ABSTRACT

Spiraling outward as the nexus of each modality is Hózhó the catalyst that has redefined commitment as indigenous researchers. Leaning away from institutional forms of data transmission, this project served as a sensory channel in which information is given, received, and stored, and it differed from didactic pedagogical models that tend to usurp the cultural autonomy of native people. "As the tradition keepers of the Western world", non-Indigenous institutions of higher education understate the power that distinct tribal values in complementing leadership development. Accenting this claim is the scarcity of heuristic frameworks that reap theory from individual and communal engagements that exist in accord with Indigenous knowledge systems that fail to document how these foundational philosophies not only form the undercurrent to cultural survival but also postsecondary persistence. Furthermore, as institutionalized capital continues to mute the primacy of place and Indigenous habitude within the milieu of the academy, counter hegemonic responses are needed to better grasp the strata of leadership development.