Master of Science (MS), Ohio University, 2023, Journalism (Communication)

This study examines the media representation of Indigenous communities in the context of environmental issues in three media outlets: Indian Country Today, High Country News, and the New York Times. By using Indigenous Standpoint Theory as a framework, the work seeks to elevate Indigenous voices in the debates on environmental justice. Through Carvalho's framework (2008) of Critical Discourse Analysis, the study considered a variety of manifest textual elements and used them to infer multiple underlying discursive strategies and ideological convictions of the journalists of the different outlets. The results of this study show that media outlets with Indigenous journalists in their newsrooms focus more on empowering Indigenous communities through highlighting their knowledge, their relationships with their lands and their grievances for justice. Providing historical context amplified Indigenous demands, while considering the power imbalances between colonizers and colonized. In contrast, the New York Times' coverage fell short in portraying Indigenous communities and their claims for environmental justice in a nuanced, contextualized way. Their reporting focused on conflict and negativity, which thwarts forms of journalism that are both more constructive and more empowering to Indigenous communities affected by the environmental crises

Doctor of Education , University of Dayton, 2022, Educational Leadership

The Missing Murdered Indigenous Women Coalition of North Carolina (MMIW NC) has examined the relationships among local, state, county, tribal, and federal supportive and responsive systems, gaps in services, and barriers to care in North Carolina that contribute to violence against American Indian women, girls, and two-spirit. There are gaps in coverage due to databases not having racial categories for American Indian women to select what race they belong to, jurisdictional battles that occur when reservation residents are discovered or reported missing elsewhere, tribes' inability to exercise sovereignty and prosecute violent crimes such as rape. The MMIW NC Coalition is dedicated to creating a statewide initiative to convince the North Carolina General Assembly, North Carolina Department of Public Safety, North Carolina Attorney General's Office, governor of North Carolina, and Commission of Indian Affairs provides a database for the monitoring or public reporting of missing and murdered Indigenous women and create a task response responsible for gathering the data. Currently, no comprehensive, accessible, cross-jurisdictional database exists to record missing American Indian women in North Carolina.

Master of Fine Arts, Miami University, 2022, English

When Nate Luck arrives in California in 1853, he is a wide-eyed, half Russian/half Buriat Mongol kid in love with the idea and ideals of America, looking for freedom and adventure – and he finds plenty of both. Over the next forty years Nate wins devoted friends and fierce enemies, digs for gold in California, punches cattle in Colorado, fights for - and against - the nation, falls in love, lives with and raises a family among the Nez Perce tribe, and sees - and spills - more than his share of blood in the pursuit of freedom and the American Dream. Finally, seeing the law as the only possible path to real freedom, he becomes a lawman – until he's arrested for murder. Fortunately, in Buffalo, Wyoming they take their time holding a trial, so he hopes he can tell his story and make sense of it all before they hang him. Nate's unique perspective and voice as an outsider provides a clear-eyed look at both what America's aspirations and failures. It also invites consideration that, despite all our progress, many of the issues faced by the powerless in 19th century America continue today.

BA, Oberlin College, 2022, Politics

A historical comparison of mixed-race categories in the United States and Brazil, analyzing the influence of governments and political groups.

Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.), University of Dayton, 2022, Theology

Mary's purity has been a subject of theological inquiry for over a millennium. This project's objective is to follow the development of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception historically to the ways it became manifest in the Spanish kingdoms of the Middle Ages, how it was brought and taught to the Nahua and Maya in the sixteenth century evangelization of Central Mexico by Spanish friars, and then how it remained a powerful force of evangelical and political fervor in New Spain through the analysis of three seventeenth century homilies about the Immaculate Conception. Whereas the conquest of the Americas is largely remembered for the brutalities and injustices committed, the Spanish friars who implemented a wide-scale evangelization of the Native Americans were interested in the sincere conversions of people like the Nahua and Maya. This dissertation studies the evangelization methods of the sixteenth century Franciscan friars in Central Mexico with particular attention to the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception and to Marian belief and devotion. The study also takes into account the cosmologies and ways of living of the Nahua and Maya, the two most prominent cultural groups in Mesoamerica at the time. The interaction between the friars and the natives is viewed in light of their respective cultural heritages. The spiritual concerns of the friars and their indoctrination of the Nahua and Maya are studied in light of the religious heritage of the Spanish kingdoms of the Middle Ages and the defense of the belief in the Immaculate Conception of Mary. The Spanish friars make Mary central to their evangelization of Central Mexico, along with Christ and the Cross. The first three chapters deal with the pre-Hispanic Mesoamerican world with respect to Nahua and Maya cosmologies, the Catholicism of the Iberian Peninsula up to the expansion to the Americas, and the development of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception respectively. Chapter four focuses on the ev (open full item for complete abstract)

