Date
5-23-2025
Department
School of Communication and the Arts
Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in Communication (PhD)
Chair
Robert Mott
Keywords
Intercultural Communication, Lakota, storytelling, prayer, ceremony, relationality, change in academia
Disciplines
Communication
Recommended Citation
Fong, Laura C., "Common Ground: A Phenomenological Ethnographic Inquiry in Intercultural Communication, Telling Stories with the Oglala Lakota People on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, SD" (2025). Doctoral Dissertations and Projects. 7028.
https://digitalcommons.liberty.edu/doctoral/7028
Abstract
An interdisciplinary and collaborative movement in cross-cultural research is emerging and challenging Western academic practices in the United States. As a non-indigenous Communications scholar working on the Pine Ridge Reservation, I was unable to find a model, or scholarship that included the practical application of theory and methods for scholarship with Indigenous Americans. Over a ten-year period, I documented stories and worked with Lakota elder Unci Rita Long Visitor Holy Dance and her son Nathan Blindman to develop a mutually beneficial working relationship.
Successful cross-cultural scholarship using Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) and Participatory Action Research (PAR) methodologies, Intercultural Communication Theory (ICC), and Liberation Theology are present in Anthropology, Social Sciences, Health Sciences and Education. This inquiry gathers experience and success, and compares them to experience on the reservation, and the voices of the Lakota people.
This inquiry tells the story of our intercultural relationship, integrating Lakota and Western worldviews and traditions, and approaching the research process with humility and prioritizing relationality. Analysis revealed the intersection and overlapping of codes in the data that was collected. The three largest areas of overlap were relationality, storytelling, and the importance of including Indigenous knowledge, culture, prayer and ceremony: pointing the way to new theory for this work.
Other notable themes explored are acknowledging the impact of colonialism, life on the reservation, and the role of the non-indigenous scholar. While acknowledging the limited generalizability of a single case study, the author suggests that this collaborative, storytelling-centered methodology is grounded in the data, and could be adapted for other Indigenous communities, contingent upon a significant time investment and a commitment to understanding specific cultural contexts.
This foundation can allow non-indigenous scholars to learn to collaborate and tell the stories of the Lakota people that are missing from both the current narrative and the historical record. The findings support a transformative shift in research design for non-indigenous scholars, in academic research practices, emphasizing the value of authentic research relationships, and accommodating Indigenous needs to conduct research that is ethical, transparent, and beneficial to the Lakota people.
