Ethnic consciousness and Native American empowerment: A case study of voice and resistance.

Understanding the relationship between social networks, ethnic identity and consciousness, social movement activity, and empowerment is the focus of this study. This study is grounded in research on a Native American social movement (the Mohawk Warrior Movement) in Canada. The findings suggest that some Native American communities can sustain a collective identity and consciousness which motivates members to mobilize to act in defense of their rights. Specifically, the findings suggest that participation in the Mohawk Warrior Movement was a result of pre-existing social networks, ethnic identity and consciousness, historical responsibility, and framing ideology (nationhood). Resource Mobilization theorists argue that the extent of protest depends upon the amount of resources under a group's collective control (Gamson 1975; McCarthy & Zald 1973, 1977; Oberschall 1973; Tilly 1978). While material resources are important to protest activity, it can be argued that such material resources are not the only critical resources for the development and maintenance of social movements. Collective identity and consciousness, as well as ideology, which can also play an important role in mobilization, is a significant feature of recent Native American social movement activity. New Social Movements theorists have argued the importance of collective identity and consciousness to the emergence of social movement activity (Downey 1986; Mueller 1987; Taylor 1988). This dissertation examines the significance of ethnic identity and consciousness for Native American social movement activity. Specifically, in this study, I argue that the Warrior Movement operates on a grassroots level with a segmented, polycentric, integrated network structure (Gerlach & Hine 1970), whose members mobilize as a result of a politicized ethnic identity and consciousness. This identity and consciousness is constructed through a common history of oppression and domination which then shapes strategies of resistance. Qualitative methods are used to analyze the empowerment process resulting from an interplay between ethnic consciousness and the mobilization of Native Americans for social change. Examining the Mohawk Warrior Movement, I analyze the ways in which ethnic consciousness can be transformed into the capacity for social movement activity and empowerment.PhDSocial Work and SociologyUniversity of Michigan, Horace H. Rackham School of Graduate Studieshttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/103660/1/9332153.pdfDescription of 9332153.pdf : Restricted to UM users only