ABSTRACT
The history of Indigenous peoples in the USA reflects the metaphor of a double-edged sword. A captured mind that remains stuck in the colonial present and never evolves through stages of critical analysis is forever trapped in a colonial mindset, afraid of his/her own Indigenous shadow and footprint on Mother Earth. Indigenous educators and scholars submerged into this colonial prison will never have a clear, conscious ability to synthesize their tribal history and make liberatory plans for the future of their children. The concept of applying Indigenous research methods aspires to be a reconstructive and locative educational and social justice idea. The barriers to Indigenous understanding have been battered down by the ramrod of truth and historical fact. Theoretically, moving through the processes of colonization redirects one’s consciousness in the direction of liberating colonial thinking and affirming Indigenous praxis.
