Seeley, JohnBlue, Tracy2022-10-042022-10-042022-10-04https://hdl.handle.net/1794/27547Abstract Native American communities work to preserve and enhance traditional culture in urban and rural environments through an emphasis on strengthening sovereignty and self-determination in order to protect and promote culture and arts programming, giving opportunities for community members and students. Interventions for youth often utilize evidence-based knowledge systems that aim at knowledge and skill building to empower pathways to adulthood. Indigenous community participatory strategies bring stakeholders together in synergy, creating empowerment interventions for youth using culture framed by disparate knowledge systems engaging youth. Canoe Culture utilizes story, song, dance, food sharing, carving canoe paddles and dugout canoes, establishing strength from the ancestors. Exemplified by the canoe culture, each unique Tribal culture is a suitable foundation for adaptable intervention curriculum, providing an intersection of culture and youth well-being. This dissertation explores Tribal adaptations of curriculum such as those derived from the program: Healing of the Canoe (HOC). Qualitative data from structured interviews illuminates experiences from Tribal adoption and implementation adapting the curriculum to individual unique cultures and communities. I investigate the ontological divide of disparate knowledge systems utilizing an evidence-based Implementation Science and Indigenous Science in order to create effective synergies with adaptable culture-infused interventions for Native youth empowerment (Cajete, 2000). Specifically I seek to extract meaning from how Native American culture, curriculum and community play a role in the adoption of adaptable interventions for youth empowerment. I investigate how curriculum’s adaptable uniqueness and community cooperation drives wellness through culture, while producing resilience, identity and protective factors for developing youth. This study will take meaning from phenomenological interviews to gain perspective of Tribal leadership’s experiences while adapting unique interventions.en-USAll Rights Reserved.AdaptationsCommunityCultureCurriculumNativeTribalElectronic Thesis or Dissertation