Native American Nations Research Articles

Abstract A010: Community dissemination and application training: Approach developed for research teams working with Native Nations and Native American urban communities

Abstract Trusted, sustained collaborations with Native American communities requires regular communication on research intention, process and outcomes. In the National Cancer Institute funded Native American Cancer Prevention Partnership (NACP), many research teams were not familiar with strategies to provide updates and outcomes to community audiences in Native American communities. The NACP Outreach Core used a 3-stage communication framework: 1) identification of components to consider, e.g., audience demographics, primary message, and communication channels; 2) practice in context, ideally with community partners or advisors; and 3) deliberative practice when knowledge and skills have been formed. The Outreach Core modified the Kellogg Foundation’s “Elements of a Strategic Communication Plan”, to develop a 3-hour training composed of didactic and interactive sessions, entitled Community Dissemination and Application Training (C-DAT). After the workshop, a one-hour technical assistance session was scheduled with each research team and Outreach Core members to discuss and guide the team’s community dissemination plans. The unique modifications made to create C-DAT included: 1) the research team’s obligation to develop and share clear messages, given the historic mistrust and miscommunication with Native Nations; 2) the importance of convening community advisors and/or to pilot draft materials to assure cultural appropriateness; and 3) the use of communication channels familiar and accessible by the intended audience. In addition, the Outreach developed a Directory for Reaching Relatives Using Media (DRRUM) that provides contacts and needed information on regional Native Nation or Native serving newsletters/newspapers and radio stations to support the dissemination process. To date, research teams have developed short videos, contributed to the NACP podcast series, designed an independent website and provided presentations at community centers. The impact of these efforts cannot be evaluated given information was widely broadcast o a variety of platforms. The frequency and locale of the downloads of the on-line resources indicate that audiences in Native American Urban communities and Native Nations, especially in rural areas, are interested in learning about the activities addressing cancer prevention in their communities. Citation Format: Nicolette I. Teufel-Shone, Carol Goldtooth-Begay, Andria Begay. Community dissemination and application training: Approach developed for research teams working with Native Nations and Native American urban communities [abstract]. In: Proceedings of the 16th AACR Conference on the Science of Cancer Health Disparities in Racial/Ethnic Minorities and the Medically Underserved; 2023 Sep 29-Oct 2;Orlando, FL. Philadelphia (PA): AACR; Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 2023;32(12 Suppl):Abstract nr A010.

Obstacles to Federal Policy Adoption: The Case of Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdictions in Native American Tribal Nations

A core tenet of representation is that individuals should expect government to actively protect their human security. In the issue area of domestic violence in the United States, government largely fails to do this for women, who comprise three-quarters of all victims of domestic violence. Nowhere is this more apparent than for Native American women living on tribal lands. In terms of lifetime physical violence, nearly 52% of Native American women will be physically abused compared to 30.5% of white women, 41.2% of African American women, and 29.7% of Hispanic women (Crepelle 2020; Institute for Women’s Policy Research 2023). One of the main obstacles to keeping Native American women safer is that tribal nations have been functionally prohibited from prosecuting non-Native offenders of violence against Native Americans on their lands. Non-Native offenders comprise the bulk of domestic violence abusers in these communities. To address this inequity, the 2013 Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) created Special Domestic Violence Criminal Jurisdictions (SDVCJs). Through an application process, federally recognized tribal nations can create these jurisdictions to provide justice for the many women who are victims of domestic violence at the hands of non-Native persons. In this article we explore which tribal nations created these jurisdictions using an original dataset of the 354 tribal nations that were eligible to adopt an SDVCJ following the 2013 VAWA reauthorization. As of 2022, 31 tribal nations have adopted SDVCJs across 13 states, which have led to 74 domestic violence convictions. In this article, we explain adoption of these courts as a function of population, tribal nation fiscal capacity, federal grant support, and having an existing self-governance compact with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

