This article presents a tool and discusses the rationale for the authors' development of a tool designed to assess the alignment of culturally responsive schooling principles within schools serving predominantly U.S. Indigenous students. Schools that serve a majority of Indigenous students are generally located on or bordering Native Nations that…

Purpose: Indigenous ("Diné") communities have long endured high rates of behavioral and mental health diseases like depression, drug and alcohol dependency, and suicide due to historical trauma and posttraumatic stress disorders. Western research methods used to address these issues have often failed to provide sufficient understanding…

What key ingredients are needed to effectively promote the mental health and resilience of young children in American Indian and Alaska Native communities? What should non-indigenous allies know when working with Indigenous communities and partners to support young child wellness? What elements and contexts should be taken into consideration when…

Students bring valuable cultural ways of knowing and worldviews to the classroom. Teachers who build on student cultures are able to motivate and make learning more meaningful. We believe that teachers should "Think Local" within a holistic orientation to create a student-centered and culture-centered education that arises out of student…

This paper discusses ways Dine peoples can use cultural knowledge to rebuild and decolonize the Navajo Nation. In the past, leaders, warriors, and all peoples worked together to sustain their community's way of life. These stories and strategies can be helpful in rectifying and resolving many challenges and problems Dine peoples face in the…

Three Navajo teachers' conceptions of culturally appropriate curriculum and pedagogy highlight the benefits of reflective practice within different educational and school contexts. Each teacher provides a way of thinking about culturally appropriate curriculum, and its implementation in classroom practice for different Navajo students. The ways in…

Sandpainting is very much a part of the heritage and culture of the Navajo Indians of the American southwest. To separate the Navajo from their art is like trying to separate them from their land. One of the most unique art forms from the American southwest region is sandpainting. This column describes how to introduce sandpainting into the…

Describes the sweat lodge ceremony used at a residential treatment center located on the Navajo Nation and compares the ceremony to modern group work identifying Yalom's (1995) 11 therapeutic factors of group therapy within the ceremony. Considers widespread use of the ceremony with Native Americans and nonnative Americans as well as…

Describes the work of three bilingual story tellers, one Navajo and two Hispanic Americans, who communicate about their own language and culture while increasing the respect for other cultures of those who hear them. Storytelling is an excellent way to introduce children to other languages and cultures. (SLD)

Examines cross-cultural issues encountered during a survey on the Navajo Reservation about the psychosocial aspects of uncompensated occupational illnesses. Discusses cultural concerns for non-Indian researchers and social workers related to research design, culture shock, working conditions, legitimation, access, Navajo world view, and Navajo…

Discusses the tremendous barriers to success in college that Navajo students face. Discusses five major forms: financial difficulty, family obligations, prescriptive attitudes toward Standard American English, instructor/faculty ethnocentrism, and ambivalence toward Western education. Discusses ways faculty can work to mitigate these barriers as…

Uses examples from pen-pal letters written in English to unknown Navajo peers by elementary and secondary Athabaskan students to argue that even in written English, the Athabaskan sense of place is evident, and it is an integral part of the construction of self and the world. (SM)

This paper examines perceptions of Native American students regarding effective practices of non-Native teachers. A survey of students in grades 3-12 in 3 rural school districts on the Navajo Reservation (Arizona) questioned 148 Navajo students and 10 non-Native students. The sample included 28 special needs students (17.7 percent). The survey…

Whether goals held by students from diverse cultural backgrounds differ and the relationship of these goals to school motivation and achievement were studied with 2,156 Australian (Anglo, immigrant, and Aboriginal), 529 Navajo, and 198 Canadian Montagnais Betsiamite Indian secondary school students. Cross cultural and educational implications are…

This report reviews service learning activities performed by student teachers in the American Indian Reservation Project in their placement communities across the Navajo Nation. Parameters for this required, academic assignment included the selection of activities independent of their schools' academic or extracurricular programs; completion of…