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American Indian Studies Native - Related Courses at Northwestern University and Other Information about American Indian Issues
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Spring, 2016 Courses Be sure to check this website before registering for next quarter's classes to see the latest offerings Classes originate in many departments, including Psychology, Religion, Anthropology, History, Global Studies and American Studies Are you aware of relevant courses not listed here? Contact us at j-woodring@northwestern.edu For more information about specific classes listed below, please contact the instructor or department. ENVR_POL 390-24 Topics in Ethno-Biology Suzukovich MW 11-12:20 This class will introduce and cover topics in Ethno-biology which is the scientific study of dynamic relationships among peoples, biota, and environments. As a multidisciplinary field, ethnobiology integrates archaeology, geography, systematics, population biology, ecology, mathematical biology, cultural anthropology, ethnography, pharmacology, nutrition, conservation, and sustainable development. This class will cover theory and practice, ethnobotany; ethnozoology; and culturally and community based practices and solutions to ecosystem, agriculture, and land management. We will look at case studies from across the globe ranging from mulberry groves and Sufi musicians in Central Asia; the relationships of beavers, wolves, bison, and people in Yellowstone and Chernobyl; traditional plant harvesting on Mt. Rainer in Washington State; and emerging urban and community forestry practices within Chicago American Indian community. ENG 471: Native American and Indigenous Cultures of Print Prof. Kelly Wisecup, Department of English, kelly.wisecup@northwestern.edu It was a truism in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America that writing was a western invention, a technology that Native American peoples lacked, as allegedly indicated by their inability to tell their own ancient histories. It was on this basis, among others, that Euro-Americans claimed the right to “civilize,” remove, and exterminate Native peoples. But a closer look shows that such claims were far from true: Native American and Indigenous peoples in the Americas and throughout the globe not only possessed their own textual systems but also, after colonialism, engaged with and adapted alphabetic writing and print to claim sovereignty over their communications, land, and histories. This seminar will explore the textualities and practices that compose Native American and Indigenous Cultures of Print. Native and Indigenous peoples’ engagement with print began as early as colonial encounters and was a capacious, creative practice that writers employed to argue for and articulate various forms of sovereignty. While their encounters with print often occurred in coercive contexts such as treaty negotiations, religious education, and literacy instruction, Native and Indigenous people seized the tools of print, turning them to their own purposes. We will explore the non-alphabetic textual practices that provided a foundation for adaptations to alphabetic writing and to print, before examining the cultures of print that flourished in Native and Indigenous communities, with a particular focus on the circulation of tribal histories and on political activism. Finally, we will put this literary history into conversation with recent scholarship in the field of Native American and Indigenous studies, in order to consider and complicate key terms such as sovereignty, recognition, and settler colonialism, among others. Course readings will consist of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Native and Indigenous literatures from throughout the Americas and the world as well as recent scholarship in the history of the book and Native American and Indigenous Studies. Possible texts include works by Samson Occom, William Apess, Elias Boudinot, George Copway, Sarah Winnemucca, Lili’uokalani, Black Hawk, Simon Pokagon, and others. Theoretical texts may include works by historians of the book such as D.F. McKenzie, Leah Price, and Robert Darnton, as well as Native studies scholars such as Phillip Round, Robert Warrior, and Glen Sean Coulthard, among others. Assignments: Discussion, presentations, an archival and digital project in collaboration with the Newberry Library, and short papers. PREVIOUS COURSES (current quarter courses) Courses offered winter, 2016 ANTHRO 390 (section 25) Cutural Resource Management and Environmental Policies Eli S Suzukovich III MW 10:00-11:30 Why is it important that we save significant cultural places, landscapes, practices, and artifacts? This will be the focal question of this class. Through the next 10 weeks we will explore this question and gain a better understanding of what makes something culturally significant and the laws and policies that govern cultural resources such as architecture, historical personages, local history, landscapes and ecosystems, and language and cultural knowledge. This course will explore cultural aspects of environmental resource policy, covering the history of cultural resource management in the United States including the National Historic Preservation Act, language and cultural preservation, Native American sovereignty, mitigating natural resources, cultural patrimony, and Traditional Cultural Properties. We will also discuss ethical issues that arise from multiple perspectives of culturally significant landscapes, places, beliefs and practices. The course will examine the main debates around protecting and preserving cultural and natural resources. Selected case studies will be utilized as both a focus for, and to facilitate, class discussions. Readings will include four books and selected articles relevant to the course. ENG 378/co-listed with AMER_ST 3XX Studies in American Literature: Native American Literature: Place & Historical Memory Kelly Wisecup TTh 2-3:20 Course Description: This course will explore the strategies with which Native American writers have maintained and reconfigured their relations to place. We will focus in particular on the strategies with which these writers have represented the histories attached to various places, against attempts by U.S. Americans to forget or efface them. While European colonists and U.S. Americans conceptualized land as an alienable asset (as something that could be bought and sold), Native Americans’ views of land were founded on kinship: land and animals were natural resources integrated with human life and thus resources that should be used carefully. Similarly, because the land held the bones of past generations, it localized the past and created opportunities for unity in the present. In the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, as U.S. Americans claimed increasingly large plots of land and restricted Native groups to increasingly small, bounded areas, Native writers and activists contested dispossession, removal, and environmental catastrophe with a range of strategies, from political advocacy, to public lectures, military action, and public protests. We’ll read these early arguments for place and remembering alongside several contemporary novels and poems that recall the devastating effects of colonialism and that mobilize that past to assert Natives’ ongoing presence. Texts include: William Apess, A Son of the Forest and Indian Nullification; Joseph Nicolar, Life and Traditions of the Red Man; David Cusick, Sketches of Ancient History of the Six Nations; Black Hawk, Autobiography of Ma-Ka-Tai-Me-She-Kia-Kiak, or Black Hawk; Elias Boudinot, An Address to the Whites, editorials in the Cherokee Phoenix; John Ridge, Essay by John Ridge; Diane Glancy, Pushing the Bear; Leslie Marmon Silko, Ceremony; Louise Erdrich, Tracks Courses offered fall, 2015 GBL HLTH 