Students have the opportunity to develop individualized studies with their mentor in Indigenous Studies (INDG). Please contact your mentor/advisor for more details.

This course introduces students to Indigenous philosophies, community paradigms, and teachings. Taking a global perspective, this course pays particular attention to Indigenous cultures in the Americas, Oceania (e.g. Australia or New Zealand), and Africa. Look at Indigenous cultures as the living homes of knowledge that may allow us to create a more sustainable and just world for everyone. The foundations of Indigenous Knowledge include origin and other traditional stories which carry worldviews, cosmology, and philosophy. By the end of this course, students will see how worldviews shape concepts of family, community, and governance. Students will learn about traditional modes of knowledge sharing, as well as selected Indigenous perspectives on plants and astronomy. Through these elements, students will become aware of the cultural and spiritual factors that shape Indigenous Knowledge and ways of knowing. The foundations of Indigenous Knowledge include origin and other traditional stories which carry worldviews, cosmology, and philosophy. We will see how worldviews shape concepts of family, community, and governance. We will learn about traditional modes of knowledge sharing, as well as selected Indigenous perspectives on plants and astronomy. Through these elements, students will become aware of the cultural and spiritual factors that shape Indigenous Knowledge and ways of knowing.

Attributes: Other World Civilization Gn Ed, Liberal

This course introduces students to the various native cultures occupying North and South America. Topics may include discussion about recent findings in historical and anthropological literature; the development of indigenous visual and material culture(s) over time and space; and the overall results of European/indigenous contact. By the completion of this study, students will have a better understanding of indigenous cultures occupying the pre- and post-European Contact Americas.

Attributes: Liberal

Students have the opportunity to develop individualized studies with their mentor in Indigenous Studies (INDG). Please contact your mentor/advisor for more details.

Anishinaabe peoples lived in the Northeast and migrated west about 1500 years ago when it was prophesied this would preserve their culture. They searched till they found manoomin, lake rice, "the food that grows on water." Today manoomin is central to complicated struggles over genome rights, treaty rights, pollution form mining, and other issues. Students learn about Anishinaabe culture to contextualize these issues in historical events that demonstrate continuity and transformation. Students consider Indigenous responses to contemporary concerns about food, water, and energy and work to understand them as a nexus of spiritual, political, and ecological challenges to human sustenance on Earth. The course will culminate in research on Native concerns in students' own locales. Students will consider how to mindfully contribute to conversations and activities and appropriately engage in issues that affect us all as they are being addressed by Native communities.

Attributes: Other World Civilization Gn Ed, Liberal

This course addresses issues Indigenous peoples face and have faced as a result of changing power dynamics in the US and abroad. Students will learn to distinguish and theorize core differences between colonizer and Indigenous approaches to knowledge. We will engage in critical thinking about colonialism and its impacts on Indigenous peoples, the maintenance and dissemination of their knowledge, and the development of Indigenous academic knowledge by both insiders and outsiders. We will examine contentious questions between ways of knowing, such as those arising between origins stories and contemporary science, and oral traditions and written histories. We will look at how Indigenous people practice survivance on physical, cultural, and political fronts (epidemic diseases, health strategies; religious oppression, resilience and transformation; sovereignty and treaty violations, land reclamation; and who determines Native identity) in a variety of interactions, from armed to artistic resistance, in response to colonial empires and contemporary powers. We will outline today’s key legal issues and ecological concerns, including human rights and biopiracy.

Attributes: Liberal

The history of the First People of North America from first contact with Europeans to the present includes dislocation, cultural disruption and assimilation, fragmented communities, individual lives and pursuits, as well as transformation, resilience, resurgence, and continuity. Using voices of North America's indigenous peoples, this course surveys the histories, environments, cultures, and activities of American Indian nations and communities, on and off reservations. Students will learn about the history and cultures of the First Peoples and explore cultural diversity in relationship to geographies. We will learn how historical circumstances and cultural differences influenced relationships between the First Peoples and Europeans; examine the history of relationships between First Nations and the United States government and political system; and address tensions between acculturation and resistance, and the resulting social, cultural, and political climate in modern times. This course was previously HIS-243134.

