Current issues surrounding Indigenous Peoples’ Day, 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 introducing Native American history through the lens of identity and sovereignty.   

We will study changing US policies towards Indigenous 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. Each student will complete a research project on a topic of their choice.  Among the key issues we will explore together are: removal and reservations, treaty obligations, Indigenous resilience and survival, boarding schools, adoption, and foster care, and recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions. This course satisfies the Group I requirement for the History Major and counts toward the Native American and Indigenous Studies Minor (NAIS).