305 Global Health and Indigenous Medicine Noelle Sullivan Medical pluralism-therapeutic landscapes within which multiple healing forms exist simultaneously-is largely the norm throughout many places in the world, and in those places, patients may choose healers or non-biomedical therapies instead of biomedical care, or in conjunction with this care. This seminar course explores a diversity of so-called `indigenous' medical systems and forms of healing around the world, and their significance within the places where global health initiatives are often implemented or where biomedical supremacy is assumed. Drawing on mostly contemporary examples, this course will explore healing encounters in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and also in Europe and North America that involve so-called `indigenous' or `traditional' medicine. Questions we will explore include: Why do patients choose `indigenous' medicine over biomedicine? Why do these so-called `traditional' medical practices and healers endure despite public health and biomedical interventions? How do non-biomedical therapeutic practices approach the body, illness, health, and healing? How has globalization impacted how, where, and among whom these healing forms are practiced? GBL HLTH 390/ANTHRO 390 Native American Health Native Americans experience significant disparities in health and in access to health care. This course introduces students to Native American health by exploring the social, cultural, political, and environmental determinants influencing Native health both historically and today. This course is a reading intensive, discussion-based seminar, drawing upon research and contributions from a variety of disciplines including anthropology, sociology, history, American Indian studies, population and public health, and medicine. Some seminar topics will include Native medicine, infectious diseases and the Columbian Exchange, Federal obligations to Native communities, substance abuse, intergenerational/historic trauma, environmental health, and indigenous health globally. HIST 395 The Serpent's Tail: Writing Native Histories of the Americas Forrest Hylton Courses offered spring, 2015 Native American Health \| GBL HLTH 390/ANTHRO 390 \| Mondays & Wednesdays \| 11:00am – 12:20pm Native Americans experience significant disparities in health and in access to health care. This course introduces students to Native American health by exploring the social, cultural, political, and environmental determinants influencing Native health both historically and today. This course is a reading intensive, discussion-based seminar, drawing upon research and contributions from a variety of disciplines including anthropology, sociology, history, American Indian studies, population and public health, and medicine. Some seminar topics will include Native medicine, infectious diseases and the Columbian Exchange, Federal obligations to Native communities, substance abuse, intergenerational/historic trauma, environmental health, and indigenous health globally. If you’d like to take this course, please send an e-mail to: Chelsea Ducharme, MPH\| Global Health Program Assistant. with a short description about why you are interested. Our academic directors have decided that this group of students will have preference in registration, so please do let Chelsea know at your earliest convenience. The course description is also listed here. Legal Studies 376-0-20: How the Indians Lost Their Land Prof. Susan Stearns, TuTh 2:00PM - 3:20PM, Technological Institute LG72 This course examines the role of the law in the process by which the indigenous people of North America came to be dispossessed from 1492 until the 1860s. We will focus on the legal doctrine of "Terra Nullius," the ecological and ideological ramifications of the imposition of private property, the signing of treaties, the role of the courts and the role of the state in removing Indians from their lands. At the same time, we will explore ideas and concepts central to American Indian history. This course will include three visits by prominent scholars in the field. Global Health and Indigenous Medicine - GBL HLTH 305 Noelle Sullivan Thursdays 1-3:50, 555 Clark Room 220. Medical pluralism—therapeutic landscapes within which multiple healing modalities exist simultaneously—is largely the norm throughout many places in the world. In those places, people may choose healers or non-biomedical therapies instead of biomedical care, or even use multiple types of healers and therapies simultaneously. This seminar course explores a diversity of so-called ‘indigenous’ or ‘traditional’ medical practices and forms of healing around the world, and their significance within various contexts. The course also delves into encounters between global health interventions, biomedicine, and other forms of healing in places characterized by medical pluralism. Questions we will explore include: In what ways do non-biomedical therapeutic practices approach the body, illness, health, and healing? Why do these so-called ‘traditional’ medical practices and healers endure despite public health and biomedical interventions? How has globalization impacted how, where, and among whom these healing forms are practiced? How do patients, families, and healers balance biomedical and nonbiomedical options in their quest for health and healing? How do biomedicine and other healing modalities interact, and how do they influence one another? While this course does not explicitly cover Native American medicine in any depth, it is related to Native American issues. HIST 492-0-20: Native Americans in the Age of Revolutions Forrest Hylton Tuesdays, 2:30-5:30 Courses offered winter, 2015 Native American Perspectives on Environmental Justice Religious Studies - Professor Sarah Taylor This is a case study learning-based seminar that explores sites of eco-racism and complex struggles for eco-justice in Native American communities. Course material focuses on Native American perspectives on environmental justice. Case studies will include conflicts over sites of mining, deforestation, water pollution, nuclear waste, and other toxic waste dumping. Issues of genocide, survival, self-determination, and links between environmental degradation and the impact on religio-cultural practices will be discussed. Students will be asked to conduct original research and to produce a case study of their own as the seminar's final project. Psychology 332: Native Americans and Environmental Decision Making Douglas L. Medin This course is part of the Environmental Policy and Culture program as well as part of a potential WCAS plan to develop an American Indian Studies program. But it also has always been intended as a course in critical thinking. The focus will be on the relationship people and peoples have with nature, with a particular focus on Native Americans and the environment. The course will also focus on stereotypes, such as that of the “Ecological Indian.” Did the colonial powers find a pristine environment when they arrived in America? Did Native Americans have a special spiritual connection with nature? Do Native Americans today also have this same spiritual connection? Medill MFC 3-107: Native Americans Tell Their Stories Loren Ghiglione Though close to 80 percent of American Indians live off of reservations, ethnographic studies, government and foundation funding, museum exhibits, documentaries and oral history projects have focused in large part on Indians living on reservations. Two thirds of Native Americans live in Chicago and other cities; they represent an important but underreported story. Injustices and indignities have often been a significant part of that story. One report by Portland, Oregon, Native people concludes: “We experience the highest rates of homelessness, poverty and unemployment of all ethnic groups; depression, addiction