View Descriptor

N/A

N/A

N/A

1. Introduction to American Indian/Native American Studies, concepts, and policies.

1. Academic discipline and methodologies, Terminology: American Indian, Native American, First People, Indigenous, Tribal Sovereignty, Federal Trust Responsibility.  

2. Doctrine of Discovery, colonization and settler colonialism

2. California Indian homeland - Tribal nations and language, traditional ecological knowledge (TEK), and foodways

1. Impacts of Mission system, Gold Rush, 18 treaties and California Indian resistance to colonialism

3. Boarding schools, Dawes Severalty Act and resisting assimilation.

4. Termination and Relocation Policies

5. Urban Indians and American Indian Movement (AIM)

6. Decolonization movements, language and cultural revitalization

7. Sacred Sites Protection – NAGPRA and CalNAGPRA 

8. Environmental Movements and Activism

9. Education/Tribal Colleges and Universities

10. American Indian Religious Freedom

11. Economic development and governance - Tribal Political Development

12. Popular culture and artistic expression in music, fashion and film. 

13. International Indigenous movements

No information provided

At the conclusion of this course, the student should be able to:

1.  Gain a deep understanding of American Indian Studies (AIS), covering its development, significance, and insights into the American Indian experience in America.

2.  Highlight the critical role of American Indian voices and perspectives.

3.  Understand and examine essential AIS concepts like sovereignty, colonization, decolonization, and self-determination.

4.  Exhibit cultural competence and critical awareness in interactions with American Indian cultures and communities.

5.  Apply culturally informed analytical, research, and community service approaches in AIS.

6.  Describe the Native American Studies perspective on aspects of social life such as socialization, institutions, and social change or social movements.

7.  Critically review how struggle, resistance, racial and social justice, solidarity, and liberation, as experienced and enacted by American Indians are relevant to current and structural issues such as communal, national, tribal as, for example, settler colonialism, land, and environmental policies.

8.  Describe and actively engage with anti-racist and anti-colonial issues and the practices and movements in Native American tribal communities to build a just and equitable society.

9.  Apply theory and knowledge produced by American Indian tribal communities to describe the critical events, histories, cultures, intellectual traditions, contributions, lived-experiences, and social struggles of those groups with a particular emphasis on agency and group-affirmation.

10.  Acknowledge and discuss both historical and current challenges in American Indian knowledge creation.

Methods of evaluation may include, but are not limited to:
Classroom Discussions
Essay Examinations
Objective Examinations
Projects 
Journal Reviews
Other Writing Assignments

Native American Voice, A Reader by Lobot and Talbot. Prentice Hall, 2016 3rd edition

California through Native Eyes: Reclaiming History by William Bauer Jr., University of Washington Press, 2016

Bad Indians: A Tribal Memoir by Deborah Miranda, Heyday Press, 2013

An Indigenous Peoples’ History of the United States: Revisioning American History by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz, Bacon Press 2015

"Custer Died for Your Sins: An Indian Manifesto" by Vine Deloria Jr. University of Oklahoma.1988

Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples" by Linda Tuhiwai Smith. Zed Books 2021

 "New Indians, Old Wars" by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn. University of Illinois Press. 2007

Or equivalent Open Educational Resource