NAVAJO NATION – STUDY ABROAD/ STUDY USA:

Perhaps the most significant issue confronting Native American peoples today is that of land use. Having lost the vast majority of their ancestral lands through treaty, conquest, and forced removal, Native tribal nations subsist largely on submarginal reservation lands that are beset by an array of problems: inadequate resources, air and water pollution, assaults on sacred sites, conflicts with local, state, and federal governments and with surrounding non-Native populations, and so on. At the same time, the value many of these lands possess for coal, uranium, and other mineral and energy interests produces both positives (income and employment) and negatives (health and other risks) for the affected tribes. Finally, overarching these material issues are ethical conflicts within Native communities and between Native and non-Native communities concerning the proper spiritual relation to and use of the land. In this course, we will explore the various issues related to contemporary Native American land use and land ethics through travel to the Navajo Nation reservation in Arizona and New Mexico, through study of print materials and conversation with Native peoples, and through community service projects on-site. This Study USA course thus provides students with insight and experience concerning an important contemporary topic, while engaging issues of diversity and discrimination, regional conflict, and economic (and particularly environmental) justice. As such, it fulfills the 1-credit LRCX1002, LRCX2001, or LRCX2002 requirement of the La Roche Experience.Study Abroad + Study U.S.A. Website