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Purpose – This chapter examines how and why the continued use of Indianness in sport makes many American Indians uneasy and then turns to consider the manner in which Native Americans have assisted with and even endorsed such monikers and mascots.

Design/methodology/approach – The current study employs interpretive approaches common in cultural studies (broadly defined). It offers textual readings of historical incidences as well as ethnographic readings of current events.

Findings – The key findings of the study offer new insights into the multiple and often competing ways in which indigenous athletes, fans, and communities interpret Native American mascots, stressing the overlooked role of American Indians who enact and endorse them.

Research limitations/implications – The focus on the use of indigeneity in the United States is the key limitation of the current research.

Originality/value – The central contribution of this work lies in its attention to the social significance and cultural politics of indigenous interpretations of American Indian mascots. In particular, it explores the complexities and contradictions central to such interpretations, stressing the unappreciated role of expectations and the pronounced uneasiness at their core.

Current research about American Indians of all ages is in short supply, yet design and allocation of public services and resources are increasingly guided by ‘evidence’ provided by research. The health and wellness of this population is persistently poorer than that of other marginalized populations. American Indian tribes have been beset progressively since the earliest arrival of European settlers by both malevolent and well-intentioned assaults on their cultures and peoples. This long history of cultural and physical genocide continues into the present and undermines the effectiveness of Eurocentric processes for research that have been shaped by values and beliefs antithetical to those of most tribes (e.g. individualism, proprietary ownership, science as the way of knowing). Individual and collective historical trauma is present in all of the more than 500 federally recognized tribes in the United States of America, and a lack of trust further compromises the validity and positive impact of most research. This chapter describes the roots and foundations of flawed and successful research and identifies practical resources and approaches that are valid and beneficial for conducting research with indigenous people. The processes described in this chapter are grounded in the experiences of tribes in the United States of America; however, parallel experiences of indigenous populations that have a continuing legacy of trauma are found in many other countries (such as in Brazil and New Zealand) and the insights and approaches found in this chapter may be applicable to some degree.

There is a long history of school failure for Aboriginals¹ in the U.S. educational system. Culturally relevant/responsive pedagogy affords opportunities for Aboriginal students to achieve academic success through building upon their cultural heritages and Native ways of knowing. School systems adopting this pedagogy empower Indigenous students to connect with essential knowledge for academic success in today’s world. This enhanced pedagogy creates classrooms of involvement that promote Aboriginal students’ achievement. Preservice teachers employing this pedagogy will experience success with their Indigenous students and learn about Aboriginal communities, lifeways, and values. Mutual respect is engendered as long-perpetuated negative stereotypes of Native Americans are undone. Culturally relevant/responsive pedagogy can be tailored to specific populations by incorporating their own Aboriginal knowledge, languages, and practices into teaching praxis.

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to examine how leading a childhood characterized by transnational mobility affects youths’ understanding of and relationship to their ethnic identity.

Study approach: This study examines the effects of transnational mobility on ethnic identity by focusing on the specific case of Indian Americans who grew up in the USA and Bangalore, a city in southwest India, before relocating to the USA for college. The analysis for this chapter comes from semi-structured, in-depth interviews with 20 transnational Indian American youth.

Findings: The data analysis reveals that by spending part of their childhood in India, transnational Indian American youth were able to learn more about their Indian ethnic identity, which helped them resolve issues related to their status as an ethnic minority in the USA, reframe how they define their ethnic identity, and reevaluate the status of their ethnic identity relative to their counterparts in the USA.

Originality: This study focuses on the unique case of Indian American youth who had a childhood characterized by transnational mobility. As such, this work contributes to the literature on children and youths’ transnational mobility through its focus on the migration patterns of relatively elite and socially privileged children and youth. Additionally, it adds to our understanding of the effects of migration between the USA and India by addressing how these processes affect children and youth. Last, it adds to the literature on Indian Americans by focusing on an understudied subpopulation within this group. The study motivates future research on the diversity that exists among transnationally mobile Indian American children and youth.

While the issue of “Blackness” has long pervaded American society, it has rarely been problematized in social science literature and treated as a taken-for-granted. This article utilizes in-depth interviews with second generation West Indian adults in New York City to examine the ways in which they conceive of their Blackness, both racially and ethnically. New York City is viewed as an important urban context that in many ways facilitates the formation of identity for this population. The assimilation process, or not, of second generation West Indians is also considered in terms of socioeconomic status and gender. The results indicate that second generation West Indians strongly identify with both their racial and ethnic identities, which in turn calls for a reconceptualization of “Blackness”. There is also evidence that points to New York City as a space of cross-cultural integration where identity formation is significantly impacted by the presence of other immigrants (and their children) that leads to a pan-immigrant or pan-ethnic identity among young New Yorkers.

