<p>Rock art documentation often draws from a range of recording perspectives, in which each framework facilitates different recording goals, preconceptions, and methods. As a result, each recording project collects different types of information from a rock art panel. The intricate and visually striking rock art murals painted on rockshelter walls in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands of southwestern Texas demand and benefit from the application of artistic, avocational archaeological, and professional archaeological documentation frameworks. </p><p> This research provided a case study that analyzed different recording projects of the Rattlesnake Canyon mural (41VV180), a Pecos River style pictograph panel located in the Lower Pecos Canyonlands. I applied a critical theoretical framework and the concept of &ldquo;capta&rdquo; to review and analyze the rock art documentation perspectives, methods, and materials collected from three major recording projects of the Rattlesnake Canyon mural. I focused on projects completed by artist Forrest Kirkland, the Texas Archeological Society (TAS) avocational archaeological Rock Art Task Force (RATF), and an illustration of the Shumla Archaeological Research and Education Center&rsquo;s (Shumla) recording process, to examine differences between artistic, avocational archaeological, and professional archaeological recording frameworks and methods. </p><p> This case study demonstrated the ways in which the specific framework or perspective of a recorder influenced the methods selected for documentation and the types of information collected during rock art recording. The results of this critical analysis showed that the different recording projects shared a similar goal: to preserve the Rattlesnake Canyon mural for future generations and continued archaeological study. The three different projects, however, drew from distinct recording frameworks that influenced the overall conception of the panel, the methods selected for recording, and the types of information collected. </p><p> In this case study, I suggested that rock art researchers, specifically those from a professional archaeological framework, value the incorporation of different perspectives and methods into rock art documentation. The inclusion of varied perspectives and methods brings different skillsets and expertise to rock art recording. In addition, each recording project gathers different kinds of information from rock art murals that can be used in different ways by subsequent recorders, researchers, and land managers. This critical analysis of previous rock art recording projects also demonstrated that existing rock art documentation legacy materials continue to serve as productive resources for further research, management, and public education purposes. </p>

Western patriarchy has become deeply ingrained in Indigenous Nations. Patriarchal ideology takes many harmful forms in Indigenous communities, most notably sexism, misogyny, family violence, and violence against women. Indigenous feminists are identifying and resisting patriarchy in Indigenous communities. However, Western patriarchy is so deeply rooted that many people believe it has always been there. Additionally, several Indigenous people resist all forms of feminism, believing the word "feminist" is synonymous with "white," and therefore suspicious. In order to increase trust in Indigenous feminisms, it must be proved that Indigenous feminist theories stand up to scrutiny. The characters in Debra Earling's Perma Red and Eden Robinson's Monkey Beach, particularly the protagonists Louise White Elk and Lisa Hill, are negatively affected by Western patriarchal ideology in their communities. By examining these texts through Indigenous feminist lenses, my thesis seeks to prove that Indigenous feminisms are viable additions to Indigenous Studies.

This study focuses on a secondary school in an Indian-African suburb of Merewent in KwaZulu-Natal, an example of a suburban school where English as a Home Language (EHL) is taught to a majority of non-native English learners from township schools. The EHL classrooms were investigated for ‘communicativeness’ and then compared to English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms. It might be expected that EHL classrooms would exhibit an affinity with ESL classrooms. However, although non-native EHL has many aspects in common with ESL, there were significant differences between the two. The most important difference from the standpoint of Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) was in the learning content selection, with the EHL settings using more literary works, and so focusing less on the direct teaching of grammatical forms. However, a disturbing pattern was the inability of the learners in both sets of settings to take full advantage of CLT, which suggested that the learners might not be at the appropriate level of language development.

<p> The Town Creek mound site, located in Montgomery County, North Carolina, is classified as Mississippian based on the archaeological evidence for intensive maize agriculture, the presence of complicated stamped ceramics, and the presence of an earthen platform mound. In my research, I studied hinterland sites within a 40-km radius of the mound site to determine how Mississippian settlement patterns in the surrounding region changed through time. I used ceramic analysis and the presence and absence of diagnostic artifacts to create an occupational history of hinterland sites. I also used spatial analysis to delineate polity boundaries and compare spatial patterns to others established in the region. When ceramic and spatial data were combined, patterns emerged suggesting that fewer hinterland sites were occupied during the height of Town Creek&rsquo;s occupation, and more hinterland sites were occupied when Town Creek&rsquo;s population was dwindling. These patterns suggest that as people moved away from Town Creek, they were relocating within the mound site&rsquo;s immediate vicinity. Spatial analysis also showed a break in hinterland sites at 18 km during all of Town Creek&rsquo;s occupation, indicating that the administrative center at Town Creek had an influence of at least 18 km.</p>

