Bethany Hughes, assistant professor of Native American studies and member of the Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma, guides students through Indigenous history in the United States in NATIVEAM 217: Introduction to Native American Studies. The course explores topics including relationships among tribal nations and the University of Michigan’s institutional history with Indigenous groups.
The three-credit humanities course typically enrolls about 35 students and is currently only offered during the fall semester. Hughes said in an interview with The Michigan Daily the Native American Studies Department is hoping to offer the course during the winter in coming years.
In an interview with The Daily, LSA freshman Kuwanmana Masayumptewa said she took the class because she is a member of the Hopi tribe in Arizona and wanted to explore other perspectives on Native American studies.
“I’m Native American so I’ve always been aware of the issues and topics that influence us and I was really interested to see what my classmates thought about the topics,” Masayumptewa said. “For a lot of my classmates, it was probably the first time they were introduced to the topics and it was fascinating to see what they had to say.”
NATIVEAM 217 is structured to allow students to choose from a variety of assignments to complete the course. Hughes explained that this structure allows students to explore specific topics that they are interested in and specialize in particular areas. In an interview with The Daily, Hughes said one of her favorite parts of the class is the diversity of topics discussed in assignments due to varied student interests.
“The students have so much freedom in their assignments to follow their own curiosity that it ends up every time I teach the class, there’s a good chunk of it that’s different because it’s based on the student’s own interests,” Hughes said.
LSA freshman Kylee Hernandez told The Daily in an interview that she worked on a project focused on understanding the high rates of missing and murdered Indigenous women as well as another project in which she attended a performance of a Native American composer.
“Me and my group explored the unfortunate statistics of missing and murdered Indigenous women and the failures of the justice system as well as the solutions to those problems that are often really complex and carry a lot of baggage,” Hernandez said. “My most recent essay was to write about and engage in an event centered around Native American studies. … I did a piano concert with Navajo composer Connor Chee. His music was curated based on stories he heard growing up and since most native languages are oral, it’s important for him to respect what to disclose and for that he had to communicate with elders.”
During the second half of the semester, the class focuses on the University’s history with Indigenous groups. In 1817, the Treaty of Fort Meigs ceded over 4.5 million acres of land in Ohio to establish a college that they hoped would educate their children. The college was originally called the College of Detroit and later became the University of Michigan.
Hernandez said she was originally shocked to learn about the University’s seizing of Indigenous land, but learning about the systemic displacement of Native Americans made the knowledge less surprising.
“Initially I was disheartened, but over the course of the class constantly learning about the mistreatment of natives, manipulations of treaties or loopholes within laws have made it less surprising — shocking but not surprising,” Hernandez said. “Since the University of Michigan is on Native land, it makes the course have more of a profound impact on the students taking it.”
Another important topic within the course is blood quantum, which measures the amount of Indigenous blood in a person to determine tribal membership eligibility. The blood quantum system was initially used to bar Native American people from citizenship, as well as by Native tribes to trace Native American heritage.
Masayumptewa told The Daily she felt that the blood quantum was a very complicated topic, especially since it determines whether an individual can qualify as Native American or not, regardless of how they personally identify.
“A lot of the services that are provided to Native Americans are based on blood quantums but I also don’t know if there is a better way to identify them,” Masayumptewa said.
In an interview with The Daily, Amy Stillman, Arthur F. Thurnau professor and director of Native American Studies, said she believes Native American Studies courses are beneficial because many students have not been exposed to the subject matter in prior education.
“Courses like introduction to Asian American studies or Native American studies, or introduction to Latino American studies — you know, all of those courses, they’re really important because so much of that material is not taught in the K-12 curriculum,” Stillman said. “This is the first opportunity for so many students to encounter this material.”
Similarly, Hughes said she hopes students will use their knowledge from her course to consider Native American communities and issues in their future endeavors.
“My expectation is that they’re going to often be the person in the room who has thought the most about how something might impact Native American communities, what it might mean to ask native tribal leaders what is best for their nations, how to navigate things around really sensitive issues like identity and blood quantum,” Hughes said.
Stillman also said she wishes Native American people and issues received more attention outside of Native American Heritage Month.
“I lament that it is only one month,” Stillman said. “I lament that for 11 months out of the year, Native Americans can be completely invisible. Then for one month, all attention is on Native American culture and history and people. And then we disappear again for the next 11 months.”
Daily Staff Reporters Violet Boyd and Sachi Gosal can be reached at viboyd@umich.edu and sgosal@umich.edu.
