Introduction to culture and history of Alaska Natives. Includes environmental settings, linguistic subdivisions, traditional socio-cultural organization, and subsistence patterns, contact with non-Native groups, and contemporary issues, including education, politics, and law.
Course Competencies
- Evaluate empirical and non-empirical theories concerning the origins and development of Alaska Native societies.
- Describe sources of information regarding past Native cultures and the kinds of problems encountered in doing ethno-historic research.
- Describe traditional Alaska Native cultures in holistic manner, interrelating aspects of environment, material culture, social organization, and ideology.
- Explain how Native cultures changed following contact, including how political and educational institutions, laws, and practices affected Native cultures.
- Evaluate the development, transformation, and complexity of traditional Alaska Native culture in order to gain a broader perspective on cultural dynamics, the diversity of human behavior, contemporary forces of globalization, and the workings of contemporary Alaskan and American society.
Course Textbooks
The Alaska Native Reader: History, Culture, Politics (The World Readers) by Maria Sháa Tláa Williams (Editor), Robin Kirk (Series Editor), Orin Starn (Series Editor) ISBN: 0822344807
The Native People of Alaska (5th Edition) by Steve J. Anchorage, Alaska: Greatland Graphics Press. ISBN: 0936425814
Alaska Native Cultures & Issues Responses to Frequently Asked Questions, (2th Edition), 2010, by Roderick, Libby, ed. Fairbanks, Alaska: University of Alaska Press. ISBN: 9781602230910
