Online Graduate Certificate Program Courses
SPRING 2023:
NASX 515: Native Food Systems / Instructor: Joshua Mori
January 18 - May 11, 2023 / 3 graduate credits
Course Description: Using examples from across North America, this course will investigate relationships
between Native American food, culture, knowledge and ecology. We will explore environmental
stewardship techniques and agricultural innovations that provide plants and animals
for sustenance; learn about the worldviews and values that guide these practices;
and discuss the impacts of changing political landscapes on the health and food culture
of Native peoples. This course will include a strong focus on contemporary food systems,
including diverse efforts to protect, promote and revitalize Native foods. Through
the lens of food systems, we will also engage topics that are integral to Native American
Studies: tradition and modernity, cultural reclamation, sovereignty, indigenous knowledge
and cultural property rights. Readings include creation stories, historic accounts,
scientific articles, and popular writing, including works by prominent Native writers.
Instructor: Joshua Mori
NAS 530: Federal Indian Law and Policy / Instructor: Erin Tusell Koester
January 18 - May 11, 2023 / 3 graduate credits
For detailed information, and to enroll: MSU Extended University / NAS 530
Course Description: Indian law comprises of a collection of Supreme Court decisions, federal laws and policies which are completely separate and distinguishable from non-Indian Federal/ state laws and policies. Indian laws and policies evolved out of legal fictions, reactions to historical events, fear, discrimination, the impact of Manifest Destiny, greed and power politics. Treaties, termination, assimilation, self determination, criminal prosecution, water rights, health services, development of natural resources and tribal businesses continue to be hot topics for contemporary Indians, tribes and non-Indian supporters and competitors. This course traces the history of Indian law from the Constitution to present day. What are the legal rights of the modern day Indian? What are the legal rights of “domestic dependent nations (tribes)”? This is a course with answers to those questions and more.
Instructor: Erin Tusell Koester
NAS 553: Indigenous Literature and the West / Instructor: Daniel Hanson
January 18 - May 11, 2023 / 3 graduate credits
Course Description: We will study Native American and First Nations authors and critical analysis of their
work to explore how, from the earliest entries of what would become the “canon” of
Indigenous literature to the most contemporary ones, writers have consistently pursued
the objective of cultural continuance. In particular, we will inquire how Indigenous
literature has engaged this objective in the context of contested settler-colonial
ideas about “the West,” as a geographical, historic—and iconic--place.
In our reading and discussion, we will examine how Indigenous literature projects
a self-representing and fundamentally activist literary tradition that over time has
concentrated on: 1) deconstructing stereotypes, 2) rejecting the “ideology of vanishing
and victimhood," and 3) reasserting culturally-grounded values and ways of knowing,
creating a body of work whose ethos is consequential to both Native and non-Native
readers. In the process of these considerations, we will explore how Indigenous literature
is evolving to address the changing circumstances of contemporary Indigenous individuals
and communities in the real-world settings of “the West,” particularly in relation
to urban living, identity diversity, and ecological interdependence.
Selected readings by Indigenous authors will include narratives by Leslie Marmon Silko,
James Welch, Thomas King, Tommy Orange, and others.
Instructor: Daniel Hanson
NASX 571: Native Grantsmanship / Instructor: Tonya Robinson
January 18 - May 11, 2023 / 3 graduate credits
Course Description: This course will provide instruction and practice in planning for, researching, and
preparing grant proposals for a range of funders. Students will also participate in
a mock grant review process, and finish the course with a grant proposal template
from which to develop future grant proposals on their own.
Instructor: Tonya Robinson
Updated: 12/06/2023