Scholarship & Research
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Item A timeline of how Native Americans/indigenous peoples have decolonized & indigenized: opera, jazz, & blues(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2021) Andrade, Bryce Clinton; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Walter FlemingAt the beginning of the assimilation era, Indigenous Tribes in North America were suppressed into western civilization. Suppression of Native American culture was rampant and still is. The art of music has come back with a vengeance and has helped the progression of decolonization and indigenization within many cultures, especially indigenous ones across the United States and Canada. The purpose of this thesis is to explore how Native Americans and Indigenous people have been able to decolonize and indigenize music between 1879 and present day -- specifically in genres such as opera, jazz and blues. The specific start date of the year 1879 enables us to engage and learn about the effects of missionary schools, more commonly known as boarding schools, and the effects that these schools have had on the culture and music for these communities. The activism in this paper is gauged on a scale of minimalism and maximization. These two spectrums will be explored in every genre provided and will present a preview of how native artists define the term activism and how they use or do not use it. Within indigenous activism, the terms 'Indigenization' and 'Decolonization' are vital and need to be established because some musical forms such as jazz are already decolonized in a historical sense. These forms of music stemmed from Black communities rebelling against the Westernized system that enslaved them thus forcing Black Americans to assimilate as well and adapt to new settings, create new cultures and with that new music. Decolonization can take place in European or Western forms of music such as opera and classical music. The timeline and interviews with current indigenous musicians will help show changes over time (even though timelines are a colonial or Western aspect), what being indigenous looks like in music, and how decolonization and indigenization have evolved as theories.Item Not NDN enough: a study of the importance of indigenous identity with regards to Native American student retention in higher education(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2020) Jeffers, Patrick Byron; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Kristin T. RuppelNot NDN Enough': A Study of the Importance of Traditional Indigenous Identity with Regards to Native American Student Retention in Higher Education. The average college experience is generally more difficult for indigenous students, when compared to their non-indigenous counterparts; not only do students feel they are leaving their homes and communities behind, but their culture and other less tangible aspects of their self and identity as well. Often, these issues of distance from Home and culture lead to problems with academic retention. This becomes more complicated when indigenous cultural identity is introduced, since the concept of identity in this regard cannot be seen in a linear fashion, but on a continuum, taking into account the lived experience of different indigenous peoples of different cultural upbringings and tribal affiliations. Despite these issues, traditional cultural identity can be a boon for indigenous student retention. Research was conducted at a university with a significant native student population, asking indigenous students about their cultural identities, upbringing and experiences in the university system. Out of 15 students surveyed, all said that they believe that elements of their traditional culture impact their persistence in higher education. By looking back at out old ways and traditions we as a people can find strength to move forward in our futures with our traditions in hand.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 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 The rainbow across the boundaries : a study of Leslie Marmon Silko's Ceremony(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2004) Idei, Yasuko Iseri; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Walter FlemingIn order to fully understand contemporary Native American literature like the works written by Leslie Marmon Silko, one must have a sufficient knowledge of the Native American worldviews expressed in their oral stories that have been handed down for unremembered generations. The study has to include what the oral tradition has meant to the indigenous people and their communities, how it has been kept and passed down, and what it can do to the tribal peoples for securing their identity and power to cope with contemporary issues. Indigenous people have different worldviews from other culture groups; theirs are different in the conception of time and space, the importance of land, of the spirit beings, and the relationships with all the beings in Nature and in the universe. This study examines how Silko weaves tradition of oral storytelling and worldviews in her writing to pass invaluable messages across the boundaries of culture. Silko has a skill and knowledge ingrained in her blood to write from her tradition, and her works are not only compatible with the worldviews of the Native Americans but also she ingeniously expresses her messages in her works, including Ceremony. Silko makes her efforts to convey it to a wider readership. This makes Ceremony one of the most significant novels written in the twentieth century.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 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 Indian Blood' or lifeblood? : an analysis of the racilization of native North American peoples(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2005) Ferguson, Laura Kathryn; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Lisa AldredThe racialization of Native Americans has distorted their individual and collective identities. As a mechanism of Western imperialism, "race" has contributed to their dispossession, disintegration and deculturalization. Racialized oppression continues at federal and tribal levels through the usage of racial terminology and in blood quantum policies, leading to the fragmentation, marginalization, stigmatization and alienation of Native individuals. As such, race and blood quantum pose a threat to the survival of tribes. Tribes have within their means indigenous alternatives to race and blood quantum and will need to revitalize these indigenous practices and principles if they are to safeguard their survival as autonomous cultural and political entities.Item The indigenous Gothic novel : tribal twists, native monsters, and the politics of appropriation(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2011) Gore, Amy Elizabeth; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Matthew HermanAlthough reading Native literature for cultural epistemology and rhetorical sovereignty remains important, an examination of Indigenous literature as text remains under-utilized. A critical inquiry into form and genre not only validates Native novels as literary art, it creates a fresh approach to their treatment of contemporary issues. Specifically, the recent prevalence of First Nations Gothic novels opens new questions for critics of Indigenous literature. Do certain genres better lend themselves to the common topics of Indigenous texts? How does the Gothic and the post/colonial synthesize uniquely into and perform within contemporary First Nations novels? What is it about the Gothic that might lend itself to the aesthetic purposes of an Indigenous author and why has this combination produced an abundance of triumphant texts in the last few decades? As a site of subversion, of a past that haunts the present, of a society in transition, and of cultural anxiety, these characteristics explain the current merger of the Gothic and the Indigenous. As I will delineate with various post/colonial theories and in specific texts such as Eden Robinson's 'Monkey Beach' and Joseph Boyden's 'Three Day Road', each of these themes proposes an invigorating method of Indigenizing the Gothic novel.