Week 4 — Indigenous Nations, Sovereignty, and Settler Colonialism

Why this matters

A nursing student at a tribal health clinic and a business major whose company signs a contract with a tribal government both deal with a government with its own citizens and land.

In plain language

Native nations are governments, and they were governing themselves long before the United States existed. This week you will learn tribal sovereignty (a Native nation's own right to govern itself) and why tribal citizenship (membership in a Native nation) is a political status, not a racial one. You will read a treaty (a written agreement between nations) the way the field reads a record, and you will meet three federal policies stated plainly: removal, allotment, and the boarding schools. Then you will try a framework, settler colonialism (the idea that settlers came to stay and take the land, so the taking is a lasting structure), and test it against the immigrant story from last week. By the end, you will read a map, a law, or a news story about Native nations with sharper questions.

• Already covered: Week 3's line between immigrant and incorporated peoples.
• This week: sovereignty, treaties, removal, allotment, boarding schools, settler colonialism.
• How they connect: Native nations test Week 3's immigrant story.
• Where we're going next: Week 5, Indigenous Survivance and Self-Determination.

Focus

How did federal law treat Native nations as governments, and what did removal, allotment, and the boarding schools do?

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• [ ] explain why tribal citizenship is a political status
• [ ] read the Fort Laramie Treaty (1868) as an agreement between nations
• [ ] place the laws of 1830 and 1887 on a timeline
• [ ] set settler colonialism beside internal colonialism

To-do

Plan your week

1. Read Chapter 4 (~30–40 minutes), then the lecture and slides.
2. Work the lecture tutorial (60–90 minutes).
3. Do the practice set (15–25 minutes).
4. Do the Community History Workshop (about 90 minutes), the discussion, and the assignment.
5. Take the quiz.

This week's checkpoint: read the Fort Laramie Treaty (1868) in the field's order and say it in one plain sentence.

You've got this

Take it in order, and ask your instructor if a step snags.

Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com