Course Descriptions

Alaska Native Studies Minor - Course Descriptions

Requirements:

AKNS 201 Native Perspectives

Introduction to Alaska Native Perspectives on time, philosophy and spirituality, communication, justice, and their ecology, and their relationship to contemporary 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.

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

Politics and governments of Alaska Natives. Focuses on the history of Native/non-Native relations, contemporary issues and possibilities, and comparative case studies in Canada, Siberia, Greenland, and Scandinavia. May be applied to the Alaska Culture and History requirements for State of Alaska teacher recertification.

AKNS/PS 411 Tribes, Nations, and Peoples

The politics of tribes, nations, and peoples lacking state representation. Case studies are drawn from Africa, Asia, Australia, North and South America, the South Pacific, Europe, and the Soviet Union.

AKNS 490 Advanced Topics in Alaska Native Studies

A topic of contemporary or continuing interest in Alaska Native Studies treated at an upper level.

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/PS 110 Parliamentary Procedures: This course will include lecture, discussion, role-playing, question-and-answer sessions, and short tests. Parliamentary procedure implies participation and the format and activities of the course are designed to foster comfortable results from meetings.
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.
ART 365 Native Art of Alaska: Art forms of the Eskimo, Indian, and Aleut; prehistory to the present.
EDPE 145 Alaska Native Survival Techniques: Northern survival from a traditional Native perspective. Covers overview of Native cultures, and hands-on practice of emergency shelter construction techniques, clothing, equipment, travel and subsistence.
EDPE 165 Alaskan Native Sport Traditions: Develops an understanding and introduces skills of Native sport, game and dance traditions.
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 235 History of American Indians: Surveys histories of American Indian groups, prehistoric to present. Focuses on social, economic, and political effect of westward settlement.
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 455 Rural Justice: Multidisciplinary study of “bush justice” in rural Alaska and in other Artic settings including Greenland and Canada.
JUST 462 Indian Law and the Settlement Act: A study of the legal history and current legal status of Alaska Native people. Attention will be given to the social, cultural and legal history of American Indians in general and Alaska Natives in particular.