Native American and Indigenous Classes at Yale

Since the 1980’s, Yale College has offered courses in Indigenous studies. Students can take classes in a variety of topics. Every semester, courses are offered to students to develop greater knowledge in Indigenous studies. Below are undergraduate courses offered by Yale College.  

 

Begining Cherokee I

Reading Enviornments: Nature, Culture, and Agency

Indigenous Cultures in a Global Context

Indigenous Food Sovereignty

American Indian Law and Policy

Critical Reading Methods in Indigenous Literatures

Indigenous Thought and Anticolonial Theory

Previous Courses:

This course will explore current Native American educational policy issues, programming, funding, and success. Native American representation in policy conversations is often incomplete, complicated, or relegated to an asterisk resulting in a lack of resources, awareness, and visibility in educational policy. Native Americans account for roughly 1% or less of high school completion and college enrollment on campuses nationally. The invisibility of Native American communities contributes to the perpetuation of stereotypes and necessity for meaningful educational policies. In addition, Native American education, communities, culture, and language are most often viewed as relics and in a historical context. Emphasizing the existence of Native American people in contemporary educational systems is essential in changing the discourse and trajectory of Native American student success.

 

 

 

 

This course centers the experiences of Indigenous peoples during centuries of relations with America’s first imperial power, Spain. Exploring the complex history and legacies of Spanish and Indigenous mixtures, the focus of the course revolves around “borderlands.” Students will develop historical understandings of borderlands, engage with legacies through individual research, and engage in representations of Indigenous peoples and Spanish borderlands. 

 

 

This course interrogates the deep historical relationship between political resistance and poetic expression within particular Indigenous communities, reading broadly on poetics and Native and Indigenous studies. Texts and inquiries span from non-alphabetic writings and Indigenous understandings of communal and political life, to the recent flourishing of formally innovative collections by Indigenous poets working on issues like climate justice, sexual violence, police brutality, and language revitalization. Poets include Heid E. Erdrich (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe), Kathy Jetnil-Kijiner (Marshallese), Layli Long Soldier (Oglala Lakota), Deborah Miranda (Ohlone-Costanoan Esselen), and Leanne Betasamosake Simpson (Nishnaabeg). This course is offered in the spring semesters by Professor Hickey. 

 

 

Unlike other American ethnic and racial minorities, American Indians maintain constitutionally recognized political and legal relations with the federal government. As “domestic dependent nations,” Indian tribes fall outside the jurisdiction of most state, county, and municipal governments, and Indian people are often citizens of both the United States and their respective tribal nation. This course surveys the history of federal Indian law and policy. Beginning with the political achievements obtained by Indian communities over the past four decades, the course moves throughout American history, identifying the changing and often contentious nature of federal Indian law and policy. This course is offered in the spring semester by Professor Blackhawk.

 

 

This course examines a wide array of Indigenous feminisms.  Rather than think of Indigenous feminisms as one static thing, we will inspect the field from multiple viewpoints and perspectives.  We will draw from various thematic and transnational contexts across the Americas and Native Pacific in order to analyze the scope and significance of such knowledges, particularly as they relate to broader theories and practices of decolonization.  We will begin by examining the foundational inquiries and methods of Indigenous feminist scholarship.

 

Early Native American Print Practice

 

 

The Yale Native American Language Program established in fall 2015, allows Indigenous students to refine & learn their language. Classes are typically conducted over video chat and meet twice a week. Instructors of the classes are typically fluent speakers of their languages. The Native American Language Program is currently undergoing accreditation. Students may soon receive a language credit from Yale College.