Results for NATIVEAM

Historical and cultural forces at work in traditional and contemporary Native American women's lives through life stories and literature. How women are fashioning gendered indigenous selves. Focus is on the diversity of Native American communities and cultures.

The persistence of tribal spiritual beliefs and practices in light of legal challenges (sacred geography and the 1st Amendment), treatment of the dead and sacred objects (repatriation), consumerism (New Age commodification), and cultural intellectual property protection (trademark, copyright, patent law). Focus is on contemporary issues and cases, analyzed through interdisciplinary scholarship and practical strategies to protect the fundamental liberty of American Indian religious freedom.

This course surveys Native American history from the time of the earliest records to current social and political issues. We will explore Native perspectives on United States histories through readings, images, films, and other sources. Our primary focus will be on tribal experiences -- examined through the words, music, and visual expressions of Native American people -- of origins and migrations, colonialism, resistance, adaptation, survival, self-determination, and transformation.

Using the assigned texts covering the protest movements in the 20th century to the texts written from the perspective of the colonized at the end of the 20th century, students will engage in discussions on decolonization. Students will be encouraged to critically explore issues of interest through two short papers and a 15-20 minute presentation on the topic of interest relating to decolonization for Native Americans in one longer paper. Approaching research from an Indigenous perspective will be encouraged throughout.

(English majors and others taking 5 units, register for 143A.)Readings from American Indian literatures, old and new. Stories, songs, and rituals from the 19th century, including the Navajo Night Chant. Tricksters and trickster stories; war, healing, and hunting songs; Aztec songs from the 16th century. Readings from modern poets and novelists including N. Scott Momaday, Louise Erdrich, and Leslie Marmon Silko, and the classic autobiography, "Black Elk Speaks."

Western medicine's definition of health as the absence of sickness, disease, or pathology; Native American cultures' definition of health as the beauty of physical, spiritual, emotional, and social things, and sickness as something out of balance. Topics include: historical trauma; spirituality and healing; cultural identity; values and acculturation; and individual, school, and community-based interventions. Prerequisite: experience working with American Indian communities.

Because cultural identity is similar to and overlaps with identity politics, this course will examine Native American identity in current culture through American imagination and perspective as to what it is to be Native American today. Historic perspectives from the 19th century to the present will be covered as well.

(Graduate students register for 238.) Demographic, political, and economic processes and events that shaped relations between Euro-Americans and American Indians, 1600-1890. How the intersection of these processes affected the outcome of conflicts between these two groups, and how this conflict was decisive in determining the social position of American Indians in the late 19th century and the evolution of the doctrine of tribal sovereignty.

(Graduate students register for 239.) The social position of American Indians in contemporary American society, 1890 to the present. The demographic resurgence of American Indians, changes in social and economic status, ethnic identification and political mobilization, and institutions such as tribal governments and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Recommended: 138 or a course in American history.

Explores how indigeneity is expressed and embodied through performance on the global stage.