Master of Arts, The Ohio State University, 2022, Educational Studies

This constructivist narrative inquiry thesis focuses on the stories Native American student-athletes share about their college choice, academic, and athletic experiences. I review existing literature on Native American student athletes' persistence and retention as well as college choice and environmental themes that support Native students and student-athletes. I then share my research design, including methodology, methods for story collection, and proposed methods for narrative analysis. The most common association by non-Native collegians between the phrases "Native American" and "college athletics" is any number of offensive college mascots. Rarely do non-Native people think of Native American student-athletes or consider what it means to be Native and a college student competing in intercollegiate athletics. Using narrative inquiry and Tribal Critical Race Theory as a theoretical framework, I elevate the throughlines within the Native American student-athlete collegiate experience and suggest best practices for both —Higher Education Administration and Athletics—by listening to and understanding Native American student-athletes' experiences in choosing a college/university and their athletic and academic experiences while attending an NCAA Division institution. The findings of this study indicate Native American student-athletes are unfamiliar with the athletic recruiting process and Native American campus resources have a positive influence on the Native American student-athlete experience. Recommendations are provided.

MA, Kent State University, 2022, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of History

Amid the turmoil of the Reconstruction and Progressive Eras, increasing efforts to suppress Native American peoples, and the rapidly growing women's suffrage movement, the American West became a symbol of Euro-American imperial goals and an ethnocentrically based national identity. Both a locale of cultural confrontation and warfare, many questions have arisen over who participated in this story. Scholars have long questioned female agency in the West, and this work attempts to navigate how female self-published captivity narratives gave white women agency not only over their own lives but over those of the Native peoples they held responsible for their captivity. Chapter one works to re-examine earlier scholarship on women in the American West and how these individuals wanted to be perceived. The next chapter explores these women's depictions of savagery and reinforcement of popular ideas of how Native peoples should be handled. Finally, the last chapter explores women's active participation in American efforts at imperial expansion using the Indian Depredations Act. This study hopes to reveal how women leveraged their captivity experiences which condemned their Native American captors to gain some amount of independence and fame within their own lives.

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, Educational Studies

The purpose of this study was to envision the educational policy structures that premise collective attempts to build new futures and shift the fulcrum of educational policy studies to Black and Indigenous knowledges. Modern educational policy structures, using colonial logics and guided by anti-Black systems, continue to exclude Black and Indigenous voices from policy making spaces. Or, policy actors outright ban justice-oriented and movement-building work in educational spaces. Even if policy actors are self-described allies, there is still a tendency to focus on what white people can do better. These educational policy realities place Black and Indigenous educator activists within structures that either criminalize justice work, or center whiteness. I designed, invited, and co-created a K-12 Black and Indigenous educator activist collective that established the relational research environment needed to explore political and pedagogical activism, or the exploratory theory of diradicalism, in educational spaces. This study explored the question, “How does a K-12 Black and Indigenous educator activist collective theorize the dynamic interaction between pedagogical and political activism (or, engage in dual educational politics—diradicalism)?” The study design involved 12 hours of discussion from a combination of one-on-one conversations and four collective sessions where we storied about our lives, acknowledged the people who inspired us, and named the actions we have taken in the pursuit of justice, thrival, and liberation. Then, the collective entrusted me to thematically code and interpret our transcribed conversations using NVivo software. My data analysis process, via quantified cluster analysis and thematic coding, illuminated four convergent themes that mechanized how Black and Indigenous educators intersect their dual educational politics—Barrier to Diradicalism, Diradical Intergenerational Knowledge Exchanges, Diradical Envisioning & Building New Futur (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2022, City and Regional Planning

