Final Research Paper: Multimedia Presentation

The speaker, Miranda Torres, discusses the challenges faced by Indigenous students in higher education, particularly in the context of American Indian assimilation. She highlights the historical assimilation and oppressive practices that Native Americans were subjected to, such as forced conformity, disciplinary education, and erasure of their traditional practices. The speaker also mentions the inconsistent federal policies regarding Indigenous people, with some progress made in acknowledging tribal nations. She emphasizes the importance of validating students' experiences and identities, using frameworks to influence curriculum, and promoting cultural competency in education. The speaker calls for accountability and systemic changes to provide reliable support for Indigenous students and ensure equity in academia. Hello listeners, my name is Miranda Torres and this afternoon I will be reviewing my final research paper titled Indigenous Students in Higher Education and more specifically focusing on the American Indian student assimilation context. So obviously throughout the progression of higher education there have been many diversity, equity and inclusion deficits brought to light, especially as we reviewed the history of education and kind of the way that it's changed over time. What we've learned is that the systematic approaches were pretty much founded on very prejudiced and racist foundings. So it's important now as we continue to progress in higher education to be able to acknowledge those practices that they were founded on but also actively work to change them and ensure that they don't happen again. So more specifically again in the American Indian context I will be talking about Indigenous students. I will be overviewing first a little bit about some of the challenges that they face and have faced in their history. I will also talk about historical assimilation throughout education followed by some federal policy and then I will kind of wrap up with some representation talking about that course curriculum and facing the adversity within this specific community. So Patents 2016 explains that accounting for all student perspectives allows for student affairs professionals to develop effective strategies to lead these students. So that's pretty much why I chose this topic was to understand that it's important to represent these students and also understand the way that they learn and how it's not always accustomed to the way that education is set up for students. So while Indigenous people have occupied America well before its founding, really current systems are more toward served more towards the ideals of Western culture and as well as like those European ideologies again because of the colonization. So Indigenous people are diverse both culturally and politically and they don't always share a common political climate with mainstream institutions. So with that understanding in mind it's important to be able to understand their perspective and in a way cater to it so that way they feel represented, seen, heard and cared about. So as far as historical assimilation, as early as the late 1700s Native Americans were forced to assimilate into European culture. From the time of the American education system was founded the federal government chose to intervene and kind of force Native people to conform their traditional practices. So with this conformity Native Americans were given no choice but to kind of uproot their homes forced into disciplinary types of education practices and even just discipline in general. And they were also forced into unfamiliar educational environments that really defied and went against their traditional approaches and especially their epistemological approaches as well. So in addition to this there were also boarding schools that were created to guide this assimilation process. So these students were forced to cut their hair, scrub their complete from head to toe and then also change into any type of that traditional clothing that they were used to and kind of forced more into that military style, that organized type of again European culture. So really every detail of their life was altered to fit a new society from the foods that they ate to the beds they slept on to the chairs that they used. Every part of their life was assimilated and in some sense even erased. So the boarding schools refused to tolerate even their Native languages and their traditional practices. So again all of that was erased and if they were to continue these practices they were met with harsh punishments. And so it was definitely being forced that they had to kind of delete and really erase these traditions from their day to day lives. So as far as federal policy in regard to Indigenous people it's definitely changed over the last several hundred years and this assimilation has definitely been forced but also the policies in turn of this assimilation has been pretty inconsistent and ever evolving. So in 1975 the Indian Self-Determination and Educational Assistance Act enabled American Indian communities to enact self-determination which basically meant that Indigenous individuals have the right to self-determine their political and moral authority. Obviously it didn't have much control but because they were in their territory it allowed them to again self-determine what it is that they wanted to practice and things like that. So while the acknowledgement of these oppressed communities continues to improve there's so much work to be done and even as in May of 2016 the federal government recognized 567 tribal nations. So again being able to recognize and acknowledge these nations is a step in the right direction but at the same time there are so many unknown tribes that continue to go unrecognized and so it's important to be able to have that humility and accountability of the erasure of that historical context. So ultimately Weaver 2001 explains that identity is a complex that's shaped by many facets that consist of both self-identification and the perceptions of others. So a big focus about validating students' experience is the fact that the way that we feel about these students also contributes to the way that they feel about themselves. And this is not specific to this group this is really just about our identity in general. So the lack of considerate acknowledgement can severely harm a group and actually act as a form of oppression. So similarly suppression and assimilation of indigenous peoples confine them with this false sense of Indian identity which was difficult again because being able to be prideful and have that racial representation as time passes we aren't sure of where they come from and even their traditional and historical backgrounds because of that erasure. So ultimately it's important that educators think about the ways that they can provide student support through affirming and validating these identities but also using that to influence course curriculum. So MUSE's 2017 explains that without using frameworks to influence curriculum there are cultural realities that could be overlooked and assumptions and biases that can be hidden within the curriculum that can also result in a negative outcome for racially diverse populations. So while historically marginalized groups have a history of being resilient and prevailing through this adversity they definitely shouldn't have to. So I think that it's definitely institutions and policy reforms and governmental responsibility to be able to enact this systematic change to ensure that we have reliable support for the student group and that we're able to understand their multifaceted and intersecting identities and also showing them ways to embrace these different identities. But at the end of the day like I said accountability and acknowledgement is a key component in ensuring the development, positive development in the world of academia and ultimately viewing these student groups with an equitable lens and being as culturally competent as possible is really just as important as recognizing the impression that American education system was built on. So thank you very much for listening. I hope you enjoyed and thank you.