Native and Indigenous Education in the Americas: Indigenous Knowledge Systems, Equity, and Economies

Abstract

This chapter addresses the complex, historical, socio-political context of Native and Indigenous education within several national and regional contexts. Settler colonialism is particularly highlighted as a source of Native and Indigenous land dispossession, dehumanization, and disenfranchisement. Attention is devoted to the interplay between economic development, equity and human rights discourses in education, with a critical eye toward the Euro-dominance that allows limited forms of Native and Indigenous cultural and linguistic autonomy. Finally, neoliberal global capitalism’s impact on the educational contexts of Native and Indigenous peoples is explored in various specific social locations with specific examples.