In the United States, 574 federally recognized Tribes are spread throughout 35 states. However, in the planning and public policy academic fields, few studies include Tribes in their consideration. Even fewer Indigenous researchers study and discuss Tribes. Both are sorely needed for the academy—this dissertation is authored by a Tribal citizen and is a case study of one tribal government's activities within the Michiana region—filling a gap in the literature. Since 2017, I've served as an elected official, a Tribal Councilmember, on the Tribal Council of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians, a federally recognized Tribe in Michigan and Indiana. In this dissertation, I use my perspective to illustrate the impact gaming has had on the Pokagon Band as a community and the greater Michiana region. Then, I offer several vignettes to show how the Pokagon Band regularly engages in intergovernmental relations and regional development—covering areas such as the federal recognition process, land acquisition, our Tribal-State gaming compacts with Michigan and Indiana, how we ensure public safety through the use of cross-deputization agreements with four counties in the Band's service area, and economic development. Using a qualitative research approach, autoethnography serves as both a method and perspective, I illustrate how the Pokagon Band asserts its sovereignty to develop itself and serve its citizens. As the Tribe asserts itself, it has had a significant economic impact on the region where it is located and regularly interacts with other governments at the federal-, state-, and local- levels.

Doctor of Philosophy, Case Western Reserve University, 2021, Anthropology

There is a plethora of evidence in the literature demonstrating a significant disproportionate burden of illness on American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) populations regarding diabetes. AI/AN populations also have a unique history in the United States and Canada, and new and emerging research on historical trauma has revealed how the suffering from years past coupled with ongoing oppression and discrimination impact people. Furthermore, historical trauma has been implicated in a variety of poor health outcomes. The research described herein explores participant understandings of diabetes, health, self, identity, and historical trauma. The 49 interviews from 13 participants contain over 1100 stories, which participants used to help the researcher see how they experience the world and the concepts above. The data demonstrate how participants understand the concepts of diabetes, health, self, identity, and historical trauma in a way that is similar to Firstness, as put forth by C.S. Peirce. This quality of experience is both experienced and communicated through storied experience. Storied experience creates an understanding of self/other whereby the self and the other don't exist as separate entities but instead exist as a unique instantiation of self/other. This research contributes to the larger discussion on self, identity, and historical trauma through the analysis of storied experience. Using storied experience, participants were able to show how the “content” of historical trauma not only happened in the past but continues to cohabitate with individuals and communities in the present.

Master of Arts, University of Toledo, 2020, History

This project examines the incorporation of European manufactured firearms into Iroquois society between 1700 and 1760. I posit that the proliferation of the gun trade and adoption of firearms into Iroquois society illuminates the dynamic and self-determining nature of the Iroquois despite the encroachment of European colonial powers. The Iroquois consistently entered into relations with the British on Iroquois terms to obtain firearms and supplies related to the weapons upkeep and maintenance. Furthermore, the Iroquois approached these relationships through their own cultural lens, adopting and assimilating European goods and their meanings into their own society.

BA, Kent State University, 2007, College of Arts and Sciences / Department of English

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BA, Oberlin College, 2020, Anthropology

This thesis explores the "life history" of the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA). It chronicles NAGPRA's story beginning with what created the perceived need for such an act, the work and the groups of people that went into its ultimate advent in 1990, the "nitty-gritty" details/language of the policy itself, and its various successes and failures throughout the years. With research conducted through the lens of legal anthropology, this paper focuses on the certain "requirements" (education, class, race, ethnicity, tribal affiliation, etc.) that have allowed people(s) to actively participate in the formation/policy-building of NAGPRA, become NAGPRA representatives, and benefit from the policy.The primary focus of this thesis is on the question "What is the legal culture of NAGPRA?" It examines NAGPRA's legal culture by utilizing American sociologists Patricia Ewick and Susan S. Silbey's legal consciousnesses of before, with, and against the law. It then goes on to show that a fourth, new consciousness --beyond the law -- presents itself in the legal culture of NAGPRA. This fourth consciousness is developed in this thesis and necessary to more fully address the spirit of the law -- a key force in building and sustaining the legal culture of NAGPRA.

