Resistance Theory and the Transculturation Hypothesis

13Stage Two: DisillusionmentTroubled with pangs of alienation, estranged students quickly became disillusioned withtheir situation at college. The university was typically regarded as an invitation toassimilation offering only a steady diet of non-Indian culture. A student who had livednearly all his life on the Turtle Mountain (North Dakota) reservation reflected on thedifficulties that he and many other traditional American Indian students experience:I really think they [culturally traditional American Indian students] become disenchantedreally quick. I think they perceive it [college] as this huge, monstrous institution ratherthan a person walking daily. Because it’s foreign, I know for a fact that they do suffersome sort of “culture shock” because the surroundings are new and the way of life isnew. The objectives of your time, how you spend your time, what you do, is all new. Theemphasis is placed on self and trying to fend for yourself and I think that there are a lot ofhandicaps like that . . . I think that because the cultures are so opposed that it would be ahard transaction; that they won’t see the benefits of it right away and might becomedisenchanted.It should be noted that the student from Turtle Mountain quoted above was not identifiedas an estranged student. He was actually a transculturated student. However, hecame to the university with a culturally traditional background and orientation and tooexperienced the same initial alienation as the estranged students. Thus his observationis applicable to the estranged students and appropriately describes much of theirexperiences.A woman who had actually lived most of her life off the reservation but had manyconnections to and spent part of her childhood on the Flandreau (South Dakota)reservation displayed frustration with what she perceived to be the assimilationistmission of the university. This resentment underscores the profound disillusionment13