Native American Studies
Permanent URI for this communityhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/51
The Department of Native American Studies was established to provide and advance quality education for and about American Indians of Montana, the region, and the nation. In fulfilling this mission, the Department is committed to meet the changing needs of Montana's Indian tribes and all Montana citizens through excellence in teaching, research, and service. In its academic program, the department provides concentrated study through an undergraduate minor, the first online graduate certificate in Native American Studies offered, and a Master of Arts degree in Native American Studies. Students in any major can also gain a multicultural perspective through NAS offerings in the University's core curriculum. The Department, through its research and other creative efforts, actively pursues interdisciplinary scholarship in the field of Native American Studies.
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Item Community-based prevention education on abusive head trauma in a Montana Native American community(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Nursing, 2019) Schmitt, Emily Marie; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Sandra KuntzThis scholarly project cultivated a partnership with a Montana Native American community to develop an implementation method of an evidence-based, abusive-head-trauma-prevention education program. The partnering community felt that more could be done to prevent abusive head trauma. Utilizing the framework of Community-Based Participatory Research and the Rural Nursing Theory, this project identified the best available evidence and then developed multiple methods to implement this prevention material. Multiple lessons were learned and important reflections developed from the project process. These lessons can be utilized to guide future projects. A model for program implementation was developed for future use and implementation of the evidence-based, abusive-head-trauma-prevention program.Item Piikani School leadership(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2018) Hall, Omaksaakoomapi Bradford Roy; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: William RuffThis dissertation focuses on Piikani school leadership as shared through the narratives and experiences of a retired school leader. Noonaki's experiences chronicle her longevity in school leadership and steadfast commitment to integrating the Piikani culture and language into the schools she led on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Noonaki's stories provide a realistic view of school leadership challenges she faced and offer her thought provoking knowledge to inspire current and aspiring school leaders to accept the Piikani values into their practices. School leaders are key to advancing Piikani values, culture, and language into the schools they serve on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. Therefore, school leaders when developing relevant leadership practices, are called upon to commit themselves to practice ai-sii-moki' (guidance, teaching, and discipline), as they encounter and mitigate challenges among community stakeholders, specifically focusing on how they each can support student success. Through Noonaki's transfer of knowledge from her to the researcher, this exchange encapsulates her experiences into stories, told in the places where she practiced school leadership. Community Centered Digital Storywork (CCDS), is an integrated Piikani knowledge dissemination framework, that leverages cultural protocols to capture Piikani ways of knowing. Noonaki inspires current and aspiring school leaders to build their skills and practices around the Piikani values of okamotsitapiyiisin (honesty), ainnakowe (respect), aahsitapiitsin (generosity), waattosin (spirituality), matsisskii or iiyiikittahpii (courage), maanistapaisspipii (humility), and kimmapiiyipitsinni (compassion).Item The current state of Diné bizaad(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2016) Pearson, Fox Chancellor; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Matthew HermanDiné Bizaad, also known as the Navajo language, is the most common Native American language in the United States. In his research for this thesis, Fox Chancellor Pearson seeks to ascertain for himself the current state of Diné Bizaad. Pearson combines his own observations, living and working both on and bordering the Navajo Nation, with input gathered during interviews with Diné people from diverse walks-of-life. Pearson concludes that Diné Bizaad is still alive and well among Diné elders, but it is in rapid decline among the younger generation.Item Protective factors that enhance the resilience of American Indian students in graduating from urban high schools(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2017) McCarthy, Glenda Anne; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Christine Rogers StantonThe purpose of this research was to explore protective factors that strengthen the innate resilience of American Indian students who seek to graduate from urban high schools. A collective case study using Community Based Participatory Research and decolonizing methodologies was conducted with three co-researchers who graduated from a Montana urban high school in 2014 or 2015. Data sources included a series of three in depth interviews with each co-researcher and scrapbooks they created to document their high school years and protective factors. One family focus group provided an additional data source. Analysis reveals the importance of family and cultural protective factors, including the knowledge of tribal histories. Another protective factor is Montana's multicultural mandate, Indian Education for All, when implemented with culturally responsive pedagogy. Co-researchers benefitted from caring teachers who maintained high standards. Further protective factors were school and district based programs that supported student achievement, connected