Current Courses

A survey course that introduces students to the discipline of Native Studies. Its purpose is to increase the student's understanding and sensitivity towards the past and present experience of Native peoples. The course will examine precontact history; the influences of colonialism and primitive accumulation/capitalism in the postcontact era; and contemporary issues - while emphasizing a historical and materialist perspective.

A survey course that introduces students to the discipline of Native Studies. Its purpose is to increase the student's understanding and sensitivity towards the past and present experience of Native peoples. The course will examine precontact history; the influences of colonialism and primitive accumulation/capitalism in the postcontact era; and contemporary issues - while emphasizing a historical and materialist perspective.

This course is designed for students with little or no knowledge of the language. The aims are listening comprehension and basic oral expression.

What is accepted as scientific bases for existing pronouncements about Native peoples - made by educators, psychologists, anthropologists, sociologists, and others - generally fail to pass even minimal analytic, ethical, and philosophical requirements for constituting valid findings. Regrettably, few people realize this: most importantly, Native Peoples themselves are agents of programs & policies supposedly based upon such research. This course will give students an introduction to the technical requirements needed to identify, as such, incorrect, racist, pseudo-scientific mischaracterizations of Native Peoples; in addition, they will learn the basics of conducting proper research themselves.

This course looks at the traditional role of Native women within Native societies, and how that role has changed over time. It will examine the oppression that Native women have experienced, their responses to it, and the political, economic, social, and spiritual roles they have played both in their own struggles for liberation and in the struggles of their people. Will also look at the lives and voices of prominent Native women, and consider the development of Native women's organizations and the influences of feminism.

This course examines Native cosmologies (world views) and ways of thinking, feeling, and knowing as the foundation of indigenous spiritual, political, social, and economic systems. Defines the continuing existence and vitality of traditional Native philosophy and traces its influence on Western knowledge. Prerequisite: NATI 1006 or by permission of instructor.

The indigenous peoples of Canada are often included as an afterthought in academic works on racism, which tend to focus on Black-White relations. However, rather than being marginal to understanding the issues of race and racism, the early encounters between European and Native Americans are central to its proper understanding. The issues which arose from Columbus' explorations remain as central to understanding modern racism as they were to the creation of racist ideology in the first place, and the treatment of indigenous peoples in Canada today is shown to be a direct intellectual descendent of the material need to deny the humanity of other human beings.

This course examines First Nations' historiography in historical periods in Canada and compare standard accounts with facts and perspectives that have been kept out of mainstream sources. Students will be expected to research a particular topic within the context of Indigenous history, identify what has been left out, and explicate why this is likely the case. The contributions of archaeology, cartography, oral history, and ethnohistory will be considered along with the issues of context, perspective and ethics, in researching and writing First Nations' history. Prerequisite: NATI 1006.

A survey course that introduces students to the discipline of Native Studies. Its purpose is to increase the student's understanding and sensitivity towards the past and present experience of Native peoples. The course will examine precontact history; the influences of colonialism and primitive accumulation/capitalism in the postcontact era; and contemporary issues - while emphasizing a historical and materialist perspective.

A survey course that introduces students to the discipline of Native Studies. Its purpose is to increase the student's understanding and sensitivity towards the past and present experience of Native peoples. The course will examine precontact history; the influences of colonialism and primitive accumulation/capitalism in the postcontact era; and contemporary issues - while emphasizing a historical and materialist perspective.

This course is designed to introduce students to ethical issues that arise between the sciences (both social and physical) and indigenous peoples. Anthropology, education, psychology, archaeology, medicine, biology, and other disciplines follow lines of inquiry that impact indigenous peoples, and their theories, methods, interpretations, and interests are examined in relation to ethical considerations. We emphasize the concerns and point of view of Native people. The course may include issues of exhumation and public display of skeletal remains and sacred objects, control over access to information, the political relevance of research and its role in land claims, the ethics of assessment and drawing conclusions about the nature of indigenous peoples, and other topics.

This course will explore the cultural, social, and political past of the Mi'kmaq People through archaeological, oral, visual, and material documentation, as well as primary and secondary written sources. Particular emphasis will be placed on understanding the Mi'kmaq form of life and how it has been affected by colonization. Class will also study how the perspective of different writers influences what gets recorded and taught as history. An important theme of the course will be the relevance of the past to the present. Class will consist of lectures and discussions with occasional films and speakers. Prerequisite: NATI 1006, Introduction to Native Studies.

Examines indigenous economic cultures and the impact of western economic culture on traditional social organization and values. Looks closely at the fur trade, capitalism, industry, technology, and their effects on environment and indigenous cultures. Analyzes the development of dependency and the idea of economic development. Alternatives in which Native economic values provide the basis for viable economic endeavours will be considered.

Considers cultural identity and survival within the context of inequality (power, wealth and status). Focuses on the ways in which Native language, group solidarity and community offer cultural completeness, acting as barriers to assimilation. Historic and contemporary Native cultures are presented as dynamic and flexible. Prerequisite NATI 1006 or SOCI 1006.

Health statistics show Native Peoples in Canada as public health disasters: high rates of diabetes, tuberculosis, cancer, suicide, AIDS, etc. are regularly reported. Standard accounts typically find a way of attributing the problems to Indians themselves (e.g., genetic explanations or lifestyle choices). We critically examine the methodologically-individualistic biases of standard accounts of Indian ill-heath and place Native public health issues in an historical and materialist framework instead. Alternative forms of interventions are also considered.