Native American Studies | Case Subject

This teaching case tells the story of Tony, one of nine Osage government reform commissioners placed in charge of determining the "will of the people" in reforming the government of the Osage Nation. Because of Congressional law the Osage Nation had been forced into an alien form of government for a hundred years. Recent legislation has reversed this and has recognized the Osage Nation's sovereign right to determine its own citizenship and form of government. As part of this case, students will analyze the highly charged debates over citizenship that took place during Osage community meetings. From these perspectives students will be asked to write referendum questions covering the central issues at stake with Osage citizenship. This case provides an opportunity for students to explore a range of issues including American Indian citizenship and sovereignty, the power and danger inherent in racial identity, and the process of community-based reform.

Washington State House Bill 1495 encourages school districts to incorporate curricula about the culture, history, and government of the nearest federally recognized tribe or tribes. The purpose is to familiarize the students with the unique heritage of their community. The case study of Whose History Should We Teach? suggests a curriculum that is a response to the mandate of the bill. It is based on a conversation that takes place in a teachers' staff room. A group of teachers expresses their deeply held beliefs about the possibility of developing a curriculum that presents Washington State history from the Native American perspective. They clash around their views of several historical milestones. Each question and each answer has a number of historical events embedded in them. The core of the curriculum is the research topics and the relevant discussion questions which guide students' learning. The intended learning outcomes state specifically what the students are expected to learn. The teaching notes describe the tasks that students will engage in, in order to investigate the issues. The curriculum can be used in K-12 or college with appropriate adaptations. It would be effective and appropriate for native as well as non-native students.

This case tells the story of the origin and passage of House Bill 1495 in the Washington State Legislature. This bill required the inclusion of tribal history, culture and government in the social studies curriculum in the public schools. The case discusses the process of implementing this bill as well. The case provides a good opportunity to study the policymaking process as well as issues in Indian education.

In 1997 Washington, like many states across the nation, established a new framework for assessing student performance in K-12 education believing this was key to making the high school diploma mean something. The new standards, implemented through the WASL (the Washington Assessment of Student Learning), were gradually phased in but will eventually become graduation requirements. While student performance has improved, students of color continue to have lower achievement scores than other students. This case looks at a reservation community struggling with the question of how to improve student performance on the WASL and the various factors that might explain poor performance.

Housing shortages are a critical issue that impact Indian people. Traditional housing loans are difficult, if not impossible, to obtain because Indian reservations because financial institutions, as a rule, cannot secure their loans through deeds to property on federal trust lands. Because of this, most reservations must rely solely upon federal funding for public housing. As a result of this and considerable migration back to tribal communities, most reservations experience an extreme shortage of homes that meet federal housing quality standards. Through this case, students can explore ways that tribes can advocate to revise polices and enhance existing structures that result in developing vibrant, healthy communities for Indian people.

This case examines questions relating to the issues of Indian identity within the field of Native arts, both in terms of the creation of art and Native arts administration. The case looks at the Indian Arts and Craft Act of 1990 and the impact of the application of the law to Indian artists and Native arts service organizations. The question of "who is an Indian artist?" as defined by the Indian Arts and Crafts Act has legal, cultural and community implications. The question of "what is Indian art?" has many implications for the field of indigenous art and comprises a wide range of viewpoints

Getting communities healthy is a major challenge facing Indian Country. Tribes and organizations that serve Indian people have struggled to alleviate disproportionate rates of health-related problems, both on the reservation and in urban areas. This case study introduces students to the ways health concerns of Native women are inextricably tied to colonialism, particularly in the area of prenatal and well-child care. Tribal health clinics working closely with community organizations can provide a promising way to improve Native women's health and empower tribes. Students will analyze a fictional meeting in which several characters identify health disparities and envision ways to work more closely together. They then critically evaluate possible outcomes of the meeting including challenges and successes, and suggest areas for further research.

The Makah people have lived on the northwest part of the Olympic Peninsula for thousands of years and utilized the bounty of the seas. Their historical tradition of whaling can be traced back at least 1,500 years. When they signed the Treaty of Neah Bay in 1855 the Makah reserved the right to hunt whales. The Makah Nation resumed this whaling tradition in 1999 by harvesting a gray whale. Since this successful hunt the Tribe has had to continue to confront and overcome many involved legal and political obstacles to continue hunting whales. This case details the Makah's continuing efforts to resume whaling.

