Indigenous Peoples, Sovereignty, and the United States

Current issues surrounding Indigenous Peoples’ Day, the Land Back Movement, the use of Native Americans as sports team mascots, protests over water rights, conflicts over monuments from Mount Rushmore to Plymouth Rock, protests over violence against Native Americans and the ways the criminal justice system treats Indigenous Americans, all have been informed by the past. This course contextualizes many of these issues by providing an introduction to Native American history through the lens of identity and sovereignty. We will study changing US policies towards its native peoples from the beginning of the U.S. period to the present. U.S. federal policy provides the chronological framework of the course, but Indigenous perspectives are an integral part of every unit. Students will read works written by Indigenous writers and watch videos by and featuring Native American perspectives for each topic covered.

This course satisfies the Group I requirement for the History Major.