Time Schedule:
Dian L. Million
AIS 475
Seattle Campus
Current research and readings in American Indian Studies content areas.
Class description
Critical Conversations in American Indian Studies: Nationalism, Activism, and Movement.
What is the rise of Indigenism as a political position in the world? What is “activism” in an American Indian or Canadian First Nations context? How do Native peoples continuously claim nationhood, a fact that complicates the“undivided” sovereignties of the United States and Canada?
How do modern Indigenous nations articulate sovereignty? What are the major movements for treaty and land rights in our times? How do the demands of these Indigneous activists, scholars and community leaders often lead rather than follow current ecological and social justice demands?
Nationalism, Activism and Movement is a seminar that explores the rise of Indigenism as a political movement in the 20th-21st centuries. Based on readings of three exemplary Indigenous scholars, Winona LaDuke, Andrea Smith, and Taiaiake Alfred.
Collectively, they argue that there has never been a post-colonialism for North American indigenes. That the colonization of the Americas continues in the self-governances that are more "self-management" systems than sovereignties, in the sexual exploitaton of Indigenous women, in the violence in Native communities, and in the rape of the land.
Visit the website for a preview of materials: http://faculty.washington.edu/dianm/index2.html
Student learning goals
General method of instruction
Primarily a discussion seminar.
Recommended preparation
Some prior experience in American Indian Studies would be a plus, but not a necessity.
Class assignments and grading
Reading, presentation and a final critical paper
Grades based on participation in the seminar, a group presentation and on a final critical paper.