Native families with schools and celebrated, sustained or revitalized Native culture in urban high schools.Item The Urban Indian community of Minneapolis, Minnesota : an analysis of educational achievements, housing conditions, and health care from the relocation of 1952 to today(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2004) Zimmerman, Leslie Ann; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Alexandra New HolyThis thesis critically evaluates the improvements in educational achievements, housing conditions, and health care needs for the urban Indian population of Minneapolis, Minnesota. I specifically focus on the Relocation Policy and how that Policy, instead of assimilating American Indians into mainstream society, became a vehicle for elevating the population of American Indians in Minneapolis to a level of “visibility.” As well, I discuss how this once “invisible” urban community formed an urban coalition, the American Indian Movement (AIM), to actively seek social justices in education, housing, and health care for the urban Indian population of Minneapolis, Minnesota. The intent of the research is to determine whether the extensive funding and programs directed toward the urban Indian population of Minneapolis throughout the last four decades have brought about significant improvements; to determine the degree of, and changes in educational achievements, housing conditions, and health needs of the urban Indian population of Minneapolis, Minnesota. This project is the first evaluation of whether conditions within the urban Indian community of Minneapolis have improved since Relocation. I think this project was needed to critically evaluate a metro area like Minneapolis that has such an extensive history of programs and funding for the urban Indian population.Item Coming-to-know : overcoming a limited understanding of Native American knowledge(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2013) Spang-Willis, Francine Dawn; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Matthew HermanThe challenge is the perpetuation of a limited understanding of Native Americans, and the negative impacts it has on Native Americans, non-Native Americans and the American society, as a whole. An autobiographical narrative of my experience preserving and sharing Crow, Northern Cheyenne, and Chippewa Cree knowledge history and culture, from their perspective, through the American Indian Tribal Histories Project (AITHP), and collected documents are used to further understand the themes of the study. The AITHP intent is to preserve, maintain, and share American Indian histories and cultures, or cultural heritage knowledge from an American Indian perspective. The project trained tribal members in preservation-related disciplines, recorded tribal traditions through American Indian perspectives, and maintained flexibility in programmatic design as each tribe was engaged in the project. The Northern Cheyenne Constitution promotes all tribal members enjoying, without hindrance, freedom of worship, conscience, speech, press, assembly, and association as guaranteed by the Constitution of the United States. However, the Northern Cheyenne Tribal Council (NCTC) passed a resolution, which prohibited the Western Heritage Center's AITHP from utilizing its tribal resources, including tribal members sharing their Cheyenne knowledge. Two years later, the NCTC passed another resolution supporting the Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and requesting the United Nations to adopt the same Declaration of the Right of Indigenous Peoples. The United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) came into effect in 2007. The U.S. government showed its support in 2010. Individuals within the current U.S. government, educational, and legal structures, including tribal government structures need to further support Native American peoples' right to self-determination, and empower them to define themselves in ways they deem appropriate. Individuals must actively implement existing structures created to empower Native Americans, including the Northern Cheyenne Constitution (Bill of Rights), United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People (UNDRIP), Montana's Indian Education For All Act, and the AITHP. By supporting Native Americans' right to self-determine, including Indigenous approaches to define themselves, a limited understanding of them as the Other, and its negative impacts can be overcome.Item Child artisans of the northern plains : woodcarving at Fort Shaw Indian School, 1892-1910(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2011) Scott, Kristi Dawn; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Walter FlemingNumerous contract and federal Indian boarding schools operated on the northern plains during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Though there were thousands of Indian children who attended schools in Montana, boarding school culture there remains very much shrouded in mystery. This thesis illuminates individual biographies that intersect with manual arts training at the Fort Shaw Indian School that operated from 1892-1910. Thirteen sunken-relief wood carvings were created in this central Montana school, and now reside in the Smithsonian's vast repositories. A closer look at circumstances that led to their manifestation at the off-reservation federal institution reveals a complex public history of race, gender and curriculum. These examples, and others, illustrate the great potential of museum artifacts as informative sources that tether us to a not-so-distant past. This significant material warrants inclusion in the patchwork of memories that inform our understandings of boarding school cultures nationally. Further, the artworks featured in this thesis elucidate the work of child artisans on the northern plains who had previously been all but silenced and help us reengage with an era that is significant to our shared regional history.Item Teachers' beliefs regarding effective teaching strategies for American Indian students