Nation Building

Native American course reaches across academic disciplines

By Susan Peterson

Gazette Staff

"This amendment seeks to address tribal ordinances, and will thereby increase tribal sovereignty . . ." stated the senator.

"But isn't this an imposition of federal rules?" asked another.

This dialogue could have taken place on the floor of the United States Senate. But in fact, it took place in a classroom at Harvard, where about 45 students recently held a mock congressional hearing to debate aspects of Native American tribal sovereignty.

The hearing was part of a new, interfaculty course called Nation Building I, designed to examine some of the current issues facing Native American communities -- among them, sovereignty, economic development, land and water rights, and constitutional reform.

The course is open to students from throughout the University and is taught by faculty from the Faculty of Arts and Sciences, the Graduate School of Education, the Kennedy School of Government, the Law School and Business schools, and by guest lecturers from other Harvard schools.

Of the 50 students in the course, five of whom are auditing, there are 29 undergraduates and 21 graduate students. About 10 are Native American students.

"It's the best class I've taken at Harvard," said Sonia Lal '97, a social anthropology major. "I love to get the variety of viewpoints and the fact that there are a lot of Native American students in the class. We're taught ways to frame questions and to think about Native American communities -- we're not just theorizing all of the time."

The course was developed by the Harvard University Native American Program, a University-wide program of students, faculty, and staff. The program's Faculty Advisory Board (FAB), which includes faculty members from the nine schools at the University, identified the need for an interdisciplinary course that would bridge different interests, such as government, law, and anthropology. After almost a year of planning, the result is a course with a high degree of collaboration and involvement of faculty from throughout Harvard.

"It's unusual to have this many faculty from across the Schools actively engaged in a project like this," said Sarah Wald, assistant provost for policy and planning, who is a member of the Faculty Advisory Board. "They're people who are very interested in the program and are quite committed."

A planning grant from the Provost's fund for educational innovation, which provides seed money for interdisciplinary educational projects, enabled the group organizing the course to proceed quickly. Nation Building I is completing its first semester, and Nation Building II will be offered in the spring as a field-based research course.

The name of the course implies its emphasis: studying facets of Native American "Indian Country"-- a term used to describe the tribal systems of North America -- and examining issues and problem-solving ideas relating to their future.

"We see the course as an opportunity to deepen the understanding of the Native American community in a forward-looking, positivist perspective, not as a narrow, historical perspective," said FAB co-chair James Austin, John G. McLean Professor of Business Administration. "Its starting premise is dealing with sovereign nations' political structures and economic development."

From its beginning, the course has had a life of its own, with the faculty taking a strong interest in its broad scope of subjects and the opportunity to employ different teaching methods, said Austin.

"I think this is a significant pedagogical innovation," he continued. "What could have been fragmented turned out to be intellectually coherent and integrated."

The course addresses various topics from different perspectives. For example, one class might look at the issue of sovereignty from a legal angle, and the next time look at the issue from a sociological or anthropological approach.

"We saw benefits all around to this interdisciplinary approach," said Lorie Graham, director of the Harvard Native American Program. "It was very clear that there are issues within the Native American communities that need a multifaceted approach. And, at the same time, there was an educational benefit to students at Harvard."

Examining the Issues

The course grapples with political, cultural, societal, and economic issues facing Indian Country. For example, how can better health care opportunities be made available to tribes? How can small business growth be encouraged? How does a reservation go about setting up a casino when there is public opposition? Building on questions like these, students in next semester's course will apply their research in the field, to tribes on reservations and Native American organizations such as the North American Indian Center of Boston.

Joseph Kalt, FAB co-chair and Ford Foundation Professor of International Political Economy at the Kennedy School of Government, said that one major issue is the legal relationship between American Indian communities and local, state, and federal governments.

"There is a long list of legal battles -- tax policy, state and federal regulations on gaming and other issues -- and governments are trying to find ways to solve these problems," explained Kalt, who has been studying and encouraging economic development on American Indian reservations since 1987.

As a result of his own research, Kalt is sought out for advice on "nation building" from Eastern Europe to Africa. Governments there confront some of the same questions as Native Americans in the United States.

"All tribes have their own government and tribal systems," Kalt said. "The problems in Indian Country are just like those in Eastern Europe, where questions such as, 'What kind of tax, legal, or court systems will work?' are being asked."

Austin, an economist who specializes in developing countries, teaches a section of the course on economic development.

"These are developing nations that are not unlike developing countries," he explained. "Some of the lessons of economic development in other countries can be applied to Native American communities. In this case, the challenge of outside investors [working with tribes or on tribal land] is similar to foreign investors in other countries."

Philip Frickey, a visiting professor at the Law School from the University of Minnesota, has an active interest in the course's curriculum and teaching. He teaches Federal Indian Law and History at the University of Minnesota.

"The impression by the American people is that the book [on Native Americans] is done, and that they're not seen as relevant for the future," Frickey said. "The field is too often seen as 'backward looking,' but it's not.

"I haven't heard of a course like this anywhere else in the country," he added. "At a minimum, I think this type of broad curriculum could be replicated so that academic teaching, scholarship, and public service can feed off each other."

Students have responded positively to the course's approach to teaching and learning.

Students have already asked teaching fellow Darren Ranco about possible careers in Native American affairs.

"I've had a couple of students say, 'How can I develop a career working with these issues?' " Ranco said, "The course has had the effect of people rethinking how their scholarship can benefit Native Americans, and asking, 'How can I make my skills relevant to Native American communities?' "

Lorie Graham agrees.

"We want to take our cue from Native American communities and have them define the problems, and then have the University --faculty and students -- use its vast resources to help develop solutions."