Major and Minor

Students develop an individual program that reflects their interest but is built on certain required courses to ensure that they acquire a common body of substantive knowledge, gain exposure to crucial ways of critical thinking, and explore several essential approaches to Native American and Indigenous Studies. For all major, modified major, and minor requests and questions, please contact the chair, N. Bruce Duthu

Revised Requirements for the NAIS Major

Prerequisite: Native American and Indigenous Studies 8
One course in Literature and Languages: Native American and Indigenous Studies 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 41, or 47
One course in History and Culture: Native American and Indigenous Studies 10, 14, 15, 18, 19, 42, 55
One course in Governance and Sovereignty: Native American and Indigenous Studies 20, 25, 44 or 50
Culminating Experience: Native American and Indigenous Studies 81.xx or thesis sequence Native American and Indigenous Studies 86 (permission required - see rules) and Native American and Indigenous Studies 87 (see Honors Program)
Five electives: (Electives may include courses not already taken from the prerequisite and required course lists)
- Native American and Indigenous Studies 10, 11, 14, 15, 18, 19, 22, 25
- Native American and Indigenous Studies 30, 31, 32, 34, 35, 36, 37, 40, 41, 42, 45, 47, 48, 49, 50
- Native American and Indigenous Studies 80
- Native American and Indigenous Studies 85 (permission required - see rules)
- Native American and Indigenous Studies 86 (permission required - see rules)
- Native American and Indigenous Studies 87 (see Honors Program)

All required courses and most electives are usually offered on an annual basis. However, students should consult the Program for current course offerings and special course offerings for each term.

NAS Modifed Major

We allow students to earn a modified major in NAIS (i.e. NAIS modified with another department or program's courses). We follow the basic model of the college in requiring 6 NAIS courses coupled with 4 courses from another other department or program that, all combined, represent a coherent whole. Furthermore, there will always be one course prerequisite (NAIS 8) in addition to the 6 required courses.

Students must submit a written statement to the chair of NAIS and to the Registrar describing their rational for the modified major as a unified, coherent whole, and detailing the relevance of each planned course to the overall program of study.

Students should also consult the college's general guidelines and procedures for modified majors:

http://dartmouth.smartcatalogiq.com/en/current/orc/Regulations/Undergraduate-Study/Requirements-for-the-
Degree-of-Bachelor-of-Arts/Modified-Major

Requirements for the Minor

In order to qualify for a minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies, a student must successfully complete six courses in the department, as follows

One Prerequisite:

Native American and Indigenous Studies 8: Perspectives in Native American and Indigenous Studies
Four Elective Courses
A Culminating Experience course: Native American and Indigenous Studies 81.xx

Learning Outcomes

Students who successfully complete the major in NAIS will be equipped to:

Understand NAIS as an interdisciplinary, transnational field with diverse commitments and methodologies that reflect the vast heterogeneity of Native American and Indigenous cultures, histories, and knowledge systems world-wide
Learn discrete disciplinary methodologies appropriate to the various practices of knowledge production and protection, critical analysis and independent thinking, and rigorous exposition and dissemination across NAIS's disparate subfields and tribal, regional, and diasporic contexts
Identify the complex and pervasive legacies of colonialism and assimilation practices in the lives, communities, knowledge systems, and cultural productions of Native American & Indigenous peoples as well as the impacts on settler societies themselves
Understand sovereignty as a key intellectual, spiritual, political, and ethical priority for the self-determination of Indigenous peoples and nations, as well as the challenges and restrictions imposed by tribal relationships with/in governments and states
Center, reconstruct, and preserve the histories, cultures, and experiences of Native and Indigenous peoples within colonial contexts that have diminished, misrepresented, or marginalized their presence, contributions, and persistence
Identify enduring patterns in the perceptions and representations of Native American peoples by non-Indigenous perspectives and texts, and explore the ideological formation, utility, and persistence of these stereotypes in contemporary culture
Recognize both endurance and evolution of Native American & Indigenous peoples' systems of knowledge in contemporary governance and justice; organization and operation of social and cultural systems; literary and artistic productions; and ecological knowledge and stewardship
Demonstrate an ability to negotiate the specificities of Indigenous and tribal knowledge systems, methods, productions, and practices alongside comparative, intersectional, interdisciplinary contexts and concepts of power, race, class, and sexuality
Present a critical argument situated within an ongoing scholarly discussion that draws strategically on analyses of both primary and secondary sources; advances compelling claims and evidence; and develops and delivers ideas in clear, logical, organized exposition