Articles in this section may concurrently be sorted into other fields of study (e.g., Higher Education, Social Sciences). Population tabs were created for this project to highlight the impact of racial discrimination on particular racial/ethnic groups. Sentences that come directly from the article are in quotation marks. CSUN students, faculty, and staff can access most articles through the University Library using CSUN credentials. Please use the library’s interlibrary loan services if an article of interest is not available.

 

Brayboy, B. M. J. (2005). Toward a tribal critical race theory in education. The Urban Review, 37(5), 425–446. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11256-005-0018-y

• Brayboy developed Tribal Critical Race Theory (TribalCrit) to better account for the issues facing Indigenous Peoples in the U.S. In this article, Brayboy outlines the central tenets of TribalCrit, which he uses to address the complicated relationship between American Indians and the U.S. federal government to make sense of American Indians’ liminality as both racial and legal/political groups and individuals.

 

Castagno, A. E. (2012). "They prepared me to be a teacher, but not a culturally responsive Navajo teacher for Navajo kids": A tribal critical race theory analysis of an Indigenous teacher preparation program. Journal of American Indian Education, 51(1), 3–21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43608618

• The article discusses “efforts to prepare Indigenous teachers for Indigenous schools within predominantly White university teacher preparation programs,” and whether these programs “continue the legacy of colonization and assimilation, or advance tribal nations' goals of sovereignty and self-determination.”

 

Dellinger, M., Jackson, B., & Poupart, A. (2016). In their own words: Success stories from The Great Lakes Native American Research Center for Health. American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research, 23(3), 68–86. https://doi.org/10.5820/aian.2303.2016.68

• In 2009, the Great Lakes Native American Research Center for Health generated a promotional video that highlights the successes of the program. Ten GLNARCH interns were interviewed and filmed for the promotional video. Interviewee responses were noted for relevance to Tribal Critical Race Theory, mentoring, and cultural compatibility. Though the interviews were not intended as a formal qualitative analysis, powerful narratives that are relevant to participatory research emerged.

 

Desai, S. R., & Abeita, A. (2017). Institutional microaggressions at a Hispanic serving institution: A Diné (Navajo) woman utilizing tribal critical race theory through student activism. Equity & Excellence in Education, 50(3), 275–289. https://doi.org/10.1080/10665684.2017.1336498

• The authors provide a case study of Joy, a Diné (Navajo) young woman, and “describe her student activism in regards to the seal and how she utilizes it to connect to her culture, language, and identity.” The authors utilize CRT and Tribal Critical Race Theory to analyze the institutional microaggressions that Joy experienced on campus.

 

Fish, J., Livingston, J. A., VanZile-Tamsen, C., & Patterson Silver Wolf, D. A. (2017). Victimization and substance use among Native American college students. Journal of College Student Development, 58(3), 413–431. https://doi.org/10.1353/csd.2017.0031

• This study examines “rates of victimization and substance use among Native American students in comparison to other students and to assess the perceived impact of these experiences on academics.” Results suggest that Native American college students “experience disproportionate rates of victimization, which in turn affects their academic functioning.”

 

Fong, C. J., Alejandro, A. J., Krou, M. R., Segovia, J., & Johnston-Ashton, K. (2019). Ya’at’eeh: Race-reimaged belongingness factors, academic outcomes, and goal pursuits among Indigenous community college students. Contemporary Educational Psychology, 59, Article 101805. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cedpsych.2019.101805

• The authors adopt critical quantitative (QuantCrit) principles and “race-reimaged belongingness factors in an investigation of Indigenous students (N = 887) from 156 U.S. community colleges in a secondary dataset.” Using measurement invariance testing and multilevel modeling, findings suggest that “both traditional conceptualizations of belongingness factors (i.e., student relationships to teachers and peers) and Native-specific constructions of belongingness factors via relationships to community, family, and cultural identity were salient. Native-specific factors were more consistently associated with Indigenous students’ outcomes.”

 

Hays, A. (2017). Authentically authored Native American young adult literature (YAL) and culturally sustaining pedagogy (CSP) in the preparation of preservice teachers. Journal of American Indian Education, 56(2), 34–56. https://doi.org/10.5749/jamerindieduc.56.2.0034

• College students in a young adult literature course required for preservice teachers who are English education majors read the semiautobiographical novel, If I Ever Get Out of Here (2013) by Eric Gansworth (Onandaga). At the conclusion of the course, students were surveyed to determine “if reading this particular novel and participating in literature circles would prompt better understanding among non-Native students of the inequities inherent in the current social and educational system.” Findings suggest that “the use of literature circles was not sufficient to develop a full understanding of the need for culturally sustaining pedagogy.”

 

Lemley, C. K., & Lee, T. L. (2016). Honoring Indigenous teacher education students' stories: Shifting Indigenous knowledge from the margins to the center. Journal of American Indian Education, 55(2), 28–50. https://doi.org/10.5749/jamerindieduc.55.2.0028

• Using a survey, interviews, and an Indigenous focus group, the authors examine how a university and college met the stated goal to “Be a leading university/college serving Indigenous students.” They draw on Tribal Critical Race Theory to analyze the data.

 

Martinez-Cola, M. (2020). Visibly invisible: TribalCrit and Native American segregated schooling. Sociology of Race and Ethnicity, 6(4), 468–482. https://doi.org/10.1177/2332649219884087

• Through comparative historical case study and legal storytelling, the author introduces five cases involving Native American plaintiffs into the segregated schooling narrative. Using a blend of TribalCrit and Omi and Winant’s theories on racial projects and racialization, the author argues that “these cases represent more than racial projects. They are colonizing racial projects that offer very complicated contributions to the historical, legal, and social construction of race” in the U.S.