History of Native American land and natural resource policy in the United States: impacts on the field of paleontology

AbstractWe highlight the historical and contemporary policies that govern paleontological research on federally recognized Native American lands. The United States has a long history of fossil dispossession from Indigenous Peoples, and federal policies surrounding the management of Native American lands (i.e., reservations), and the geological resources therein, have changed through time. These changes reflect shifting popular and political ideologies regarding Native American nations’ sovereignty and self-governance. As of 2022, the United States has a government-to-government relationship with federally recognized Tribal entities, but that has not always been the case. Historians have divided post-contact Native American federal policy into distinct eras: Colonial Times to 1820, Native American Removal and Reservation (1820–1887), Allotments and Attempted Assimilation (1887–1934), Reorganization and Preservation (1934–1953), Termination and Relocation (1953–1968), and Tribal Self-Determination (1968–present). Documentation of how the federal policies from each of these eras continue to impact current paleontological research is limited. We summarize major legislative actions, court cases, and historical events that have affected paleontological resource management in Native American territory. We use this historical context to identify federal policy gaps and highlight legal nuances associated with fossil collection and ownership, particularly given the importance of fossils to some Native Americans’ cultural patrimony. Finally, we explore how these gaps affect scientific research and highlight best practices for conducting paleontological research on vertebrate, invertebrate, and paleobotanical body and trace fossils using the CARE (Collective Benefit, Authority to Control, Responsibility, Ethics) Principles for Indigenous Data Governance (https://www.gida-global.org/care).

Political Macroenvironments & Cultural Information Protection: The Challenge of Communication in Native American Environmental and Natural Resource Management

Indigenous environmental and natural resource management agencies face the complex task of communicating science, policy, and practice to a wide array of publics and stakeholders, yet the communication strategies and challenges of this set of professionals have been overlooked in the literature. One theoretical model suggests that public sector employees make communication decisions based on different factors than their private organization counterparts. The current study presents results from a survey of natural resource managers and other environmental professionals working for Native American Nations in the United States. Results show that the political relationships among Native Nations, states, and federal agencies may create a complex political macroenvironment within which communicators must carefully operate. Concerns about protecting cultural information carry significant weight in the communication decision-making process of these organizations and present a key factor influencing communication decision-making. Implications for models of government communication are discussed.

Cultural Continuance and Agency in Cherokee Biographical Digital Storytelling

The concepts of Native American cultural continuance and agency have become critical elements of both preserving, sharing, and extending the culture of Indigenous Americans into the future. Digital media platforms offer Native American nations a new opportunity to reach both a Native audience and society at large and contradict traditional media's cultural stereotypes and misrepresentation. Therefore, this qualitative content analysis of Cherokee Nation digital media explores what elements of cultural continuance and cultural agency are found in biographical digital storytelling. Using the key concepts extracted from the literature (visibility, envisioning a future, creative authority and autonomy, authenticity, and disrupting dominant norms) as the focus, six themes emerged from Cherokee Nation articles and documentaries.

Reuniting the Three Sisters: collaborative science with Native growers to improve soil and community health

Before Euro-American settlement, many Native American nations intercropped maize (Zea mays), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), and squash (Cucurbita pepo) in what is colloquially called the “Three Sisters.” Here we review the historic importance and consequences of rejuvenation of Three Sisters intercropping (3SI), outline a framework to engage Native growers in community science with positive feedbacks to university research, and present preliminary findings from ethnography and a randomized, replicated 3SI experiment. We developed mutually beneficial collaborative research agendas with four Midwestern US Native American nations. Ethnographic data highlighted a culturally based respect for 3SI as living beings, the importance it holds for all cultural facets of these Native nations, and the critical impact the practice has on environmental sustainability. One concern expressed by Native growers during ethnographic research was improving soil health—part of the rationale for establishing the 3SI agronomic experiment. To address this, we collaboratively designed a 3SI experiment. After 1 year, 3SI increased short-term soil respiration by 24%, decreased salt-extractable nitrate by 54%, had no effect on soil microbial biomass (but increased its carbon-to-nitrogen ratio by 32%) compared to the average of monoculture crops. The overarching purpose of this collaborative project is to develop a deeper understanding of 3SI, its cultural importance to Native communities, and how reinvigorating the practice—and intercropping in general—can make agroecosystems more sustainable for people and the environment.

