This course is designed to provide students with an introduction to the study of American Indians from a cultural and academic perspective. The academic overview will include considerations of breadth, method of research, terminology, and principles of various disciplines that include American Indians in their fields of study. Liberal Education Goal Areas 5 & 7.
Common Course Outline

INST 1202 Indigenous Environmental Current Events (3 credits)

This course is designed to provide students with the abilities to read and view various media sources critically. An in-depth focus on how current events have the potential to shape our lives requires "reading between the lines". Students will have the opportunity to identify the audience of various current event articles and the purpose of the articles, journalist and producer. Liberal Education Goal Area 5.
Common Course Outline

INST 2201 Creation to Contact (3 credits)

This course is designed to provide students with a literary experience and understanding of the philosophical and mythological mindset of individual and tribal people in the Americas. And in later times, empathize with the racism and challenges that American Indian cultures had in regard to the social, economic, political, and religious policies and practices of European and American societies in the United States. Liberal Education Goal Areas 5 & 7.
Common Course Outline

INST 2202 Survivance Since Contact (3 credits)

This course is designed to follow American Indians Post-contact 1887 by providing to students a literary experience and understanding of the philosophical and mythological mindset of individual and tribal people in the Americas. And in current times, empathize with the racism and challenges that American Indian cultures face in regard to the social, economic, political, and religious policies and practices of European and American societies in the United States. Liberal Education Goal Areas 5 & 7.
Common Course Outline

INST 2207 Aboriginal Peoples in Canada (3 credits)

This course provides an overview of the history, contemporary concerns, and contributions of Aboriginal Peoples in Canada. The term Aboriginal includes First Nations, Metis, Inuit, status and non-status Indians, and is inclusive of those Aboriginals living on and off reserve. Liberal Education Goal Areas 5 & 8.
Common Course Outline

INST 2410 Ojibwe Crafts (2 credits)

An introduction to the Ojibwe crafts in relation to their culture. Demonstration, instruction and studio experience in basketmaking, hide tanning, the making of leather goods, beading, jewelry making and quilting.
Common Course Outline

INST 2810 Anishinaabe Place Names (3 credits)

The course provided an opportunity for students to learn the Anishinaabe place names throughout Anishinaabe territory in the area of the Great Lakes (Minnesota, Wisconsin, Michigan, Manitoba, Ontario, and Quebec). Through place name research students will explore Anishinaabeg (plural) history, culture and worldview. Liberal Education Goal Areas 5 & 7.
Common Course Outline

INST 2925 People of the Environment: Indigenous Knowledge Perspective (3 credits)

This course is designed to provide students with the ability to integrate Indigenous Studies with Environmental Studies. An in-depth focus will cover how environmental practices affect Indigenous cultures. Students will have the opportunity to explore their own understanding of Indigenous and Environmental Studies and develop strategies that will enable them to view both disciplines interdependent of one another. Liberal Education Goal Area 10.
Common Course Outline

INST 3170 Indigenous Education (3 credits)

Inquiry and analysis of the complexities of multiple standards of education in the U. S. including race class, gender, ethnicity, disability, age, nationality and religion, how they shape and are shaped by social and cultural tribal and non-tribal life in the United States will be examined. The course emphasizes the development of indigenous knowledge, critical thinking, analytical skills, and interpersonal and inter group interactions necessary for living and working in a society characterized by tribal and western mainstream diversity. Through the mindful study of small, rural schools and traditional education practices students will find a greater understanding of (tribal) others, develop self-understanding of education in the U.S. and develop understanding in relation to others- in order to promote ethical behaviors and values in education that support a diverse world. Liberal Education Goal Areas 5 & 7.
Common Course Outline

INST 3210 Reclaiming Turtle Island (3 credits)

This course will provide students with a philosophical understanding of Indigenous peoples relationships to their environment (land, water, rural, and urban) that are based on traditional teachings. These relationships will be explored through the accounts of migrations, land acquisition, loss, recovery, and protection. Liberal Education Goal Areas 5 & 8.
Common Course Outline

INST 3307 Ojibwe History (3 credits)

The oral and written history of the People from origins to the early 20th century, analyzing the Ojibwe response to changes brought by European and American society. Liberal Education Goal Areas 5 & 7.
Common Course Outline

INST 3317 Tribal Government and Leadership (3 credits)

