Portland Community College | Portland, Oregon

Indigenous refers to a deep and chronologically long relationship with place. People are indigenous because of ancestry, language, and culture. Lifeways and traditions are indigenous because they're rooted in ancestral knowledge. And, non-human life, like plant and animal communities, rocks and minerals, and springs and rivers are indigenous.

The cultures and communities in what is today the United States and Canada are diverse. In Canada, there are three primary Indigenous communities that are recognized. First Nations, Inuit, and Métis Peoples, totaling nearly 2 million people, are represented by more than five thousand nations, recognized communities and languages. In the United States, there are 574 federally recognized tribes (and hundreds of Native communities that are not) and nearly 10 million people who identify as Native American and Native Alaskan. 

Anthropology's growth as an academic discipline and as a vector of culture is largely attributed to a late 19th c. effort to limit further harm to the natural environment, to protect "the wilderness." Many anthropologists participated in the cultural work by documenting "American Indian cultures" because like the wilderness, they were believed to be disappearing and the remnants would disappear too if scientists didn't intervene.

Using photography, ethnography, linguistic studies, and archaeology, Indigenous lifeways and human remains were excavated, measured, described, organized and cataloged, published in papers and atlases, and curated in textbooks, museums, laboratories and private collections. Perhaps unintentionally, but nonetheless consequential, Indigenous became a topic, a subject, and a situation.

Anthropology is still reckoning its contributions to harming generations of Indigenous people. It's that simple. Does anthropology have "a right" to represent Native people, as is the case with a class titled "Anthropology 232 Indigenous Cultures and Communities of the US and Canada"? The answer is evolving. Until then, here we are, and I believe the future of anthropology is Indigenous, or it ought to be.

What does that mean for our work this term? The vastly diverse cultures and communities in what is today the United States and Canada are too complex and unique to be represented in one college course. What we will do, though, is invest in learning from some people what it means to be Indigenous. We will frame our inquiries using a critical anthropological framework, one that reveals the discipline's early assumptions and one that allows us to question the truthfulness of our cultural beliefs. Combined with a critical indigenous lens, we'll examine the settler colonial legacy. 

This class is therefore about culture, power, and place, something anthropology knows a bit about. Indigenous Peoples, because of their intersecting identities, face some of the most complex forms of oppression that operate throughout every aspect of their lifeways. Many have been and continue to be erased in a wash of multiple oppressions, both in social spheres and in institutional representation. 

This class is about cultural truths and consent and joy. Some of what we'll learn from these communities is the significance of accurate representation and how we can our improve cultural literacy, the role of ancestry and being a descendent in a few Native worldviews, the concessions that come with being labeled a discovered and conquered people, the power and agency of lived experiences, and the ongoing work to expand internal sovereignty and Indigenous People's right to self-determine.

And, we'll do some work around implicit bias to disintegrate those stereotypes and other harmful associations that linger in our thinking. It's meaningful, good work and I hope you'll join me. 

The technical requirements for online courses include:

• Technology Requirements for taking an online course at PCC
• A recommended Internet Browser installed
• Ability to use Google Drive and Google Docs
• Webcam and/or microphone for meetings and online appointments

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