Indigenizing American Indian policy: Finding the place of American Indian education

This dissertation examines what it would mean to indigenize American Indian education policy. A comparison of three major convergences in the thinking of John Dewey and Vine Deloria, Jr. is made in order to demonstrate that the concept of the nature-culture nexus (NCN) may significantly contribute to an understanding of indigenization and facilitate the process of the indigenization of Indian education policy. Three contemporary cases in tribal college environments are examined to illustrate the value of the concepts of indigenization and the nature-culture nexus. The case studies and the applicability of these concepts suggest that they may not only be useful in the development of Indian education policy but have a broader value in shaping public policy in general.