The Role Traditional American Indian Values Play in Fostering Cultural Connectedness and School Connectedness in American Indian Youth: Experienced through a Blackfoot Way of Knowing Paradigm

American Indian youth are experiencing a mental health crisis fueled by the lingering ramifications of experiencing a near cultural genocide. Scholarly literature indicates that American Indians have used their cultural values to survive the atrocities associated with colonization. The purpose of this Indigenous based mixed-methods action research project was to examine how Blackfoot elders perceive the transfer of values through ceremonies, cultural activities and traditional stories; and to what degree a Blackfoot way of knowing paradigm informs cultural connectedness, and school connectedness for students attending school on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The study was conducted through a Blackfoot way of knowing paradigm and consisted of two distinct but related data collection efforts. The first sample consisted of formal and informal interviews with 26 American Indian elders as well as observation notes from attending and participating in American Indian ceremonies in order to discover the traditional values believed transferred during ceremonies, cultural activities, and traditional stories. The elder interviews resulted in identifying ten traditional values encasing spirituality displayed in the Hoop of Traditional Blackfoot Values. The second sample consisted of 41 American Indian youth attending school on the Blackfeet Indian Reservation. The youth learned the values identified in the Blackfeet Education Standards “Hoops of Values” through a Blackfoot way of knowing paradigm and completed measures to assess cultural connectedness and school connectedness. In addition, all students were interviewed to develop a more robust understanding of the role culture plays in cultural connectedness and school connectedness and to lend a Blackfoot youth perspective to a Blackfoot way of knowing. Quantitative data analysis showed that a Blackfoot way of knowing paradigm significantly influences cultural connectedness but does not significantly influence school connectedness. In addition, analysis of the student interviews provided a Blackfeet youth perspective on cultural connectedness and school connectedness.