This course will examine the environmental history of the Greater Pacific Northwest; the geographic area defined by the Columbia River watershed, including the coastal areas of present-day Oregon, extending north through the Salish Sea including into Canada. Topics covered will include natural history of the Pacific Northwest, the experience of native indigenous people as past, present, and on-going stewards of the land, the historical dynamic of the PNW as a meeting point of multiple cultures, and how historical cultural, social and economic values influence interaction with the environment as a set of changing relationships over time. It will also ask the class as a community and as individuals to reflect on how we understand and value our environment, how we interact with people and place, and how we engage with the past. This class may include students from multiple sections. (Social Sciences, Elective)
Course Outcomes
- Reflect on the presence of indigenous views and perspectives including but not limited to relationality, reciprocity, land-based pedagogies, sovereignty, and belonging.
- Compare and contrast conventional (western) historical methodologies such as economic, political, social, cultural and military histories with indigenous epistemologies.
- Participate in a classroom community based on shared classroom agreements that include equity, respect and inclusion.
- Analyze and synthesize varied forms of primary and secondary ""text"" that include traditional text, written sources such as poetry, narratives, fiction, memoir, government documents, archival photographs, material historical sources, video, music, dance, and ceremony.
- Apply local relationships of place to the broader context of historical research and to larger trends in regional, national and international history.
- Examine personal attitudes, values, and choices in order to encourage self-reflection on one's own history and story through memories, emotions, and personal experiences grounded in nature and place.