Program - Curriculum - Seminar
SUSTAINABLE RESOURCES in INDIGENOUS COMMUNITIES
(CFR 590F/AIS 475)
Instructors:
Kristiina Vogt (kvogt@u.washington.edu)
Tom Colonnese (buffalo@u.washington.edu)
DAY and TIME:
W from 12:30 – 2:00
PLACE:
BLD 292
Grading:
- Class participation [50%]
- Last day of class, submit a 15 page paper addressing some aspect of the class goals listed below or the points of discussion at the end of this syllabus [50%]
Class goals:
1. Develop an understanding of how historical land-uses and social/political changes have impacted the ability of indigenous communities to survive in today’s landscapes. Since indigenous communities need to survive in a significantly reduced land base today, there is a need to understand how these changes limit or create opportunities for indigenous communities today.
2. Develop an understanding of the criteria/indicators relevant for assessing whether sustainable practices are being implemented by examining how indigenous communities satisfy their water, energy and food needs from their surrounding environment. By understanding the constraints and opportunities facing indigenous communities using local bio-resources for their livelihoods, it will be easier to identify economic, social and cultural indicators that are important for indigenous communities and need to be included in a sustainability assessment.
3. Learn about the underlying ‘facts or myths’ that have been used to support whether indigenous communities have sustainably lived on, managed and harvested resources from their lands. In the North America context that are also applicable to other indigenous communities, these premises can be summarized as: (1) the population density of Indians has always been low (i.e., there were never many Indians on the land), (2) Indians did not live long on the land, and (3) the Indians never did anything on the land and just migrated across the landscape using available resources.
4. Begin to understand how American Indian cultural values are being included in the management of state lands. 5. Develop an understanding of how indigenous cultural, social and economic norms can be used to inform the design of technology to produce energy that is climatically and environmentally friendly.
A variety of media will be used to introduce the class to the topics covered in the goals section above:
• Guest lecturers in engineering, forest management for energy
• Representatives from Native American tribes will present on human health, legal, forest management, cultural and political challenges facing indigenous communities
• Published literature and media publications
• Video of case studies of Native Nations
At the end of the quarter, class participants should feel comfortable discussing the following Points and/or Questions listed below: [NOTE: they are potentially excellent paper writing topics]
- Understand the 3 premises: (1) the population density of Indians has always been low (i.e., there were never many Indians on the land), (2) Indians did not live long on the land, and (3) the Indians never did anything on the land and just migrated across the landscape using available resources. Be able to argue or counter argue for each of the 3 premises and why these myths are relevant to consider when developing sustainable energy use strategies.
- How should cultural/social values integral to Native American communities be included in assessment protocols used to evaluate sustainable use of bio-resources?
- What is sustainability in a resource dependent community and what role should technology have in these communities?
- Are resource dependent communities culturally consistent? Do they have uniform patterns of resource consumption? Do these communities respond predictably to bio-resource energy production opportunities?
- How are decisions made in indigenous communities and what are the implications for bio-resource uses for energy production?
