One thing to stress is that race-based generalizations inevitably
are problematic. My friend Mary Belgarde (now at the U. of New
Mexico), who is I think Pueblo, has characterized Native Americans
in the academy according to their degree of assimilation, with
three categories from fully assimilated to fully traditional, with
a mixed-orientation group in the middle. The degree of assimilation
will predict the degree of consonance with the mediational tools
of the academy (which would approximate Vygotsky's notion of
speech-based development towards "scientific concepts").
My interest in this topic is fairly recently, coincidental with my
move to Oklahoma, which is a translation of the term "Red Land/People"
(the terms land and people are interchangeable in [I think] Choctaw,
which is the language from which Oklahoma is derived). I suspect
that many people out there know more about Native American culture
than I do.
Peter Smagorinsky