Re-defining "Indigeneity": Understanding claims to indigenous identity amongst Native American student association members
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When initially considering where to focus my gaze for a semester-long research project, I found myself drawn to various communities on campus and to student activities and interactions. As a student in several classes with research components, a majority of my time on-campus is spent interacting with an array of different groups that comprise, but are not limited to, focus groups and study groups for my classes, as well as student-member groups for organizations in which I led or took part. Among these, the one I felt most compelled to understand on a deeper level was that of the Native American Student Association. As someone who was interested in gaining a deeper insight into the indigenous community on campus as well as exploring and understanding my own connection to indigeneity, it seemed appropriate for a semester-long research project. Therefore, my research, and this paper, concerns a group of students who were active members of the recently revitalized University of North Texas student organization, the Native American Student Association (NASA) during the Fall 2018 semester. In this particular research project, I ask: how are the members of the Native American Student Association at the University of North Texas, in their attempts to claim or re-appropriate "Indigenousness", redefining what it means to be or have an indigenous identity?