During early childhood, Indians and non-Indians learn a definition of “Indianness” (Merskin, 1998, p. 159). Around 18 months of age, human beings begin to recognize themselves as distinct and separate from their mothers and others (Lacan, 1977). By age 6, most attributes of personality formation are already established (Biber, 1984). The content of the information that consciously and unconsciously reaches children is critical for the formation of a healthy, grounded sense of self and respect for others. Today, in the absence of personal interaction with an indigenous person, non-Indian perceptions inevitably come from other sources. These mental images, the “pictures in our heads” as Lippmann (1922/1961, p. 33) calls them, come from parents, teachers, textbooks, movies, television programs, cartoons, songs, commercials, art, and product logos. American Indian images, music, and names have, since the beginning of the 20th century, been incorporated into many American advertising campaigns and marketing efforts, demarcating and consuming Indian as exotic “Other” in the popular imagination (Merskin, 1998). Whereas a century ago sheet music covers and patent medicine bottles featured “coppery, feather-topped visage of the Indian” (Larson, 1937, p. 338), today's Land O’ Lake's butter boxes display a doe-eyed, buckskin-clad Indian “princess.” The fact that there never were Indian “princesses” (a European concept), and most Indians do not have the kind of European features and social “availability” that trade characters do, goes largely unquestioned. These stereotypes are pervasive, but not necessarily consistent, varying over time and place from the “artificially idealistic” (noble savage) to images of “mystical environmentalists or uneducated, alcoholic bingo-players confined to reservations” (Mihesuah, 1996, p. 9). Today, a trip down the grocery store aisle still reveals ice cream bars, beef jerky, corn meal, baking powder, malt liquor, butter, honey, sugar, sour cream, chewing tobacco packages, and a plethora of other products emblazoned with images of American Indians. To discern how labels on products and brand names reinforce long-held stereotypical beliefs, we must consider embedded ideological beliefs that perpetuate and reinforce this process.

Using a semi-autoethnographic layered account format, we present the voices of 16 Native American adults as they talk about their lives and Native American Caricature Iconography (NACI). First, we explore their impressions and lived experiences with “racial formation projects” such as tribal identification cards, blood quantum calculations, genocide, child removal, boarding schools, and reservations, to contextualize why some Native Americans interpret NACI as much more than “an honor,” “tradition,” or “just good fun.” Next, we explore the Native Americans' perceptions of sports mascots, cartoons, and sculpture, after exposing them to a series of eight images of NACI. We conclude that NACIs are racial formation projects as well. By unmindfully producing and consuming NACI, we fail to interrupt and reform the racial formation projects that continue to define us all.

National parks are selected as places of national importance, with national meaning. At the same time, the political process that shapes park management is often a local one. This biases park interpretation away from national concerns and toward local ones. The National Park Service's corporate interests and decision-making processes often reinforce the role of local interests except in the rare cases of congressional intervention. A close look at the political environment of Fort Davis National Historic Site, Texas, illustrates these points. Congress mandated the site to interpret westward expansion and its impact on American Indians. It became instead a program of park interpretation based on westward expansion and the role of African-American “Buffalo Soldiers” within it. As a result, Indians have effectively been written out of the story of this “Indian fort.” Interestingly, Native American issues reappear in commercial establishments, both the gift shop in the park and businesses in the town of Fort Davis outside the park. If businesses perceive a demand for information about Native Americans among tourists, presumably there is a similar, unmet demand among the same tourists as they visit the historic site. Given the role of local concerns in park interpretation, national intervention will probably be necessary to provide political support for reinterpreting the site.

Educational leaders in schools serving Native American students must understand, communicate, and apply state and federal education policies along with specific federal Indian policies relating to tribal self-determination and the education of these students. Tribal peoples residing in native communities typically view revitalization of indigenous language as a crucial first step in achieving the cross-cultural goal of school success for all tribal children. Inclusion of indigenous languages serves multiple purposes such as transmitting traditional cultural values, supporting overall academic achievement, and fostering self-determination and independence for native communities. Title III and Title VII of the No Child Left Behind Act are the designated policy “homes” for indigenous language inclusion and the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act addresses indigenous language as an obstacle to overcome, giving the unintended impression that native languages are somehow situated within a deficit framework of poverty and special education. This chapter explores the foundations of the inclusion of native languages into current federal policy and argues that the placement might be better suited as stand-alone legislation in order to more effectively promote community development and self-determination for Native American peoples.

The rate of Native Americans attending institutions of higher education is much lower (24 percent) in comparison to their White peers (48 percent) (Ross et al., 2012). This chapter explores factors that contribute to the accessibility of higher education for Native American students (e.g., family, institutions, communities, and academic influences.) The extreme differences in the rate of Native Americans attending institutions of higher education are not attributed to one single problem. However, this chapter argues that it is imperative to see that an accumulation of experiences influence higher education accessibility and in order to increase the attendance of Native Americans in colleges and universities, a multifaceted approach informed by Tribal Critical Theory must be used.