Led by Linguistics faculty member Scott AnderBois, the ALDP is a community-centered language documentation project in collaboration with speakers of A'ingae (an indigenous language of Ecuadorian Amazonia). The ALDP team aims to create a database of annotated audio, video, and digital animations and use that database to address scientific questions about the grammar of A'ingae and to produce resources to meet community language needs including pedagogical materials for K-12 schools.

Co-edited by Crystal M. Fleming, Veronica Y. Womack, and NAISI-affiliated Brown University faculty member Jeffrey Proulx, Beyond White Mindfulness: Critical Perspectives on Racism, Well-being, and Liberation (Routledge Press) brings together interdisciplinary perspectives on mind-body interventions, group-based identities, and social justice. Marshaling both empirical data and theoretical approaches, the book examines a broad range of questions related to mindfulness, meditation, and diverse communities.

While there is growing public interest in mind-body health, holistic wellness, and contemplative practice, critical research on these topics featuring minority perspectives and experiences is relatively rare. This book draws on cutting edge insights from psychology, sociology, gender, and critical race theory to fill this void. Major themes include: culture, identity, and awareness; intersectional approaches to the study of mindfulness and minority stress; cultural competence in developing and teaching mindfulness-based health interventions; and the complex relationships between mindfulness, inequality, and social justice. The first book of its kind to bring together scholarly and personal reflections on mindfulness for diverse populations, Beyond White Mindfulness offers social science students and practitioners in this area a new perspective on mindfulness and suggestions for future scholarship.

Associate Professor of History and STS Director Lukas Rieppel has collaborated with Dr. Craig Howe (Oglala Lakota) on a historical mapping project entitled In and Out of Place: Resource Extractions from Treaty Lands. Using a decolonizing, collaborative, and Lakotan-centered approach, Rieppel and Howe mapped scientific and military expeditions that entered the 1868 Treaty Territory in the Black Hills region from the mid-19th century to the turn of the 20th century.

Rieppel also recently co-authored a publication with Dr. Howe from the Center for American Indian Research and Native Studies that came out of the above project.

Religious Studies professor Mark Cladis recently published two articles pertaining to Laguna Pueblo writer Leslie Marmon Silko:

1) “Leslie Silko: Nuclear Landscapes, Environmental Catastrophe, and the Power of Indigenous Storytelling,” Ecokritike 1 (2024): 35-58

2) “The World in Ruins: Wordsworth, Du Bois, and Silko,” Soundings: An Interdisciplinary Journal (2022) 105 (4): 440–467 https://doi.org/10.5325/soundings.105.4.0440

The first article is largely written in the mode of listening: of attending to Silko and the stories she weaves from her life and her Indigenous traditions. In the act of listening, questions are posed: What is the connection between having the stories and having sources of life and resilience, especially in times of oppression and despair? The power of Indigenous storytelling is explored as sources of healing, resistance, and transformation. There is also a focus on nuclear storied landscape, first as found in Silko’s novel Ceremony and then in Almanac of the Dead. Finally, the conclusion reflects on the role of curative storytelling and the more-than-human in assisting humans survive and even flourish as we seek to make a just home in the face of such catastrophes as climate change and nuclearism. 

As part of a team of principal investigators, Professor of Environment and Society Amanda Lynch seeks to answer the following: How will converging geophysical and socioeconomic pressures shape Arctic development between now and 2050? 

CPAD (Navigating Convergent Pressures on Arctic Development), a multi-institution consortium, will address this question through a pan-Arctic, multi-scaled analysis of geophysical climate change, economic potentials, and evolving structures of management and sovereignty. Their central objective is to identify robust and grounded loci where development pressures are most likely to converge in the future, and to assess the long-term implications of their development for Arctic communities, environments, industries, and international policy.

Dr. Lynch is also working on a forthcoming collaboration with Sakha research Vera Soloveya entitled Tracing Toxicity: Building an Evidentiary Database of Envriotechnical Disasters in Russian Indigneous Lands. Lynch and NAIS interim Faculty Director Bathsheba Demuth previously hosted Solovyeva in Fall 2023 as part of the Dean's Visiting Scholar program.

Led by Professor of History Linford Fisher, Stolen Relations (formerly the Database of Indigenous Slavery in the Americas) is a community-centered database project funded by Brown University and the National Endowment for the Humanities that seeks to illuminate and understand the role the enslavement of Indigenous peoples played in settler colonialism over time. 

