NATIVE AMERICAN POLITICS

This course enables students to engage with contemporary Native American political issues and controversies, including the Black Dakota oil pipeline and similar crises on other Native American reservations. The course addresses a broad range of current issues affecting Native American communities, including land control on reservations; interactions with neighboring communities; the role of the federal and state governments; the Bureau of Indian Affairs and its relations with tribal councils; and Native American identity issues. The course will in particular provide significant attention to environmental problems on Native American lands and how indigenous councils try to grapple with these, while taking into account a long history of interventions and/or regulations imposed by the federal and state governments.