The Gwich'in Natives of Arctic Village, Alaska, have experienced intense social and economic changes for more than a century. In the late 20th century, new transportation and communication technologies introduced radically new value systems; while some of these changes may be seen as socially beneficial, others suggest a weakening of what was once a strong and vibrant Native community. Using quantitative and qualitative data gathered since the turn of the millennium, this volume offers an interdisciplinary evaluation of the developments that have occurred in the community over the past several decades.

Using auto-ethnography, Taieb narrates the journey of developing a educational philosophy from and for the Kayble of Algeria and undertakes to write the sociological foundations of an Kayble education system.

Knowledge systems are an essential aspect to the preservation of a community's culture. In developing countries, this community-based knowledge has significant influence on such things as decision making and problem solving. The Handbook of Research on Social, Cultural, and Educational Considerations of Indigenous Knowledge in Developing Countries is an authoritative reference source for the latest scholarly research on the importance of knowledge and value systems at the community level and ways indigenous people utilize this information. Highlighting impacts on culture and education in developing nations, this book is ideally designed for researchers, academicians, policy makers, students, and professionals interested in contemporary debates on indigenous knowledge systems.

Indigenous peoples have passed down vital knowledge for generations from which local plants help cure common ailments, to which parts of the land are unsuitable for buildings because of earthquakes. Here, Hendry examines science through these indigenous roots, problematizing the idea that Western science is the only type that deserves that name.

Written for high school students and general readers alike, this insightful treatment links the storied past of various Apache tribes with their life in contemporary times. Written for high school students and general readers alike, Culture and Customs of the Apache Indians links the storied past of the Apaches with contemporary times. It covers modern-day Apache culture and customs for all eight tribes in Arizona, New Mexico, and Oklahoma since the end of the Apache wars in the 1880s. Highlighting tribal religion, government, social customs, lifestyle, and family structures, as well as arts, music, dance, and contemporary issues, the book helps readers understand Apaches today, countering stereotypes based on the 18th- and 19th-century views created by the popular media. It demonstrates that Apache communities are contributing members of society and that, while their culture and customs are based on traditional ways, they live and work in the modern world. Takes an in-depth look at the Apache language today Discusses modern-day Apache artists, writers, musicians, and tribal leaders Contains an assortment of historical and modern photographs as well as charts and illustrations Provides a chronology of major historical events

Examining a series of court decisions made during the 1980s regarding the legal claims of several Native American tribes who attempted to protect ancestrally revered lands from development schemes by the federal government, this book looks at important questions raised about the religious status of land. The tribes used the First Amendment right of free exercise of religion as the basis of their claim, since governmental action threatened to alter the land which served as the primordial sacred reality without which their derivative religious practices would be meaningless. Brown argues that a constricted notion of religion on the part of the courts, combined with a pervasive cultural predisposition towards land as private property, marred the Constitutional analysis of the courts to deprive the Native American plaintiffs of religious liberty.

Brown looks at four cases, which raised the issue at the federal district and appellate court levels, centered on lands in Tennessee, Utah, South Dakota, and Arizona; then it considers a fifth case regarding land in northwestern California, which ultimately went to the U.S. Supreme Court. In all cases, the author identifies serious deficiencies in the judicial evaluations. The lower courts applied a conception of religion as a set of beliefs and practices that are discrete and essentially separate from land, thus distorting and devaluing the fundamental basis of the tribal claims. It was this reductive fixation of land as property, implicit in the rulings of the first four cases, that became explicitly sanctioned and codified in the Supreme Court's decision in "Lyng v. Northwest Indian Cemetery Protective Association" of 1988. In reaching such a position, the Supreme Court injudiciously engaged in a policy determination to protect government land holdings, and did so through a shocking repudiation of its own long established jurisprudential procedure in cases concerning the free exercise of religion.

This title tracks the development of Justice Thurgood Marshall's rationale and reason regarding Indian law. Drawing from Marshall's career preceding his appointment to the Supreme Court, it is anticipated that Marshall's views In Indian law would be consistent with his previous role as a champion of the disenfranchised in America.

