Resistance Theory and the Transculturation Hypothesis

15ways” [quotation marks added] and make the necessary adjustments to the mainstream(Scott, 1986).Stage Three: Emotional RejectionThe disillusionment many of these American Indians felt for the higher educationalexperience quickly turned into emotional rejection of the institution. During this thirdstage the students generally reported that they had little value for an institution theyperceived as rejecting them. One of the young men from the Cheyenne Riverreservation came to the conclusion that the university was designed to assimilateAmerican Indian students into non-Indian society. He also emphatically added thatwhen it came to a personal choice:I believe in my Indian ways so much that I would quit school because our old ways aredying out! I don’t want to change too much, I don’t want to change too much! I want tointensify my cultural side. I mean, this is the white man’s world. I don’t want to keepthose [non-Indian values].Contemplating the same dilemma, a young, first semester freshman who had lived partof her life on the Lower Brule (South Dakota) reservation reflected:I would not give up my traditional Indian values for anything . . . There’s no beauty here[at college], you know? It’s different . . . I want to, you know, be free. To believe in what Iwant to, not what they [non-Indians] want me to.The same young man from Cheyenne River quoted above was having a very difficulttime in his relations with non-Indians on campus and experienced profound feelings of15