American Indian Studies Description

AIS 160A1 Sec C

Gavin Healey

5/1/2015

American Indian Studies has been a very interesting course. I’m happy that I’ve taken this course. Dr. Fatzinger teaches the course really well and I’ve been able to benefit a lot. I’ve been able to learn various themes such as sovereignty, cosmology, disappeared tribes, nation building, tribal colleges and also learn about various Indian tribes across the U.S. I’ve also been able to learn stereotypes about Indians, mascots, historical timelines and the discussion classes have been very helpful. This has made me to really appreciate taking this course during the semester.

I really liked learning about sovereignty because before taking this class, I never truly understood what sovereignty was. Sovereignty is the inherent right to self-government, self-rule, self-determination. I’ve been able to learn how various tribes such as the Cherokee and Tohono O’odham exhibit sovereignty. I was also able to see how sovereignty helped tribes to determine who is truly a member of the tribe. Various methods such as educating citizens, controlling resources, governments and taxing citizens are ways a tribe can exhibit sovereignty. I was able to learn how the tribes have exhibited sovereignty for a long time and how even tribes were sometimes denied their rights. This helped me to understand a lot more about sovereignty.

Stereotypes and mascots is another nice concept I enjoyed learning about Indians. I learnt of how Native people are often portrayed as savages or villains in movies while the mainstream people are usually shown as good people. I also learnt that many people usually assume stereotypes about Indians mainly due to Ignorance and in one of the readings a boy was making fun of Indians and his parents were ignorant about it. I learnt more about mascots and how they are usually seen in various sport events. I’ve been able to understand how various sport teams such as the Redskins use these mascots and the various views on...