Document Type
Dissertation
Date of Award
2026
Degree Name
Doctor of Education (Ded)
Department
Educational Leadership
First Advisor
David T. Swank
Abstract
This dissertation, Hehanyela Istogmuzapi S’e Unk’unpi Sni (Blind No More), examines how Indigenous leadership emerges through transgenerational healing, story, and relational accountability. Grounded in Indigenous methodologies and guided by Absolon’s (2022) Kaandossiwin framework, this practitioner research positions story not as data to be analyzed, but as method, theory, and ceremony. It asks how healing inherited wounds through story, memory, and land shapes Indigenous approaches to leadership and restores relational responsibility within educational and community spaces. The work unfolds through intergenerational and transgenerational dialogue between the author and her mother, whose stories carry the teachings of her father, the author’s grandfather. Through her stories, the research becomes a dialogue not only with her, but with the ancestors whose knowledge continues to move across generations. These conversations extend into community-based gatherings with Indigenous educators, where shared reflection allows teachings to surface in relation rather than through a fixed analytic process. Understanding emerges through memory, resonance, and relational witnessing rather than through thematic reduction. From these conversations, interconnected teachings surfaced, represented through the petals of the Kaandossiwin flower, and are carried forward not as findings, but as teachings that continue to guide practice. Research is understood here as ceremony, a return to what has been silenced and a way of honoring ancestral knowledge while creating space for renewal. Healing is not treated as an individual outcome, but as preparation for leadership grounded in responsibility to others and to community. By centering story, memory, and relational accountability, this study contributes to Indigenous scholarship by offering a model of community leadership that emerges from transgenerational processes of healing rather than external systems of authority. It invites educators and leaders to reconsider how knowledge and responsibility are carried, and to understand leadership as a lived, relational practice grounded in land, story, and community.
Subject Categories
Educational Administration and Supervision | Educational Leadership
Keywords
Indigenous leadership Indigenous methodology
Number of Pages
271
Publisher
University of South Dakota
Recommended Citation
Tamera Miyasato, Dowan Wasté Win, "HEHANYELA ISTOGMUZAPI S’E UNK’UNPI SNI (BLIND NO MORE): STORYING TRANSGENERATIONAL HEALING AND RELATIONAL INDIGENOUS LEADERSHIP THROUGH PRACTITIONER RESEARCH" (2026). Dissertations and Theses. 390.
https://red.library.usd.edu/diss-thesis/390