NASX 415

Fall semester: in-person

Spring semester: online

3 credits, undergraduate level-400

Spring 2024 instructor: Dr. Jennifer Santry

Fall 2024 instructor: Dr. Kristin Ruppel

Course Description

In this course, you will engage with a variety of indigenous practices and concepts, focusing particularly on the food systems of North America, and using comparative data from across time and place. Of specific interest are dynamic connections between native foods (variously defined) and the health of people and place, both traditionally and in societies affected by colonization and rapid cultural change. The study of Native Food Systems focuses on the interrelationships among human groups (all of whom were once indigenous to some place), their environments, their philosophies and cosmologies, and health. As such, the course is located at the crossroads of (at least) four major disciplines: Native American Studies, Anthropology, Ecology, and Biology, as well as the emerging (though ancient) holistic discipline of Native/Indigenous Science.

Readings for this course may include, but are not limited to:

*Resource and materials list subject to change. Check with the instructor before purchasing books!*

  • Anderson, Kat. (2013). Tending the Wild: Native American Knowledge and the Management of California's Natural Resources. University of California Press.
  • Waheenee, Maxidiwiac. (1917). Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden: Agriculture of the Hidatsa Indians. 1987 Ed. Gilbert Wilson. Minnesota Historical Press.
  • Hogan Snell, Alma. (2006). A Taste of Heritage: Crow Indian Recipes and Herbal Medicines. Bison Books.
  • Cajete, Gregory. (1999). A People’s Ecology: Explorations in Sustainable Living. Clear Light Books.
  • Cajete, Gregory. (1999). Native Science: Natural Laws of Interdependence. 2nd Edition. Clear Light Books.
  • Cronon, William. (2003 (revised edition)). Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England. Hill and Wang.
  • Kimmerer, Robin Wall. (2013). Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge, and the Teachings of Plants. Milkweed Editions, Minneapolis.
  • Mihesuah, Devon Abbott. (2005). Recovering our Ancestors’ Gardens: Indigenous Recipes and Guide to Diet and Fitness. U. Nebraska Press.
  • Mihesuah, Devon A. and Elizabeth Hoover, eds. (2019). Indigenous Food Sovereignty in the United States: Restoring Cultural Knowledge, Protecting Environments, and Regaining Health. University of Oklahoma Press.
  • Moerman, Daniel E. (1998). Native American Ethnobotany. Timber Press.
  • Nabhan, Gary Paul. (2008). Renewing America’s Food Traditions: Saving and Savoring the Continents Most Endangered Foods. Chelsea Green Publishing.
  • Salmón, Enrique. (2012). Eating the Landscape: American Indian Stories of Food, Identity, and Resilience. The University of Arizona Press, Tucson.
  • Salmón, Enrique. (2020). Iwígara: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science. Timber Press, Portland, Oregon.
  • Sherman, Sean. (2017). The Sioux Chef’s Indigenous Kitchen. University of Minnesota Press.

Instructors

 

Dr. Jennifer Santry

Jennifer Santry is a citizen of Choctaw Nation and Sicangu Lakota, Mdewakanton Dakota, and Yankton Dakota. She has been involved in food advocacy and education for the last 20 years. Jen has a doctorate in Educational Sustainability, a M.A. in Nonprofit Management, and a B.S. in Zoology. Through Lakota stories and relationships with food, she is collectively addressing the need for cultural preservation and land-based knowledge in sustainable agriculture education. Jen also teaches for UMASS Amherst and Peninsula College. She’s invovled in a number of collaborative projects that include working directly with SW and PNW Tribes in climat change planning and Native youth engagement.

 

Dr. Kristin Ruppel

Kristin Ruppel holds a Ph.D. in Anthropology from Columbia University, New York. Her major field of interest is ethnoecology, with an emphasis on the ways in which colonial and post­‐colonial institutions influence the life experiences of Indigenous and non‐Indigenous peoples alike. Her research has focused on American Indian allotted landowners, largely because of the enduring relationships formed during her own graduate school days with Indian allottees and their advocates.Her first book, Unearthing Indian Land: Living With the Legacies of Allotment, was published in 2008 by The University of Arizona Press.

Tuition and Fees

If you are accepted into a qualified online program, see the appropriate MSU Tuition and Fee table below:

For more information, view MSU Fee Schedules.

How to Register

You must be accepted as a student to Montana State University to take this course. Learn how to apply.

Students register for courses via MSU's online registration system, MyInfo.

Registration requires a PIN number. Learn how to find your PIN.

Once you have your PIN, learn how to register through MyInfo.

 

For course information: 

Please contact Erika Ross at erika.ross1@montana.edu or Jennifer Santry at jenevesantry@gmail.com or Kristin Ruppel at ktruppel@montana.edu.