As part of her ongoing research on the environmental history of the Yukon River, Professor of History and Environmental Studies Bathsheba Demuth spends part of each summer teaching on the river itself. The course emerged from an observation Demuth heard from multiple partners in Alaska Native communities along the river: that young people planning careers in environmental issues rarely have the opportunity to see what life in fly-in, Indigenous villages is like, which has real consequences for tribal governance and how resources are managed in the state. Now, in partnership with the University of Alaska Fairbanks, Demuth takes groups of students—some Native Alaskan, some born in Alaska, some from the Lower 48—on a 150 mile trip along the Yukon from Eagle to Circle, Alaska. Along the way, they meet with Indigenous leaders, Elders, and longtime river residents; visit historical sites; read about the past and present of the Yukon, and learn from the river as they travel its waters.  And while it involves less paddling and talk around a campfire, Demuth teaches a semester-long CNAIS course focused on sovereignty, law, and environmental change along the Yukon here at Brown (HIST1820C: Sovereignty and Ecology).

Chandlee Crawford, a 2024 CNAIS concentrator, focused his capstone project delved into Wabanaki wampum culture through academic research and hands-on application. His paper examined how prominent anthropologists have defined wampum cultures in the Northeast and compared the treatment of Wabanaki wampum to others. After exploring the grading of Northeastern tribes’ wampum by Western anthropologists, he critiqued the classifications of quality by these academics, arguing that they overlooked the cultural significance of wampum. Additionally, he collaborated with tribal members to recreate an historic wampum belt, following traditional protocols and practices and reusing wampum pieces from an existing belt. As a wampum artist himself, Crawford worked with a tribal elder and mentor to create his wampum belt for this capstone.

CNAIS 2024 concentrator, Kalikoonāmaukūpuna “Kaliko” Kalāhiki’s capstone project, "Queering Aloha ʻĀina," involved development of a podcast that uplifts māhū and queer kānaka voices and challenges prevailing theories and beliefs about identity. Their work aims to reclaim traditional identities within Ka Lāhui (a native initiative for self determination). In this podcast, Kalahiki shares insights from 13 interviews, spotlighting the experiences of māhū (third gender people with traditional spiritual and social roles within their cultures) and advocating for their recognition in Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) culture.

Shea Hueston, a 2024 CNAIS concentrator, focused her senior capstone on suicide prevention on the Navajo Reservation, with a specific focus on addressing the alarming rise of elder suicide among Native American populations and with her tribe, in particular. Her work delved into the recent and devastating increase in Native elder suicide rates and provided proposals for how to address this critical issue, such as elder-in-residence programs at elementary and high schools and allocating more resources to elder care within Indigenous communities.
 

Under the theme “Seeding Indigenous-Settler Reciprocity at Brown,” Ariana Clark, a 2024 CNAIS concentrator, initiated the creation of a traditional medicine and pollinator Northeast Indigenous garden at the John Carter Brown Center for Advanced Studies, complemented by drafting recommendations for the University to further the commitments related to the University’s land acknowledgement. The garden features Indigenous flora from 100 seeds of 20 plant species donated by Elizabeth James-Perry, who served as a NAISI Artist in Residence during the spring semester. This capstone was supported by NAISI’s Mellon Foundation Grant to develop Native American and Indigenous Studies at Brown, in addition to other support from across the University.

Marie Bordelon, a CNAIS 2024 concentrator, focused her capstone project on the revival of the Tehuana dress, a cherished facet of her Oaxacan heritage. Delving into Oaxaca's cultural commodification, Bordelon examined the history of las Tehuanas, the traditional attire of the Binnizá (her community in Mexico). With its iconic elements like the "resplandor" headdress and distinctive huipil, the dress embodies tribal identity and a sense of place. Bordelon's project involved crafting her own modern interpretation of the dress, aiming to reclaim its cultural essence.

Chase Bryer, PhD student in Behavioral and Social Health Sciences, received Mellon funding to attend the June 2024 annual conference of the Native American and Indigenous Studies Association (NAISA), the primary academic association for NAIS. This year’s conference was held overseas in BODØ (Bådåddjo/Buvvda/Bodø), Norway (or Sábme). This year’s conference provided opportunities to meet and learn more about the Sammi people, on whose homelands the gathering occurred, and included the well-known Sammi market, an art exhibit and Soptsestimmie (storytelling) events.