Course Form (revised 5/1/12)
(Instructions: http://www.umt.edu/facultysenate/documents/forms/courseform_instructionsX.aspx)
I. Summary of Proposed Changes
Dept / Program
Native American Studies
Prefix and Course # NASX 303E
Course Title
Ecological Perspectives of Native Americans
Please check one or more
 New course  Delete course
of the following:
Course Changes
 Course Title  Description  Learning Outcomes
 Prerequisites X Cross-listing  Other
 Credits
from _________ to________
 Number / Level from _________ to________
 Repeatability
from _________ to________
Justification / explanation (required for ALL proposals) For new courses please provide rationale for why
the course is needed, how it fits with exiting curriculum and whether there are curricular adjustments.
The request is to crosslist this course with ENST. This course has long been taught only through NAS, but it
has been taught from both Native American Studies and Environmental Studies perspectives. Due to the
interdisciplinary nature of both departments, it is not surprising that the course materials significantly
overlaps each field. Students in both departments currently take this course to meet departmental
requirements (required in NAS and optional in ENST). A section of this course is also taught in the
Wilderness and Civ program. Both departmental faculties have approved the change.
Has the Department gone through common course Review?
X Yes  No  In process
II. Syllabus/Assessment Information Required for new courses, learning outcome changes and
course change from U to UG.
Important: please spell out learning goals and learning outcomes clearly in the syllabus.
Learning Goals are a list of what students should know, understand, or be able to do at the end of
the course, including essential information and knowledge or skills relevant to the subject area.
Learning Outcomes are measures of performance or behavior that indicate, to the teacher and the
students, that students understand the material, and what criteria differentiates among different
levels of understanding. Attach syllabus at the end of the document.
III. Endorsement/Approvals
Complete the form and obtain signatures before submitting to Faculty Senate Office
Please type / print name Signature
Date
Requestor:
David Beck
Phone/ email :
6097
Program Chair(s)/Director:
David Beck
Len Broberg
Dean(s):
Chris Comer
Approve
 Yes  No
 Yes  No
 Yes  No
 Yes  No
All other affected programs:
 Yes  No
 Yes  No
Are other departments/programs affected by this
modification because of
(a) required courses incl. prerequisites or corequisites,
(b) perceived overlap in content areas
(c) cross-listing of coursework
Signatory Comments (required for disapproval):
Please obtain signature(s) from the
Chair/Director of any such department/ program
(above) before submission
IV: To Add a New Course Syllabus and assessment information is required (paste syllabus into
section V or attach). Course should have internal coherence and clear focus.
Common Course Numbering Review (Department Chair Must Initial):
YES
NO
Does an equivalent course exist elsewhere in the MUS? Check all relevant disciplines if
course is interdisciplinary. (http://www.mus.edu/Qtools/CCN/ccn_default.asp)
If YES: Do the proposed abbreviation, number, title and credits align with existing course(s)? Please indicate
equivalent course/campus. 
If NO: Course may be unique, but is subject to common course review. The course number may be changed
at the system level.
Short Title (max. 26 characters incl. spaces)
Exact entry to appear in the next catalog (Specify course abbreviation, level, number, title, credits,
repeatability (if applicable), frequency of offering, prerequisites, and a brief description.) 
Complete for UG courses (UG courses should be assigned a 400 number).
Describe graduate increment - see procedure 301.30
http://www.umt.edu/facultysenate/procedures/default.aspx
Complete for Co-convened courses
Companion course number, title, and description (include syllabus of companion course in section V)
See procedure 301.20 http://www.umt.edu/facultysenate/procedures/default.aspx
New fees and changes to existing fees are only approved once each biennium by the
Board of Regents. The coordination of fee submission is administered by
Administration and Finance. Fees may be requested only for courses meeting specific
conditions according to Policy 940.12.1 http://mus.edu/borpol/bor900/940-12-1.pdf .
Please indicate whether this course will be considered for a fee.
If YES, what is the proposed amount of the fee?
Justification:
V. Change an Existing Course
1. Current course information at it appears in catalog
(http://www.umt.edu/catalog) 
U 303E (NAS 303E) Ecological Perspectives in
Native
American
Traditions
3
cr. Offered
Autumn and Spring. An examination of Native American
environmental ethics and tribal and historical and
contemporary use of physical environmental resources.
NO
2. Full and exact entry (as proposed) 
U
303E
(NAS
303E)
Ecological
Perspectives
in
Native
American
Traditions 3 cr. Offered Autumn and Spring.
