Decolonization Across the Medicine Line

This course explores the tangled colonial histories of the US and Canada, paying particular attention to Indigenous-settler political relation and economies across the medicine line (aka the 49th parallel separating the US and Canada).

The Core Reading list includes The Inconvenient Indian a Curious Account of Native People in North America by King, God Is Red: A Native View of Religion by Deloria Jr., Unsettling Canada: A National Wake-up Call by Manuel, Decolonizing Methodologies: Research and Indigenous Peoples by Smith, Red Skin, White Masks : Rejecting the Colonial Politics of Recognition, by Coulthard and As We Have Always Done: Indigenous Freedom through Radical Resistance by Simpson. This is the core list of texts we will be reading this term. Additional journal articles and films will also be assigned.

Learning objectives for the course include understanding political issues facing Indigenous peoples in Canada and US, including treaty rights, and current efforts to assert autonomy and self-determination; applying this understanding to an analysis of differences and similarities in attitudes towards and treatment of Indigenous peoples by the Canadian State and the United States; and interrogating the roots of colonialism and what it means for all people to work towards transforming the colonial relationships embedded within state structures.