Inside the Eagle's Head: An American Indian College

Works Cited

Appendix Studying the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute The Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute underwent multiple changes during my time there, and the school continues to do so.The descriptions of the campus, the school’s organizational structure, and the policies outlined in this book refer to what was in place for the majority of my time at the college . Changes, though, occurred throughout the campus and at all levels of the organization. Presidents came and went, departments were reorganized, student services offerings expanded and contracted again, fees were discussed and then imposed, parts of the physical plant were greatly improved while others aged ungracefully, and course offerings expanded and adjusted to changing student needs. My descriptions are true to what was the norm during the majority of my time at SIPI. Any specific changes enacted during the research period that affected student experiences are described as belonging to that period specifically or as being new. The institutional dilemmas of meshing organizational models still have not been resolved, nor am I aware of any institutional effort to recognize or address the issue. Methodology and Data My earliest research interest at SIPI was to examine its role as a national Native American community center. I had long been interested in the sustained impact of unrecognized genocides on the cultures of communities that had experienced them. This stemmed, in no small part, from my interest in the impact of genocide on Armenian-Americans, and I wondered about other small cultural groups. I began to think that SIPI served to nationally unite young Native Americans through bonds built at the school. In conversation, though, students quickly rejected the idea, with some telling me, “I won’t 222 Appendix be friends with these people after I leave here.” Examining the issue more deeply, I began to see that students, even the most academically successful ones, typically have a conflicted relationship with the institution. I began to question the meaning of SIPI in general and its value as a place, both physically and conceptually. Students, I assumed, were making a personally and socially meaningful place for themselves at the school, whether it was a national community center or not. I began to ask questions designed to elicit responses about their views of and experiences at the school. Instead of seeing students create ways to lay claim to the campus, I noticed two trends begin to emerge: First, a general view of the experience of attending SIPI began to take shape, and second, students were using a consistent set of metaphors to describe the school. These metaphors fell into one of three categories: metaphors of control, of kinship, and of selfdetermination . Student narratives created a type of story of SIPI—daily life, what they learned academically and about themselves, grappling with the school bureaucracy, the development of friendships and mentoring relationships , the way they experienced SIPI—and all of these were shot through with metaphorical descriptions of life at the school. There are five components to the research for this book. Each component provides a different window into students’ perceptions of the school and their experiences there. The first phase of research, which I undertook over the course of several years, was participant observation on campus, with a focus on important campus events and daily in-class or on-campus interactions . Conversations with students and impromptu in-class discussions raised my initial awareness of the range and usage of conceptual metaphors. I was a member of the SIPI community, not simply a clinically observing outsider. As a result, many of my insights are based on my long-standing presence and participation at the school. Second, I analyzed institutionally produced texts for insight into how SIPI’s leadership presented the school to potential students, local organizations , and Indian Country in general, and how it positioned itself in relation to other academic institutions. Much of SIPI’s textual material was designed and printed in-house, until the Graphic Arts Program was shuttered. For most of the school’s history, SIPI had an active print shop staffed by instructors and occupational technology students.The campus print shop provided printing services for the school, and many of the school’s brochures, catalogs , and manuals were printed there. SIPI’s textual self-representation must walk a fine line between acknowledging its nature as a federal Bureau of Indian Affairs institution while asserting its kinship with tribally controlled colleges and universities. Studying the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute 223 For the third portion of the...