NPP- "Summit to Sea: Salish People, Land, Water" is a program designed to examine the waterways and land from Tacoba (Mt. Rainier) to the Pacific Ocean in relationship to Indigenous communities. By exploring the historical and current usages and issues, including Federal, state, and Tribal laws and policies, treaty rights, and tribal sovereignty, the natural environment will posit as an integral piece of Indigenous culture, not separate from the people who live on or from it.
We will focus on the Pacific Northwest and work from a place-based framework, studying the impacts of settler-colonialism and the Hudson Bay Trading Company on the land and its original peoples. By comparing archival and contemporary documents, oral stories, origin stories, and case studies, students will be exposed to a myriad of perspectives and ways of knowing. Topics will include: Eco-Poetics, Environmental History, Community Systems, and Cultural Sovereignty. Students will work on a culminating project that demonstrates understanding of the history and contemporary use and value of a specific geographical area and present findings in a visual essay to their peers.
This program will include weekly journaling, with photo/images, reading reflections and synthesis, and eco-poetic projects. NPP is offered in hybrid, remote, and in person "sites" on Tuesday and Thursday evenings 6-9:30pm and all "sites" come together for three "House of Welcome" Longhouse Intensives in the spring. This program will include field trips throughout the quarter.
16-credit students will complete capstone/senior project work in addition to the 12-credit core listed above.
Registration
Academic Details
$35 for cultural meals and supplies