Neshnabe treaty making : (re)visionings for indigenous futurities in education

Abstract

This work questions if there is a need for a Native-controlled school in central Oklahoma and evaluates what can be done to improve educational opportunities for Native students (particularly through a Native-controlled school). This research addresses the complex, multifaceted experiences of Native peoples with and in Oklahoma public schools. Three themes, including tribal sovereignty, equality vs. equity for Native students, and the importance of rural schools in Oklahoma, are explored throughout the thesis, which lead to a final tension between the community and colonial (imposed) governments—federal, state, and tribal. Recommendations for anti- and de-colonial action are drawn on traditional forms of nishnabe treaty making as a continual process of relationship building. In addressing the ways in which settler coloniality operates in the daily lives of Native peoples, indigenizing and decolonial literature is engaged to (re)(en)vision indigenous futures and possibilities for education outside of the settler state. The project is framed within the theories of Natives studies, settler colonialism, neoliberalism, and Native anti-/de-colonial education and futures.