Assignment task:
Prompt: In lesson one, we analyzed four core concepts that are crucial for Indigenous activist, academic, and political projects for liberation. We looked at the many debates shaping Indigenous activist spaces and political movements--debates that complicate and call into question any inherited notions of Indigenous life. We saw that what it means to be Indigenous, what it means to be sovereign peoples belonging to individual nations, and what it means to be bound by ancestral lineages carries different meanings for different communities all across Turtle Island (North America). The terms of Indigenous peoplehood are always in flux; always being renegotiated.
With that in mind, for our first discussion assignment, I want you to simply reflect critically on your baseline of knowledge relating to Indigenous communities and issues coming into this week's lesson. Please write a reflection in essay form answering the following questions:
In what ways did our readings challenge any presuppositions or inherited ideas you might have had about Indigenous peoplehood or politics?
What separates Indigenous peoples from other racial minorities in the United States? Why might Indigenous people choose to organize politically around the concept of sovereign rights rather than civil rights?
Important: This is not a trick assignment, and there are no right or wrong answers to these questions. Please don't feel bad if you have no familiarity with Indigenous peoplehood, politics, or critical issues, or if your familiarity with Native peoples is through media portrayals. The purpose of this assignment is to get us to start thinking through the lens of an Indigenous research paradigm.
Initial Post Word Count: 200-300 words.
Response Post Word Count: 100-200.