This course explores the historical inception of treaties between American Indian Tribes and the United States federal government. Students will be guided through the basic foundations of the historic treaty-making process with Tribes beginning with both European and Indigenous conceptualizations of diplomacy while studying how the treaties were used against Tribal Nations and how they are interpreted in a modern legal and political context. It will examine how these treaties functioned both in the past and how they continue to form the basis for asserting Tribal sovereignty today. The course will also examine Indigenous perspectives of these matters to articulate the continuing political agency of Indigenous Peoples in what is now the United States that has existed since time immemorial. Students in this course will utilize digital tools such as textual analysis and mapping applications to visualize and analyze treaties and related documents to better grasp the patterns and meanings behind these documents.
This course has both an online asynchronous section and in-person synchronous section. Students who wish to study asynchronously must have a computer or laptop and will need to contact the faculty prior to the quarter.
Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:
2 - History
2 - Federal Indian Policy
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Course Reference Numbers
Academic Details
History, Public Policy, Federal Indian Law, Native American and Indigenous Studies