in mathematics(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2008) Vallines Mira, Raquel; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Maurice J. BurkeExtensive research has been conducted on teaching strategies that are effective for American Indians in mathematics. Despite the variety of cultural, linguistic, socioeconomic, and geographic factors influencing student learning within and among American Indian communities, common characteristics of learning styles and effective teaching practices have been identified. Though the wording in each definition varies, research based on a variety of theoretical frameworks and using a variety of methodologies and instruments suggests that among American Indian students, there is a tendency to learn better when the following three strategies are used: contextualization, modeling and demonstration, and joint productive activity. Despite the general agreement in education research that the beliefs that teachers hold about mathematics teaching and learning greatly impact their instructional decisions in the classroom, few, if any, of those studies have examined teachers' beliefs regarding effective strategies for American Indians in mathematics. The main purpose of this study was to add the voices of four teachers to the research community conversation about effective teaching strategies for American Indians in mathematics. Two elementary and two high school teachers from two schools in Montana were selected for this study for their experience with and commitment to the mathematics education of American Indian students. Two are American Indians and two are White. Using a combination of classroom observations and a modification of videoclip interviews, the beliefs of the four teachers were identified with particular focus on the three teaching strategies mentioned above. The study shows that teachers' definitions of research-based strategies often differ from those intended by the research. Teachers' views about these strategies seemed to be idiosyncratic to individual teachers and appeared to be shaped by multiple lenses. In this study, some of those lenses emerged including, among others, school structures and teachers' cultural backgrounds. In light of the results of the study, future efforts for constructive bi-directional communication between the research community and practitioners are recommended.Item Questioning Indian land workshop : a ceremony based approach to learning(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2012) Marian, John Baptist, III; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Matthew Herman.Tafoya suggests, "Stories go in circles." This thesis is the story of learning to implement an indigenous research paradigm in a college classroom then designing the workshop because of the relationships formed together. First the thesis describes preparing for the research ceremony then focusing those relationships through the lens of Research is Ceremony. Followed by summarizing how the workshop functioned as a ceremony. Then characterizing how the four directions guided the evolution of the relational workshop. The research paradigm exemplified by indigenous scholar Shawn Wilson in Research is Ceremony overlaps nicely with adult educational theories that suggest making personal connections to new information is how learning occurs. Indigenous research is a relationship embodied in the elements of ontology, epistemology, methodology and axiology. Ontology and Epistemology together form each individual's worldview. Ontology questions the nature of reality. Epistemology examines how we think about what is real. Methodology and axiology describe how we remain accountable to the relationships forming our reality. Methodology is how we strengthen our relationship to reality. Axiology defines what's worth knowing more about. Through ceremony, researchers respectfully seek knowledge from the Cosmos. The workshop was a ceremony for asking personal questions about Indian land. A reality-based inquiry design rooted in scholarly practice directed by students was planned and implemented in the pilot workshop. In this workshop, the teacher learns alongside the students - acting as a guide for the self-regulated discovery of new knowledge. Respecting the knowledge and process is the ceremony. The relational workshop wheel graphically depicts the five dimensions of the cycle and their interconnectedness. By asking respectful questions of the unknown, the cycle begins. As a researcher and teacher living a congruent lifestyle and preparing the space for the ceremony, academic information and practical experience collide to devise the methodology and axiology for the journey. Bringing together the ingredients opens the space for the ceremony, where students' questions about the land guide the workshop's search. Reflecting on the knowledge gained while leading the ceremony then evolves the workshop into something accessible to responsive educators. The ceremony creates personal accountability to modify the course, and the wheel turns again.Item The boarding school legacy : ten contemporary Lakota women tell their stories(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Education, Health & Human Development, 2007) Bowker, Kathie Marie; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Ardy Clarke; Larry Baker (co-chair)The purpose of this study is to understand the impact of boarding schools on the lives of Lakota women through their lived experiences as children, adolescents, and adults. The participants related their experiences through a series of open ended questions. The first interview established information about and initial impressions of the boarding school, including everyday activities and how the women felt about being away from home. The second interview allowed the women to describe the impact the boarding school had on their emotional growth and maturation. The final interview discussed how they presently function in their daily lives and the relationship it has to their experiences at boarding school.