Domestic violence and sexual assault rates are higher on Indian reservations than anywhere else in the country. This text works toward an understanding of sexual violence as a legacy of colonialism. Rather than being rooted in inherent racial or cultural differences, current rates of sexual violence on Indian reservations are a continuation of a historical pattern in which colonizers used rape as a weapon to control, contain, and conquer the Indians. The unique history of racist and sexist oppression inflicted on Native Americans through the institutionalized denial of kinship, culture, sovereignty, and body autonomy has exacerbated the violence while frustrating the healing process. This paper describes how the boarding schools, Indian child removal, PL 280, the Oliphant decision, cultural appropriation, and the sexualized stereotyping of Indian women led to high rates of sexual violence on Indian reservations. It then explores how the Tulalip Tribes of Washington State have been proactive in fighting to end sexual assault and violence on their reservation, through retrocession, a holistic approach to batterer reform, and victim advocacy, while simultaneously lobbying in support of legislation such as the Violence Against Women Act, which would allow the Tribes to acquire criminal jurisdiction over non-Indians.

This paper attempts to provide an answer to the question of why the White House Tribal Nations Conferences (2009-2011) are happening by offering two hypothesis-- the first being the growing American Indian political power, while the other looks at whether the Conferences are simply symbolic politics--as potential answers. An in depth analysis of the Conferences and the purported accomplishments from the summits are analyzed in order to gain a deeper understanding of the Conferences themselves. Lastly, an interview with a tribal leader is presented to provide another framework in which to view the Conferences.

Family law regulates the formation of marriage, divorce, marital property rights, child custody, inheritance, and spousal duties. This study aims to demonstrate how family law formation in the Middle East and North Africa reflects the struggle among social and political forces to capture the state and assert authority. The balance of power between competing social forces impacts both the timing (short-term versus long-term struggle) and type (progressive or regressive) of family law after independence. The ability of one of two competing forces, broadly categorized as traditionalist versus modernist, to capture the state is necessary for codification and is predictive of family law content. Case studies reveal that systemic shocks (e.g. revolution, social unrest, or foreign intervention) tip the balance of power in favor of traditional or modernizing forces in the post-independence state-building process and facilitate the successful consolidation of power and the codification of family law.

The Mongol and the Ottoman leadership structures emerged in milieus where identities were changeable, mobility was high and the alliances were shifting. Chinggis Khan arose to degree of Khanate of entire Mongolia from an extremely marginal position in tribal politics and his experiences in this process provided him an anti-tribal political vision. He at the very beginning of his career formed the nucleus of his political power by his relationships and entourages. Later, he reorganized the clans and tribes, which submitted their loyalty to him around those principal participants in his army of conquest. Osman Bey made successful conquests thanks to the advantageous geographical position of his principality, became famous in a short time and managed to attract various elements of complex social structure of the Byzantine frontiers to him. He did not involve in a harsh struggle for leadership. Instead of monopolization of power, he favored sharing of it with his companions in arms. Mongols, after monopolizing power in the steppes devoted their energies to frontier conquests. However, during Chinggis Khan&rsquo / s reign, the Mongols saw the centre of the authority there. Their relation with the societies outside the Mongolia was indirect. Ottomans on the other hand, built up their administrative apparatus in the conquered territories. The Ottomans created a new bureaucratic group which did not have a power base besides the posts in Ottoman state and placed them to the centre of administration. Those posts did not have any hereditary dimension. The Mongols, contrary to the Ottomans, turned the state offices to hereditary posts and in time they began to distribute peoples, armies, lands and resources throughout the empire as appanages to state officers. Therefore, the Chinggisids created a new aristocracy who had the power in their hands to shake the centralist order of Chinggis Khan.

Indigenous peoples are garnering more focus on the world stage, and as such it is critical to understand their role in development. Indigenous peoples are especially impoverished, and often face institutionalized discrimination by their governments and other forces. This repression, limited access to services, and resource predation endanger indigenous peoples’ lives and livelihoods. I attempted to identify indigenous peoples’ policies in seven major development international non-governmental organizations, and after finding none upon document research and staff interviews, propose theories for why this could be the case. I compare international non-governmental organizations’ lack of policies to the presence of policies in international organizations. The difference between these two types of organizations formed the base of my theories, which were based primarily around the organizational structure and the different types of pressure and expectations that they face. I argue, though, that international non-governmental organizations should have indigenous peoples’ policies for several reasons including the improvement seen in international organizations’ treatment of indigenous peoples and the importance of accountability and transparency in the development process. The Report finishes by suggesting avenues to test the theories proposed, and plans for indigenous advocates. / text

