CENTER FOR NATIVE AMERICAN AND INDIGENOUS RESEARCH

Upcoming Courses - Spring 2026

Past Course Highlights

Indigeneity and Race

The racialization of Indigenous polities in North America has been a key mechanism for undermining Indigenous sovereignty and facilitating settler colonialism. In analytically foregrounding Indigenous sovereignty, this course examines how race has been imposed upon Indigenous peoples and nations so settlers could dispossess them of their lands and their political authority over those lands. Through this course, we will consider how US anthropology contributed to the development of the notion of indigeneity-as-race in North America, the function of Indigenous racialization, and how Indigenous communities have grappled with their racialization throughout time and into the present.

Native/Indigenous Feminisms

Native/Indigenous Feminisms are key to understanding settler colonial societies like the United States and Canada. As a field of study, Native/Indigenous Feminisms analytically centers Indigenous sovereignty to understand how settler colonialism evolved to displace Indigenous peoples politically and within their own lands. This course will examine the historical formation and dynamics of settler colonialism to elucidate how it has shaped the lives of all people living within settler societies.

Past Course Highlight

Native American Environmental Issues and the Media (JOUR367)

Native American Environmental Issues and the Media is a 10-week course taught by Reynaldo Morales Cardenas, formerly taught by Professor Patty Loew who retired in 2023. This course introduces students to Native American environmental issues, such as treaty-based hunting, fishing, and gathering rights; air and water quality issues; mining; pipelines; and sacred sites. The class focuses on how the media cover these issues and how that coverage contributes to the formation of public opinion and public policy. Below are links to a few of the final projects from the fall 2020 class. These projects explore a variety of topics that fall within the context of Native American environmental issues and the media, playing to the student's strengths as journalists.

“RIGHTS OF NATURE” STORYMAP by Jack Jordan

Seed Sovereignty Website by Gabriela Czochara

MOUND CULTURE & NORTHWEST PORTAGE WALKING MUSEUM STORYMAP BY CAL DOOLEY