Native American Studies in Higher Education

Native American Studies in Higher Education
Author: Duane Champagne
Publisher: Rowman Altamira
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2002
Genre: Education
ISBN: 9780759101258

In this collection, Champagne and Stauss demonstrate how the rise of Native studies in American and Canadian universities exists as an extraordinary achievement in higher education. In the face of historically assimilationist agendas and institutional racism, collaborative programs continue to grow and promote the values and goals of sovereign tribal communities. In twelve case studies, the authors provide rich contextual histories of Native programs, discussing successes and failures and battles over curriculum content, funding, student retention, and community collaborations. It will be a valuable resource for Native American leaders, and educators in Native American studies, race and ethnic studies, comparative education, anthropology, higher education administration and educational policy.

Contesting Knowledge

Contesting Knowledge
Author: Susan Sleeper-Smith
Publisher: U of Nebraska Press
Total Pages: 375
Release: 2009-07-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0803219482

The essays in section 1 consider ethnography's influence on how Europeans represent colonized peoples. Section 2 essays analyze curatorial practices, emphasizing how exhibitions must serve diverse masters rather than solely the curator's own creativity and judgment, a dramatic departure from past museum culture and practice. Section 3 essays consider tribal museums that focus on contesting and critiquing colonial views of American and Canadian history while serving the varied needs of the indigenous communities.

The Inconvenient Indian

The Inconvenient Indian
Author: Thomas King
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
Total Pages: 302
Release: 2013-09-01
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 1452940304

In The Inconvenient Indian, Thomas King offers a deeply knowing, darkly funny, unabashedly opinionated, and utterly unconventional account of Indian–White relations in North America since initial contact. Ranging freely across the centuries and the Canada–U.S. border, King debunks fabricated stories of Indian savagery and White heroism, takes an oblique look at Indians (and cowboys) in film and popular culture, wrestles with the history of Native American resistance and his own experiences as a Native rights activist, and articulates a profound, revolutionary understanding of the cumulative effects of ever-shifting laws and treaties on Native peoples and lands. Suffused with wit, anger, perception, and wisdom, The Inconvenient Indian is at once an engaging chronicle and a devastating subversion of history, insightfully distilling what it means to be “Indian” in North America. It is a critical and personal meditation that sees Native American history not as a straight line but rather as a circle in which the same absurd, tragic dynamics are played out over and over again. At the heart of the dysfunctional relationship between Indians and Whites, King writes, is land: “The issue has always been land.” With that insight, the history inflicted on the indigenous peoples of North America—broken treaties, forced removals, genocidal violence, and racist stereotypes—sharpens into focus. Both timeless and timely, The Inconvenient Indian ultimately rejects the pessimism and cynicism with which Natives and Whites regard one another to chart a new and just way forward for Indians and non-Indians alike.

Learning to be an Anthropologist and Remaining "Native"

Learning to be an Anthropologist and Remaining
Author: Beatrice Medicine
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 404
Release: 2001
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780252069796

Included in this collection are Medicine's clear-eyed views of assimilation, bilingual education, and the adaptive strategies by which Native Americans have conserved and preserved their ancestral languages.

Collaborating at the Trowel's Edge

Collaborating at the Trowel's Edge
Author: Stephen W. Silliman
Publisher: University of Arizona Press
Total Pages: 344
Release: 2008-12-15
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 9780816527229

A fundamental issue for twenty-first century archaeologists is the need to better direct their efforts toward supporting rather than harming indigenous peoples. Collaborative indigenous archaeology has already begun to stress the importance of cooperative, community-based research; this book now offers an up-to-date assessment of how Native American and non-native archaeologists have jointly undertaken research that is not only politically aware and historically minded but fundamentally better as well. Eighteen contributors—many with tribal ties—cover the current state of collaborative indigenous archaeology in North America to show where the discipline is headed. Continent-wide cases, from the Northeast to the Southwest, demonstrate the situated nature of local practice alongside the global significance of further decolonizing archaeology. And by probing issues of indigenous participation with an eye toward method, theory, and pedagogy, many show how the archaeological field school can be retailored to address politics, ethics, and critical practice alongside traditional teaching and research methods. These chapters reflect the strong link between politics and research, showing what can be achieved when indigenous values, perspectives, and knowledge are placed at the center of the research process. They not only draw on experiences at specific field schools but also examine advances in indigenous cultural resource management and in training Native American and non-native students. Theoretically informed and practically grounded, Collaborating at the Trowel’s Edge is a virtual guide for rethinking field schools and is an essential volume for anyone involved in North American archaeology—professionals, students, tribal scholars, or avocationalists—as well as those working with indigenous peoples in other parts of the world. It both reflects the rapidly changing landscape of archaeology and charts new directions to ensure the ongoing vitality of the discipline.