Testimonies of affect: Native American women’s histories of violence on California’s Pacific North Coast

ABSTRACT From the 1850s and into the 1880s, the Native American nations of the Pacific northwestern coast of California had been wracked by violence perpetrated by settler vigilantes and military forces. Girls and young women, sought for both sexual and domestic labour, were disproportionately represented among the survivors. Decades later, during the 1920s and 1930s, some of those now elderly women delivered their testimonies. Their accounts continue to reverberate in the present day, even as they remain on the periphery of historical consciousness. This article considers the gendered nature of these deeply affective and traumatic accounts, that continues to shape their silencing and their re-telling. It focuses on the transmission of these accounts to, and through, white women. Such consideration suggests that in persisting in recounting these histories of settler atrocities to settler women, Native American women survivors mobilised the politics of affect to advocate for contemporary Native American rights; and asserted their agency as history makers and truth tellers in their own right.

Native American and First Nation Perspectives on the Use of Human Remains in Education & Proximity to Death

Cultural attitudes regarding interactions with the deceased, the dead and contact with the lifeless human body vary throughout the world, including among Native American, First Nation, Metίs, and Inuit groups in North America. From remains that have been obtained without consent to working with cadaveric specimens, this talk addresses the beliefs and concerns of indigenous peoples regarding the use of human remains as educational specimens and interaction with the dead. Both speaker perspectives as well as preliminary results from research will address the diverse attitudes towards the dead, treatment of the dead, use of human remains for teaching and research purposes. We will also acknowledge the principle of informed consent in a colonial world. Anatomical education is often reliant on the gracious donation of humans but what are we to do if they were not obtained with consent as are many of the indigenous specimens still maintained at universities?Working with human remains can also be of concern for indigenous students with respect to their cultural beliefs. This talk will address the importance and considerations needed for indigenous students while providing the audience with a basic understanding of some of those cultural beliefs. It is not only important to have respect for the human remains but also for the students who encounter them. Anatomical educators must have an awareness of cultural and religious beliefs that are at odds with working with human remains or being in the presence of a lifeless body, so that we are prepared to provide inclusive learning environments for our students. We hope to provide an inclusive discussion on Native American and First Nation perspectives on the use of human remains in education and the proximity to death.

Journey to Promoting Structural Change for Chronic Disease Prevention: Examining the Processes for Developing Policy, Systems, and Environmental Supports in Native American Nations

ABSTRACTBackgroundObesity and chronic disease rates continue to be disproportionally high among Native Americans (NAs) compared with the US general population. Policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes can address the root causes of these health inequalities by supporting access to healthy food and physical activity resources.ObjectiveWe aim to describe the actors and processes involved in developing PSE changes supporting obesity prevention in NA Nations.MethodsAs part of the Obesity Prevention Research and Evaluation of InterVention Effectiveness in NaTive North Americans 2 (OPREVENT2) trial (ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT02803853), we collected 46 in-depth interviews, 1 modified Talking Circle, 2 workshops, and 14 observations in 3 NA communities in the Midwest and Southwest regions of the United States. Participants included Tribal government representatives/staff, health staff/board members, store managers/staff, and school administrators/staff. We used a Grounded Theory analysis protocol to develop themes and conceptual framework based on our data.ResultsHealth staff members were influential in identifying and developing PSE changes when there was a strong relationship between the Tribal Council and health department leaders. We found that Tribal Council members looked to health staff for their expertise and were involved in the approval and endorsement of PSE changes. Tribal grant writers worked across departments to leverage existing initiatives, funding, and approvals to achieve PSE changes. Participants emphasized that community engagement was a necessary input for developing PSE changes, suggesting an important role for grassroots collaboration with community members and staff. Relevant contextual factors impacting the PSE change development included historical trauma, perspectives of policy, and “tribal politics”.ConclusionsThis article is the first to produce a conceptual framework using 3 different NA communities, which is an important gap to be addressed if structural changes are to be explored and enacted to promote NA health. The journey to change for these NA Nations provides insights for promoting future PSE change among NA Nations and communities.

