American Indian Studies Topics: Indigenous Ecology

ANIS/HUM 4004
3 hrs.
Spring semester 2008
MW 2:30 - 3:45 PM
MCB 134

(Please note: The following description and syllabus are subject to change.)

This course will provide students a forum in which to explore relationships that exist between indigenous peoples and the world in which they live. The course will follow a circular, four-part curriculum framework developed at Dinne Indian College, which includes thinking, acquisition of knowledge, incorporation into one's personal lifestyle, and mastery. The mastery of knowledge will include a service-learning component.

Students will be assigned one reading per week, after which they will take a short-answer quiz and apply the curiculum framework to the classroom discussion. The service learning component will include 1) vegetable gardening and maple sugaring with students at a local elementary school; 2) visiting with elders; and 3) preparing and sharing indigenous foods with the group.

Objectives:

1. Students will begin to percieve the world around them from an indigenous viewpoint.

2. Students will support each other in classroom and service-learning activities, with the common goal of succeeding as a group.

3. Students will find ways to incorporate indigenousness into their daily lives, making them more resilient to the perturbations and stresses of life in the future.

Prerequisite: Permission of the instructor.

Harry Dyer, hadyer@vt.edu, 1-1843
Jeff Kirwan, jkirwan@vt.edu, 1-7265

Grading:

25% classroom attendence and participation
25% quizzes on weekly readings
25% final project/paper
25% service learning component

Extra credit for attendence at field trips, such as prescribed fire and fish hatchery demonstrations, local foraging.

Schedule

Week one: Overview. Instructors lead discussion of an article or book chapter(s). Students receive first reading assignment. Quiz the following week.

Week two: Students lead class discussion of last week's reading, receive next reading/essay assignment, followed by quiz.

Week three: same as week two. Etc.

Service Learning with Tazewell 4-H

Tazewell County 4th graders will be visiting the VT campus to learn about careers and campus life. Meet at Cheatham Hall about 10 minutes before each group arrives. Plan on having two groups of 10-15 for 20 minutes each.
Click here to schedule

Directions to SELU Prescribed Fire Field Trip (Friday, March 21)

From Interstate 81, take Exit 109 onto Route 177/Tyler Avenue toward Radford. Soon after, turn left onto Lovely Mount Drive. Proceed one mile and make a left onto Dry Valley Road for 1.3 miles. Turn right on Sale-Selu Lane the entrance to Selu, which is a long gravel road through a pasture. Arrive by 3 PM for set-up. Stragglers may come up to 4 PM.


Service Learning at Heritage Hall Nursing Home

Come in groups of 3 - 4, expect to interview up to eight elders
Before coming, contact: Debra Jensen, 951-7000 or debraleneave@aol.com. Try to give as much advance notice as possible.
Directions: 3610 S Main St., Blacksburg, VA 24060
Objective: Appreciate the value of elders as a treasure-trove of traditional ecological knowledge.
Example Questions:
1. What home remedies do you remember taking as a child?
2. What special foods do you remember as a child? What did you eat at Thanksgiving, Christmas?
3. What do you remember about your grand-mother, grand-father?
4. Where did you grow up? How is it different from today?
Click here to schedule

Service Learning at Prices Fork Elementary School

We will go out on Mondays and Wednesdays between 9:15 - 11:45 AM. Scheduling will take place during class.

Service learning time sheet

Textbooks:

Changes in the Land (William Cronin)
Earth Democracy (Vandana Shiva)
Stalking the Wild Aspargus (Ewell Gibbons)

Additional Reading List:

1. Plows, Plagues and Petroleum (William Ruddiman)
2. Prehistoric Native Americans and ecological change (Delcourt and Delcourt)
3. Accounts of the DeSoto Expedition (Elvas, Inca, Sauer)
4. Native Science (first 83 pages)
5. Vegetable Gardening Guide and Seed Catalog
6. Maple Sugaring by Frances Densmore
7. History of Travel (William Strachey)

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