Native Pathways Program: Tribalography, Indigenous Stories Matter (Olympia)

Tribalography: Indigenous Stories Matteris designed to examine the concept of Tribalography, defined by LeAnne How as “the ability of Native American stories to transform and connect people, land, and any characters across time,” contrasting this with a linear view of time. Approaching the interconnectedness of stories, students will examine the works of preeminent Indigenous scholars, thinkers, and activists who have created frameworks for understanding the peoples living in the American landscape—the Indigenous and the setters. With a focus on exploring history and continuance, students will connect Tribalography to historiography and survivance to understand that, as Howe says, “America is a tribal creation story.” As such, students will reflect on the role of framing in the imagining of the Native and Indigenous past, present, and future: how is culture transformed into history and history into culture? How do we discuss the continuing social, economic, and political issues that are a direct result of, and often ignored by, mainstream histories of settler-colonization? What is the role of non-Indigenous allies in developing Indigenous/ist analysis? This program will present these questions and more to learn across a spectrum of Indigenous thought to build upon community-based knowledge and strengthen interdisciplinary, intersectional, and scholarly thinking.

Students will be introduced to Indigenous research methodologies and methods through storytelling and how these ways of knowing, thinking, and being are a practice of grounding our studies in Indigenous research, storytelling, and histories. Stories hold space and time for understanding the world around us, and students will investigate circular and linear space and time as concepts in relation to disrupting the Western settler-colonial framework of Indigenous narratives. Students will engage with Gerald Vizenor's concept of survivance—"an act of resistance and repudiation of dominance, obtrusive themes of tragedy, nihilism, and victimry…active presence” through Native stories--to craft and continue their own survivance narratives. Students will participate in student-led seminars and discussions, submit written deliverables, craft a visual presentation, and produce a portfolio of work and final research essay driven by Indigenous research methods and multiple perspectives.

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 and is for students wanting to engage in an in-person learning community. All site students will meet at the House of Welcome Longhouse on the Olympia campus for full weekend intensives October 5 and 6 (orientation), November 9 and 10 and December 7 & 8. Saturdays 10am to 6pm and Sundays 10am to 4pm. 

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 - American Indian Histories

2 - Indigenous Literature and Storytelling

2 - Research and Writing