and diabetes impact us in numbers far exceeding the norm.” Native Americans represent a disproportionately large percentage of children in foster care and a disproportionately small percentage of students graduating from high school and college. Despite those realities, urban Native Americans have stories of strength and success to tell. The American Indians in Chicago represent approximately 150 tribal nations and perpetuate those tribal nations’ cultures and celebrate their values. Urban Indians have also adapted and established their own identities. The goal of this course is to learn about Chicago’s Native Americans, their triumphs and their tragedies, and provide opportunities for them to tell their life stories in their own words in video oral histories that will create an important record of lives often invisible to the larger society. The oral histories will be made available to the interviewees and the organizations that have helped develop this course: the American Indian Association of Illinois, the American Indian Center of Chicago, the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies of the Newberry Library, the Native American Journalists Association, and Northwestern University (specifically, its library). Courses offered spring, 2014 Instructor - Visiting Writer in Residence Mark Turcotte (Turtle Mountain Chippewa) Writing 301-The Art of Fiction: Short-Short Prose and Prose Poetry English 378-Native American Literature: Mark Turcotte’s Native American Literature: This course will be an introductory survey of a wide range of Native American and First Nations literature. Courses offered winter, 2013 ANTHRO 311 Indians of North America - Carrie Heitman ___________________________________________ Courses offered spring, 2012 NEW COURSE AMST 310-21 – Spring 2012 American Indians – Contemporary Issues in Indian Country M/W 2:00 – 3:20 – Parkes 224 John Low There are currently more than 560 federally recognized American Indian Nations within the borders of the United States This course explores the contemporary legal, cultural, historic economic, social, and political issues, experiences, perspectives, and futures of American Indians in the U.S. We will employ a very holistic and interdisciplinary approach, and draw together materials from a variety of sources. Themes will include issues of multiculturalism, individual and community identity, social justice, Indigenous feminism, sexual orientation, racism, genocide, land ownership, environmental degradation, and ways of knowing and learning. We will address a number of critical questions that affect, and are shaped by, Indigenous peoples of North America through various disciplines including history, sociology, literature, and anthropology among others. Lectures and class discussions will be supplemented by audiovisual materials and guest speaker/s. Throughout the course, students will be exposed to, and gain an appreciation for, Native American Indian communities, cultures, histories, perspectives, experiences, lives, and contemporary issues. This course is open to motivated freshman. NEW COURSE History 300-45 – Spring 2012 American Indians – History of the Red Power Movement M/W 11:00 -12:30 – Technological Institute 128 John Low Social Movements are a valuable lens to explore the history of the United States. This course explores the history of the American Indian Red Power Movement from its emergence in the 1960’s to its legacies in contemporary times. Lectures and class discussions are supplemented by audiovisual materials and guest speaker/s. Throughout the course, students will be exposed to, and gain appreciation for, Native American Indian political and social activism from the 1960’s to the present. This course is open to motivated freshman. Courses offered winter, 2012 History 300/34 John N. Low JD, Ph.D. American Indian History – 1763 to Present T/TH 12:30 – 1:50 – University Hall 101 Course Description There are currently more than 560 federally recognized American Indian Nations with which the United States maintains government to government relations based upon a sovereign status which is both inherent (i.e., pre-dates the coming of Europeans to this hemisphere) and law/treaty based. This course explores the legal, cultural, historic, political foundations, experiences, perspectives, and futures of American Indians in the U.S. An introduction to American Indian history requires a holistic and interdisciplinary approach, and draws together materials from a variety of sources. We will broadly examine the varied experiences of American Indian peoples from 1763 to the present, and approach this study with the understanding that American Indians were active participants in history and not hapless victims of Euro-American imperialism. Over the next ten weeks, we will focus on the ways indigenous peoples in the United States acted and responded to the host of stresses that accompanied the rapid and often violent social, cultural, and environmental transformations of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will pay particular attention to the ways Indians adapted to meet the challenges they confronted as they persisted in their efforts to preserve their homelands, their cultures, their sovereignty, and their rights to self-determination. American Indian history since 1763 is essential to understanding American history. Some of the goals of this course are to broaden your knowledge of American Indian peoples and the ways in which their lives are embedded in, and inseparable from their geographic, historic spiritual, cultural, and social surroundings. Through the course, students will be exposed to, and gain an appreciation for, Native American Indian communities, cultures, histories, perspectives, experiences, lives and contemporary issues. Courses offered fall, 2011 American Studies 310-21 John Low American Indians in Film M 2-5/University Hall 018 This course examines American Indians in film over the last century. We will view movies by, and/or about, Indians followed by discussions. Themes include issues of multiculturalism, stereotypes and ethnic identification, social justice, Indigenous feminism, sexual orientation, racism, genocide, land tenure and environmental degradation. The course is interdisciplinary and will incorporate history, sociology, ethics, religion, literature, geography, mythology, folklore and anthropology as these fields relate to the films. Some of the goals of this course are to broaden knowledge of American Indian peoples and the ways in which their lives are embedded in and inseparable from geographical, historical, spiritual, cultural, and social environments. Another goal is to expose students to the ways in which film has been both oppressive and liberating for Native peoples. Through the course, students will be exposed to, and gain an appreciation for, Native American Indian communities, cultures, histories, perspectives, experiences, lives and contemporary issues. This course is open to motivated freshman. Legal Studies 376 John Low Federal Indian Law – Land, Law and American Indians M/W 11am-12:20pm - 555 Clark – Basement 03 American Indian legal history of the last 236 years includes an ongoing struggle by the Federal government to impose upon the Indigenous peoples of the United States a variety of non-Native ideologies and policies designed to separate the latter from their lands. In this course we will explore highlights of that history and the resistances to that imposition. Topics will include the articulations of the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the nature of Indian land ownership, first presented in 1823; the forced movement of Indians onto reservations and subsequent allotment of those lands; the impact of the Indian Reorganization Act (1934) on tribes and sovereignty over their remaining lands; treaties, land cessions, and