American Studies 242 - Native Futures: Understanding Settler Colonialism and Indigenous Sovereignty

(Offered as AMST-242 and EDST-242) Indigenous acts of resistance have opposed the removal of federal protections for forests and waterways, halted the construction of oil pipelines, and demanded justice for murdered and missing Indigenous women. These anti-colonial struggles have their roots in Native communities and epistemologies. This course introduces students to critical theories for understanding Native responses to settler-colonialism, as “a structure, not an event,” through close examination of readings produced by a range of Native scholars and activists. Students will engage with each other using circle work and dialogue to critically engage the writings of Winona LaDuke (White Earth), Cutcha Risling Baldy (Hupa, Yurok and Karuk), Leanne Betasamosake, and others, to interrogate how the colonial state has developed in the United States and Canada. We will consider how Hawaiian movements for life, land, and sovereignty arose from grassroots initiatives and the ways that scholars, community organizers, journalists, and filmmakers have contributed to a Native Hawaiian resistance movement. And we will examine the ways in which gender is inextricably a part of Indigenous politics by looking at both literary and legal texts to analyze the production of colonial space, the biopolitics of “Indianness,” and the collisions and collusions between queer theory and colonialism within Indigenous studies. This course focuses on Native voices and theories to question and reframe thinking about Native epistemologies, nationhood, citizenship, history, identity, and belonging to propose new possibilities for a decolonial future. 

Classwork will center around “circle practice” based on a restorative practice model, that is co-facilitated by student leaders and the professor. Together we will unpack course readings, supplemental materials, and relevant current events. Students will produce short collaborative responses to the assigned readings, prior to our class meetings, using the course Wiki on Moodle. By the end of the class, students will learn how to assemble a story-map—a digital humanities tool—to create an interactive narrative that teaches others about settler-colonialism, Indigenous sovereignty, and Native identity, in order to connect the past with the present and to demonstrate their advanced understanding of course material. 

These final projects will be done in pairs or small groups to enable students to connect people, locations, and data based on their original research, through an interactive (ArcGIS) mapping software. These maps will offer stories and potential solutions to current issues or problems that can be shared with a wider public beyond our classroom.

Limited to 20 students. Spring semester. Professor Vigil.

How to handle overenrollment: Preference given to American Studies and Education Studies majors, students completing the Five College NAIS certificate, seniors, juniors, sophomores, and then first-year students.

Students who enroll in this course will likely encounter and be expected to engage in the following intellectual skills, modes of learning, and assessment: collaborative group work, intensive reading and discussion, oral presentations, archival research, visual analysis, and training in the use of digital humanities tools (ArcGIS for instance).