Roots and Seeds: Sewing Healthy Development for Young Native American Children

University of Minnesota Ph.D. dissertation.October 2018. Major: Organizational Leadership, Policy, and Development. Advisor: Karen Miksch. 1 computer file (PDF); ix, 325 pages.Native American children have frequently been overlooked in early childhood development and education literature, though they are part of demographic with some of the highest levels of documented educational and health disparities. The roots of disparities often occur early in life, so this study sought to address the gap in early childhood literature by investigating the phenomenon of raising healthy young Native American children. Using a phenomenological approach, this study addressed two questions: 1. What does it mean to raise culturally whole Native American children, birth through five years of age, in an urban context? 2. How do these important Native American skills and knowledge areas align with items on a federally-approved tool for monitoring young children’s development? Ten Native American caregivers from tribally diverse backgrounds (skewed more heavily Ojibwe) were interviewed, with each interview lasting from one to four hours. Close to 300 pages of transcripts were typed up. Wholistic, line-by-line, comparison, and relational levels of analysis identified themes answering the first question. Comparison was then made between participant comments from the line-by-line analysis and items on the Survey of Well-being of Young Children. Native American children were found to develop within four intersecting planes of existence—Child and Adult, Past and Present, Physical and Spiritual, and Native and Non-Native. A model of this developmental context is proposed, with five thematic examples—Historical and Ongoing Trauma, Cyclical Nature of Parenting, Passing on Living Culture, Healthy Educational Environments, and Healthy Spaces to Grow and Develop. When compared to items on the developmental screening tool, Native American caregivers had most overlap with items for a healthy home environment and motor and communication milestones. Distinct differences were noted between caregiver discussion and screening tool items in the social emotional domain. Further research on this area is needed with both a broader sample as well as to do validation work on developmental screening tools. It is important that practitioners, researchers, and policy makers keep in mind the great diversity of experiences of Native peoples and take time to get to know any individuals they work with to learn about their unique story