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- All Subjects: Indigenous youth
- All Subjects: Pueblo Indians--Medical care--New Mexico.
- Creators: Sumida Huaman, Elizabeth
Description
The following study is based on my individual and collective practice as a former staff member of El Centro de Desarrollo Alternativo Indígena A.C., a non-profit who works in the Sierra Madre Occidental in the north of Mexico, and my experience as a master student in the US. I am developing this research as a reflective instrument to improve the strategies that I have been developing and implementing. To reach this goal I present the concept of praxis, which Paulo Freire and Antonio Gramsci used some years ago, as a methodology to shorten the gap between my practice and theory. Furthermore, I use the theoretical framework of popular education, and other ideas from the complementary fields of community development, and Critical Race Theory/TribalCrit, to shed light on how to improve our practice and the pedagogies we use as part of our work. The main question that is guiding this study is: What is the learning dynamic of organizations and participants who are doing community development work with Indigenous communities? To answer this, I analyze the data I collected in 2016, which includes: two months of participant observation, sixteen in-depth interviews, and one focus group with staff members. The findings of this research suggest that staff members have learned to respect time and culture of the community and to validate local knowledge; community members have shared that they have learned new agricultural practices, production of organic fertilizers and pesticides, earthworm compost, food conservation methods, communication skills and to work together. The ways identified in which participants have learned are: by doing, by observation, by dialogue, by receptivity, by recognition, through meetings and by reflection. The results of this research are consistent with what popular educators say: neutrality is impossible. Practices of the nonprofits do not occur in a vacuum; therefore, the mechanisms of auto analysis and reflection that CEDAIN staff shared, in conjunction with the attempt of this research to unveil the hidden and explicit curriculum of the practices of CEDAIN, are great tools to trigger critical consciousness, challenge what we have taken for granted, and recreate better practices. This research is a result of the compilation and analysis of the narratives, experiences and knowledge of community and staff members who participated in this study. In this sense, these set of ideas, which place grassroots experiences as the principal source of knowledge, could be applied to plan and design future pedagogical interventions.
ContributorsMorales Guerrero, Jorge (Author) / Sumida Huaman, Elizabeth (Thesis advisor) / Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958- (Committee member) / Sandlin, Jennifer (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2018
Description
These are unprecedented times. Like never before, humans, having separated themselves from the web of life through the skillful use of their opposable thumbs, have invented the means of extinction and have systematized it for the benefit of the few at the expense of all else. Yet humans are also designing fixes and alternatives that will soon overcome the straight line trajectory to ugliness and loss that the current order would lead the rest of humanity through. The works in this dissertation are connected by two themes: (1) those humans who happen to be closely connected to the lands, waters and wildlife, through millennia of adaptation and inventive association, have a great deal to share with the rest, who, through history have become distanced from the lands and waters and wildlife they came from; and (2) as the inheritors of all the insults that the current disrespectful and wasteful system is heaping upon all true sensibilities, young people, who are Indigenous, and who are the critical generation for biocultural survival, have an immense role to play - for their cultures, and for all of the rest. The survivance of autochthonous culture through intergenerational conduct of cultural practice and spirituality is profoundly affected by fundamental physical factors of resilience related to food, water, and energy security, and the intergenerational participation of youth. So this work is not so much an indictment of the system as it is an attempt to reveal at least two ways that the work of these young Indigenous people can be expedited: through the transformation of their education so that more of their time as youths is spent focusing on the wonderful attributes of their cultural associations with the lands, waters, and wildlife; and through the creation of a self-sustaining youth owned and operated enterprise that provides needed services to communities so they can adapt to and mitigate the increasingly variable, unpredictable, and dangerous effects and impacts of global heating and climate disruption.
ContributorsEricson, Mark (Author) / Brayboy, Bryan (Thesis advisor) / Sumida Huaman, Elizabeth (Thesis advisor) / Swadener, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Schugurensky, Daniel, 1958- (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
Due to the history of colonization, disruption of Indigenous life ways, and encroachment of external Western ideals and practices upon tribal peoples in New Mexico, the protection and preservation of tribal customs, values, traditions, and ways of thinking are critical to the continued existence of the tribes. It has taken many years for tribal communities, such as the 19 Pueblos of New Mexico, to get to where they find themselves today: In a paradoxical situation stemming from the fact that Pueblo people are told to pursue the iconic American Dream, which was not actually designed or intended for tribal peoples and that always seems to be just out of reach for many community members. Yet many of them do their best to emulate the capitalistic consumption and the Western way of life. What is troubling about this is that perhaps many of these people are starting to forget that it was the strength of their ancestors and their dreams that allowed Pueblo people to be here today. So, how do Pueblo people address this paradox? How do they begin to give newer generations, such as the youth, the tools to question and to assess future programs and the future of the tribal communities? Furthermore, what does such a process of preserving and reclaiming mean for future governance? Are these communities prepared to accept the outcomes?
This compilation seeks to address these issues by examining a) the creation and delivery of Western medicine for American Indians in New Mexico and b) a discussion of Pueblo culture and belief systems. The exploration will include not only discussing health and health care concerns, but it will also engage the future considerations that tribal governments in New Mexico, specifically Pueblo Indian communities, must reflect on to ensure the preservation of the culture and values of Pueblo people. Finally, specific recommendations for action and discussion will be delivered in the form of a policy paper that is designed for tribal leadership and tribal administrative audiences and suggested for implementation.
This compilation seeks to address these issues by examining a) the creation and delivery of Western medicine for American Indians in New Mexico and b) a discussion of Pueblo culture and belief systems. The exploration will include not only discussing health and health care concerns, but it will also engage the future considerations that tribal governments in New Mexico, specifically Pueblo Indian communities, must reflect on to ensure the preservation of the culture and values of Pueblo people. Finally, specific recommendations for action and discussion will be delivered in the form of a policy paper that is designed for tribal leadership and tribal administrative audiences and suggested for implementation.
ContributorsLucero, Kenneth Brian (Author) / Sumida Huaman, Elizabeth (Thesis advisor) / Brayboy, Bryan (Thesis advisor) / Martin, Nathan (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015
Description
This dissertation explores the notion of Pueblo community engagement at multiple levels, from the communities’ role in engaging its members, the individual’s responsibility in engaging with the community, both the community and individual’s engagement relationship with external forces, and the movement towards new engagement as it relates to youth and community. This research recognizes both the existing and the changing nature of engagement in our Pueblo communities. Because the core value of contribution is critical to being a participant in community, both participants and communities need to think of what needs to be done to strengthen Pueblo community engagement , for community and for youth. On the community side, this dissertation examines past community programs impact to the social structures of Pueblo communities and highlights a couple of new strategies to incorporate community voice in programming efforts. In addition, this dissertation explores youth contribution to community. The notions of community recognizing and being receptive to new ideas for youth engagement and of instilling their sense of community in youth is critical to the ‘new engagement’ paradigm. This dissertation proposes that one strategy is to incorporate youth in the governance structures of community through innovative programming with the ultimate goal of instilling in youth the feeling that they belong to their community.
ContributorsChosa, Carnell Terry (Author) / Sumida Huaman, Elizabeth (Thesis advisor) / Brayboy, Bryan (Thesis advisor) / Swadener, Elizabeth (Committee member) / Arizona State University (Publisher)
Created2015