Health Care Challenges faced by Native American Nations: Obesity and Diabetes

The article aims to discuss and analyze one of the serious challenges faced by Native American Nations across the United States.On the example of the largest Native American ethnic group – Navajo Nation. The article states the problem of high rates of overweightand obesity, Type 2 diabetes that create serious public health concerns for the Navajo Nation. It has more than 300,000 enrolledmembers in 110 chapters spread across 27,000 square miles in northeastern Arizona, New Mexico and Utah. The Indian HealthService estimates that 25,000 members of the Navajo have Type 2 diabetes and 75,000 are pre-diabetic.Keywords: Diabetes, Navajo Nation, obesity, historical trauma, health

The Potential of Bison Restoration as an Ecological Approach to Future Tribal Food Sovereignty on the Northern Great Plains

Future climate projections of warming, drying, and increased weather variability indicate that conventional agricultural and production practices within the Northern Great Plains (NGP) will become less sustainable, both ecologically and economically. As a result, the livelihoods of people that rely on these lands will be adversely impacted. This is especially true for Native American communities, who were relegated to reservations where the land is often vast but marginal and non-tribal operators have an outsized role in food production. In addition, NGP lands are expected to warm and dry disproportionately relative to the rest of the United States. It is therefore critical to identify models of sustainable land management that can improve ecological function and socio-economic outcomes for NGP communities, all while increasing resilience to a rapidly changing climate. Efforts led by Native American Nations to restore North American Plains bison (Bison bison bison) to tribal lands can bring desired socio-ecological benefits to underserved communities while improving their capacity to influence the health of their lands, their people, and their livelihoods. Ecological sustainability will depend on the restoration of bison herds and bison’s ability to serve as ecosystem engineers of North America’s Plains. The historically broad distribution of bison suggests they can adapt to a variety of conditions, making them resilient to a wide range of management systems and climates. Here we review bison’s ecological, cultural, and economic value using four case studies from tribal communities within the NGP. We discuss the potential contributions of bison to food sovereignty, sustainable economies, and conservation of a working landscape with limited protections and significant risk of conversion. The ecological role of bison within this setting has potential due to cultural acceptance and the vast availability of suitable lands; however, it is critical to address tribal needs for funding support, enhanced community capacity, and solving complex landownership for these goals to be achieved.

Manufacturing Advantage: War, the State, and the Origins of American Industry, 1776–1848

Manufacturing Advantage: War, the State, and the Origins of American Industry, 1776–1848

The Slaughter of the Bison and Reversal of Fortunes on the Great Plains

In the late 19th century, the North American bison was brought to the brink of extinction in just over a decade. We show that the bison?s slaughter led to a reversal of fortunes for the Native Americans who relied on them. Once the tallest people in the world, the generations of bison-reliant people born after the slaughter were among the shortest. Today, formerly bison-reliant societies have between 20-40% less income per capita than the average Native American nation. We argue that federal Indian policy that limited out-migration from reservations and restricted employment opportunities to crop based agriculture hampered the ability of bison-reliant societies to adjust in the long-run, generating lasting regional disparities associated with other indicators of social dislocation, such as suicide and unrest.

