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- Creator:
- Ess, John
- Description:
- “A Revolutionary Western” and its digital component, “Non-Native Warpaint,” examine the portrayals of American Indians in film and television programs set in the American Revolution, as well as related depictions in the video game Assassin’s Creed III. The historical context of American Indians in the American Revolution is explored alongside media studies that analyze representations of American Indians in Westerns. This study fills a gap in the scholarship on portrayals of American Indians in media set during the American Revolution and integrates games into the discussion. From D.W. Griffith’s “America” in 1924 to Craig Silverstein’s “Turn: Washington’s Spies” on AMC from 2014-2017, American Indians fill only the roles of minor, supporting characters and were most often cast as antagonists. The antagonist roles almost without exception fulfill the “Bad Indian” stereotypes of Native Americans, and the protagonist roles nearly always embody the “Good Indian” stereotypes. Also important is that the vast majority of works do not include American Indians; out of forty-four items of visual media reviewed, only eight have a meaningful level of American Indian representation, and only four of those eight have significant amounts of these depictions. The rule is erasure of Native American existence and participation in the American Revolution, and the exceptions are mostly villainous representations in minor roles. The only Native character that fulfills a leading role as a main character is Ratonhnhaké:ton of the Kanien’kehá:ka nation, and this takes place in the Assassin’s Creed III video game. This thesis argues that Assassin’s Creed III is a revolutionary Western due to the main character’s membership in the Kanien’kehá:ka nation and the foregrounding of the negative situations people of color dealt with during the American Revolution. https://microsites.csusm.edu/nonnativewarpaint/
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- History
2. Off-Reservation / Urban American Indian Perspectives and Attitudes Towards Child Welfare Services
- Creator:
- Maillet, Kiana
- Description:
- Off-Reservation / Urban American Indian people are haunted by multi-generational historical trauma that carries over into generations of today. Through governmental termination and forced assimilation practices, families were torn apart, and parenting practices obstructed. These policies created a system that, to this day, disproportionally removes American Indian children from their homes and places them into foster care, often with non-American Indian people; a damaging process that devastates tribes and disconnects future generations. With a broken relationship between the government and American Indian people, it is important to understand the perceptions of the American Indian population in order to improve outcomes. The off –reservation/urban American Indian population has a particularly unique perspective in that they may live differently and may not have access to the same culturally appropriate resources and familial and tribal connections as those who live on the reservations. This study explores off reservation/urban American Indian perspectives and attitudes towards Child Welfare Services with a particular focus on social workers, American Indian foster homes, and the Indian Child Welfare Act. Through an analysis of 10 qualitative interviews, a variety of themes emerged and brought insight into the need for family services as well as potential barriers between off-reservation/urban American Indian people and Child Welfare Services. Participants saw social workers as intending to be helpful, but working within a broken system. This broken system contributes to the lack of cultural intelligence of social workers and the lack of knowledge, implementation, and enforcement of the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA), as well as contributes to the barriers to American Indians becoming foster parents.
- Resource Type:
- Project
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Social Work
- Creator:
- Schultz, Melissa
- Description:
- This thesis explores the novels Winter in the Blood by James Welch (Blackfeet/ Gros Ventre), Ghost Singer by Anna Lee Walters (Pawnee/ Otoe-Missouria), and Perma Red by Debra Magpie Earling (Salish). My analyses of these novels focus on representations of gender and the negative effects of Western patriarchy on Indigenous communities. In addition, I look closely at the ways in which Welch, Walters, and Earling invert traditional American Gothic conventions in order to erode colonialist ideologies that devalue American Indians and their past by representing them as vanished figures and ghostly presences in canonical works of American literature. I specifically analyze the literary representation of how non-Native gender roles have been internalized by Native characters and examine how Welch, Walters, and Earling use literature as a form of social critique. All three novelists write against the “literary genocide” of Native Americans, deconstruct American Indian stereotypes, and reclaim Native identities that are empowering today.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Literature and Writing Studies
- Creator:
- King, Kathleen D.
- Description:
- In this project, I examine texts created by three contemporary Native North American writers, Cherokee author Thomas King’s Green Grass, Running Water, Kickapoo artist Arigon Starr’s Super Indian: Volume One and Volume Two, and Blackfeet novelist Stephen Graham Jones’s The Last Final Girl. My examination of these texts identifies the ways in which the novels and graphic narratives dismantle racial assumptions produced by a white dominated ethnic hierarchy, critique racist practices, and demonstrate survivance by using the dominant culture’s discourse subversively. I argue that, in this process, these artists are also dismantling colonialist hierarchies themselves and redefining white racial identity as an “othered” ethnicity among many others.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Literature and Writing Studies
- Creator:
- Costa, Daniel
- Description:
- Lack of a culturally relevant education in a southern California community demonstrates the need to determine best practice criteria to improve outcomes for Native American high school students, who are suspended more than peers and score well below district averages on standardized testing. While a community-wide desire to improve outcomes does exist, there is no plan on how to do so. A review of literature reveals that for a lasting culturally relevant education to be established, awareness of bias and stereotyping must be explored, and systems within the community must exist to nurture communication. The body of research is lacking in relevance to students of Native American ancestry in southern California. Quantitative and qualitative analyses were conducted, to determine staff, shareholder, and Native American student priorities to improve academic, social, and cultural outcomes. Research question that guided the study was: what personal factors, community programs, and school supports have the potential to most affect academic, social, and cultural success of local Native American high school students? Top ranked priorities included: tribal community service, employment, and internship opportunities; establishing a Native American Studies elective class; hosting colleges with Native-related majors; and integrating Native American perspectives within the TK-12 setting. Recommendations include creation of a cross-cultural tribal education coalition, a Native American student success PLC, and implementation of the top-ranked priorities. This research is relevant to school district and tribal leadership, in order to build toward a culturally relevant education and improved outcomes for local Native American high school students.
- Resource Type:
- Thesis
- Campus Tesim:
- San Marcos
- Department:
- Educational Administration