the treaty rights movement that gathered momentum in the 1970’s and continues to this day; and passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978 and the (lack of) protection of sacred places for American Indians. As a special focus, we will spend one week examining the case of the Pokagon Potawatomi Indians, who in 1914 sued the City of Chicago and others for possession of the Chicago lakefront and took their claim to the United States Supreme Court. This course is open to motivated freshman. Psychology 332 Doug Medin Native Americans & Environmental Decision Making The focus of this course will be on the relationship peoples have with nature, with a particular focus on Native Americans and the environment. The course will also focus on stereotypes, such as that of the “ecological Indian.” Did the colonial powers find a pristine environment when they arrived in America? Did Native Americans have a special spiritual connection with nature? Do Native Americans today also have this same spiritual connection? Religion 261-0 Sarah Taylor American Religion, Ecology and Culture This course will explore contemporary currents in religion and ecology, focusing on how the rise of environmentalism in American culture and the increasing give-and-take between ecological awareness and spiritual experience have become powerful forces in shaping the religious landscape. Particular attention will be paid to "greening" trends within religious institutions in light of tensions between philosophies of anthropocentrism and biocentrism, stewardship and deep ecology, bioregionalism and globalism. We will also examine the spiritual dimensions of ecofeminism, eco-kosher foodways, back-to-the-land movements, sacred agriculture, voluntary simplicity, and ecopsychology. Finally, we will analyze contemporary "ecotopian" and "eco-apocalyptic" visions for what broader insight they may afford us into American religion and culture. This course also counts toward the Environmental Policy and Culture minor at Northwestern. Courses offered prior to 2011 Watch for these classes in future quarters: AF AM ST 214-0 Comparative Race Studies in the United States Problems and experiences of racialized minorities: blacks, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans. Comparative exploration of their relationships to each other and to the majority society. May be repeated for credit with change of comparative racial groups or time period explored. ANTHRO 311-0 The Indians of North America Aboriginal cultures of northern Mexico, continental United States, Alaska, and Canada. Languages, art, and social, economic, and religious life. ART HIST 228-0 Introduction to Pre-Columbian Art Introduction to pre-Columbian and Native American art and architecture, from tribal societies, such as the Iroquois, Mandan, and Kwakiutl, to complex states, such as the Aztec, Maya, and Inca. Courses offered fall, 2010 Religion 260-0 Sarah Taylor Introduction to Native American Religions Diversity and common elements of Native American religious traditions; comparative study of myth, ritual, spiritual philosophy, and practice. Courses offered spring, 2010 Psychology 394 Megan Bang Professional Linkage Seminar: Culture and Education: The Challenges and Opportunities in American Indian Education Tuesday - Thursday 11:00-12:20 Swift Hall room 231 Weinberg College Professional Linkage Seminars allow students to explore links between the academic programs of the College and issues and practice in the outside world. Students will have the opportunity this spring to take a Professional Linkage Seminar with Dr. Megan Bang, the Director of Education for the American Indian Center in Chicago. Dr. Bang earned her PhD from Northwestern and studies cross-cultural differences in thinking and learning, with a focus on American Indian cultures. The course is designed to develop a historically informed perspective on contemporary challenges and opportunities in Indian education. First students will be oriented to contemporary Native America to ensure that they are working from contemporary perspectives and realities. Students will consider the fundamental roles and purposes of education as they relate to American Indian societies and to the broader U.S. They will then examine how these roles and purposes have changed over the course of American history. Students will explore the impacts and implications of this history in order to turn towards contemporary challenges in American Indian education. The course will ground students’ grappling with these challenges in three main dimensions: Native intellectual traditions, language, and educational infrastructure. As part of the course requirements, students will explore a current educational effort underway in a Native community. Enrollment in this course is limited to 15 students. It can count as a 300-level course for the major or minor in psychology. English 105-6 Freshman Seminar James O'Laughlin Storytelling and Nation-Making in American Indian and Irish Literature Tuesday - Thursday 2:00-3:20 University Library 3322 In this seminar, we’ll compare and contrast how two very different groups of writers in the twentieth century—in North America, and in Ireland—confront the effects of colonial rule and respond to stories of “the nation” that marginalize them and their history. We will explore how these writers think beyond marginalization and express alternative ideas about national identity, and we will examine the role of storytelling in the struggle with national myths in everyday life. Anthropology 327-0 20 Elizabeth Brumfiel Archaeology of Ethnicity in America Tuesday - Thursday 2:00-3:20 Kresge Centennial Hall room 2435 This course explores the history of different ethnic groups in America through the study of their material remains: living quarters, burials, food remains, tools, jewelry, etc. We also examine how ethnic groups have been portrayed or ignored in museum displays that claim to depict the American past. Groups studied include Native Americans, African-American, and Chinese-Americans. Class projects include the study of artifacts and ethnic groups in the city of Evanston. This is a good class for students considering careers in anthropology, archaeology, museum studies, education, and history. Courses offered fall, 2009 Religion 261-0 Sarah Taylor American Religion, Ecology and Culture This course will explore contemporary currents in religion and ecology, focusing on how the rise of environmentalism in American culture and the increasing give-and-take between ecological awareness and spiritual experience have become powerful forces in shaping the religious landscape. Particular attention will be paid to "greening" trends within religious institutions in light of tensions between philosophies of anthropocentrism and biocentrism, stewardship and deep ecology, bioregionalism and globalism. We will also examine the spiritual dimensions of ecofeminism, eco-kosher foodways, back-to-the-land movements, sacred agriculture, voluntary simplicity, and ecopsychology. Finally, we will analyze contemporary "ecotopian" and "eco-apocalyptic" visions for what broader insight they may afford us into American religion and culture. This course also counts toward the Environmental Policy and Culture minor at Northwestern. Psychology 314-0 Doug Medin Special Topics in Psychology: Native American Culture and Environmental Decision Making The focus of this class will be on the relationship peoples have with nature, with a particular focus on Native Americans and the environment. The course will also focus on stereotypes, such as that of the “ecological Indian.” Did the colonial powers find a pristine environment when they arrived in America? Did Native Americans have a special spiritual connection with nature? Do Native Americans today also have this same spiritual connection? updated - 7-14 -15 (home)