A remarkable rediscovery of Native American government, political participation, and political theory spanning 1,000 years. Native Americans and Political Participation opens the door to a previously invisible subject in political science and American history. Presenting, for the first time, data from a Native American survey of more than 400 elected and appointed tribal officials collected over the past ten years, this watershed work infuses facts with personal opinions of 20th-century Native American tribal leaders. Readers will learn how multitribe lobbying is funded by gambling revenues and meet key activists like the Means and Bellcourt brothers. Other topics covered include the National Congress of American Indians, the battle at Wounded Knee, and the American Indian Movement. Discussions of these and other events and organizations reveal the powerful ways in which American Indians are utilizing the political system to further their causes. A detailed bibliography providing an in-depth list of books, government documents, and other related publications for use in the disciplines of political science and history A chronology of Native American politics and events including the American Indian Movement and the tragedy at Wounded Knee

Re-Imagining Nature: Environmental Humanities and Ecosemiotics explores new horizons in environmental studies, which consider communication and meaning as core definitions of ecological life, essential to deep sustainability. It considers landscape as narrative, and applies theoretical frameworks in eco-phenomenology and ecosemiotics to literary, historical, and philosophical study of the relationship between text and landscape. It considers in particular examples and lessons to be drawn from case studies of medieval and Native American cultures, to illustrate in an applied way the promise of environmental humanities today. In doing so, it highlights an environmental future for the humanities, on the cutting edge of cultural endeavor today.

The five largest southeastern Indian groups - the Cherokees, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks, and Seminoles - were forced to emigrate west to the Indian territory (now Oklahoma) in the 1830s. Here, from WPA interviews, are those Indians' own stories of the troubled years between the Civil War and Oklahoma statehood - a period of extraordinary turmoil. During this period, Oklahoma Indians functioned autonomously, holding their own elections, enforcing their own laws, and creating their own society from a mixture of old Indian customs and the new ways of the whites. The WPA informants describe the economic realities of the era: a few wealthy Indians, the rest scraping a living out of subsistence farming, hunting, and fishing. They talk about education and religion - Native American and Christian - as well as diversions of the time: horse races, fairs, ball games, cornstalk shooting, and traditional ceremonies such as the Green Corn Dance.

For the first time, American Indian leadership theory is connected with practice. Featuring 24 perspectives, this book provides the most comprehensive look at contemporary American Indian leadership ever published. This book is written primarily for those young leaders who are beginning careers where they work with Indian tribes and organizations. Each of the stories found in the book represent significant challenges and barriers, along with the reflections of having lived these experiences to become a stronger leader. This book can help younger leaders avoid the mistakes of the past and will help them develop the skills that will sustain them. The book is organized around four styles of leadership found in American Indian society. It presents a graphic model of leadership style and then provides examples of each specific type of leadership through stories from recognized leaders in various professions. Because one precept of tribal communities is that elders are responsible for teaching the next generation, the stories are presented in a narrative style. The stories themselves reflect comprehensive assessments of historical pivot points for tribal sovereignty in this country. Provides tribal perspectives offered by 24 American Indian authors ranging over the last 75 years Stands as the most comprehensive book on contemporary leadership style for indigenous people Offers a unique resource for American Indian youth by delineating leadership through experience

This indexed guide enables researchers and practitioners to draw upon the substantial dissertation research on the life experiences of Native American and Alaska Native children and adolescents. This carefully arranged and fully cross-referenced reference tool includes title, abstract, and retrieval information for 345 dissertations presented between 1960 and 1982. The abstracts outline the salient points of each study, e.g., subject population, sample size, sampling technique, research questions, data collection and analysis procedures, and conclusions. They are arranged alphabetically by author within thirteen major topics: childrearing and socialization; values, personality development; mental health and adjustment; language, bilingualism, communication behavior; intelligence; learning abilities, cognition; perceptual processes; social perceptions, attitudes; self-imagery; achievement; school environment; educational policy; and interventions. Each abstract is indexed by substantive and methodological characteristics. A glossary and index define and identify 136 cross-referenced descriptive terms commonly used in social, behavioral, and mental health science research.

In 1821, Sequoyah, a Cherokee metalworker and inventor, introduced a writing system that he had been developing for more than a decade. His creation--the Cherokee syllabary--helped his people learn to read and write within five years and became a principal part of their identity. This groundbreaking study traces the creation, dissemination, and evolution of Sequoyah's syllabary from script to print to digital forms. Breaking with conventional understanding, author Ellen Cushman shows that the syllabary was not based on alphabetic writing, as is often thought, but rather on Cherokee syllables and, more importantly, on Cherokee meanings.

