UCLA

Native American campus climate studies remain scant despite the breadth and depth obtained regarding other racial groups. This two-year, critical ethnographic campus climate study, informed by critical social science, reinserted tribal peoples into the higher education discourse by including the sociohistorical forces, tribal sovereignty, and agency. The study focused on institutional culture, Indigenous students' campus perceptions and agency. The research findings suggest that the campus climate was highly conducive to racism perpetuated and sustained at all levels of the Institutional hierarchy. This campus atmosphere influenced the ways in which Native students perceived the campus racial climate, as well as their ideas of American education. Native students employed combat strategies and employed agency to survive, to protect their interests, and to claim respect for their needs and problems at Borderland University.