Presents a personal account of the Navajo ceremony of Kinaalda, performed when a girl reaches puberty. Describes ceremonial running, corn grinding, and grooming, and admonitions and blessings received from grandmother, elderly women of the tribe, and medicine man. (SV)

This pilot study tests the feasibility of using a Talking Circle approach and measures cultural values and beliefs within a HIV/AIDS and hepatitis C virus (HCV) prevention program conducted among a Native American (Cherokee) youth population. A descriptive correlation design was used to examine the relationship between Cherokee self-reliance and…

In this paper, the author describes historic Coast Salish ritual practices and the concepts regarding wrongdoing and redemption that underlie them. He draws out the implications, particularly the associated dangers, derived from these existing rituals for ritual work conducted by outsiders engaging Coast Salish peoples. Finally, he considers the…

By 1879 the vast buffalo herds were all but gone from the Great Plains. Many of the remaining animals had moved south from the Milk River of northern Montana and Alberta into the Judith Basin of central Montana. In these rich grasslands, for a few more years, life went on as it had for centuries. Following the buffalo came many Indian bands, as…

This article interrogates the politics of representation, expectation, and responsibility at the new National Museum of the American Indian (NMAI) in Washington, DC. The authors explore the interpretive contests (between and among Natives and non-Natives) provoked by the museum's representational strategies. They think that NMAI has positioned…

Many Navajos, or Dines, and Native American people in general, are archaeologists or are becoming archaeologists. The distinction between "Native Americans" and "archaeologists" in academia, or elsewhere, is no longer accurate. This fact should not come as such a surprise. As the epigraph, a quote by Richard Begay,…

As suggested in the title "An Odyssey among the Iroquois," there is an epic sense of classical ironic drama in finding the Tutelo among the Hodenosaunee, Great League of the Iroquois. Classified amid the Monacan Division of eastern Siouan nations, the Tutelo together with the Saponi were known as Nahyssans and they were one of three…

Along with the first federal republic in Mexico (1824), the first legislatures of each state included the promotion of public instruction among their functions. Through educators and books and other means of teaching, children and the young were expected to learn to live in a modern, civilized society. At the time, there was a death battle between…

At first glance Sioux Lookout is a typical northern Ontario town, situated within an intricate lake and river system, socially focused on year-round outdoor activities, and enveloped by kilometres and more kilometres of undomesticated Canadian Shield landscape. One might think this would be an ideal spot for outdoor education, just as these…

This study represents an initial step at giving social work practitioners an important assessment tool as they seek to provide culturally competent services to Native American clients. For the current study, a spiritual lifemap assessment tool was modified by the authors for a Native American cultural context. To determine the relevancy and…

Leaders are increasingly called on to function in ways that demand creative smarts as much as book smarts and street smarts. Consequently, more attention is being given to artistic potentialities of leadership. To help create relevant educational opportunities, the author responds in three ways. First is to identify a framework of characteristics…

Over a 50-year professional career, Dr. Beatrice Medicine never failed to assert the importance of Indigenous language rights or to challenge racism in the academy, public schools, and society. She urged educational anthropologists to confront racism in our research with Indigenous peoples. She challenged linguicism and urged the teaching of…

It is reported that the New York State Indians, descendants of Asiatic immigrants, participated in leading cultural episodes of the eastern United States. Since their remains illustrate processes of cultural growth, the New York prehistoric cultures are described in terms of archaeological findings under 3 major stages of development: the…

Describes activities of American Indian storyteller; includes several legends. (SP)