Alaska Native Studies Minor - Course Descriptions
Requirements:
AKNS 201 Alaska Native Perspectives
Introduction to Alaska Native Perspectives on kinship, time, philosophy, symbolism, spirituality, communication, justice, oral traditions, storytelling, material culture, and the relationship to the environment. Students will become familiar with the diversity of Alaska Native peoples, languages and worldviews and how these influence contemporary and global issues.
AKNS 492 Cultural Knowledge of Native Elders
Provides students exposure to and interaction with prominent Alaska Native tradition bearers in order to ascertain knowledge of the traditional values, culture, and world views which compromise the heritage of Alaska Native people. Students will gather information on traditional values, governance and leadership by eliciting accounts of the elders' experiences, and by comparing Native and "Western" culture, understand the significance of cultural differences in worldview, heritage and communication.
Language Focus Requirements
AKNS 101 Alaska Native Languages I
Introductory course to a selected Alaska language for beginners with no, or little, prior knowledge of the specific language.
AKNS 102 Alaska Native Languages II
Continuation of introductory course to a selected Alaska Native language for students with some prior knowledge of the specific language.
Policy Focus
AKNS 290 Selected Topics in Alaska Native Studies
A topic of contemporary or continuing interest in Alaska Native Studies, treated at an introductory level.
AKNS/PS 346 Alaska Native Politics
Introduction to historical relationships among federal,territorial, state and local laws and policies as they affect Alaska Natives and Native/non-Native relations. Includes contemporary issues and comparative case studies. This course meets the requirements for State of Alaska teacher recertification.
AKNS/PS 411 Tribes, Nations, and Peoples
Analyzes and evaluates the history of expansion,invasion, contemporary questions and issues that confront Indigenous
tribes, nations and peoples including their
political, social, economic and culturalactivities.
Investigates corresponding relations with
non-Indigenous governments and private entities as well as
international developments concerning indigenous human rights.
AKNS 490 Advanced Topics in Alaska Native Studies
Approved Elective Courses
- AKNS 109 Alaska Native Language Orthography
- An introduction to reading and writing a selected Alaska Native language for students with Native or near-Native oral proficiency in the respective language.
- AKNS 420 Alaska Native Education
- Examination of educational policies as they relate to Native Americans with an emphasis on these policies' historical implementation in Alaska and the contemporary issues which have arisen as a result of those efforts.
- AKNS 495 Internship in Alaska Native Studies
- An opportunity for students to apply the subject matter of Alaska Native Studies to the practical life of their community. Internships are available in a variety of governmental, non-profit and profit settings.
- ANTH 200 Natives of Alaska
- Introduction to culture and history of Alaska Natives. Includes environmental settings, linguistic subdivisions, traditional sociocultural organization and subsistence patterns, contact with non-Native groups, and contemporary issues.
- ANTH 427 Ethno-History of Alaska Natives
- Examines major changes in Alaska Native societies from contact through 1940 including initial contacts, disease, trade, warfare, education, missionization, economic development and political mobilization.
- ANTH 435 Northwest Coast Cultures
- An intensive appraisal of the last four million years of human evolution. Emphasizes evolutionary theory and the analysis and interpretation of fossil hominids.
- ANTH 436 Aleut Adaptations
- Intensive study of traditional and post-contact Aleut culture. Includes origins, prehistory, biological and cultural adaptations. Also considers contemporary Aleut social, economic, and political status.
- ENGL 444 Topics in Native Literature
- Studies of particular topics in Native American Literature.
- ENGL 445 Alaska Native Literatures
- Survey of traditional, historical stories and contemporary texts written by Alaska Natives.
- HIST 341 History of Alaska
- Introduction to the background of Alaska and its relationship to America and the world. Including anthropological aspects of Native groups, land bridge theory, Russian discovery, occupation and management, orthodoxy, purchase, American organization and development, gold rushes, congressional definition and federalism, Native claims history, statehood, oil and the disposition of Alaska lands.
- JUST 355 Rural Justice
- Multidisciplinary study of “bush justice” in rural Alaska and in other Artic settings including Greenland and Canada.
