Resistance Theory and the Transculturation Hypothesis

12On his initial experience in college he remarked:Overwhelmed! I felt really overwhelmed. What am I going to do? That and not seeinganybody [another American Indian student]. Not for the first week, not another NativeAmerican. I didn’t see anybody. And for a long time I felt that I was the only one in class.It made me feel very small, just like, but then again sticking out like a sore thumb. I don’tknow. I wasn’t prepared for it. I really wasn’t.Many students felt overwhelmed by the lack of familiar cultural connections. Littlecontact was made with non-Indian students and the institution itself began to beregarded with suspicion (due to a growing perception that it was simply an agent ofassimilation). Often, culturally, American Indian students even felt alienated from theirfellow American Indian classmates. This social isolation was particularly evident in theattitudes toward assimilated American Indian students. These students were oftenregarded with measured contempt and dismissed as “urban Indians.”The first Cheyenne River student quoted above was typical of such sentiments:I just try to keep to myself . . . It’s like they [assimilated American Indian students] moreor less have accepted the values of non-Indians over Indian ones . . . I was a littlestandoffish . . . But I don’t ever know right off who they are. I know they are AmericanIndian but I don’t know who they are . . . I guess I react to people’s reaction to me.The culturally traditional American Indians in this study were noticeably vulnerableduring the initial alienation stage. The perceived threat of assimilation compoundedwith feelings of social isolation left many students extremely discouraged.12