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Contemporary Issues in Native Communities

Program Title: Contemporary Issues in Native Communities
Academic Credits: 6 in Anthropology / Sociology
Location: CrownPoint, New Mexico, Navajo Nation
Instructor: Monica Frölander-Ulf
Dates: June 23 – July 14

Amizade Student Application (pdf)

This course offers a wonderful opportunity to learn about the contemporary contributions and the present socioeconomic and political challenges facing the Navajo Nation in the context of its powerful philosophy and history of struggle. In the small community of Crownpoint (NM), we will have the privilege to listen to Navajo (Diné) teachers from Diné College and members of the community tell us about issues confronting the nation and the community ranging from sustainable economic development and sovereignty to health, education, and relationships to the non-Indian world. As we attend lectures, travel to various sites in the area, and work with children and youth at the local Youth Center, we learn about the community’s efforts to maintain traditional Diné ways of seeing and behaving while integrating beneficial outside knowledge to confront the realities of today.

The first two weeks of the course consist of on-line reading and writing assignments as well as reflections and preparations for the trip. The three-week on-site program offers regular classes by a Navajo professor on Navajo history, culture, and language, service work, field trips, presentations by local speakers, and more reflection sessions. After returning from Crownpoint, students finish their academic work on-line and provide another service to the community in the form of a presentation to a local organization of the student’s choice.

The generosity of our many teachers, the beauty of the landscape, the wisdom and power of Diné philosophy, and the experience of living and working in a native community makes this course a rich educational experience.