Indigenous Economies and Environments

The course surveys histories of economies built by Indigenous Americans on their own lands. It also examines economies—local and global—that settler colonists built from stolen lands and natural resources of Indigenous Americans. Spanning centuries, and extending to the present, this course is organized conceptually into three principal sections on Land, Energy, and Gaming. Moving chronologically from places as varied as wetlands and oilfields to casinos, we will examine subjects relating to land loss, resource extraction, and Indigenous struggles for economic sovereignty. More broadly, we will study intersections of colonialism and capitalism; race-based violence; colonial legal systems; conceptions of hierarchy and harmony in human-nature relationships; cultural and spiritual underpinnings of Indigenous and non-Indigenous economies; environmental justice; human rights and the rights of nature. Special attention will be paid to Indigenous sciences, including traditional ecological knowledge that has sustained life here for millennia for the continent’s first peoples and eventually, Euro-Americans.

This class prioritizes perspectives, voices, knowledge systems of Indigenous Americans. It draws from the arts, humanities, and sciences. Film and literature—classic, celebrated, problematic—brings depth to our interdisciplinary readings. The academic scholarship we consult draws from Native history; Environmental Sciences; global Capitalism; the Law; Native Studies, and more.