 

Masta, S. (2018). Strategy and resistance: How Native American students engage in accommodation in mainstream schools. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, 49(1), 21–35. https://doi.org/10.1111/aeq.12231

• Guided by Tribal Critical Race Theory, this article “explores the experiences of a group of Native American 8th graders who attend a mainstream school and how they engage in accommodation as an act of agency and resistance to protect and maintain their identities in their school environment.” This study “raises important questions about how mainstream schools can support Native American students, despite serving as sites of colonization.”

 

Mendez, J. P., & Mendez, J. (2013). Student perceptions of American Indian financial aid. Journal of American Indian Education, 52(1), 45–64. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43608646

• Utilizing Tribal Critical Race Theory as a conceptual framework, this study “examines student perceptions and attitudes toward American Indian students and financial aid, illustrating how perception may exacerbate campus hostility toward American Indians.” Findings show “strong negative perceptions towards financial aid policies aimed at increasing American Indian enrollment.”

 

Montoya, M., Cruz, C. Z., & Grant, G. (2008). Narrative braids: Performing racial literacy. American Indian Law Review, 33(1), 153–199. https://doi.org/10.2307/20455379

• Christine Zuni Cruz, a Pueblo woman from the Rio Grande Pueblos of Oke Owingeh and Isleta in New Mexico, and Margaret Montoya, a mestiza/Chicana from northern New Mexico, use their personal and professional voices as legal scholars to enact the theatrical performance. The performance “is a conversation about ancestry, motherhood, personal identity, and race, as well as inter- and intra-racial conflict, co-existence and collaborations.”

 

Rangel, J. P. (2012). Moving beyond the expected: Representation and presence in a contemporary Native arts museum. Wicazo Sa Review, 27(1), 31–46. https://doi.org/10.5749/wicazosareview.27.1.0031

• This essay is a critical ethnography of Native art and representation in a contemporary museum, the Museum of Contemporary Native Arts in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Rangel explores “how one museum promotes and encourages the recognition of Indigenous ways of knowing, Indigenous models of representation, Indigenous aesthetics, and the delivery of knowledge pertaining to Native arts and culture. Intrinsic to this discussion is naming dominant cultural perceptions that are outdated, and intervening with decolonizing methodologies and Tribal Critical Race Theory.”

 

Robertson, D. L. (2015). Invisibility in the color-blind era: Examining legitimized racism against Indigenous peoples. American Indian Quarterly, 39(2), 113–153. https://doi.org/10.5250/amerindiquar.39.2.0113

• This work is guided by two questions: “What accounts for the lack of attention by contemporary race theory to anti-Indian rhetoric and overt racism against Indigenous Peoples in the United States? How do Native people negotiate these persistent racist stereotypes and cultural appropriation in their daily lives?” Using an Indigenous epistemology and a qualitative approach, the author “examines the phenomenon of ‘legitimized racism’ and its impact through conversations with 45 Indigenous people.”

 

Salis Reyes, N. A. (2019). “What am I doing to be a good ancestor?”: An indigenized phenomenology of giving back among Native college graduates. American Educational Research Journal, 56(3), 603–637. https://doi.org/10.3102/0002831218807180

• Through both Indigenous and phenomenological research methodologies, this research explores how Native college graduates come to value giving back, enact giving back, and make meaning of giving back. Findings from this study “contribute to what is known about how Native college graduates may contribute to the self-determination of their nations and call for a reconceptualization of postsecondary success for Native peoples.”

 

Squires, M. E. (2016). Special education pre-referrals in one public school serving Native American students. Journal of American Indian Education, 55(2), 4–27. https://doi.org/10.5749/jamerindieduc.55.2.0004

• In this case study of a school where one-quarter of the student population is Native American, the author examines “how two White general-education teachers decided to refer students to the special education pre-referral team.” All referred students were Native American. Finding reveal several themes: “(a) the use of antiquated frameworks to make referral decisions, (b) dissonance between participants’ perceptions and actions, and (c) complicated understandings of culture’s influence on referrals.” Participants claimed to see all students the same while believing that Native American and White students learn differently.

 

Waterman, S. J., & Sands, T. L. (2016). A pathway to college success: Reverse transfer as a means to move forward among the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). Journal of American Indian Education, 55(2), 51–74. https://doi.org/10.5749/jamerindieduc.55.2.0051

• This article “examines the reverse transfer behavior—transfer from a four-year institution to a two-year institution—of Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) college graduates as a forward moving process toward four-year degree completion. Integration (Tinto, 1993), involvement (Astin, 1984), the Family Education Model (HeavyRunner & DeCelles, 2002), and Tribal Critical Race Theory (Brayboy, 2005) help explain this behavior.”

 

Williams, S. V. (2013). Sovereignty and scholarship: Mohawk self-determination in mainstream schooling. Journal of American Indian Education, 52(2), 3–20. http://www.jstor.org/stable/43608665

• Through this action research study, “mainstream teachers in an off-reservation school district were provided with experiences that moved them towards Mohawk cultural competency. A collaborative group of Mohawk and non-Native educators participated in the research. Findings suggest that “Mohawk self-determination, including Native students' expressions of sovereignty, were dismissed within the mainstream schooling context, thus creating a barrier to Native students' school achievement.”