This case tells a story of forestry management policies on the Quinault Reservation. In the early years, the Office of Indian Affairs (OIA) and later the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) acted like a landlord, allocating large timber sales to non-Indian timber companies. The Dawes Act fragmented the Quinault Reservation into many small individually owned allotments: the Tribe retained little for the general purpose. Years of mismanagement of Reservation forest lands by the BIA left devastated lands and waters. Legislation and actions by leaders like Joe De La Cruz pushed the envelope to reform the U.S. tribal trust relationship, eventually returning land use decision-making to the Quinault Indian Nation. The Tribe took over planning, timber sales, and decision-making for forestry as they came to work in partnership with the BIA and neighboring agencies. The challenge was great---large areas of the landbase were cut-over. New decisions about forestry management were made to acquire allotted lands and to transfer them into the tribal ownership so they could be restored.

The Mescalero Apache traditional homelands were what is now known as central New Mexico. Sierra Blanca, along with three other mountains surrounding the White Sands area, was the territorial markers of their area. These mountains were a source of cultural identity, geographic navigation, and subsistence. Today, the Mescalero Apache Tribe occupies a reservation in central New Mexico. The reservation boundaries include Sierra Blanca. Sierra Blanca is a significant sacred site in Mescalero Apache culture. This case study investigates the intersection between sacred sites, traditional native identity, boundaries, and contemporary tribal economic development.

Thousands of years ago the lands and rivers around Celilo Falls were huge trading areas where as many as 5000 people would come to trade for Salmon. It was a time for abundance and socialization. In the later part of the 1950s, after the development of hydroelectric dams on the Columbia, the tribal people lost the sacred falls, their Salmon, and their way of life. Today, the Columbia River is used as a major transportation artery as well as a source of hydroelectric power. The waters of the Columbia River are contaminated, dams have slowed the flow of the river, and in some cases the migration of the Salmon is impeded. The Salmon are contaminated with hundreds of toxins and the people who eat them are suffering from cancer and other ailments.

This case tells the story of a longstanding land dispute between the Quileute Tribe and the Olympic National Park. The Tribe's search for a just solution is examined in the context of changing political and environmental circumstances. Emergency preparedness is an important dimension of this case which also highlights the ways in which disputes are negotiated and the various considerations at play.

Those who provide social services in the homes of community members are oftentimes overwhelmed at the dysfunction in family systems. Personal experiences become a call to action both to bring attention to the issues, but also to find ways to address and resolve them. The impact of methamphetamine use and the way it harms children and families is one such social problem. While dealers have permeated the country with illicit drugs, the situation has become an epidemic in Indian Country. Looking at this problem through the eyes of a social service provider who works a local nonprofit social service organization in rural Thurston County, Washington, this case explores the roots of the methamphetamine problem in Indian Country, and shares various strategies at the federal and local level to deal with it.

Native gaming has been a part of the US landscape for decades. This case examines this phenomena through an economic, social-cultural and political lens.

Case 1: "All In? Economic Factors to Consider in Native Gaming"
The economics frame focuses on the context of the need for economic development on Indian reservations. This offers a range of considerations for Native economic development. It also looks at the pros and cons of Indian gaming as an economic choice within a full economic development strategy. This asks learners to consider issues of economic development and empowerment.

Case 2: "Smallpox or the New Buffalo: What's the Right Analogy for Indian Gaming?"
The social and cultural frame surfaces issues of traditional beliefs and Native identity, the projection of authentic tribal culture, and the importance of tribal unity historically. This case asks learners to consider how to maintain these values in an environment of economic globalization, which may force the issue of economic development and Native American self-sufficiency.

Case 3: "Setting the Rules for Native Gaming"
The political frame uses a legal, policy and procedure focus to approach the regulation of Indian gaming. With relevant external laws and internal tribal ones, this political frame asks readers to consider important tribal leadership structures and policies to support effective Indian gaming.

This three-part interrupted case tells the story of an extraordinary archaeological find, the ancient tribal village, Tse-whit-zen, during the construction process replacing the Hood Canal Bridge. This case offers important insights on inter-governmental decision-making and cultural preservation. Part 1 of the case provides background on the Bridge replacement project and the early stages of the planning process. This part of the case is written largely from the point of view of the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT). Part 2 is written from the standpoint of a member of the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe as the discovery of the ancient village unfolded and everyone struggled with the impact of that discovery, trying to balance cultural considerations with the urgency surrounding the bridge replacement and the impact on the local economy. Part 3 of the case describes the most recent issues surrounding the case after the discovery of substantial numbers of human remains and the ensuring controversy about whether the project should be shut down.