financial barriers; (3) fear of failure; (4) disempowerment; (5) sense of belonging; and (6) identity. Main factors promoting wholistic success are relational that include engaging interactions in safe learning spaces.

This exploratory study sought to understand how spirituality influences the experiences of loss, grief, and finding meaning for seven Indigenous women following the death of a loved one. Writing from an Indigenous research paradigm with storytelling as the research method, five recurring themes emerged from the transcripts: 1)dreams; 2) honouring memory; 3) healing; 4) making space; 5)meaning. In addition, three central themes were present in the five themes: 1) connection; 2) relationships; 3) we are not alone. The research exposed a story within a story, as each storyteller revealed a history of trauma related to colonization, and their healing journey of coming to see, coming to know, and coming to be as Indigenous women. The study found that spirituality positively influenced the experiences of loss, grief, and finding meaning through the maintenance of connections and relationships with their loved one, and affirming meaning or purpose in their life.

The study explores why some Indigenous students succeed in higher learning despite challenges faced and to what extent was wholistic success impacted by efficacy of wholistic learner supports. Through Indigenous Wholism that integrates the Circle Teaching (Rice, 2005, p. xi) and Mino-Pimatisiwin defined by Hart (2002), experiences of seven graduated and present post-secondary Indigenous students were explored. Special attention was focussed on strengths and challenges. Primary data collection methods consisted of Sharing Circles that provided group learning interaction; and semi-structured interviews that provided personal space for in-depth conversations. The factors that affect and promote wholistic success were grouped under three main areas: systemic and structural, social and cultural, and personal. Findings indicate six areas affecting wholistic success: (1) colonial relationships; (2) financial barriers; (3) fear of failure; (4) disempowerment; (5) sense of belonging; and (6) identity. Main factors promoting wholistic success are relational that include engaging interactions in safe learning spaces.

Thesis (M.A.)--University of Wisconsin--Madison, 1943. / Typescript. eContent provider-neutral record in process. Description based on print version record. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 105-107).

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In the current climate of American Indian culture in the United States, the impact of the internet on powwow music and the electronic sharing of music has superseded the more traditional sharing of music in Native cultures. Due to the unique history of American Indian cultures, Native music changed, or evolved, from medicinal uses, pejuta, to expressionism, a method in which to cope with and express the effect history has had on the American Indian people and a way in which to bond with one another in these shared experiences. The evolution of Native music is a traditional form of historical particularism as seen by Native people themselves, and the history of American Indians, ethnomusicology, and hip-hop prove that this is the natural trajectory of Native cultures in today's America. This paper poses to explore the movement of American Indian music from a sacred, private medicinal use, to continue being used to heal, but in a more public and adapted domain.

Stones have always been significant to many Enishkeetompauwog, the original people of the Northeast. However, the identification of Tribal ceremonial stone landscapes in present-day New England has become controversial. Tribal officials argue that their views on ceremonial stones have been ignored. Further, the legacy of colonialism and the historic bias that it has instilled in New England has led to dismissal of Tribal ceremonial stone landscapes, resulting in the disassembly or even destruction of culturally significant resources during development projects. This dissertation contends that collaborative work with Tribal officials that respects their expertise on what is culturally significant is essential to the work of preservation. This dissertation research was carried out in collaboration with the four Tribal Historic Preservation offices of the Mashantucket Pequot, Mohegan, Narragansett, and Wampanoag of Gay Head (Aquinnah). Ceremonial stone landscapes may be described as locations of Tribal ceremonial activity characterized by stone features that were assembled or altered by humans, and that may incorporate natural landscape features. These sites are important loci of Tribal history, inter-Tribal ceremony, and collective memory. to identify ceremonial features, multiple lines of evidence are drawn together including Tribal oral tradition, historic and archival research, field research, and collaborative documentation. This dissertation features case studies of two ceremonial stone landscapes in the Narragansett homelands: the Narragansett Indian Reservation and the Nipsachuck landscape. The presentation of ceremonial stone landscape features and sites in useful formats, including GIS shapefiles and technical reports, contribute to their preservation and protection, and help to maintain Tribal connections to ceremonial places. These case studies also show that through collaborative research, various stakeholders can be positively influenced about the existence and importance of ceremonial landscapes. The geospatial data presented in these case studies are cited with the permission of the four Tribal Historic Preservation officers. These data have been previously presented to federal agencies and are confidential pursuant to Section 106 of National Historic Preservation (36 CFR 800.4[a][4], 800.11[c]). This project intersects with federal policies and academic efforts to implement geospatial technologies in the study of archaeological and historic records. This dissertation contributes to and draws from archaeological ways of thinking about memory, commemoration, and landscape archaeology. This research also contributes to the thematic studies of historical archaeology of Native Americans, to the new colonial history of New England, to the developing methodologies of Indigenous archaeology.

This project explores ways of engaging with "impossible moments" that unsettle our reading practices. / This project arose out of restlessness, on my part, regarding how to read and engage with elements in Indigenous literatures written in Canada, which I could hitherto label as supernatural occurrences. Indeed, my Euro-Western literary education has been unable to provide appropriate tools for profoundly exploring the supernatural occurrences that I was encountering in the literature—a limitation that is made clear by scholars like Vine Deloria Jr. (Sioux), whose work calls for considering origin stories as literally possible. Through this thesis, I re-conceptualize these “supernatural” occurrences as “impossible moments”—a term that I use to avoid the connotations of Euro-Western rationalist nomenclature while also remaining aware that I read from an outsider position. My literary archive consists of Richard Wagamese’s (Anishinaabe) novel Keeper ’n Me (1994), his autobiographical book For Joshua (2002), Lee Maracle’s (Stó:lō) novel Ravensong (1993), and its sequel Celia’s Song (2014). Through the project, I establish two ethical, self-reflexive reading practices: one considers my active participation as a reader within the narratives and the other attends to my role as a reader in the “real” world. These reading practices are established both within the body of the thesis, as well as in extensive meditations within the footnotes. As an outsider, I employ my reading practices with the intention of bringing awareness to the limitations of Western literary reading practices, while at the same time not assuming an authoritative voice. Particularly important for my explorations of impossible moments is Daniel Heath Justice’s (Cherokee) principles of “kinship,” a term that identifies relational responsibilities between all living things. Utilizing the principles of kinship throughout this project allows me to demonstrate that impossible moments occur through narrations of the relational engagements that exist between all living things and the characters’ spiritual practices. / Thesis / Master of Arts (MA) / This project presents close readings of what are conceptualized as “impossible moments” in four literary works : Richard Wagamese’s (Anishinaabe) books Keeper ’n Me (1994) and For Joshua (2002), as well as author Lee Maracle’s (Stó:lō) novels Ravensong (1994) and its sequel Celia’s Song (2014). The term “impossible moments” may be understood as characterizing unsettling reading experiences, particularly those that leave the outside (i.e. non-local and, or non-Indigenous) reader on unfamiliar ground regarding how best to interpret the “impossibilities” that occur within a given narrative. The critical framework in this project demonstrates that “impossibilities” in Wagamese and Maracle’s works are expressions of kinship between all living things (i.e. humans, the land, the animals, and spirits) as well as expressions of spiritual traditions and ceremonies. Indeed, this project demonstrates the need to reassess our reading practices to encompass differentiated ways of knowing.