Native Pathways Program: From Time Immemorial: Grounding in Places of Power (Olympia)

From Time Immemorial: Grounding in Places of Power  will explore how being in relationship with place engages communities across time and cultural memory. How does the passage of time manifest in particular locations? How has ancestral knowledge co-evolved with landscapes and local languages? By considering memory, material culture, storytelling, and examining the vast expanse of time, coinciding with specific pictures of place, students will understand how important language and landscape, the humanities, Native sciences, and the fluidity of culture serve to enhance our knowledge of time, space, and place. In the words of Annie Peaches, “The land is always stalking people. The land makes people live right. The land looks after us.” Similarly, the land also teaches and many find healing through its lessons. As Paulette F. C. Steeves states, there is a need for “focus on relinking Indigenous peoples to their homelands in deep time,” a teaching that emphasizes connection to land, oral history, and archaeology.

We will investigate new research into the foundations of ancient knowledge embedded in the Western hemisphere that looks beyond Clovis sites, extending Indigenous presence to 60,000 years or more. Also included will be a narrowing of space and time: the study of localities and rooted cultures. Students will plot journeys through time and space that converge on experiences of home. Bridging this period, we will look at the colonial disruptions to Indigenous knowledges and communities that are intimately tied to geographic landscapes and how these are communicated and conveyed within the academy and to mainstream society. Students will participate in student-led seminars and discussions, submit weekly deliverables, craft a visual presentation, produce a portfolio of work, maintain sketchbook journals, and engage in a collaborative project.

The Native Pathways Program (NPP) meets on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6-9:30pm at various “site” locations. NPP Olympia meets at the Evergreen Olympia campus, NPP Tacoma meets at the Evergreen Tacoma campus, NPP Peninsula meets at Peninsula College in Port Angeles, NPP Quinault meets at either Hoquiam or Taholah (TBD), and NPP Salish Sea Hybrid meets remotely over zoom. All site students will meet at the House of Welcome Longhouse on the Olympia campus for full weekend intensives April 5 & 6, May 3 & 4, and June 1 & 2.

NPP offers a 12 credit core studies option and an option for 16 credits that includes the core studies and an additional 4 credits for either a capstone project or other program-related work.

Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:

4 - Native American and Indigenous Studies

4 - Cultural Anthropology

2 - Environmental Humanities

2 - Pacific Northwest Geography