Native American Programs

For a complete list of courses and course descriptions please see the University Catalog.  For further questions please contact the department.

NAS 101(0002-LEC) Class # 28490, Intro to Native American Studies, TTH 11:00-12:15pm, Murray Hall 106, 3cr. 
Max Enrollment: 50, Instructor: John Bear Mitchell 
Course Description: This course will survey American Indian social, philosophical and cultural aspects in historical and contemporary society. It examines the issues and experiences of Native people from a variety of perspectives. Satisfies the General Education Social Contexts & Institutions and Cultural Diversity & International Perspectives requirements.  

NAS 101(0990-LEC) Class #25245, Introduction to Native American Studies, Web-Online, 3cr.
Max Enrollment: 60, Instructor: Lisa Neuman
Course Description: This course will survey American Indian social, philosophical and cultural aspects in historical and contemporary society. It examines the issues and experiences of Native people from a variety of perspectives. Satisfies the General Education Social Contexts & Institutions and Cultural Diversity & International Perspectives requirements.  

NAS 102(0860-LEC) Class #25284, Intro to Wabanaki Culture/History/Issues, T 4:00-6:50pm, Williams Hall 211, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 50, Instructor: John Bear Mitchell
Course Description: This course provides an overview of the tribes that make up the Wabanaki Confederacy: the Penobscot, the Passamaquoddy, the Maliseet and the Micmac. It will provide a survey of the individual tribes’ historic, cultures, philosophic, and creation stories, as well as a brief overview of Canadian, U.S., and Maine Indian history. This course will discuss and explore current issues and concerns as well as critical concepts such as sovereignty, treaty rights, and tribal government. 

NAS 201(0001-LEC) Class # 28491, Topics – Wabanaki Foodscapes, TTH 12:30-1:45pm, Williams Hall 219, 3cr.
Max Enrollment: 25, Instructor: Anthony Sutton
Course Description: Food systems are not just about practices, they are about systems of knowledge, values, and relationships to places that maintain these practices over time. Historian Micah Pawling uses Waterscapes to describe how Wabanaki movement from one ecosystem to another (e.g. Bay to River) is a movement between one complex knowledge system to another. Wabanaki Foodscapes draws from this term and recognizes within foodways these knowledge systems are intertwined with histories, cultures, value systems, science, and many ways of knowing that shape food systems. This course has two goals. The first is a focus on articulating the histories that have intentionally denied Wabanaki people access to their foodways, abilities to engage in management, and how colonial values and policies have and continue to shape foodways in Wabanaki homeland. The secondary focus will use these histories to work in contemporary spaces, whether forest, farms, or fisheries, this class will explore how Wabanaki and non-Wabanaki people are engaging with foodways to bring together different cultures, values, experiences, and sciences about food to produce new thinking in the present.    

NAS 201(0002-LEC) Class #25285 combined with HTY 311(0001-SEM) Class #25723, Topics -, T 4:00-5:50pm, Stevens Hall 175, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 17 (combined), Instructor: Micah Pawling
Course Description: A writing intensive seminar that introduces students to the historiography and methodology of important themes in history. Its topics vary. This is a required seminar for all History majors as preparation for the Senior Seminar. Utilizing secondary and selected primary sources students will consider how historians construct different interpretative narratives of past events.

NAS 202(0180-LEC) Class #26823, Wabanaki Languages I, TH, 5:00-7:50pm, WEB ONLINE LIVE, 3cr.
Max Enrollment: 21, Instructor: Roger L. Paul
Course Description: While there are distinct Indigenous languages of the Native nations that make up the Wabanaki Confederacy, these languages are similar. This course will offer an opportunity for students to begin to build their Wabanaki vocabulary and develop skills in pronunciation and oral communication, as well as discussing the history of Wabanaki words. Taught by a Wabanaki speaker.  

NAS 220(0001-LEC) Class # 25372 combined with HTY 220(0001-LEC) Class #25371, North American Indian History, TTH, 2:00-3:15, Stevens Hall 365, 3cr.
Max Enrollment: 40 (combined), Instructor: Micah Pawling
Course Description: This course introduces students to North American Indian history from life before European arrival to the present. We will examine prominent themes including cultural contact, treaty making and rights, sovereignty, the impact of government policies on Native populations, and contemporary issues. We will investigate resistance, accommodation, and cultural revitalization. The course explores the variety of Indigenous perspectives and decisions in the past. Native people were positive actors in their own affairs, not passive pawns subdued by forces beyond their control. As one historian astutely noted, Native American history “is a story of failure and success, of triumph and defeat- but, above all, of continuation.”   

NAS 295(0001-LEC) Class # 26693 combined with ANT 295 (0001-LEC) class #26695, Am Indians & Climate Change, TH, 2:00-4:50pm, Lord Hall 200, 3 cr.
NAS 295(0180-LEC), Class # 26694 combined with ANT 295 (0180-LEC) class #26696, Am Indians & Climate Change, Web, 3 cr.
Max Enrollment: 40 (combined), Instructor: Darren Ranco
Course Description: Introduces students to the Indian cultures of the United States and U.S. territories in the South Pacific, paying particular attention to the issue of climate change and how it is impacting indigenous peoples in these regions; also examines climate effects on natural resource conditions as it relates to Indian cultures and the roles indigenous groups play in policy responses to climate change.  

NAS 298(0001-IND) Class # 25527, Directed Study in Native American Studies
Max Enrollment: 10, Instructor: Darren Ranco
Course Description: Individual study, research, field experience and writing projects in Native American Studies. May be repeated for credit. Arranged upon request. Prerequisite: NAS 101 and permission 

NAS 498(0001-IND) Class # 25528Directed Study in Native American Studies
Max Enrollment: 10, Instructor: Darren Ranco
Course Description: Advanced individual study, research, field experiences and writing projects in Native American Studies. May be repeated for credit. Arranged upon request. Department Consent Required. Prerequisite: Junior or Senior Standing and NAS 101 and one additional course within the Native American Studies minor and permission.

For questions or permission, please contact: Native American Programs office at 207-581-1417 or email Jen Bowen at jennifer.bowen@maine.edu