Attributes: Other World Civilization Gn Ed, Liberal

In 1876, Cheyenne, Lakota, and Arapaho won the Battle of Little Bighorn, also known as Custer’s Last Stand. After the battle, Cheyenne women took fabric from slain soldiers’ Army coats and made a dress. It holds special meaning since one of Custer’s strategies was to capture women, children, disabled, and elderly and use them as hostages/human shields. The dress was handed down from woman to woman and resides at the Northwest Indian Museum in Washington. It was presented at Little Bighorn Battlefield on the 140th anniversary of the battle by Cheyenne tribal member Cliff Eaglefeathers. Rather than the military engagement, we focus on peoples’ experiences of battle sites as locales that continue to breathe living history. This interdisciplinary study draws from History, Psychology, Archaeology, and Indigenous Studies to address Little Bighorn as an ongoing part of Cheyenne culture and includes on-site videos with Mr. Eaglefeathers and Cheyenne Elders. This course was previously HIS-244314.

Attributes: American History Gen Ed, Liberal, Partial Other World Civ Gen Ed

The purpose of the study is to allow students the opportunity to formulate, define, critique, and articulate their PLA documents related to Indigenous Knowledge for submission to Empire State College (e.g., native groups can include peoples of Native North and South America, Africa, Oceania, Asia, European, and others.) As a major component of this study, students will be expected to: refine and/or develop their writing skills as applied to the individual CBE/PLA essays and articulate their prior learning related to Indigenous subject areas. This course alone cannot substitute an elective in the Indigenous Knowledge Certificate. You MUST be awarded 2 or more PLA credits to replace the elective requirement in the Indigenous Knowledge Certificate.

Attributes: Liberal

Students have the opportunity to develop individualized studies with their mentor in Indigenous Studies (INDG). Please contact your mentor/advisor for more details.

Western botanical knowledge tends to be stand-alone and based on a scientific view of the plant as an object of study. Indigenous botanical knowledge is woven throughout the fabric of culture and considers the plant itself as an Elder. We will address the differences between these pathways in terms of cultural factors such as gender, social structure, and food distribution, and in terms of environmental factors such as ecological integrity and biocultural diversity. Discussions and assignments will be based on academic reading, transcriptions of oral histories conveyed by indigenous elders, and interactions with plants. Students will consider relationships between indigenous prophecies, traditional plant knowledge, and contemporary ecological challenges and apply their learning in study of a self-selected Native American plant in cultural context. Communications skills will be developed via a series of related projects, written, oral, and video.

Attributes: Basic Communication Gen Ed, Other World Civilization Gn Ed, Liberal

This study addresses a specific sub-field in Native American Studies and Women’s and Gender Studies. It addresses Native women’s history and concerns from Native women’s perspectives and examines ways they survive and resist. We examine fictional, historical, and intergenerational stories that illuminate women’s and girls’ experiences, and apply activists’ analyses of contemporary problems in order to contextualize these voices. By examining differences between how women position themselves in Native American Studies and how Native Americans position themselves in Women’s Studies, we analyze paradigmatic differences between a Euro-American focus on gender and class in patriarchy, and a Native American focus arising from egalitarian or matriarchal cultures. We will identify Native American women’s responses to a complex of concerns such as racism and colonialism through different nations as well as a range of activist strategies, from literary to agricultural to political and research Native women’s concerns in students’ own locales. Prerequisites: Solid writing skills

Attributes: Liberal

African Diaspora religions such as Voodoo and Santeria are featured in horror films. Why do some people find it so scary? What historical dynamics generated fearful misrepresentations? What do race and gender have to do with it? Global implications of power and privilege and cultural issues such as stereotyping all play roles as we dismantle the terror factor around African religions and consider what that fear obscures. The scope of this course is broad, moving from West Africa, through slavery, and throughout the Americas. It achieves focus, depth, and specificity by following one cultural strand, culminating with texts produced by members of that culture. Using a rich mix of history, the arts, and cultural studies, we study Yoruba influence on American resistance to racism and sexism. Deeper relevance is self-selected by the student as you research any related topic, from religious diversity to arts to political situations. Prerequisites: Solid writing skills *The three tracks of this course overlap. No more than ONE of these three should be included in a degree program. This course was previously CUL-224124 Roots and Routes of African Diaspora Resistance: Arts.

Attributes: Liberal

Students have the opportunity to develop individualized studies with their mentor in Indigenous Studies (INDG). Please contact your mentor/advisor for more details.