The Impact of Native Worldviews on Native-led Asset Building Programs in the U.S.

Native worldviews inform how American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians understand the world and how they build their assets. Assets may be understood as what people value. Native people may think about assets broadly as not only including savings, a home, or small business, but also tribal sovereignty, culture, kinship, education, Native arts, tribal languages, land, and sacred objects (such as a feather or blanket). Without exploration of Native assets, and the worldviews that inform understandings of them, funders of asset-building initiatives may request that tribes and Native nonprofits implement asset-building models that do not align with how Native people view assets, causing less sustainable programs, difficulties for Native families who are trying to build assets in culturally relevant ways, and less community buy-in for the programs. This project explores how the worldviews of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians influence how Native communities build their assets through integrated asset-building programs. Through an exploration of Native understandings of assets, as informed by Native cultures and religious traditions; an articulation of the history of Native asset building in the United States; and an inductive synthesis of oral interviews of Native elders and other asset-building practitioners, this dissertation provides a description of the impact of Native worldviews on Native-led asset-building programs.