To honor and preserve the culture of the sovereign Indigenous nations, this course will explore the foundation and evolution of culture, heritage, and identity of Indigenous peoples. Students will evaluate the roots of Indigenous cultures and how they have changed over time in response to historic eras, and relationships with other tribes, communities, and state/federal governments. Students will assess the ties of Indigenous people to the land, how land has influenced culture, and how those ties have changed over time. This course will examine past, contemporary, and future issues that have, are, and will influence the past, present, and future condition of Indigenous cultures.

To acknowledge and promote indigenous sovereignty, this course will apply a critical lens and cultural perspectives while analyzing the sovereignty, inherent rights, and the effects decision making has had on indigenous governance and communities. Students will examine and reflect on topics including treaties, intergovernmental relationships, trust responsibility, economic development and diversity, and environmental systems to nurture indigenous leadership, strengthen self-determination and self-governance.

To honor and preserve the language of Indigenous nations, this course centers language and storytelling in Indigenous culture, identity, and community. Students will learn vocabulary, phrases, conversation, and writing in the identified language, as well as examine its history and status, and similarities and differences among Indigenous languages. The specific language will be identified when the course is scheduled. This course is designed for students with no previous training in Indigenous Languages.

To honor and preserve the history of sovereign Indigenous nations, this course engages the past on the premise that we were active agents shaping our story before and after Europeans entered it. This class will examine the diverse and complex cultural, economic, political, and spiritual systems of Indigenous peoples, the dynamics of Indigenous-European encounters, the changing relationship between sovereign Indigenous nations and the United States, and the (re)construction of Indigenous identity. Engagement with Indigenous and Western epistemologies will allow us to analyze them both as valid forms of conferring historical knowledge as well as to seek new ways of telling our story.