The Slaughter of the Bison and Reversal of Fortunes on the Great Plains

In the late 19th century, the North American bison was brought to the brink of extinction in just over a decade. We show that the bison?s slaughter led to a reversal of fortunes for the Native Americans who relied on them. Once the tallest people in the world, the generations of bison-reliant people born after the slaughter were among the shortest. Today, formerly bison-reliant societies have between 20-40% less income per capita than the average Native American nation. We argue that federal Indian policy that limited out-migration from reservations and restricted employment opportunities to crop based agriculture hampered the ability of bison-reliant societies to adjust in the long-run, generating lasting regional disparities associated with other indicators of social dislocation, such as suicide and unrest.

Cinémas autochtones : pour une interprétation plus « fluide et diverse » de la souveraineté visuelle aux États-Unis

Native American nations’ sovereignty in the United States is often approached solely from a legal perspective, questioning the actual degree of autonomy enjoyed by tribal governments. Based on the reflections of several Indigenous intellectuals, including historian and art critic Jolene Rickard (Tuscarora), this article invites us to expand the concept of sovereignty to the cultural and artistic fields, while pointing out several major issues entailed by Indigenous visual sovereignty, especially in films.

Tribal Sovereignty Is Bestowed Upon Us by the Creator

J O U R N A L O F A M E R I C A N I N D I A N E D U C A T I O N — 6 0 , I S S U E 3 123 Commentary Tribal Sovereignty Is Bestowed Upon Us by the Creator PHILIP J. STEVENS, WITH LOUIE LORENZO JR., AND MARTIN AHUMADA Afirst of its kind Tribal Nation Building in Higher Education Convening was held on the University of Idaho campus just days before the United States felt the full effect of the COVID-­ 19 pandemic .1 Dynamic discussions of tribal self-­ determination, growth, and space within the academia–­ specifically as a means to build a better tomorrow—were shared against an abstract backdrop. As Convening participants returned to where many would unknowingly shelter for the next year and a half, the importance of nation-­ building discussions became even more important as we witnessed the United States struggle to provide a meaningful response to a pandemic that began ravaging the nation in spring 2020. The dreams and nightmares of personal freedoms were unveiled as some citizens fought to determine the history of the pandemic as imaginary in nature and others saw the pandemic as a reminder of societal responsibilities to and respect for each other. In essence, the pandemic allowed us to see with extraordinary clarity that our actions cannot take place in isolation but must be a collective effort requiring proper guidance. We may choose to push a narrative that simply is the loudest, or we may choose to listen and act with communities as our guidance. For this commentary, I (Philip Stevens) dialogued with Louie Lorenzo (a San Carlos Apache spiritual leader and culturally based youth wellness leader), and Dr. Martin Ahumada (President of San Carlos Apache College, whose heritage includes the Indigenous Peoples of Northern Mexico) about their experiences “acting with community” and reflections on the pathways forward for building and strengthening the San Carlos Apache Nation post-­ COVID-­ 19 pandemic. Our dialog for this reflection occurred via 124 J O U R N A L O F A M E R I C A N I N D I A N E D U C A T I O N — 6 0 , I S S U E 3 written and oral communication in the spring of 2021. As a note of voice, I use first-­ person to synthesize our ideas and to share my own experiences related to Apache well-­ being. I use direct quotes to represent specific perspectives that my co-­ authors, Lorenzo and Ahumada, provided in conversation with me. Tribal Resilience in Times of COVID-­ 19 Many tribes felt the immediate effects of the virus. Dr. Anthony Fauci, an immunology specialist and director of the U.S. federal government’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, stated that minoritized communities have felt “the undeniable effects of racism” (Associated Press, 2021) in the context of the Covid-­ 19 pandemic. “Now, very few of these comorbidities have racial determinants,” Fauci said. “Almost all relate to the social determinants of health dating back to disadvantageous conditions that some people of color find themselves in from birth regarding the availability of an adequate diet, access to health care, and the undeniable effects of racism in our society” (Associated Press, 2021, para. 4). On an economic level, the pandemic has also severely impacted many tribes’ ability to fund their response to the virus. As reported in The Harvard Gazette: Over the past few decades, Native American nations have increasingly taken on greater responsibility for providing a wide range of governmental services on their lands; in many instances the same services that state and local governments offer their citizens. Unlike state and local governments, however, the tribes cannot collect adequate taxes to pay for these operations, making them dependent on income from casinos and other enterprises to pay for law enforcement, public safety, and social services. (Mineo, 2020, para. 5) The fear of “tribalism” is as misplaced as the euphemism “Indian-­ giver”; perhaps the assignment of cultural fears is more telling of the culture than that of which it is assigned. Against the backdrop of colonialist assimilation strategies, the fear...

