Claiming: The Act of Creating Indigenous Space in Higher Education

• In Event: Developing Your Scholar Identity: Emerging and Senior Scholars’ Fireside Chat

Abstract

This paper is intended to address matriculation and graduation disparities that are the result of assimilative educational practices in higher education for American Indians and Alaska Natives. Employing theoretical foundations that are grounded in indigenous epistemologies and implementing some of the practices that were used to create indigenous community during the civil rights era can serve students well in claiming educational space and consequently taking ownership of their own educational experiences. We examine the concept of claiming in multiple contexts, including curriculum, American Indian student services, the recognition of indigenous identities by campus communities, using scholarship to serve indigenous communities, including a current digital movement to delineate how student claim educational space as Indigenous space.

Authors

• Sweeney Windchief, Montana State University

• Darold H. Joseph, The University of Arizona