Be sure to check this website before registering for next quarter's classes to see the latest offerings

Psychology, Religion, Anthropology, History, Global Studies and American Studies

This class will introduce and cover topics in Ethno-biology which is the scientific study of dynamic relationships among peoples, biota, and environments. As a multidisciplinary field, ethnobiology integrates archaeology, geography, systematics, population biology, ecology, mathematical biology, cultural anthropology, ethnography, pharmacology, nutrition, conservation, and sustainable development. This class will cover theory and practice, ethnobotany; ethnozoology; and culturally and community based practices and solutions to ecosystem, agriculture, and land management. We will look at case studies from across the globe ranging from mulberry groves and Sufi musicians in Central Asia; the relationships of beavers, wolves, bison, and people in Yellowstone and Chernobyl; traditional plant harvesting on Mt. Rainer in Washington State; and emerging urban and community forestry practices within Chicago American Indian community.

It was a truism in eighteenth- and nineteenth-century America that writing was a western invention, a technology that Native American peoples lacked, as allegedly indicated by their inability to tell their own ancient histories. It was on this basis, among others, that Euro-Americans claimed the right to “civilize,” remove, and exterminate Native peoples. But a closer look shows that such claims were far from true: Native American and Indigenous peoples in the Americas and throughout the globe not only possessed their own textual systems but also, after colonialism, engaged with and adapted alphabetic writing and print to claim sovereignty over their communications, land, and histories.

This seminar will explore the textualities and practices that compose Native American and Indigenous Cultures of Print. Native and Indigenous peoples’ engagement with print began as early as colonial encounters and was a capacious, creative practice that writers employed to argue for and articulate various forms of sovereignty. While their encounters with print often occurred in coercive contexts such as treaty negotiations, religious education, and literacy instruction, Native and Indigenous people seized the tools of print, turning them to their own purposes. We will explore the non-alphabetic textual practices that provided a foundation for adaptations to alphabetic writing and to print, before examining the cultures of print that flourished in Native and Indigenous communities, with a particular focus on the circulation of tribal histories and on political activism. Finally, we will put this literary history into conversation with recent scholarship in the field of Native American and Indigenous studies, in order to consider and complicate key terms such as sovereignty, recognition, and settler colonialism, among others. Course readings will consist of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Native and Indigenous literatures from throughout the Americas and the world as well as recent scholarship in the history of the book and Native American and Indigenous Studies.

