Indigenous Geographies across the Salish Sea
CRN
Course Number
Credits
Description
*Fairhaven student, Emma Gross, is teaching this course. Dr. Baker is the faculty sponsor.
This student taught seminar explores Indigenous-language place names and their relationship to the cultural landscape of the Salish Sea, learning about the intersection of place, language, culture, and history. We will familiarize ourselves with the Indigenous languages surrounding what is today Bellingham: Nooksack, Northern Straits Salish, and Lushootseed. Overviews of phonology, morphology, and writing systems, will create a foundation for learning and discussing language. We will examine place names through a framework of ethnogeography and linguistics: analyzing settlement patterns, traditional lifeways, and modern language revitalization, developing an understanding of the histories and cultures of this region through learning about place.
In this class, we will also critically analyze our own sense of place. A sense of place grounds people to the land on which they live and place names represent a society’s sense of place. Indigenous geographies unsettle Western geographic notions of ownership and extraction, instead re-orienting a sense of place towards one that is experience-based and reciprocal. Through this ethnogeographic exploration of language, culture, and history, we will deepen our own sense of place.
Prerequisites
FAIR 201A recommended but not required.
Materials Fee
Texts
All readings provided on Canvas.
Reading(s):
- Thompson, Laurence C., and M. Dale Kinkade. “Languages.” In Northwest Coast, edited by Wayne Suttles, 30-51. Vol. 7 of Handbook of North American Indians. Smithsonian Institution, 1990.
- Czaykowska-Higgins, Ewa, and M. Dale Kinkade. “Salish Languages and Linguistics.” In Salish Languages and Linguistics: Theoretical and Descriptive Perspectives, edited by Ewa Czaykowska-Higgins and M. Dale Kinkade, 1–7. Mouton de Gruyter, 1998.
- Yoder, Janet. Where the Language Lives: Vi Hilbert and the Gift of Lushootseed. Seattle: Girl Friday Books, 2022. (pp. 44-63, 89-91, 130-135, 194-203)
- Kimmerer, Robin Wall. Braiding Sweetgrass. Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2013. 48-59, 205-215
- Richardson, Allan, and Brent Galloway. Nooksack Place Names: Geography, Culture, and Language. Vancouver: University of British Columbia Press, 2011.
- Hunn, Eugene S. “Columbia Plateau Indian Place Names: What Can They Teach Us?” Journal of Linguistic Anthropology 6, no. 1 (1996): 3–26.
- Suttles, Wayne. “Post-Contact Culture Change Among the Lummi Indians.” B.C. Historical Quarterly (1954).
- Richardson, Allan. “Longhouses to Homesteads: Nooksack Indian Settlement, 1820-1895.” American Indian Journal 5, no. 8 (1979): 8–12.
- Tollefson, Kenneth D. “The Political Survival of Landless Puget Sound Indians.” American Indian Quarterly 16, no. 2 (1992): 213–35.
- Elliott, Dave, Sr. Saltwater People: as told by Dave Elliott Sr. School District 63 (Saanich), 1990.
- Thrush, Coll. Native Seattle: Histories from the Crossing-over Place. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2017.
Credit/Evaluation
S/NX grading; narrative evaluation required for credit.
Your mastery of the course learning goals will be assessed through the following:
- Through the beginning weeks of the quarter, several informal quizzes will assess your understanding of the linguistic foundations for the course, including your ability to identify Indigenous languages, read different writing systems, and recognize common sounds.
- Three reflection essays throughout the quarter will evaluate your your ability to analyze your own sense of place, relating it to the differing frameworks presented in class, and engage with contemporary issues relating to Indigenous geographies
- Lastly, you will work on a summative final project throughout the quarter, including a project proposal, annotated bibliography, class presentation, and final essay. This project will assess your ability to research and synthesize information about a region and the language and communities of that place; describe the relationship between language, place, and culture; and analyze your own sense of place with regard to your research of the region.