“It's not about place, it's about what's inside”: American Indian women negotiating cultural connectedness and identity in urban spaces

Abstract

This descriptive phenomenological study sought to uncover how urban American Indian women from families with multigenerational urban residence develop and maintain cultural identity and cultural connectedness while living in a large metropolitan area. Fourteen women from five different tribes shared their understandings of the elements that constitute American Indian identity and cultural connectedness and how these phenomena are developed by urban-based Natives. The phenomenological structures of urban American Indian women's cultural identity and connectedness emerging from participant narratives indicated that cultural identity and cultural connectedness were distinct constructs. The women conceptualized cultural identity as a stable understanding of self as an American Indian that is not dependent upon geographical location and unaffected by cognitive and behavioral adaptations required by the urban environment. Cultural connectedness was seen to be created by three interacting elements: relatedness to, and social interactions with, other Native people; active cultural involvement; and cultural knowledge. • Cultural identity and cultural connectedness were found to be distinct constructs. • Urban Indian identity and connectedness are independent of geographical location. • Identity is a stable constituent of the self that thinks, feels, and acts Indian. • Connectedness occurs through relationships and cultural involvement and knowledge. • Adaptation to the non-Indian environment strengthens urban Indian women's identity.