This course is designed to provide students with a deeper understanding of traditional, transitional, and contemporary tribal governments based on the experiences of the Anishinaabe (Ojibwe) in Minnesota and other tribes. Liberal Education Goal Areas 5 & 8.
Common Course Outline

INST 3410 Advanced Ojibwe Crafts (1-4 credits)

Advanced study of American Indian craft media techniques and concepts geared to meet the needs of individual students and to help them develop personal direction. May be repeated for a total of 6 credits. Prerequisite: INST/VSAR 2410.
Common Course Outline

INST 3568 Celebrating Indigenous Art (3 credits)

Survey of American Indian Art by culture area, i.e., Northwest Coast, Plains, Sub-Arctic. Includes not only the arts and crafts of each indigenous area, but a brief consideration of the culture producing them. (Might not be offered every year.)
Common Course Outline

INST 3810 Indigenous Research and Theory (3 credits)

This course introduces student to the importance of Indigenous Research, its purposes, theories and methods. This course provides the theoretical foundation for the students senior thesis and hones their acquired research and report writing skills. Prerequisite: Instructor permission.
Common Course Outline

INST 3888 Indigenous Women Writers (3 credits)

This course is designed to provide students with a deeper understanding of traditional qualities found in contemporary woman writers who describe the experience of native women through the lens of several generations. This work comes to play an important role in contemporary thought as the values and cultures of indigenous people rapidly reflect change in their world and the world around them. Issues that are unique to native women in our contemporary time are paralleled to native women's experiences of the past. Liberal Education Goal Area 6.
Common Course Outline

INST 3890 Genealogy and Clan Systems (3 credits)

This course is designed to provide students with a hands-on experience with individual genealogical research and family tree development. In addition, the genealogical information may be used in conjunction with identifying specific tribal clans that are unique to each individual and their specific tribal history. An academic and cultural overview of how clan systems work is part of the course design. Liberal Education Goal Areas 5 & 7.
Common Course Outline

INST 4000 Nation Building and Leadership (3 credits)

This course provides students with an opportunity to analyze leadership and diverse strategies for Native nation building through the lens of development and sustainability. Prerequisites: INST 1107, and INST 2201 or INST 2202, and INST 3307 or INST 3317, or professor permission.
Common Course Outline

INST 4007 Spiritual Lifeways (3 credits)

This course is designed to provide students with abilities to think critically about the delivery system of outreach services such as social services, churches, schools, death and dying and western medicine. The lack of acknowledgement among the western cultures will focus on historical trauma and its implications. Traditional healings, original teachings, sacred geographies, sacred ecologies and Indigenous (philosophies) life ways will be presented. Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing or by consent of instructor.
Common Course Outline

INST 4207 Indigenous Philosophy (3 credits)

This course is designed to provide students with an understanding and awareness of the native philosophical world views and the interface that occurs among indigenous peoples and western people. Part of this understanding is that of two worlds; one of those worlds is the native world and the other being the western world. At the heart of native existence is the spiritual ecology, natural environments, human geography, identity, Indian activism, Christian and native religious beliefs and contemporary life ways. Prerequisites: Junior or senior standing or by consent of instructor.
Common Course Outline

INST 4418 Federal Indian Law (3 credits)

This course is designed to provide students with an understanding and awareness of the modern complexities of American Indian federal law and policies regarding diverse tribal nations in the U.S. by exploring readings by experts in the field of Federal Indian Law. The multiple shapes and shaping theories of what constitutes the identity of tribal nations and individual Indians and their recognition, limited recognition or lack of recognition in relationship to federal law and policy will be explored. (Might not be offered every year.)
Common Course Outline

INST 4900 Social Justice (3 credits)

This course examines steps that individuals and societies must take to create a more just society. Students will learn how to identify and address unequal power relations, marginalization, and racism and engage in skillful interactions that enable them to maintain their integrity within society. Prerequisite: Junior or senior standing or by consent of instructor.
Common Course Outline

INST 4908 Indigenous Research and Writing (3 credits)

This course builds upon understanding the importance of conducting Indigenous research from an Indigenous perspective. Students will continue developing their research skills and produce a senior thesis. Prerequisite: INST 3810 or professor permission.
Common Course Outline

INST 4990 Thesis (3 credits)

When taken as Senior Thesis in Indian Studies, the following description applies: The course requires students, in a seminar format, to review course materials from their academic program, to gauge their future academic or vocational goals, and to write a significant paper based on their academic and future interests.
Common Course Outline