This dissertation explores the unique political and cultural possibilities that public performance held for Native American activists and artists in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Not only did these performance texts, generated in multiple genres, offer a counternarrative to the mainstream discourse of Native assimilation, they also provided Native writer-performers with a vehicle for embodying tribally-specific epistemologies, cosmologies, and diplomatic histories. These Native dramatists transformed the stage into a site of political possibility left unrealized on the printed page, a site where they could revise images of their peoples from shadows and stereotypes to sovereign nations. Included in this study are analyses of the speaking tours of Sarah Winnemucca Hopkins/Thocmetony (Northern Paiute), the performance poetry of Emily Pauline Johnson/Tekahionwake (Mohawk), an opera co-written by Gertrude Bonnin/Zitkala-Ša (Yankton Dakota), and pageants performed by the Garden River First Nation (Ketegaunseebee Anishinaabe). Drawing primarily on contemporary scholarship in Native American literary studies, including American Indian literary nationalism and internationalism, the burgeoning work in Native American performance studies, and methodologies from theater history, the following chapters contextualize both printed and performance versions of these texts with tribally-specific political, economic, and cultural histories, as well as performance reviews and broader federal Indian policy of the time. / text

<p> Throughout the history of the National Park Service, the question of whether Native American&rsquo;s still have rights to traditionally used natural resources found within park lands has been debated. This debate is largely held in political, legal, and philosophical arenas, but there are ethnographic and ecological questions that need to be addressed in order for policy makers to make informed decisions. Addressing these questions also provides insight into how cultures develop sustainable harvesting practices. One of the parks that has been addressing traditional plant harvesting is Mount Rainier National Park, which has been working with the Nisqually Indian Tribe to develop a collecting agreement that would allow members of the Tribe to harvest twelve species of plants. In this dissertation, I ask two questions: first, how do members of the Nisqually Tribe traditionally harvest these plants? My other question is: what are the biological effects of harvesting beargrass (<i>Xerophyllum tenax</i> (Pursh) Nutt.) and pipsissewa (<i> Chimaphila umbellata</i> (R. BR.) Spreng,), and peeling bark of western redcedar (<i>Thuja plicata</i> Donn. Ex D. Don)? I used a combination of ethnographic and ecological methods to answer these questions. Based on the metrics I used, the Nisqually practices do not decrease the abundance of beargrass and pipsissewa. The traditional harvest of cedar bark does not change the tree&rsquo;s secondary growth rate. The lack of measureable change in these three species is a product of limiting the amount of biomass harvested to within the plants&rsquo; range of tolerance to damage. Results suggest that the Nisqually&rsquo;s methods of harvesting are based upon traditional ecological knowledge. The results of this research will help Mount Rainier managers and the Nisqually Tribe to develop policy that allows the Tribe to utilize these plants while not interfering with the park&rsquo;s mission. </p>

Utilizing data from the Oklahoma Department of Health Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS) for the years 2004 through 2011, this study examines racial and ethnic differences in unhealthy maternal behaviors and the consequences of those actions on the health of both mother and child. The maternal behavior variables include smoking cigarettes, drinking alcohol, multivitamin use, and prenatal care utilization. The maternal health variables include gestational diabetes and hypertension. The labor and delivery outcome variables include placental issues, premature rupture of membranes (PROM), low birth weight, and child placement in an intensive care unit. This researcher hypothesized that minorities would engage in risky and unhealthy behaviors while pregnant more often than whites due to social disadvantages in the economic and educational realms. Furthermore, minorities would be more likely than whites to have unfavorable outcomes regarding labor, delivery, and health of the child due to lower socioeconomic status, poor maternal health, and underutilization of preventative care. The researcher finds that minority women seem to adhere to proper maternal health recommendations associated with personal choice, including smoking and drinking, though disparities are evident when compared to whites regarding behaviors associated with socioeconomic status, including prenatal care utilization and multivitamin use. African American women are more likely than whites to experience premature rupture of the membranes, have an underweight baby, and to place their baby in ICU, though less likely to experience placental issues. Native American women are less likely than whites to experience premature rupture of the membranes, have an underweight baby, and to place their baby in ICU, but more likely to experience placental issues. As expected, substantial changes have occurred in the maternal health and well-being of Oklahoma mothers over the course of the two PRAMS data collection phases.

