ClassInfo - Fall 2019 American Indian Studies Classes

Fall 2019 | AMIN 1912 Section 001: Strange Spirits: Monsters, Star Beings, and Other Mysterious Creatures in American Indian Literature (33328)

Instructor(s): Carter Meland
Class Component:: Discussion
Credits:: 3 Credits
Grading Basis:: A-F only
Instructor Consent:: No Special Consent Required
Instruction Mode:: In Person Term Based
Class Attributes:: Freshman Seminar
Times and Locations:: Regular Academic Session

09/03/2019 - 12/11/2019

Mon, Wed 09:45AM - 11:00AM

UMTC, East Bank

Nicholson Hall 120
Enrollment Status:: Closed (20 of 20 seats filled)

Course Catalog Description:: Maybe you've seen a movie where the characters spot some strange creature moving through the dark woods of a shadowy night and one of them explains, "It's a windigo. Native Americans say it eats human flesh." Maybe you wondered what this monster is and what Native people think of it. Maybe you thought it strange that a film was using a creature from Native tradition to threaten non-Native characters. Maybe you thought using such a creature was a bit too similar to those old movies where "savage" Indians threaten pioneer families. In this seminar, we explore what strange spirits like windigos, Sasquatch, or Star Beings (aliens) mean in Native and non-Native contexts. In Indigenous contexts, such stories carry knowledge about how to live ethically with the world. We will also examine texts by non-Natives that engage with the Native content of these stories, asking whether they engage with this content as knowledge or as entertainment. Our comparative examination raises important questions about the relation of colonialism to the appropriation of Native lands and cultural expressions.
Class Description:: Maybe you've seen a movie where the characters spot some strange creature moving through the dark woods of a shadowy night and one of them explains, "It's a windigo. Native Americans say it eats human flesh." Maybe you wondered what this monster is and what Native people think of it. Maybe you thought it strange that a film was using a creature from Native tradition to threaten non-Native characters. Maybe you thought using such a creature was a bit too similar to those old movies where "savage" Indians threaten pioneer families.

In this seminar, we explore what strange spirits like windigos, Sasquatch, or Star Beings (aliens) mean in Native and non-Native contexts. In Indigenous contexts, such stories carry knowledge about how to live ethically with the world. We will also examine texts by non-Natives that engage with the Native content of these stories, asking whether they engage with this content as knowledge or as entertainment. Our comparative examination raises important questions about the relation of colonialism to the appropriation of Native lands and cultural expressions.
Who Should Take This Class?:: Freshman
Learning Objectives:: Engage the diversity of philosophies and cultures of Native people in North America and/or of Indigenous people across the world
Grading:: A-F
Exam Format:: Will require students, through their successful completion of a variety of writing assignments, quizzes, and other sorts of prompts, to be able to articulate what it means to be a Good Relative?to use their familiarity with Native ways of thinking to think about both Native peoples and their cultural expressions, but also how those ways of thinking can be used to think about the larger society we all live within.
Class Format:: Discussion
Textbooks:: https://bookstores.umn.edu/course-lookup/33328/1199
Instructor Supplied Information Last Updated:: 8 July 2019

ClassInfo Links - Fall 2019 American Indian Studies Classes

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