Reflections on Elizabeth Cook-Lynn's Anti-Indianism in Modern America : A Voice from Tatekeya's Earth and Her Influence on My Curatorial Librarianship

Abstract: Elizabeth Cook-Lynn's Anti-Indianism in Modern America: A Voice from Tatekeya's Earth asks Native Americans in university positions to critically reflect on how their work shows responsibility toward Native Americans in the university. Libraries and archives are foundational places where Native American students access information across disciplines that include Native American collections. The job of the curator of Native American Collections for the University of New Mexico, University Libraries, is to document how the library and archive will respectfully shape collections and make active efforts to contact tribes regarding cultural content in archival collections. Influenced by the scholarship and activism of Cook-Lynn, this essay reflects on the words of Cook-Lynn in the area of transforming library and archival practices to build more trustworthy relationships with Native American people and nations.

The Process of Covid-19 Vaccination among Native American Nations

AbstractThe COVID-19 pandemic has disproportionately affected American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) people who account for over 5 million people inthe U.S.The article aims to discuss and analyze the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine among the above-mentioned Nations of the U.S. The acceleratedprocess of vaccination will help these people to prevent widening racial disparities and achieve broad population immunity.The article presents available data on COVID-19 vaccinations among Native American and Alaska Native population federal and state sources andfactors contributing to success in these vaccination efforts.Keywords: Alaska Native, Covid-19, Native American, Vaccination

The Theatre of Historical Revision: An Analysis of the Native American Drama Tradition

We attempt to analyse the form and content of major Native American plays to discuss their relationship with the traditional English drama and its content. By looking at plays of key Native American playwrights, we show that the Native American tradition goes against the English tradition of drama in its form by challenging the unities of time and place and characterization. It also brings in elements of Native American tradition of storytelling such as the blend of the sacred and the profane, the use of humor, the attitude towards facticity, to the tradition of drama to carve out a unique space for itself through which it attempts to challenge the dominant narratives of history, Native American culture, and at the same time highlight the problems the Native American nations face currently.

Recent Climate Changes Across the Great Plains and Implications for Natural Resource Management Practices

The Great Plains region plays an important role in providing water and land resources and habitat for wildlife and livestock, crops, energy production, and other critical ecosystem services to support rural livelihoods. The semiarid conditions of the region and tight coupling of livelihood enterprises with ecosystem services creates a situation of increased sensitivity to climate changes and enhanced vulnerability among the rural communities and Native American nations across the region. Recent climate conditions associated with warming trends, and altered atmospheric flows have resulted in rapid onset of drought conditions and other extreme weather events across the region that are changing seasonal patterns of temperature and precipitation and warming trends. Projected climate changes provided in the fourth US National Climate Assessment indicate that potential warming and variability of precipitation will further increase drought and extreme weather events.Recent research and assessment efforts of current and projected climate changes in the Great Plains indicate that rural communities and ecosystems are becoming more vulnerable to changes associated with warming trends, droughts, and increased variability in precipitation. These climate changes are having differential impacts on ecosystem services that are critical to livelihood enterprises. Strategies for how resource managers and the research community can better collaborate and more effectively codesign and coproduce efforts to understand and to respond to these challenges are needed.