American Indian

This case study involves an 8-year-old American Indian student with a disability, who was videotaped assaulting another student as they exited the school bus. Although acts of school violence are common on campuses across the nation, this incident is particularly complex, given the disability status of the student committing this act. This case provides an opportunity for both practicing and aspiring school leaders to explore a number of administrative and ethical dilemmas related to the discipline of students with disabilities and other special educational needs, utilizing a framework grounded in principles of social justice and equity.

Many Native women embrace the term two-spirit to capture their sexuality and gender expression. By analyzing the narratives of five two-spirit women who are Native activists, we explored contemporary understandings of the concept and what it means for Native communities. The incorporation of the identity within indigenous worldviews, its manifestation in terms of (be)coming out, and the triple stressors of

In the past two decades, the art of label writing has become a popular subject of debate among museum practitioners. A traditional, more authoritative approach has changed into a cultural approach were visitors are considered equal partners and the language used in texts suits an informal and personal conversation. Teenagers, however, remain underrepresented in museums and little has been written about labels targeting this audience and the way young people read museum text. The aim of this research is to provide answers to these fundamental questions.

The gap in achievement across racial and ethnic groups has been a focus of education research for decades, but the disproportionate suspension and expulsion of Black, Latino, and American Indian students has received less attention. This article synthesizes research on racial and ethnic patterns in school sanctions and considers how disproportionate discipline might contribute to lagging achievement among students of color. It further examines the evidence for student, school, and community contributors to the racial and ethnic patterns in school sanctions, and it offers promising directions for gap-reducing discipline policies and practices.

The prevalence of diabetes is disproportionately higher among minority populations, especially American Indians. Prevention or delay of diabetes in this population would improve quality of life and reduce health care costs. Identifying cultural definitions of health and diabetes is critically important to developing effective diabetes prevention programs. In-home qualitative interviews were conducted with 79 American Indian women from 3 tribal clinics in northeast Oklahoma to identify a cultural definition of health and diabetes. Grounded theory was used to analyze verbatim transcripts. The women interviewed defined health in terms of physical functionality and absence of disease, with family members and friends serving as treatment promoters. Conversely, the women considered their overall health to be a personal issue addressed individually without burdening others. The women presented a fatalistic view of diabetes, regarding the disease as an inevitable event that destroys health ...

This paper proposes the field of second language acquisition and teaching (SLAT) as beneficial to educators who want to implement or are currently engaged in indigenous language education. The point of view being presented here is that, in most cases, American Indian/Alaska Native children are not learning their tribal languages as their first languages, but rather as a second or subsequent language. For this reason, schools can play a pivotal role in reversing language shift by addressing the circumstances specific to second language learning. Awareness of SLAT theory, can help teachers understand the developmental and cognitive processes that make learning a second language different from the first. In turn, SLAT pedagogical approaches and techniques, which are based on language-specific theoretical research, can provide helpful and effective ways to teach indigenous language as second languages. These approaches and techniques are also discussed as they are congruent with differe...

Many Native women embrace the term two-spirit to capture their sexuality and gender expression. By analyzing the narratives of five two-spirit women who are Native activists, we explored contemporary understandings of the concept and what it means for Native communities. The incorporation of the identity within indigenous worldviews, its manifestation in terms of (be)coming out, and the triple stressors of heterosexism, racism, and sexism emerged as key themes.

As the population of American Indians and Alaska Natives continues to expand in the 21st century United States, an increasing number of professional psychologists will be called upon to provide culturally appropriate mental health services for Native American people and their communities. This article provides a general overview of contemporary tribal America before describing the legal, political, and institutional contexts for mental health service delivery administered through the federally sponsored Indian Health Service. Recommendations for mental health professionals who desire to avoid a subtle but profound Western cultural proselytization in their therapeutic service to Native clients and their communities are presented.

This article explores how Native American cultural practices were incorporated into the therapeutic activities of a community-controlled substance abuse treatment center on a "First Nations" reserve in the Canadian north. Analysis of open-ended interviews with nineteen staff and clients-as contextualized by participant observation, program records, and existing ethnographic resources-yielded insights concerning local therapeutic practice with outpatients and other community members. Specifically, program staff adopted and promoted a diverse array of both western and Aboriginal approaches that were formally integrated with reference to the Aboriginal symbol of the medicine wheel. Although incorporations of indigenous culture marked Lodge programs as distinctively Aboriginal in character, the subtle but profound influence of western "therapy culture" was centrally evident in healing activities as well. Nuanced explication of these activities illustrated four contributions of cultural analysis for community psychology.

Ethnic groups differ in rates of suicidal behaviors among youths, the context within which suicidal behavior occurs (e.g., different precipitants, vulnerability and protective factors, and reactions to suicidal behaviors), and patterns of help-seeking. In this article, the authors discuss the cultural context of suicidal behavior among African American, American Indian and Alaska Native, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and Latino

The mythological motif of the Cosmic Hunt is peculiar to Northern and Cen-tral Eurasia and for the Americas but seems to be absent in other parts of the globe. Two distinct Eurasian versions demonstrate North-American par-allels at the level of minor details which could be explained only by particular historical links between corresponding traditions. The first version (three stars of the handle of the Big Dipper are hunters and the dipper itself is an animal; Alcor is a dog or a cooking pot) connects Siberian (especially Western Siberian) traditions with the North-American West (Salish, Chinook) and East (especially with the Iroquois). The second version (the Orion’s Belt rep-resents three deer, antelopes, mountain sheep or buffaloes; the hunter is Rigel or other star below the Orion's Belt; his arrow has pierced the game and is seen either as Betelgeuze or as the stars of Orion's Head) connects the South-Siberian – Central-Eurasian mythologies with traditions of North-Am...

This report presents the location and interpretation of Native American cultural resources on or near Yucca Mountain, Nevada. This work builds on the archaeological reconnaissance and identifications of cultural resources by the Desert Research Institute (for a summary, see Pippin and Zerga, 1983; Pippin, 1984). Interpretations provided by Native American Indian people are not intended to refute other scientific studies,

This paper describes a successful HIV/AIDS prevention and treatment project that combined medical, support, and educational services, thereby improving care in a rural American Indian tribe in the southwestern United States. Using the methods of community-based participatory evaluation and motivational interviewing, the 5-year, multiparty collaborative project improved health care access and medical regimen adherence of people with HIV/AIDS and increased