Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2007. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 68-06, Section: A, page: 2622. Advisers: Frederick Hoxie; Kathryn Oberdeck. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 275-293) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Calgary (Canada), 2006. / (UnM)AAINR13611. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 67-04, Section: A, page: 1193.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 1998. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves [285]-291).

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-05, Section: A, page: 1696. Adviser: Antonia Darder. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 191-210) Available on microfilm from Pro Quest Information and Learning.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of California, San Francisco, 2008. / Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 69-09, Section: B, page: 5322. Adviser: Holly P. Kennedy.

This dissertation examines the perception and uses of mathematics on the San Carlos Apache reservation. The initial research questions were: 1) To what extent can the identification of Apache mathematics concepts provide a theoretical basis for the inclusion of Apache mathematical knowledge into the classrooms? 2) How will the identification of Apache mathematics use within the community affect the perception of community members' mastery of mathematics in general? Eight enrolled adult Apache community members were interviewed and observed utilizing qualitative and quantitative methods regarding their use and perception of mathematics. The data suggests that the English word "mathematics" represents a narrow perception of mathematics whereas the study interviewees indicated that they engaged in complex mathematical concepts that are identified and discussed as a culturally distinct phenomena, Apache mathematics.

The objective of this study is to compare suicidal thoughts amongst American Indian/Alaskan Native's (AI/AN) to a non-AI/AN comparison group, using data from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health, a nationally-representative, longitudinal study. At wave one a statistical difference is present between NA/AN and comparisons, but at wave four the difference is no longer significant. Using Agnew’s General Strain theory as a theoretical framework, factors that may contribute to these differences addressed in this study include: alcohol abuse, exposure to suicidal behavior of friends and family, depression, and weapon access. Implications for prevention and treatment are discussed.

abstract: During the 1850s, Indian policy objectives pursued by the civil and military branches of government in New Mexico would have a lasting impact on future relations between the two cultures. Many later policies originated in this antebellum period, but often receive only a summary analysis by scholars who focus on the more popular post-Civil War period. Debates over proper policies and enforcement would proliferate in the 1850s as military and civil officials vied with one another over their own perceived authority. Many officials pursued viable policies, but did not remain in office long enough to ensure their implementation. Additionally, personal egos and stubbornness often undermined interagency cooperation. An overall cultural misunderstanding regarding Apache tribal structure and the inability to distinguish between subgroups exacerbated the conflict. Anti-Indian sentiments prevailed in the military, which often contradicted the more humanitarian approach advocated by the Indian Department. As a result, a contention for power and prestige emerged on three separate fronts: civil government leaders, military leaders, and within the Apache tribe. This thesis offers a contextualization of events that transpired during the 1870s and 1880s by demonstrating how these three entities contended amongst each other for power, undermining policy objectives in the antebellum era. Americans sought to conquer and control--to exert authority and power--over all components of the western landscape in order that they might realize its full economic potential. The Apaches formed a part of this landscape much the same as lofty mountain ranges, raging rivers, and parched deserts. All of these required conquering before that nineteenth century American dream could be fully imbued in the Southwest, and over the several decades following Kearny's arrival countless individuals streamed westward in torrents intent on accomplishing just that. The Apaches, like all western tribes, thus fell into an unstoppable cycle of conquest driven by an insatiable Anglo-American obsession with exerting control. Just as swarthy lawyers challenged claims to gain legal dominion over western tracts of land; just as engineers constructed dams and sought ways to manipulate streams and rivers; just as the plow tilled millions of acres of raw lands; just as the miner's pick slowly chipped away at formidable peaks; so too did the United States Army subdue the Apaches, all of these being a means towards a common end for the American West. / Dissertation/Thesis / M.A. History 2011

abstract: The Native American population is severely underrepresented in empirical test validity research despite being overrepresented in special education programs and at an increased risk for special educational evaluation. This study is the first to investigate the structural validity of the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children - Fourth Edition (WISC-IV) with a Native American sample. The structural validity of the WISC-IV was investigated using the core subtest scores of 176, six-to-sixteen-year-old Native American children referred for a psychoeducational evaluation. The exploratory factor analysis procedures reported in the WISC-IV technical manual were replicated with the current sample. Congruence coefficients were used to measure the similarity between the derived factor structure and the normative factor structure. The Schmid-Leiman orthogonalization procedure was used to study the role of the higher-order general ability factor. Results support the structural validity of the first-order and higher-order factors of the WISC-IV within this sample. The normative first-order factor structure was replicated in this sample, and the Schmid-Leiman procedure identified a higher-order general ability factor that accounted for the greatest amount of common variance (70%) and total variance (37%). The results support the structural validity of the WISC-IV within a referred Native American sample. The outcome also suggests that interpretation of the WISC-IV scores should focus on the global ability factor. / Dissertation/Thesis / Ph.D. Educational Psychology 2011

Native and Colonial Americans had vastly different approaches to the world, and viewed nature and other people in quite dissimilar ways. The concept of self is central to this project because personal values and attitudes toward others are grounded in agency - actions that emerge from the self and define the way that one treats his or her surroundings and everyone or thing in it. The way that one's self is perceived is necessarily communicated within the context of social settings. Situation in a world of other people (and of nature) requires that actions be weighed in accordance with agency. The very concept of what it is to have self is a key way to understand a world-view, because the values that are central to cultural communities have their locus within self. As such, the importance of defining to what or to whom one is agent must be addressed. The concepts of self that were fostered in members of tribes and early settlement communities contributed greatly to the world-views of their members, and consequently the treatment of their surroundings. One aim of Native American religions was to cultivate within tribal members the worthiness of respect harbored within beings of all sorts. Native American oral traditions established in members, from early on, the skill of actively listening to nature and the mindset that the earth and its inhabitants should be approached with care and respect. This was apparent in the treatment of nature, for personhood was extended to living creatures of all kinds, and even what we might regard as inanimate objects. Native Americans viewed themselves as vitally related to all other living powers of the world. These approaches to interacting with nature, combined with a word-view that was willing to accept a wide array of entities as beings, instilled a broad concept of self within Native American peoples. In contrast, based on traditional Western thought - foundationally that of Descartes and highly influenced by John Locke - Colonial Americans developed a very different concept of self from which members of this culture saw the world as hierarchical. As a result, selves turned inward and understood personal existence as other than, or separate from, nature. Persons were manifestly cognitive beings with moral agency, and only other beings with the same attributes should be afforded equal respect or regarded as having rights, as such. The thematic that developed as a result was, and still is today, founded upon the value of property ownership and the utilization of property and natural resources for production. Why is it important to look at the individual Native American tribe member or Colonial American community member? Since the actions of each member contribute to the wellbeing of the whole group, and consequently of nature, it is important to grasp how self-conduct that is necessarily a product of the individual self, fits into the bigger picture and affects the attitudes and actions of the individual toward other people and the environment. This coincides with the purpose of this project to show how the concept of self for Native Americans can be illuminating in many ways, consequently casting light on how we might learn from their ways, rather than give the impression to readers that one concept of self is any better or worse than the other. It is my aim to illustrate the unique and intriguing way that Native Americans view the self as part of nature, and investigate how these differing concepts of self, in relation to nature, affect how the these groups act toward nature. My hope is that readers will be encouraged to reflect on their own values and the roles that those values play in modern America, including some of the implications that these concepts of self have had in the past and continue to have for the future.