Indigenous Solidarity Survey
Welcome!
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Are you a non-Indigenous person who has provided direct (in person) support to American Indian and Indigenous struggles (such as blockades, marches, or organizing campaigns) here in the United States, within the last ten years?
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If so, I would love to learn about your experiences and their impacts on you and your understanding. I am conducting the study listed below,
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“Solidarity, allyship, accomplices and other forms of face-to-face
support for American Indian and Indigenous struggles: A study of non-
Indigenous experiences”
My name is Erich Steinman, and I have been involved with, supported, observed and studied Indigenous struggles in the United States for thirty years (to learn more about me, you can visit www.ESteinman.com). I am a Professor of Sociology at Pitzer College, and through this study I am seeking to understand the experiences of non-Indigenous participants in efforts supporting Indigenous struggles.
Let me tell you more about
myself and the study...
This study attempts to identify some of the effects and impacts of such participation, for three purposes,
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First, to document and understand such impacts. In particular, I hope to identify the lessons that allies learned “on the job” of doing solidarity work that were necessary to be useful to American Indian people in their struggles. What did individuals learn about being an ally or accomplice to Indigenous peoples? What mistakes did they make? How have their views of themselves, Indigenous struggles, the natural world, and other things changed?
Secondly, I plan to make these lessons and insights available to other people through distributing the findings from the study. My hope is that through sharing the insights from many peoples’ experience, others might become better prepared to usefully function as allies or accomplices, if invited by American Indian people to join or support their struggles.
Thirdly, and more generally, I hope that these lessons can help other non-Indigenous people become more aware of how much they have to learn about issues relating to Indigenous peoples and their struggles. This final point is to help sensitize non-Indigenous people to the possibility that they may have a lot to learn, regardless of whether they plan to be allies.
To learn more about the study, you can email me at IndigenousSolidarityStudy@gmail.com. I can also be reached at my general work email (Erich_Steinman@Pitzer.edu).
I am inviting you to participate in this study in two ways:
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1. An ONLINE SURVEY that may last between 10-30 minute
and then, at a later time we would schedule...
2. A LIVE INTERVIEW (likely via a video or audio call) that may take from 30-90 minutes.
Possibly, I may invite you to participate in a shorter follow up interview
No Compensation
There is no compensation offered for your participation in the study.
Confidentiality and Informed Consent
Your participation in the study will be confidential. Related to this, I want to make sure you understand the research process and any potential risks to you or others from participating in the study. In fact, this process, called “Informed Consent”, is a mandatory process to protect you. To participate in the study, please read and return the linked Informed Consent form. You may either scan or take a picture of the form after you have signed it, and then send it to the study address above.
TO PARTICIPATE IN THE STUDY
To join the study, please read, sign and return the Informed Consent form (described above). This will require that you provide and sign with a name I will use in our communications. You may choose to use your legal name for this form or you may provide a different name if you prefer.
When I receive the Informed Consent form, I will send you the link to complete the online survey. After this I will contact you so we can schedule an interview.
At any point you can stop your participation in this study, whether during the survey or during an interview. Even after an interview, for some period of time (before I start incorporating your responses into an analysis) you can ask me to remove your answers from the study.
Thank you in advance for considering participation in this study.
-Erich Steinman