- Four Arrows
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Four Arrows, or Don Trent Jacobs (born 1946) is a university professor, writer and American Indian activist whose work has focused on indigenous worldviews, wellness and counter-hegemonic education.
Of Cherokee/Creek/Scots-Irish ancestry, Four Arrows served as Dean of Education at Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation, where he lived and honored the traditional Sun Dance vows of the Medicine Horse group. After resigning his tenured position as a professor at Northern Arizona University, he joined the faculty at the College of Educational Leadership and Change at Fielding Graduate University.[1][2]
In 1996, Jacobs (Four Arrows) was named first alternate for the U.S. Equestrian Team's Endurance team with his horse, Brioso. The U.S. won the gold medal that year. He used a BLM mustang/Arab mix.
Four Arrows is married to German born artist and photographer, Beatrice Angela Jacobs. His daughter, Jessica London Jacobs, co-author of the character education text published by Scarecrow Press, Teaching Virtues: Building Character Across the Curriculum, is a public school teacher. She has two sons, Kaien and Sage. Sage Ryan Spencer, was a finalist in America's Got Talent at age 6 and at age 11 is currently working on Disney television series entitled, "The Protector." He has performed on stage at the Hollywood Bowl and the L.A. Opera as well as in a number of films, including The Christmas Carol, starring Jim Carey.
Contents
Critical Research Publications
In addition to his edited University of Texas Press text, "Unlearning the Language of Conquest," featuring Vine Deloria and other notable researchers, his internationally acclaimed research text, "The Authentic Dissertation: Alternative ways of knowing, research and representation" has received international attention. His critical research in the field of education led him to co-author a book that makes a prima facie case that Wellstone was assassinated by those in the Cheney-Bush administration who were threatened by his growing opposition to the Iraq war. This in turn led to his being invited to write a chapter on the military exercises that were scheduled on 9/11 by Cheney (and not mentioned in the official 9/11 Commission report) for Elsevier's text, The Hidden History of 9/11. In 2004, Four Arrows earned the Moral Courage Award from the Martin Springer Institute for Holocaust Studies at Northern Arizona University for his anti-hegemonic activism. In 2006, he relocated out of the U.S., working initially to help stop the shrimp industry and its destruction of the Sea of Cortez (which led to his book, The Shrimp Habit.)
In addition to books and chapters, Four Arrows has authored numerous popular and professional articles on topics ranging from wellness, a term coined by him and his colleagues while serving on the Marin County Health Systems Agency in 1976, to critical neurophilosophy, a term he coined to criticize the Western lens through which scientists view the nature of man. He wrote a book with American Indian scholar, Greg Cajete, of the University of New Mexico entitled, "Critical Neurophilosophy and Indigenous Wisdom." He is currently doing keynotes with noted libertarian scholar, Dr. Walter Block, of Loyola University, and co-author with Four Arrows of "Differing Worldviews: Two Disagreeing Scholars Argue Cooperatively. In 2011, he published his first novel, "Last Song of the Whales," with all proceeds going to the Algalita Marine Research Foundation for efforts to mitigate the plastic problem in the oceans. More on his other work can be viewed at www.teachingvirtues.net.
Sample Books
- Four Arrows (2010) Last Song of the Whales. Savant Publishers
- Four Arrows (2010)'''Critical Neurophilosophy and Indigenous Wisdom'''' (with Gregory Cajete and Jongmin Lee), Sense Publishers
- Four Arrows and Walter Block (2010) Differing Worlds: Disagreeing Scholars Argue Cooperatively, Sense Publishers
- Four Arrows (2008)The Authentic Dissertation: Alternative ways of knowing, research and representation Routledge of London
- Four Arrows (2006) Unlearning the Language of Conquest: Scholars Expose Anti-Indianism in America University of Texas Press
- Don Trent Jacobs (2001) Primal Awareness: A True Story of Survival, Awakening and Transformation with the Raramuri Shamans of Mexico Inner Traditions International
- Don Trent Jacobs (1994( The Bum's Rush: The Selling of Environmental Backlash (Phrases and Fallacies of Rush Limbaugh) Legendary Press
Book chapters
- Four Arrows (2011). “Forced Hegemony: A Warning from Indian Country” in Second Edition of Education as Enforcement, edited by David Gabbard.
- Four Arrows (2011). Indigenous Spirituality as a Source for Peaceful Relations. In Brantmeier, Lin and Miller, Spirituality, Religions and Peace Education. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing
- Four Arrows. (in press). Critical Neurophilosophy, Indigenous Wisdom and the CAT-FAWN Connection. In Jing Lin and Rebecca Oxford (eds). Transformative Eco-Education for Human Survival. Charlotte, NC: Information Age Publishing
- Four Arrows (2009) “The Character Education Controversy" in Battleground Schools: An Encyclopedia of Conflict and Controversy, Sandra Mathison & E. Wayne Ross (eds), Westport, CT: Greenwood/Praeger
- Four Arrows (2006) Four Arrows (2006) “War Games: Bizarre Coincidence or Something Else" in 9/11 and Political Economy. Amsterdam: Elseviere Science..
- Four Arrows (2006) “Character Education as a Neo-Liberal Undertaking" in Knowledge and Power in the Global Economy, 2nd Edition, David Gabbard Lawrence Erlbaum Associates
- Four Arrows (2005) “Plight of the Raramuri"? in "Echoes from the Poisoned Well: Global Memories of Environmental Injustice," Ed. by Paul C. Rosier, Ph.D.Department of History. Landham: Roman and Littlefield.
- Four Arrows-(2005) “Indigenous Worldviews and Values," “The Myth of the Nobel Savage," and “Social Control and American Indians". In The Encyclopedia of American Indian History. Ed. Bruce Johansen and Barry Pritzker. Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO.
- Four Arrows-Jacobs, D. (2004) “Character Education: Coming Full Circle," in Defending Public Schools-The Curriculum, ed by E.Wayne Ross, Praeger/Greenwood Publishers.
- Four Arrows-Jacobs, D. (2004) “Way of the Brave"? in Educating for Humanity, Heritage Institute, Seattle (other authors include Parker Palmer, Nel Noddings, Herb Kohl, Debbie Meier, Fritzoff Capra, Thomas Berry, Rachael Kessler and Chip Wood.)
- Jacobs, D. (2003) “Forced Hegemony: Warnings and Solutions from Indian Country," In Gabbard, D. (Ed.) Education as Enforcement: The Militarization and Corporatization of Schooling,. New York: RoutledgeFalmer, 2003
- Jacobs, D (2002), “Virtue Based Curriculum: The Process," in Tom Allen’s Creating Sacred Places, National Indian School Board Association, Washington, D.C.
- Jacobs, D. (1999) Shamanic Initiation. In Millman, D. and Childers, D. Divine Interventions: True Stories of Mystery and Miracles That Change Lives. Emmaus, Penn.: Daybreak Books.
- Jacobs, D. (2005) A Reservation Perspective in Militarism In Education, published by Center for Critical Pedagogy, Tel Aviv
References
External links
Categories:- Living people
- 1946 births
- Native American academics
- Native American writers
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