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