DIY/DEI: Supporting Indigenous/Native American students, faculty, and staff on college campuses

Advocates and allies are essential to promoting a culture of diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) in higher education and beyond. For many, there is a new awareness of issues associated with DEI and a growing desire to learn and engage. To support your efforts, the NC State University Libraries and the Office for Institutional Equity and Diversity have created a curated list of resources to inform your inquiry, introspection, and engagement with this topic. Engaging with these resources will provide you with an opportunity to explore DEI and develop your narrative and understanding.

This month’s featured topic

October 10, 2022 was Indigenous People’s Day. When considering native/indigenous populations across the country, it is a reality that there are many diverse cultures and identities to account for. Even in North Carolina specifically, there is a broad array of tribal peoples and practices that each represent beauty, power, and resilience.  

This resource list not only attempts to provide some of the contexts of these communities, but strives to do so in a way that brings awareness to the impact they have had on the broader culture. Often, indigenous impact is presented in a spirit of historical reminiscence. The reality though, both in North Carolina and beyond, is that native people have evolved practice and impact while simultaneously maintaining a respect and honor for their origins. This list serves as a way to shed light on these evolutions, while also identifying present challenges both in the area of higher education and beyond. While not every single tribe or sub-group of indigeneity can be accurately represented in a project like this, the ultimate goal is to show how truly diverse and powerful native people are. 

This list has been curated by Gavin Bell, Hannah Rainey, and Hiva Kadivar.

Past DIY/DEI resource lists can be found here. To suggest a future topic for DIY/DEI, please send your topic idea to oied-communications@ncsu.edu.

 

North Carolina Tribal Communities 

 

 

NC Commission of Indian Affairs 

“The North Carolina Commission of Indian Affairs was created in 1971 by the North Carolina General Assembly in response to the requests of concerned Indian citizens from across the state…The Commission of Indian Affairs consists of 21 representatives of the American Indian community, two representatives appointed by the General Assembly, one representative or their designee appointed by the Secretary of Health and Human Services, the Secretary of Commerce, the Secretary of Administration, the Secretary of Environment and Natural Resources and the Commissioner of Labor.” This website includes current information about Tribal and Urban Communities in North Carolina. 

 

NC State University Powwow

“NC State’s 31st Annual Powwow consists of Native business vendors, traditional drum groups, and the display of different Indigenous dance styles. It is a time for not only the native community to come together, but also a time for the NC State community as a whole to learn and engage with this rich culture.”

 

NC State Historical Timeline: Native Americans

Materials from the Libraries’ Special Collections Research Center. 

 

Native Land map 

“Native Land is an app to help map Indigenous territories, treaties, and languages… This map is not perfect—it is a work in progress with tons of contributions from the community.” Includes a Teacher’s Guide and other ways to get involved. 

 

Books

Lumbee Indians in the Jim Crow South: Race, Identity, and the Making of a Nation, Dr. Malinda Maynor Lowery (Lumbee), 2010. Ebook

“With more than 50,000 enrolled members, North Carolina’s Lumbee Indians are the largest Native American tribe east of the Mississippi River. Malinda Maynor Lowery, a Lumbee herself, describes how, between Reconstruction and the 1950s, the Lumbee crafted and maintained a distinct identity in an era defined by racial segregation in the South and paternalistic policies for Indians throughout the nation. They did so against the backdrop of some of the central issues in American history, including race, class, politics, and citizenship.”

 

There There, Tommy Orange, 2018.  Book

There There is a wondrous and shattering portrait of an America few of us have ever seen. It’s ‘masterful… white-hot… devastating’ (Washington Post) at the same time as it is fierce, funny, suspenseful, thoroughly modern, and impossible to put down. Here is a voice we have never heard—a voice full of poetry and rage, exploding onto the page with urgency and force.”

 

Otherwise Worlds: Against Settler Colonialism and Anti-Blackness, edited by Tiffany Lethabo King, Jenell Navarro, Andrea Smith, 2020. eBook

“Pointing out that presumptions of solidarity, antagonism, or incommensurability between Black and Native communities are insufficient to understand the relationships between both groups, this volume’s scholars, artists, and activists investigate the complex relationships between settler colonialism and anti-Blackness to explore the political possibilities that emerge from such inquiries.”

 

Shapes of Native Nonfiction: Collected Essays by Contemporary Writers, edited by Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton, 2019. eBook

“Just as a basket’s purpose determines its materials, weave, and shape, so too is the purpose of the essay related to its material, weave, and shape. Editors Elissa Washuta and Theresa Warburton ground this anthology of essays by Native writers in the formal art of basket weaving. Using weaving techniques such as coiling and plaiting as organizing themes, the editors have curated an exciting collection of imaginative, world-making lyric essays by twenty-seven contemporary Native writers from tribal nations across Turtle Island into a well-crafted basket.”

 

I am where I come from : Native American college students and graduates tell their life stories, edited by Andrew Garrod, Robert Kilkenny, and Melanie Benson Taylor, 2017. eBook

“The organizing principle for this anthology is the common Native American heritage of its authors; and yet that thread proves to be the most tenuous of all, as the experience of indigeneity differs radically for each of them. While many experience a centripetal pull toward a cohesive Indian experience, the indications throughout these essays lean toward a richer, more illustrative panorama of difference.”