This dissertation is the first historical-cultural exploration of the ways tribal customs made their way into mainstream America. Throughout his career, Cherokee entertainer and political pundit Will Rogers (1879-1935) drew on Cherokee traditions to ameliorate Americans' anxieties over the increase of mass media, the rise of urbanism, and the threatened loss of individuality that came with these changes. This study complicates overly-simplistic assumptions that popular culture uniformly misrepresented and victimized Native peoples during the Progressive Era and Interwar Years. By analyzing the early twentieth century through the work of one of its most influential American Indian participants, this project broadens notions of both American popular political cultures and American Indian identities. Although Rogers and other publicly known Natives like him did not always fit into the public's perception of "the Indian," they did fit into their tribe's artistic and cultural traditions. In this way, Rogers's overlooked work--his live performances on vaudeville and radio, his syndicated journalistic commentary, and his astounding film career--challenges scholarly understandings of the representation and misrepresentation of Native Americans. This study does not merely illuminate the intimate connections between Will Rogers and the Cherokee Nation. It further elucidates the ways American and specific American Indian tribal histories interact with one another. Scholars so often focus on the colonization and usurpation of Indian nations that we overlook the many times indigenous individuals and nations impact the United States in both positive and negative ways. This dissertation, in short, shows that scholars must reconsider essentialized notions of Indianness, turning instead to specific tribal histories and the ways these traditions intermingle with others to affect the whole. / text

Inconsistent modern tribal government political leadership standards are common throughout Indian Country. There is an urgent need to address the causes and effects of tribal political instability and the root of this instability which lies in the lack of leadership and the absence of a realistic leadership identity, specific to nations like the Northern Cheyenne. The modern concepts of tribal leadership are inconsistent, undefined, and if they do exist these concepts are incompatible with traditional Indian culture, spirituality, and community needs. Traditional Cheyenne concepts of leadership are rooted in the oral tradition and the Cheyenne ceremonial practices.This is a study of the Northern Cheyenne change in leadership concepts and the loss of traditional concepts of leadership during the time after their last armed resistance and before the establishment of the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Constitutional government. The history of Northern Cheyenne Nation is comprised of heroic triumphs and tragedies. Throughout this rich history, there have been spiritual and political leaders who have contributed to the survival of the Northern Cheyenne people. Leadership, from the perspective of the Cheyenne, and the traditional Cheyenne governing system were rooted in spiritual teachings, ceremonies, and sustained through serving the people. These ancient concepts of leadership allowed for stability. These traditional concepts were destroyed through colonization, and this led to political dysfunction.The goal of this study is to first identify the traditional concepts leadership, then identify the significant changes in these concepts of leadership to discuss how these changes have led to the current political instability of the Northern Cheyenne government. What were the major changes in traditional Cheyenne leadership and governance that occurred between 1876 and 1935? How did these changes in traditional leadership and governance occur? What traditional political, spiritual, and economic institutions of the Cheyenne were changed and how were they changed? What was Cheyenne leadership and governance like after the establishment of a reservation and after the establishment of an Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) constitutional government? What can the Northern Cheyenne people expect in the future of tribal leadership and government?

American Indians suffer disproportionately from mental disorders such as depression and substance abuse. American Indians have lower socioeconomic status than white Americans making them more vulnerable to mental health stressors and disorders, such as depression. Unfortunately, the causal processes and mechanisms producing negative psychological outcomes remain unclear. Despite the disadvantages faced by many American Indians, the Native American community offers cultural norms and values that facilitate treatment of and recovery from mental stressors. The Native American community offers its members an extended social support network as well as healing ceremonies, which could mitigate the effects of depression. In my dissertation, I compare the level of psychological distress between two tribal populations from a study from the Centers for American Indian and Alaska Native Health (CAIANH) at the University of Colorado at Denver. I use logistic regression to examine the relationship between the psychological distress score and tribal identity. The logistic regression analysis also explores the relationship between self-rated health and socioeconomic attainment. Finally, I compare the outcomes between the Northern Plains tribe and the Southwest tribe. The results suggest that individuals with a strong sense of cultural spirituality have lower psychological distress than individuals who do not have strong cultural spirituality. Also, individuals of the Southwest tribe who spent part of their lives off the reservation or near the reservation experience lower psychological distress compared to those who spent their entire lives on the reservation; in contrast, individuals of the Northern Plains tribe are disadvantaged in terms of mental health if they spent part of their lives off or near the reservations than those who stay on the reservation their whole lives. Members of either the Northern Plains tribe or Southwest tribe who feel socially isolated are very likely to experience severe psychological distress or rate their health poorly. The findings of the study indicate that resiliency factors among the tribes such as cultural-spirituality, reservation community and social support are protective, but the findings also encourage further understanding of mechanisms and utilization of the resources available. / text

