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In this program, we will explore historical and contemporary relationships of Pacific Northwest Native peoples to place, using art and geography in a cross-cultural comparative analysis, and as “common ground” for strengthening intercultural communication. The unique status of Indigenous nations can be better understood by highlighting the centrality of territory in Native identity, and the strong Indigenous connections to place. These connections can be seen in numerous fields: art and material culture, Native national sovereignty, attachment to aboriginal and treaty-ceded lands, the focus on traditional land use and protection of sacred sites, environmental protection, climate justice, sustainable planning, Indigenous migration and symbolic mobility (through community practices such as powwows and canoe journeys), particularly in Coast Salish territory along the Salish Sea in coastal Washington and British Columbia.

All of these connections have been expressed artistically and geographically through customary Indigenous cartographies, artistic "mapping" of ideas using wool weaving techniques and mapmaking techniques, and other historical and contemporary art practices. Examination of cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary ideas about land, place, environment, and relationship to human cultures offers the opportunity to develop new conceptualizations for the meaning of place, self, and community.

We will examine how conceptions of land are disseminated through art and objects of material culture, informing our examination with geographic studies and investigation into the sociopolitical uses of mapping. Students will discover differences and potential meeting points between Native and Western cultural systems, identify differences within and among diverse Tribes and First Nations, and develop an understanding of Indigenous peoples' ability to define and set their own social, cultural, and spatial boundaries and interpretations. Students will develop greater awareness of Indigenous cultures, but also of aspects of culture that may be determined and protected by Native peoples themselves.

Fall quarter will introduce students to historical geographies and worldviews of Pacific Northwest Indigenous nations, basic visual literacy skills in 3-D art (particularly weaving) and literacy in cartography. The program will collaborate with the Coast Salish Wool Weaving Center and its Burke Museum exhibit "Woven in Wool: Resilience in Coast Salish Weaving." Students will begin to develop a Wordpress website to follow up on the exhibit with ethnographic interviews and public-facing educational materials.

In winter quarter, while continuing to integrate art, geography, and Native Studies, students will develop specialized projects in wool weaving and Adobe Illustrator cartography, inspired by the Burke Museum exhibit and connected to place-based learning. The projects will be incorporated into the nonprofit website, along with other illustrations and audio and video interviews.

In spring quarter students will work with one faculty on community-based projects in collaboration with South Salish Sea tribes (Squaxin Island, Nisqually, Puyallup, and Skokomish). To apply their learning, students may carry out in-program internships, volunteer work, or research support for tribal programs such as tribal canoe journey preparation, school curriculum, decolonizing place names, and tribal garden food sovereignty.

In general, program activities will involve guest lectures, images, and videos, workshops, readings and class discussions, weaving on a Coast Salish loom, map literacy and production, ethnographic interview skills, writing assignments, and presentations.

Students are expected to use critical thinking skills in interpreting the readings, images, videos, and lectures. Through field trips to Native communities, and a comparative examination of museums by or about Native peoples, students will be asked to engage directly with the questions and contentions surrounding notions of place in Indigenous nations. Field trips will include day visits to the Squaxin Island and Burke museums, Nisqually and Skokomish tribes, and a three-day Olympic Peninsula fall field trip to the Quinault, Quileute, and Makah nations.

This program is coordinated with Greener Foundations for first-year students in fall quarter. Greener Foundations is �鶹��’s in-person introductory student success course, which provides first-year students with the skills and knowledge they need to thrive at �鶹��. Students expected to take Greener Foundations in fall should use CRN 10004��to register for a 2-credit Greener Foundations course in addition to this program for 14-credits. When using this CRN students will take additional steps to complete their registration, more information can be found at the .

First-year students who are not expected to take Greener Foundations or have been granted an exemption should use CRN 10003��to register for this program. Find more details about who isn't expected to take Greener Foundations on the Greener Foundations website.

Anticipated Credit Equivalencies:

4 - Native Studies: Pacific Northwest Native History and Cultures

3 - Visual Art Studies: Pacific Northwest Indigenous Weaving

3 - Geography: Indigenous Geographies and Environmental Justice

4 - Coast Salish Wool Weaving Website Project: Topic