Master of Arts in English, Cleveland State University, 2020, College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences

Studies of American literature and, more specifically, literature by authors of color quite often focus on aspects of “othering”, that is, the practice of separating minority culture and literature from the larger or more dominant culture. Even before the onset of the Civil Rights Era, issues of racism have informed much of the literature of the United States, and just as long as racism has played a role in American literature, scholars, critics, and readers have discussed it. The bulk of criticism discussing African American and Native American literature examines the issues of racism as perpetrated by white society. What is not as commonly examined is the role that internalized racism plays. Ralph Ellison and Sherman Alexie are two of the most extensively studied authors of African American and Native American descent respectively, but analysis of their work tends to overlook the racism that a person can experience against his own race, choosing instead to focus on the hegemonic master narrative. Both authors used a blend of narratological self-deprecation to illustrate a desire both from and for their respective races within a larger, “American” identity; however, whereas Ellison's novel is a bildungsroman that uses a single narrator's self-hatred, Alexie employs multiple narrators and points of view to stitch bricolage that ultimately serves as a cohesive narrative. Eschewing the typical line of argument about visual imagery, this paper intends to explore how each author uses elements of sound, auditory metaphors, and, especially storytelling and folklore to depict internalized racism, how it works its way under the skin, and how it can be used to expose the effects of overt racism.

BA, Oberlin College, 2020, Comparative American Studies

Drawing on the wisdom of prison abolitionists past and present, as well as evidence from interviews and analysis of Illinois' Department of Children and Family Services (DCFS) procedural documents, this work argues that Illinois' DCFS and the child protection system more broadly are an extension of the carceral state. Both the criminal punishment system and the child protection system (henceforth referred to as the family regulation system) use a diffuse network of actors to surveil, regulate, and punish the behavior of queer subjects: impoverished people and people of color. The present-day family regulation system builds on a long history of family regulation that predates the founding of the U.S., as is seen in chattel slavery, the cultural genocide of Native Americans, neoliberal and anti-welfare policy regimes, and continues today at the U.S.-Mexico border and in the formalized family regulation system (child protective services). This work explores how to keep children safe in the age of abolition, focusing on non-carceral responses that center strong, accountable communities and divest from dependence on the state.

Master of Science, Miami University, 2020, Geology and Environmental Earth Science

The uranium boom in the United States from the 1940's to the 1980's was a period of extensive uranium mining on Native American lands. However, detailed environmental investigations of the resulting uranium pollution are sparse. The Midnite Mine is an abandoned open pit uranium mine located on the Spokane Indian Reservation, where approximately 35 million tons of ore and waste rock were left behind in stock piles. Although investigations of water and soil contamination have been conducted, there have been no investigations of associated airborne particulate matter. Bulk elemental analyses of tree bark from 31 Pinus ponderosa trees throughout the study area show that significant levels of U, moderate levels of Th, and low levels of Pb and As contamination are present in particulate matter on the reservation. SEM investigations confirm that U and Th particulate matter exist in the inhalable size range while geospatial analyses indicate that U, Th, and As contamination are centralized along the Midnite Mine access road and at the nearby Dawn Mill. These findings indicate that airborne particulate matter from the Midnite Mine and Dawn Mill may be a cause for concern to local health and provides context for future health and environmental studies.

