Cultural Strengths to Persevere: Native American Women in Higher Education

Beginning with an overview of historical perspectives of Native American women, this article includes some discussion of values and practices of contemporary Native American women, data pertaining to Native American women’s participation in higher education, and an introduction of familial cultural capital, community cultural wealth, Native resiliency, and nation-building capital (Lindley, 2009). The women in this article come from two very distinct tribal communities: the Northern Arapaho and Haudenosaunee (Iroquois). The women of both communities used culture, community, and family as foundations of their success in college. The concepts that make up these Native forms of capital are then connected to Native resiliency (Guillory, 2008), Native capital (Ward, 2005), and nation building.