Native Pathways Program: An Indigenous Approach to History

In Native Pathways Program: An Indigenous Approach to History,  students will examine the history of North America in the time before and after European colonization. This will involve centering oral histories and how they come into conversations with documented materials, as well as comparing Indigenous ways of knowing with Western historiography. By engaging with the concept, theories, practice, and impacts of settler colonialism across North America, exploring and comparing/contrasting Western and Indigenous ways of knowing and being, and examining the big picture perspective of settler colonialism down to the smaller, place-based perspective, through an Indigenous lens, we will analyze the stakeholders who create what we commonly refer to as history. By determining the lens through which history is transmitted, students deliberate and seminar on the concept of revisionist history. Critically exploring the cultural component of oral storytelling and the arts as viable modes of interpreting and disseminating history, as well as legal documents and historical narratives authored by native and non-natives will provide an in-depth, nuanced perspective of history and how we are where we are today. 

Historian and author, Patrick Wolfe, said that “settler colonizers come to stay: invasion is a structure not an event.” This idea that settler colonialization is a structure and not a singular event or series of events, provides the grounding for our work in this program. Settler colonialism permeates all ways of living in North America and is often visible within the systems we engage with but more than often is an insidious quasi-subliminal entity that infiltrates even the most acknowledged and mindful. Alicia Cox in the article "Settler Colonialism" introduces it as "an ongoing system of power that perpetuates the genocide and repression of indigenous peoples and cultures.  By using the medicine wheel teaching method and guiding principles of spirit, body, mind (intellect), and heart (emotion), students will create a supportive, open-minded, and engaging learning community where all modes of inquiry are examined with respect and thoughtfulness. We will define and demonstrate understanding of Indigenous and Western Research Methodologies and Methods--when to use, how to use, why to use--and practice through developing a researched narrative, written and visually presented, that expands upon a chosen research question/topic and geographical area. By acknowledging the truth of our land and peoples' history, as well as celebrating the survivance of these ancestors, we will study the events throughout history but purposely focus on the positive stories of endurance, perseverance, and devotion of Indigenous peoples of North America.   

Integrated Skills, including critical thinking and analysis, research and writing, public speaking, collaboration, personal authority, and Indigenous knowledge are taught across the curriculum, and during our NPP "House of Welcome" Longhouse weekend intensives, we practice learned skills through community building, cultural arts, workshops, speakers and panels, and participating in NPP Student Governance. NPP is based within Native/Indigenous paradigm, intersecting Indigenous and western pedagogy, and is interdisciplinary. We are an inclusive program and learning community that promotes Indigenous scholarship, leadership, and as the late Mary Ellen Hillaire (first Native American, Lummi, woman to be hired at Evergreen in 1972) said in various forms and ways: "We are not here to study Indians..." and NPP uses this idea as a practice. We study the local and global world, through interdisciplinary Humanities (the study of the human experience) and through the Medicine Wheel teachings of how every person, place and thing is connected. The second part of the Hillaire saying is "...; we are Indians here to study," meaning that we honor all students and their right to choose when they want to be a teacher of their culture, and when they do not. Content advisory: we are exploring, questioning, and discussing horrendous acts such as genocide, enslavement, eradication, and termination of human beings; we are contemplating a history fraught with opposing ideologies; and although we are finding stories of survivance, hope, and beauty, this program, "An Indigenous Approach to History," will undoubtedly be challenging for some.

Freshman and Sophomore students will participate in the Yellow Cedar section of the program for 12 credits only and will cover exploratory and introductory material.

Junior and Senior students will participate in the Red Cedar section of the program for 12 or 16 credits and cover more advanced material. 

Students are expected to attend classes with their site faculty during the week on Tuesday and Thursday evenings 6-9:30pm and attend/participate in the NPP "House of Welcome" Longhouse Gatherings on 3 weekends a quarter.