 

Reclaiming Indigenous Research in Higher Education, edited by Robin Zape-tah-hol-ah Minthorn and Heather J. Shotton, 2018. eBook

“Recently, Native scholars have started to reclaim research through the development of their own research methodologies and paradigms that are based in tribal knowledge systems and values, and that allow inherent Indigenous knowledge and lived experiences to strengthen the research.”

 

Love Beyond Body, Space & Time: An Indigenous LGBT Sci-Fi Anthology, edited by Hope Nicholson, Erin Cossar, Sam Beiko, 2016. Book

“A collection of indigenous science fiction and urban fantasy focusing on LGBT and two-spirit characters. These are stories of machines and magic, love, and self-love. Including stories by Anishinaabe authors Grace L. Dillon, Niigaan Sinclair, and Nathan Adler; Richard Van Camp (Dene/Tłı̨chǫ), Cherie Dimaline (Métis), David A. Robertson (Swampy Cree), Daniel Heath Justice (Cherokee), Darcie Little Badger (Lipan Apache), Gwen Benaway (Annishinabe/Mètis), Mari Kurisato (Ojibwe Nakawē), and Cleo Keahna (Ojibwe/Meskwaki).”

 

Articles 

 

The Act of Claiming Higher Education as Indigenous Space: American Indian/Alaska Native Examples
Windchief, Sweeney (Fort Peck Assiniboine); Joseph, Darold H. 
Diaspora, Indigenous, and Minority Education Vol. 9, Iss. 4, 267. (2015)

 

Creating Visibility and Healthy Learning Environments for Native Americans in Higher Education
Bull, Cheryl Crazy (Sicangu Lakota)
American Indian College Fund. (2019)

 

Cultivating Native American scientists: an application of an Indigenous model to an undergraduate research experience
McMahon, Tracey R.; Griese, Emily R.; Kenyon, DenYelle Baete
Cultural Studies of Science Education Vol. 14, pages 77–110. (2019)

 

Decolonizing feminism: Challenging connections between settler colonialism and heteropatriarchy
Arvin, Maile; Tuck, Eve; Morrill, Angie (Native Hawaiian, Aleut, and Klamath authors)
Feminist Formations Vol. 25, Iss. 1, 8-34. (2013) 

 

Of warrior chiefs and Indian princesses: The psychological consequences of American Indian mascots
Fryberg, Stephanie A.; Markus, Hazell Rose.; Oyserman, Daphna; Stone, Joseph M. (Tulalip author) 
Basic and Applied Social Psychology Vol. 30, Iss. 3, 208-218. (2008) 

 

A space for survivance: locating Kānaka Maoli through the resonance and dissonance of critical race theory
Reyes, Nicole Alia Salis (Kānaka Maoli)
Race Ethnicity and Education Vol. 21, Iss. 6, 739-756. (2018)

 

Toward a tribal critical race theory in education
Brayboy, Bryan McKinley Jones (Lumbee)
Urban Review Vol. 37, Iss. 5, 425-446. (2005)

 

Podcasts 

The Red Justice Project 

Hosts: Chelsea Locklear, Brittany Hunt, Dakota Lowery

Link: https://www.redjusticepodcast.com/

“This podcast brings awareness to the many cases of missing and murdered indigenous people in North America, and the way we are erased in American media. We will also be highlighting the many political and social injustices faced by indigenous people. Crimes of continual cultural genocide and the resilience indigenous people have to endure for generations to come.”

 

All My Relations

Hosts: Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip), Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation)

Episode: Can a DNA test make me Native American? (1:10:55)

Episode: The ancestors know you: real life connection stories (1:40:43)

Link: https://www.allmyrelationspodcast.com

All My Relations is a podcast hosted by Matika Wilbur (Swinomish and Tulalip) and Adrienne Keene (Cherokee Nation) to explore our relationships—relationships to land, to our creatural relatives, and to one another. Each episode invites guests to delve into a different topic facing Native American peoples today.” 

 

Media Indigena: Indigenous current affairs

Hosts: Rick Harp, Candis Callison, Brock Pitawanakwat, Kim TallBear, Kenneth T. Williams
Episode: A Seminar in Settlerology (54:01)

Link: https://mediaindigena.com/podcast/

“A weekly roundtable about Indigenous issues and events in Canada and beyond.”

 

Videos 

TEDxSFU: Unpacking the Indigenous Student Experience (12:41)

“Matthew Provost discusses his experience navigating and pushing colonial boundaries in post-secondary and institutional spaces. Matthew Provost is Siksikaitsitapii from Treaty 7 Territory. He is a current undergraduate student at SFU and advocates for Indigenous students within the institution. Bloom to him is being able to achieve growth regardless of circumstances, and knowing that we always have an opportunity to bloom.”

 

Native 101: ASU students, faculty bust stereotypes (3:34)

“To help recognize the experiences of the more than 2,600 Indigenous students at ASU—and to honor the close of Native American Heritage Month—a group of American Indian students and faculty gathered to answer the questions and bust the stereotypes they face most often when interacting with non-Natives.”

 

This post was originally published in NC State University Libraries.