Common Course Outline

Course discipline/number/title HUM 1190: Native American Studies

Catalog Description

Credits 3
Hours/Week 3
Prerequisites (Course discipline/number) None
Other requirements College-level reading and writing required
MnTC Goals (if any) Goal 6/The Humanities, the Arts, Goal 7a/Human Diversity

Course Description

This course explores Native American life from diverse cultural and academic perspectives in both historical and contemporary terms. Students will learn about aspects of tribal life and history such as philosophy, spirituality, arts and literature, sovereignty, political life, education, and community. College-level reading and writing required.

Date Last Revised (Month, year)

December, 2022

Outline of Major Content Areas

  1. Identities, origins, and histories (from multiple perspectives)
  2. Popular myths
  3. Clothing, housing, food, and health
  4. Ceremony and ritual
  5. Sovereignty and political life
  6. Relationships to other beings, including animals and land (e.g., kinship)
  7. Language and education
  8. Art, music, dance, and sport

Learning Outcomes (General)

The student will be able to:

  1. Identify a variety of Native cultures and nations on the land known as the United States, including basic similarities and differences among them.
  2. Examine works by Native Americans—including literary texts, translations, and transcribed oral histories, as
  3. well as songs, films, dances, and more—in order to develop awareness and understanding in historical and social contexts.
  4. Outline historical events, developments, and forces (including major laws, acts, and court decisions) affecting the relationships among Native nations and between them and the United States.
  5. Analyze social and economic relationships, along with related influences important to sovereign Native
  6. peoples over time, situating them in larger American and international contexts.
  7. Explain various myths and misconceptions regarding Native Americans, historically and today, and explore more accurate representations.
  8. Demonstrate understanding of contemporary issues, lifeways, and relationships important to Native
  9. Americans.

Learning Outcomes (MnTC)

Goal 6/The Humanities, the Arts

The student will be able to:

  1. Demonstrate awareness of the scope and variety of works in the arts and humanities.
  2. Understand those works as expressions of individual and human values within a historical and social context.
  3. Respond critically to works in the arts and humanities.
Goal 7a/Human Diversity

The student will be able to:

  1. Understand the development of and the changing meanings of group identities in the United States’ history
  2. and culture.
  3. Analyze their own attitudes, behaviors, concepts, and beliefs regarding diversity, racism, and bigotry.
  4. Describe and discuss the experience and contributions (political, social, economic, etc). of the many groups
  5. that shape American society and culture, in particular those groups that have suffered discrimination and
  6. exclusion.

Methods for Evaluation of Student Learning

Methods may include but are not limited to:

RCTC Core Outcome(s)

This course contributes to meeting the following RCTC Core Outcome(s):

Global Awareness and Diversity
Students will demonstrate an understanding of and respect for human diversity through their words and actions.

Special Information (if any)

None