Possible texts include works by Samson Occom, William Apess, Elias Boudinot, George Copway, Sarah Winnemucca, Lili’uokalani, Black Hawk, Simon Pokagon, and others. Theoretical texts may include works by historians of the book such as D.F. McKenzie, Leah Price, and Robert Darnton, as well as Native studies scholars such as Phillip Round, Robert Warrior, and Glen Sean Coulthard, among others.

Assignments: Discussion, presentations, an archival and digital project in collaboration with the Newberry Library, and short papers.

Why is it important that we save significant cultural places, landscapes, practices, and artifacts? This will be the focal question of this class. Through the next 10 weeks we will explore this question and gain a better understanding of what makes something culturally significant and the laws and policies that govern cultural resources such as architecture, historical personages, local history, landscapes and ecosystems, and language and cultural knowledge. This course will explore cultural aspects of environmental resource policy, covering the history of cultural resource management in the United States including the National Historic Preservation Act, language and cultural preservation, Native American sovereignty, mitigating natural resources, cultural patrimony, and Traditional Cultural Properties. We will also discuss ethical issues that arise from multiple perspectives of culturally significant landscapes, places, beliefs and practices. The course will examine the main debates around protecting and preserving cultural and natural resources. Selected case studies will be utilized as both a focus for, and to facilitate, class discussions. Readings will include four books and selected articles relevant to the course.

Medical pluralism-therapeutic landscapes within which multiple healing forms exist simultaneously-is largely the norm throughout many places in the world, and in those places, patients may choose healers or non-biomedical therapies instead of biomedical care, or in conjunction with this care. This seminar course explores a diversity of so-called `indigenous' medical systems and forms of healing around the world, and their significance within the places where global health initiatives are often implemented or where biomedical supremacy is assumed. Drawing on mostly contemporary examples, this course will explore healing encounters in Africa, Latin America, Asia, and also in Europe and North America that involve so-called `indigenous' or `traditional' medicine. Questions we will explore include: Why do patients choose `indigenous' medicine over biomedicine? Why do these so-called `traditional' medical practices and healers endure despite public health and biomedical interventions? How do non-biomedical therapeutic practices approach the body, illness, health, and healing? How has globalization impacted how, where, and among whom these healing forms are practiced?

GBL HLTH 390/ANTHRO 390 Native American Health

Native Americans experience significant disparities in health and in access to health care. This course introduces students to Native American health by exploring the social, cultural, political, and environmental determinants influencing Native health both historically and today. This course is a reading intensive, discussion-based seminar, drawing upon research and contributions from a variety of disciplines including anthropology, sociology, history, American Indian studies, population and public health, and medicine. Some seminar topics will include Native medicine, infectious diseases and the Columbian Exchange, Federal obligations to Native communities, substance abuse, intergenerational/historic trauma, environmental health, and indigenous health globally.

HIST 395 The Serpent's Tail: Writing Native Histories of the Americas

Native American Health | GBL HLTH 390/ANTHRO 390 | Mondays & Wednesdays | 11:00am – 12:20pm

with a short description about why you are interested. Our academic directors have decided that this group of students will have preference in registration, so please do let Chelsea know at your earliest convenience. The course description is also listed here.

Legal Studies 376-0-20: How the Indians Lost Their Land
Prof. Susan Stearns, TuTh 2:00PM - 3:20PM, Technological Institute LG72

This course examines the role of the law in the process by which the indigenous people of North America came to be dispossessed from 1492 until the 1860s. We will focus on the legal doctrine of "Terra Nullius," the ecological and ideological ramifications of the imposition of private property, the signing of treaties, the role of the courts and the role of the state in removing Indians from their lands. At the same time, we will explore ideas and concepts central to American Indian history. This course will include three visits by prominent scholars in the field.

Global Health and Indigenous Medicine - GBL HLTH 305 Noelle Sullivan Thursdays 1-3:50, 555 Clark Room 220.

Medical pluralism—therapeutic landscapes within which multiple healing modalities exist

simultaneously—is largely the norm throughout many places in the world. In those places,

people may choose healers or non-biomedical therapies instead of biomedical care, or even use multiple types of healers and therapies simultaneously. This seminar course explores a diversity of so-called ‘indigenous’ or ‘traditional’ medical practices and forms of healing around the world, and their significance within various contexts. The course also delves into encounters between global health interventions, biomedicine, and other forms of healing in places characterized by medical pluralism. Questions we will explore include: In what ways do non-biomedical therapeutic practices approach the body, illness, health, and healing? Why do these so-called ‘traditional’ medical practices and healers endure despite public health and biomedical interventions? How has globalization impacted how, where, and among whom these healing forms are practiced? How do patients, families, and healers balance biomedical and nonbiomedical options in their quest for health and healing? How do biomedicine and other healing modalities interact, and how do they influence one another?

While this course does not explicitly cover Native American medicine in any depth, it is related to Native American issues.

This is a case study learning-based seminar that explores sites of eco-racism and complex struggles for eco-justice in Native American communities. Course material focuses on Native American perspectives on environmental justice. Case studies will include conflicts over sites of mining, deforestation, water pollution, nuclear waste, and other toxic waste dumping. Issues of genocide, survival, self-determination, and links between environmental degradation and the impact on religio-cultural practices will be discussed. Students will be asked to conduct original research and to produce a case study of their own as the seminar's final project.

