This course is designed to teach students the methods and concerns of ethnohistory and contemporary issues in indigenous studies, including research, writing, participation in scholarly debate, and interpretation of various types of documentaries and material evidence. Students will develop a sense of global indigenous issues and the relationship between Native American activism and global indigenous rights activism. Advancing knowledge of basic research methods. Honing the ability to write persuasive and fluent arguments.

Part I - The Spread of Humanity and the Formation of Indigenous Societies. Coursework in this unit seeks to define the terms “indigenous” and “globalization” by looking at various historical meanings and applications of these two expansive ideas.
Part II - “Othering” and the Rise of Europe. This unit focuses on the historical backgrounds of languages, technologies, and ideas that were transmitted through various cultural knowledge systems and how the interactions of cultures from disparate regions of the globe-shaped and changed the world after 1500.
Part III - Dystopian Legacies and Indigenous Revitalizations. Unit three discusses the survival and revitalization of indigenous cultures, the wealth of knowledge that indigenous cultures have to offer a global society, and the current struggles of indigenous peoples as presented in current events each semester.