The purpose of this story rug is to acquire a deeper understanding of 10 Navajo students' experiences as they journey toward college. Utilizing Indigenous theoretical frameworks including Tribal Critical Race Theory, Cultural Resilience, and Cultural Threads, this story rug centered attention on the systematic, structural forces and students' sources of strength that have shaped and continue to influence educational pathways for Navajo students. This story rug was guided by a qualitative mixed-method approach including Indigenous Storywork and narrative analysis. Through the assertion of the Navajo traditional oral story of the Twin Warriors, this story rug weaves in 10 Navajo students' experiences including the sociocultural and personal barriers, referred to as "monsters," that hindered their life and their college enrollment goals, how they internalized those "monsters," and then what were the sources of strength, referred to as "weapons," that guided them in life and toward college. The findings revealed systematic and personal monsters that intertwined within community, school, family, and self. The Financial Hardship Monster illustrated the struggles of poverty and its influence on students' educational aspirations. The Addiction Monster revealed how alcohol and drugs within community and family shaped students' pre-college journey. The Educational Deficit Monster uncovered Reservation schooling challenges that limited students' academic ability and college access. The final and more intimate monster, The Personal Struggles Monster, shed light on private and often unspoken challenges that students faced during a crucial time in the college-choice process. To overcome the monsters, students activated powerful weapons. The first set of weapons, Trusting Relationships and Vulnerability, entailed students' awareness of lessons learned during vulnerable moments and stories shared with mothers, grandmothers, and teachers. The Courage to Challenge Self weapons demonstrated that participation in college readiness opportunities and applying to high-stakes scholarships affirmed confidence that they were college material. The Transforming Obstacles to Positives weapons uncovered students' abilities to transform negative conditions into positive intentions, which motivated them to continue their journeys toward college. The final weapons, Faith in Spiritual Teachings, were spiritual and traditional teachings that reminded students that they were not alone and that they were unstoppable in proceeding toward college. This study underscored how context matters and penetrated in students' lives including systematic poverty, structural forces that fueled addiction, and systematic educational deficit and meritocracy ideologies. These stories have the power to transform discourses of deficiency to those of strength and honor for future Native student warriors and their educational attainment.

Purpose: Describe the Suquamish cultural influences on defining living a life worthwhile and to describe the compatibility of a culturally modified Dialectical Behavior Therapy (DBT) with a Native American community's culture and context. Background: Native Americans experience serious psychological distress, suicide, and substance abuse at higher rates than other racial groups. Studies using DBT found a significant decrease in parasuicidal risk behavior and substance abuse. However, research has not demonstrated that DBT is efficacious or compatible within the Native American culture. Specific Aims: 1) Describe the Native American cultural influences on defining living a life worthwhile. 2) Describe the compatibility between Healthy and Whole, a culturally modified DBT intervention with Native American culture. Methodology: Critical ethnographic study with in-depth interviews (13) and participant observations (10 months) was conducted. Sample was tribal members and clinicians exposed to the Healthy and Whole and tribal members who are identified as knowledgeable regarding tribal tradition. Analyses included semantic domain, taxonomic, and theme analysis for aim1 and compared DBT curriculum to results of aim 1 to accomplish aim 2.Findings: An intergenerational cycle of relational trauma was initiated by structural cultural genocide with systematic abuse and neglect of Native Americans especially children. Relational trauma of abuse and neglect is the source of a variety of maladaptive behaviors. These maladaptive behaviors lead to relational trauma in the next generation. A dual process of maintaining and revitalizing Suquamish cultural values coupled with skills taught in a culturally modified DBT intervention, Healthy and Whole, help Suquamish members live more worthwhile lives and recover from intrapersonal trauma. Implications: Healthy and Whole is a community approach to healing from relational trauma. Healthy and Whole approach to DBT may help other indigenous people live more worthwhile lives and recover from relational trauma and break the cycle because Suquamish cultural values are collectivist and many indigenous peoples share similar values and histories of historical trauma.