This course is part of the Environmental Policy and Culture program as well as part of a potential WCAS plan to develop an American Indian Studies program. But it also has always been intended as a course in critical thinking. The focus will be on the relationship people and peoples have with nature, with a particular focus on Native Americans and the environment. The course will also focus on stereotypes, such as that of the “Ecological Indian.” Did the colonial powers find a pristine environment when they arrived in America? Did Native Americans have a special spiritual connection with nature? Do Native Americans today also have this same spiritual connection?

Though close to 80 percent of American Indians live off of reservations, ethnographic studies, government and foundation funding, museum exhibits, documentaries and oral history projects have focused in large part on Indians living on reservations. Two thirds of Native Americans live in Chicago and other cities; they represent an important but underreported story. Injustices and indignities have often been a significant part of that story. One report by Portland, Oregon, Native people concludes: “We experience the highest rates of homelessness, poverty and unemployment of all ethnic groups; depression, addiction and diabetes impact us in numbers far exceeding the norm.” Native Americans represent a disproportionately large percentage of children in foster care and a disproportionately small percentage of students graduating from high school and college. Despite those realities, urban Native Americans have stories of strength and success to tell. The American Indians in Chicago represent approximately 150 tribal nations and perpetuate those tribal nations’ cultures and celebrate their values. Urban Indians have also adapted and established their own identities. The goal of this course is to learn about Chicago’s Native Americans, their triumphs and their tragedies, and provide opportunities for them to tell their life stories in their own words in video oral histories that will create an important record of lives often invisible to the larger society. The oral histories will be made available to the interviewees and the organizations that have helped develop this course: the American Indian Association of Illinois, the American Indian Center of Chicago, the D’Arcy McNickle Center for American Indian and Indigenous Studies of the Newberry Library, the Native American Journalists Association, and Northwestern University (specifically, its library).

Instructor - Visiting Writer in Residence Mark Turcotte (Turtle Mountain Chippewa)

English 378-Native American Literature: Mark Turcotte’s Native American Literature: This course will be an introductory survey of a wide range of Native American and First Nations literature.

There are currently more than 560 federally recognized American Indian Nations within the borders of the United States This course explores the contemporary legal, cultural, historic economic, social, and political issues, experiences, perspectives, and futures of American Indians in the U.S. We will employ a very holistic and interdisciplinary approach, and draw together materials from a variety of sources. Themes will include issues of multiculturalism, individual and community identity, social justice, Indigenous feminism, sexual orientation, racism, genocide, land ownership, environmental degradation, and ways of knowing and learning. We will address a number of critical questions that affect, and are shaped by, Indigenous peoples of North America through various disciplines including history, sociology, literature, and anthropology among others. Lectures and class discussions will be supplemented by audiovisual materials and guest speaker/s. Throughout the course, students will be exposed to, and gain an appreciation for, Native American Indian communities, cultures, histories, perspectives, experiences, lives, and contemporary issues. This course is open to motivated freshman.

Social Movements are a valuable lens to explore the history of the United States. This course explores the history of the American Indian Red Power Movement from its emergence in the 1960’s to its legacies in contemporary times. Lectures and class discussions are supplemented by audiovisual materials and guest speaker/s. Throughout the course, students will be exposed to, and gain appreciation for, Native American Indian political and social activism from the 1960’s to the present. This course is open to motivated freshman.

There are currently more than 560 federally recognized American Indian Nations with which the United States maintains government to government relations based upon a sovereign status which is both inherent (i.e., pre-dates the coming of Europeans to this hemisphere) and law/treaty based. This course explores the legal, cultural, historic, political foundations, experiences, perspectives, and futures of American Indians in the U.S. An introduction to American Indian history requires a holistic and interdisciplinary approach, and draws together materials from a variety of sources. We will broadly examine the varied experiences of American Indian peoples from 1763 to the present, and approach this study with the understanding that American Indians were active participants in history and not hapless victims of Euro-American imperialism. Over the next ten weeks, we will focus on the ways indigenous peoples in the United States acted and responded to the host of stresses that accompanied the rapid and often violent social, cultural, and environmental transformations of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. We will pay particular attention to the ways Indians adapted to meet the challenges they confronted as they persisted in their efforts to preserve their homelands, their cultures, their sovereignty, and their rights to self-determination. American Indian history since 1763 is essential to understanding American history. Some of the goals of this course are to broaden your knowledge of American Indian peoples and the ways in which their lives are embedded in, and inseparable from their geographic, historic spiritual, cultural, and social surroundings. Through the course, students will be exposed to, and gain an appreciation for, Native American Indian communities, cultures, histories, perspectives, experiences, lives and contemporary issues.

This course examines American Indians in film over the last century. We will view movies by, and/or about, Indians followed by discussions. Themes include issues of multiculturalism, stereotypes and ethnic identification, social justice, Indigenous feminism, sexual orientation, racism, genocide, land tenure and environmental degradation. The course is interdisciplinary and will incorporate history, sociology, ethics, religion, literature, geography, mythology, folklore and anthropology as these fields relate to the films. Some of the goals of this course are to broaden knowledge of American Indian peoples and the ways in which their lives are embedded in and inseparable from geographical, historical, spiritual, cultural, and social environments. Another goal is to expose students to the ways in which film has been both oppressive and liberating for Native peoples. Through the course, students will be exposed to, and gain an appreciation for, Native American Indian communities, cultures, histories, perspectives, experiences, lives and contemporary issues. This course is open to motivated freshman.