Master of Science, The Ohio State University, 2019, Allied Medicine

American Indians and Alaskan Natives (AI/AN) experience higher rates of chronic diseases such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease, overweight/obesity, and metabolic syndrome than other ethnicities. American Indian women in particular suffer from these conditions more than both AI/AN men and African American, Asian, Caucasian, and Hispanic women. Increased healthcare burdens and poor health outcomes related to unemployment, low socioeconomic status, location, and lack of insurance are frequently experienced by AI/AN women. While the epidemiology of these chronic conditions is multifaceted, diet is strongly correlated with them. The pre-contact diet of American Indians was based on a hunter-gatherer lifestyle with limited agriculture. It consisted of largely of wild game, plants that could be foraged, and several crops such as beans, corn, squash. This resulted in a nutrition profile that was high in protein, low in fat, and had moderate fibrous carbohydrates. Periods of feast and famine were regularly experienced by the tribes. Research into a `thrifty gene' has led some researchers to believe that American Indians are genetically designed to thrive in these circumstances. This benefit may have become a disadvantage once the AI/AN diet experienced a transition. Westward expansion resulted in the relocation of tribes to unfamiliar territory, the decimation of wild game populations, and the creation of reservations. Their diet then shifted to one based on the reliance on commodity foods. These foods such as flour, lard, and beef began to form the basis of the modern AI/AN diet. Previous studies found that current AI/AN diets are often high in calories, fat, sugar, and processed foods while being low in protein, fruits, and vegetables. Some tribal members feel that their people were healthier before contact with white settlers and that returning to the `old ways' and a `traditional diet' would be beneficial. However, little is known about how a t (open full item for complete abstract)

Doctor of Philosophy, The Ohio State University, 2019, Anthropology

The archaeological record in the Middle Ohio Valley documents a relatively rapid transition from native domesticated plants and cultigens to maize production. This shift coincided with the cultural historical periods Late Woodland (A.D.400-1000) and Fort Ancient in the Late Prehistoric (A.D. 1000-1650). Previous research has established the chronology and characterized variation among sites across this transition in the Middle Ohio Valley. This dissertation uses high resolution data to explore the paleoethnobotany of four Fort Ancient sites that straddle the transition between these periods in the Little Miami and Great Miami River Valleys in southwestern Ohio and southeastern Indiana. I create a regional model for the maize transition to explore the reasons behind variation in responses to maize. Communities of this time period in the mid-Ohio valley variously ignored maize initially, added it to the existing resource set, or replaced native crops with maize. Opposing hypotheses about whether this transition to maize production was due to resource depression or technological innovation are built using human behavioral ecology's diet breadth model. Expectations developed from these hypotheses are compared to the archaeobotanical record at sites in this region.

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2019, History

Generations of historians have discussed the Miami akima Michikinikwa's pivotal role in the Northwest Indian War (1785-1795); however, the life of Michikinikwa following the 1795 Treaty of Greenville until his death in 1812 is a seventeen-year period that has drawn surprisingly little attention from recent historians. When written about, historians have interpreted Michikinikwa's later years as a period of assimilation, accommodation, and capitulation. This thesis refutes that characterization through a careful reevaluation of known sources and suggests that the Miami leader was employing a diplomatic strategy aimed at retaining a degree of Native American autonomy vis-a-vis the American government. The intellectual inspiration for this argument hinges on Michikinikwa's particularly fascinating 1802 statement to President Jefferson when referring to the Treaty of Greenville, “by the Treaty it was mentioned that certain reservations should be made for the white people in our country.” Seen through this lens, Michikinikwa's path from Greenville until his death presents an opportunity to flip the traditional perspective of Native American history. While Americans may have been looking westward with ideas of territorial expansion, Native American leaders were turning their attention eastward and devising means of containing that expansion while securing their own future on their ancestral lands, as well as attempting to adjust to a rapidly changing political and economic world. Ultimately, this thesis concludes that Michikinikwa was seeking to use his diplomatic influence, as well as the terms of the Treaty of Greenville itself, to define, control, and limit white settlement while simultaneously advocating for and protecting Miami sovereignty.

Master of Arts, University of Akron, 2018, Clothing, Textiles and Interiors

Edward S. Curtis photographed Native American culture for his epic 20-volume work, The North American Indian, published from 1907-1930. Curtis's work features over 2,000 photographs of Native Americans, rich with artifacts of Native American culture. Study of these photographs containing native artifacts reveals new perspectives on Native American life during the time Curtis took his photographs. This research focuses on Navajo weavings, one of the most popular and recognizable artifacts. Curtis wanted to capture a vanishing race of Native Americans, a popular belief of his time. Analysis of Navajo weavings in these photographs reveals a different viewpoint. Curtis's beautiful photographs captured a period of transition as the Navajo used their ancient craft of weaving blankets for other Native American cultures to create rugs for a growing Anglo-American market, preparing their culture for the future.