2013-2014 Academic Catalog

Nov 27, 2024

2013-2014 Academic Catalog [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

GEOG 090 - Native Americans, Land and Natural Resources

In June of 1975, a gunfight between the F.B.I. and the American Indian Movement (A.I.M.) occurred in South Dakota. The shoot-out was due, in part, to the transfer of Indian land to the U.S. government for uranium and coal development. Some of the most extensive reserves of uranium, coal, oil and gas, gold, copper, timber, water, and other resources lie within reservation boundaries and their development has been fiercely contested by many Native Americans. This course deals principally with the efforts of Native Americans to manage resources, to resist land and resource seizures by corporations and federal and state governments, and to repair damage done to ecological systems. We will examine the history of Native Americans; the appropriation of their lands; corporate natural resource development impacts; contested concepts of “development” and “progress”; and new approaches to resource management including salmon restoration, buffalo management, and wolf reintroduction. These cases will be complemented with others from those places now called Australia, New Zealand, Canada and Ecuador to gain an understanding of how indigenous peoples deal with and resist resource development efforts on and near their lands. Periodically offered as a first-year seminar as GEOG 090. Fulfills the Global Perspective requirement.