This thesis uses Native American Student Affairs (NASA) at the University of Arizona (UA) as a case study to see where NASA matches and diverges from the current literature on Native American Cultural Centers (NACC). Twenty-eight current Native American undergraduates and graduates were surveyed about their views on NASA, and their responses were then analyzed for common themes. The findings showed that NASA was similar to the current research when it came to themes of community, promoting culture, feeling less isolated, networking, and having an independent space. It diverged on one demographic aspect, namely a significant portion of student respondents came from reservations, which is not reflective of the Native community in the United States as a whole. Additionally, it mentioned the importance of event hosting, which is not mentioned in the current literature at all. The majority of students identified NASA as creating a space for them to feel supported, provide resources, network, and host events that promote awareness of Native American issues. The thesis ends with recommendations for NASA based on the responses, and advocates for further research to delve deeper into the nuances of NACC's and their responsibility to continuously adapt to the needs of their students.

Native American doctoral student enrollment has not increased over the past twenty years, despite a steady increase in enrollment at the undergraduate level. Native Americans are the only group to not see an increase in doctoral degrees granted. There are many individual and institutional factors affecting Native American student success such as cultural and social isolation, financial stressors, racism, and access to indigenous faculty and mentoring. What are American Indian/Native American Studies (AIS/NAS) programs doing about it? AIS/NAS programs are uniquely qualified to address these factors. They were originally created to increase enrollment and recruitment of Native American students on campuses. Many of these programs have incorporated Native student retention into their missions and are often the only ones taking the next step to promote Native American graduate student success on campus. There are eight "pure" AIS/NAS graduate programs in the country. "Pure" means that the program is a stand-alone unit and the degree is earned in AIS/NAS. There are only three such doctoral programs in AIS/NAS: University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of California-Davis, and the University of Arizona. The University of Arizona is the number one doctoral degree granting institution in the United States for Native American students. Despite lack of funding and resources, forty percent of these doctoral recipients are from the American Indian Studies Program. A mixed method approach consisting of intense empirical research and data mining was used in order to find enrollments of Native students, identify AIS/NAS programs and enrollment trends, and identify factors affecting student success. Native American students are vastly underreported in the federal data base (IPEDS), which affects federal student aid and relegates many students invisible. The following were identified as the key factors for Native American graduate student success: determination and resiliency, supportive relationships through mentoring and access to faculty, and a desire to give back to their communities. It is recommended that AIS/NAS graduate programs honor their land grant obligations in order to increase access and funding for Native students through endowments and tuition waiver programs, develop a detailed mentoring plan, and improve outreach to Native communities.

In this dissertation, I present the results of my research on a prototypical interface of the metal oxide ZnO and the organic semiconductor C₆₀. I establish that the physics at such oxide / organic interfaces is complex and very different from the extensively investigated case of organic semiconductor / metal interfaces. The studies presented in this dissertation were designed to address and improve the understanding of the fundamental physics at such hybrid organic / inorganic interfaces. Using photoemission spectroscopies, I show that metal oxide defect states play an important role in determining the interfacial electronic properties, such as energy level alignment and charge carrier dynamics. In particular, I show that for hybrid interfaces, electronic phenomena are sensitive to the surface electronic structure of the inorganic semiconductor. I also demonstrate applications of photoemission spectroscopies which are unique in that they allow for a direct comparison of ultrafast charge carrier dynamics at the interface and the electronic structure of defect levels. The research presented here focuses on a achieving a significant understanding of the realistic and device relevant C₆₀ / ZnO hybrid interface. I show how the complex surface structure of ZnO can be modified by simple experimental protocols, with direct and dramatic consequences on the interfacial energy level alignment, carrier dynamics and carrier collection and injection efficiencies. As a result of this careful study of the electronic structure and dynamics at the C₆₀ / ZnO interface, a greater understanding of the role of gap states in interface hybridization and charge carrier localization is obtained. This dissertation constitutes a first step in achieving a fundamental understanding of hybrid interfacial electronic properties.