Haudenosaunee Peoples in Contemporary Times

Catalog description

This course is a study of the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Although this is not a history course, Haudenosaunee historical experiences and the continuity of Haudenosaunee knowledge, traditionalism and governance will play a key role in the presentation of materials involving contemporary issues. We will examine non-Indigenous representations of Haudenosaunee history and traditions and consider some of the political implications arising from these texts. We will attend to the various ways in which Haudenosaunee scholars, along with others, have questioned and recast the analytic assumptions that have long prevailed in the 200-year expanse of academic literature on the Haudenosaunee. Ongoing challenges on Haudenosaunee territories across the Confederacy will also be discussed with reference to both Indigenous and non-Indigenous experiences and worldviews. We will also historically situate and clarify Haudenosaunee assertions that are often misconstrued as recent, with respect to nationalism, sovereignty, land rights, and the overall relationship between the Haudenosaunee and North American settler states.