American Indian legal history of the last 236 years includes an ongoing struggle by the Federal government to impose upon the Indigenous peoples of the United States a variety of non-Native ideologies and policies designed to separate the latter from their lands. In this course we will explore highlights of that history and the resistances to that imposition. Topics will include the articulations of the U.S. Supreme Court regarding the nature of Indian land ownership, first presented in 1823; the forced movement of Indians onto reservations and subsequent allotment of those lands; the impact of the Indian Reorganization Act (1934) on tribes and sovereignty over their remaining lands; treaties, land cessions, and the treaty rights movement that gathered momentum in the 1970’s and continues to this day; and passage of the American Indian Religious Freedom Act in 1978 and the (lack of) protection of sacred places for American Indians. As a special focus, we will spend one week examining the case of the Pokagon Potawatomi Indians, who in 1914 sued the City of Chicago and others for possession of the Chicago lakefront and took their claim to the United States Supreme Court. This course is open to motivated freshman.

The focus of this course will be on the relationship peoples have with nature, with a particular focus on Native Americans and the environment. The course will also focus on stereotypes, such as that of the “ecological Indian.” Did the colonial powers find a pristine environment when they arrived in America? Did Native Americans have a special spiritual connection with nature? Do Native Americans today also have this same spiritual connection?

This course will explore contemporary currents in religion and ecology, focusing on how the rise of environmentalism in American culture and the increasing give-and-take between ecological awareness and spiritual experience have become powerful forces in shaping the religious landscape. Particular attention will be paid to "greening" trends within religious institutions in light of tensions between philosophies of anthropocentrism and biocentrism, stewardship and deep ecology, bioregionalism and globalism. We will also examine the spiritual dimensions of ecofeminism, eco-kosher foodways, back-to-the-land movements, sacred agriculture, voluntary simplicity, and ecopsychology. Finally, we will analyze contemporary "ecotopian" and "eco-apocalyptic" visions for what broader insight they may afford us into American religion and culture. This course also counts toward the Environmental Policy and Culture minor at Northwestern.

AF AM ST 214-0 Comparative Race Studies in the United States Problems and experiences of racialized minorities: blacks, Native Americans, Asian Americans, and Hispanic Americans. Comparative exploration of their relationships to each other and to the majority society. May be repeated for credit with change of comparative racial groups or time period explored.

ANTHRO 311-0 The Indians of North America Aboriginal cultures of northern Mexico, continental United States, Alaska, and Canada. Languages, art, and social, economic, and religious life.

ART HIST 228-0 Introduction to Pre-Columbian Art Introduction to pre-Columbian and Native American art and architecture, from tribal societies, such as the Iroquois, Mandan, and Kwakiutl, to complex states, such as the Aztec, Maya, and Inca.

Diversity and common elements of Native American religious traditions; comparative study of myth, ritual, spiritual philosophy, and practice.

Culture and Education: The Challenges and Opportunities in American Indian Education

Weinberg College Professional Linkage Seminars allow students to explore links between the academic programs of the College and issues and practice in the outside world. Students will have the opportunity this spring to take a Professional Linkage Seminar with Dr. Megan Bang, the Director of Education for the American Indian Center in Chicago. Dr. Bang earned her PhD from Northwestern and studies cross-cultural differences in thinking and learning, with a focus on American Indian cultures. The course is designed to develop a historically informed perspective on contemporary challenges and opportunities in Indian education. First students will be oriented to contemporary Native America to ensure that they are working from contemporary perspectives and realities. Students will consider the fundamental roles and purposes of education as they relate to American Indian societies and to the broader U.S. They will then examine how these roles and purposes have changed over the course of American history. Students will explore the impacts and implications of this history in order to turn towards contemporary challenges in American Indian education. The course will ground students’ grappling with these challenges in three main dimensions: Native intellectual traditions, language, and educational infrastructure. As part of the course requirements, students will explore a current educational effort underway in a Native community.

Enrollment in this course is limited to 15 students. It can count as a 300-level course for the major or minor in psychology.

Storytelling and Nation-Making in American Indian and Irish Literature
Tuesday - Thursday 2:00-3:20 University Library 3322

In this seminar, we’ll compare and contrast how two very different groups of writers in the twentieth century—in North America, and in Ireland—confront the effects of colonial rule and respond to stories of “the nation” that marginalize them and their history. We will explore how these writers think beyond marginalization and express alternative ideas about national identity, and we will examine the role of storytelling in the struggle with national myths in everyday life.

This course explores the history of different ethnic groups in America through the study of their
material remains: living quarters, burials, food remains, tools, jewelry, etc. We also examine how
ethnic groups have been portrayed or ignored in museum displays that claim to depict the American past. Groups studied include Native Americans, African-American, and Chinese-Americans. Class projects include the study of artifacts and ethnic groups in the city of Evanston. This is a good class for students considering careers in anthropology, archaeology, museum studies, education, and history.

The focus of this class will be on the relationship peoples have with nature, with a particular focus on Native Americans and the environment. The course will also focus on stereotypes, such as that of the “ecological Indian.” Did the colonial powers find a pristine environment when they arrived in America? Did Native Americans have a special spiritual connection with nature? Do Native Americans today also have this same spiritual connection?