Employing an engaging narrative approach, Cushman relates how Sequoyah created the syllabary apart from Western alphabetic models. But he called it an alphabet because he anticipated the Western assumption that only alphabetic writing is legitimate. Calling the syllabary an alphabet, though, has led to our current misunderstanding of just what it is and of the genius behind it--until now.

In her opening chapters, Cushman traces the history of Sequoyah's invention and explains the logic of the syllabary's structure and the graphic relationships among the characters, both of which might have made the system easy for native speakers to use. Later chapters address the syllabary's enduring significance, showing how it allowed Cherokees to protect, enact, and codify their knowledge and to weave non-Cherokee concepts into their language and life. The result was their enhanced ability to adapt to social change on and in Cherokee terms.

Cushman adeptly explains complex linguistic concepts in an accessible style, even as she displays impressive understanding of interrelated issues in Native American studies, colonial studies, cultural anthropology, linguistics, rhetoric, and literacy studies. Profound, like the invention it explores, "The Cherokee Syllabary" will reshape the study of Cherokee history and culture.

"Published through the Recovering Languages and Literacies of the Americas initiative, supported by the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation"

World War II was a watershed event for the people of the former Japanese colonies of Micronesia. The Japanese military build-up, the conflict itself, and the American occupation and control of the conquered islands brought rapid and dramatic changes to Micronesian life. Whether they spent the war in caves and bomb shelters, in sweet potato fields under armed Japanese guard, or in their own homes, Micronesians who survived those years recognize that their peoples underwent a major historical transformation. Like a typhoon, the war swept away a former life. The Typhoon of War combines archival research and oral history culled from more than three hundred Micronesian survivors to offer a comparative history of the war in Micronesia. It is the first book to develop Islander perspectives on a topic still dominated by military histories that all but ignore the effects of wartime operations on indigenous populations. The authors explore the significant cultural meanings of the war for Island peoples, for the events of the war are the foundation on which Micronesians have constructed their modern view of themselves, their societies, and the wider world. Their recollections of those tumultuous years contain a wealth of detail about wartime activities, local conditions, and social change, making this an invaluable reference for anyone interested in twentieth-century Micronesia. Photographs, maps, and a detailed chronology will help readers situate Micronesian experiences within the broader context of the Pacific War.

In "Native Recognition," Joanna Hearne persuasively argues for the central role of Indigenous image-making in the history of American cinema. Across the twentieth and into the twenty-first centuries, Indigenous peoples have been involved in cinema as performers, directors, writers, consultants, crews, and audiences, yet both the specificity and range of this Native participation have often been obscured by the on-screen, larger-than-life images of Indians in the Western. Not only have Indigenous images mattered to the Western, but Westerns have also mattered to Indigenous filmmakers as they subvert mass culture images of supposedly vanishing Indians, repurposing the commodity forms of Hollywood films to envision Native intergenerational continuity. Through their interventions in forms of seeing and being seen in public culture, Native filmmakers have effectively marshaled the power of visual media to take part in national discussions of social justice and political sovereignty for North American Indigenous peoples.
"Native Recognition" brings together a wide range of little-known productions, from the silent films of James Young Deer, to recovered prints of the 1928 "Ramona" and the 1972 "House Made of Dawn," to the experimental and feature films of Victor Masayesva and Chris Eyre. Using international archival research and close visual analysis, Hearne expands our understanding of the complexity of Native presence in cinema both on screen and through the circuits of film production and consumption."

During the decades between the Civil War and the establishment of Oklahoma statehood, Choctaws suffered almost daily from murders, thefts, and assaults--usually at the hands of white intruders, but increasingly by Choctaws themselves. This book focuses on two previously unexplored murder cases to illustrate the intense factionalism that emerged among tribal members during those lawless years as conservative Nationalists and pro-assimilation Progressives fought for control of the Choctaw Nation.

Devon Abbott Mihesuah describes the brutal murder in 1884 of her own great-great-grandfather, Nationalist Charles Wilson, who was a Choctaw lighthorseman and U.S. deputy marshal. She then relates the killing spree of Progressives by Nationalist Silan Lewis ten years later. Mihesuah draws on a wide array of sources--even in the face of missing court records--to weave a spellbinding account of homicide and political intrigue. She painstakingly delineates a transformative period in Choctaw history to explore emerging gulfs between Choctaw citizens and address growing Indian resistance to white intrusions, federal policies, and the taking of tribal resources.

The first book to fully describe this Choctaw factionalism, " Choctaw Crime and Punishment" is both a riveting narrative and an important analysis of tribal politics.