A Critical Review of Ann Rinaldi's" My Heart Is on the Ground: The Diary of Nannie Little Rose, A Sioux Girl, Carlisle Indian School, Pennsylvania, 1880.". (original) (raw)
For Native American students, how can higher education be a site that allows one to grow intellectually, spiritually, politically, and socially an Indigenous person? How can we understand the lived experiences of Native American students in higher education in terms of personal, academic, political and tribal identity growth? How can this understanding inform new models of recruitment, retention, and funding for Native American Students in higher education? What are the implications for shaping higher education programs that attempt to meet the needs of Indigenous students and our communities? This dissertation examines issues and challenges faced by Native Americans in Higher Education today and the role identity plays for Native Americans in Higher Education. Identity, for the purpose of this study, is tied to academic persistence and retention in education (Evans, Forney, & Guido-DiBrito 1998; Juzwik 2006; Moxley, Najor-Durack & Dumbrigue 2001; Newman 2005; Sanchez 2000; Sfard 2006; Sfard & Prusak 2005, among many others). There is an increasing urgency within Native communities to advocate for higher education to become a site for Native Americans to engage in recovery and restoration, as well-illustrated by the last decade of research in the field (Alfred [Kanien’kehaka (Mohawk)] 1999; Battiste [Mi'kmaq] 2000; Cajete [Tewa from Santa Clara Pueblo] 1994; Carey [Native Hawaiian] 1997; Emerson [Diné] 2006; Huffman 1999, 2001, 2008; Mihesuah [Choctaw] 2003, 2004; Peacock [Ojibwe] 2002; Smith [Maori] 1999; Wilson [Wahpetunwan Dakota] 2004). Emergent Indigenous spaces within higher education institutions are complex and multi-dimensional. Indigenous methodologies are concerned not only with knowledge production, but are inherently concerned with ethical and spiritual ways of knowing and being. Thus, my purpose in engaging these questions is to contribute to the transformative possibilities of Indigenous people in North America, as I share my own story of transformative healing. I use an Indigenous decolonizing process, as seen through a Diné and/or Anishinaabe lens. The approach can be understood in Diné and Anishinaabe terms as Hózhó náházdlị́́ị́’, Andaa Wenjigewin and Mino-Bimaadiziwin, respectively. These paradigms are related to auto-ethnographic and heuristic approaches to knowledge that center on the lived experiences of the researcher as the primary interpretive framework for analysis.