Same as ENST 803E. An examination of Native
American environmental ethics and tribal and
historical and contemporary use of physical
environmental resources.
3. If cross-listed course: secondary program & course
ENST 803E
number
4. Is this a course with MUS Common Course Numbering?
http://www.mus.edu/Qtools/CCN/ccn_default.asp
If yes, please explain below whether the change will eliminate the common course status.
5. If co-convened course: companion course number, title, and description
(include syllabus of companion course in section V) See procedure 301.20
http://www.umt.edu/facultysenate/procedures/default.aspx
YES
YES NO
X
6. Graduate increment if level of course is changed to UG.
Reference procedure 301.30:
http://www.umt.edu/facultysenate/procedures/default.aspx
Have you reviewed the graduate
increment guidelines? Please check (X)
space provided.
(syllabus must be attached)
7. Other programs affected by the change
8. Is there a fee associated with the course?
VI Department Summary (Required if several forms are submitted) In a separate document list course
number, title, and proposed change for all proposals. See attached
VII Copies and Electronic Submission. After approval, submit original, one copy, summary of
proposals and electronic file to the Faculty Senate Office, UH 221, camie.foos@mso.umt.edu.
Ecological Perspectives of Native Americans
NAS 303E, Section 1 7:30-9:20
Summer 2012, First Session
R. Clow NAS Building, 203G, Office Hours, Monday, Wednesday 10:0011:00
Since the syllabus is online, you do not need to print it out, save paper.
clowrl@mso.umt.edu
This is a one-semester course on tribal-landscape relationships that is
designed to acquaint students with tribal views (beliefs) and tribal uses of
their physical environment (behaviors). The course will also focus on tribal
environmental ethics. To assist us in understanding tribal environmental
ethics, we will need to be aware of a metonymy, where concepts will stand for
varied notions and associations of related ideas. Several of the associated
ideas will be looking at include concepts of territoriality and appropriation
(the physical quest) and tenure and renewal (the psychological quest).
Besides understanding the importance of ethical behavior, which we will
defined as a proper way of acting, we will also be emphasizing the social
purpose (hunting, fishing, farming) of a culture, which is crucial to
understand why a culture acts on the landscape’s possibilities in a specific
way.
The format of this class will be a combination of long lectures, short lectures,
outside readings, and a class discussion. As the class moves forward, I may
be adding several essays either on tribal fire use or other land resource and
practice topics for example. Good note taking will help in solving essay
puzzles. When possible, I show images to illustrate ideas and concepts.
The course objectives are straightforward. Students should understand and
identify tribal management and governing of common pooled resources, tribal
environmental ethics, the relationship between cultural belief and behavior,
and be able to articulate the social relationship between people culture and
their landscape. One approach that we will use is the application of stories.
Another will be looking for commonalities between cultural relationships with
the landscape.
Most readings are found on electronic reserve operated through the Mansfield
Library and I will put the readings on electronic reserve for you. Students can
assess them through your computer and the Mansfield Library’s web page.
The password will be NAS303. Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden will be required
reading and that reading can be found online via Google. Readings for the
remaining days will be found on ereserve, Mansfield Library and the readings
are listed by day. If you have trouble down loading a reading, you might find
the reading in JSTOR. Exams will also be posted on ereserve. The password
for the class ereserve, found via class or professor, is NASX303
Class Topics
Part 1, May 21, 2012
Introduction to the class, we will be concerned with concepts, ideas,
definitions, and relationships between environmental variables. You will want
to begin reading Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden. This book is important for us
because he discusses the relationship between people, culture, and
landscape. Though the focus is on the Hidatsa and we will be interested in
the dynamics of this social relationship between all persons, cultures, and
landscapes. All individuals have relationships with their physical landscape.
As a result, we will discuss a system approach, using environmental
variables, which are applicable to all cultures. This premise will enable us to
emphasize that different cultures have different, not wrong relationships with
the landscape. This book will also reveal more about territorial behavior, and
we will be interested in local ecological knowledge as well from the world of
the Hidatsa.
Part 2, May 22 to May 23, 2012
Ecological relations will be the focus point for coming lectures. We will begin
our journey into the relationship between people, culture, and their
landscape by discussing these ideas and their relatedness to each other.
Definitions such as culture will be important. We will also develop a
framework for the class by creating five environmental variables and how
these variables work together in a system that is changing, ongoing, and
where people are active participants in their relations to their landscapes.
Other ideas that we will want to understand will be common pooled resources
and local ecological knowledge, and how it differs from western ecological
science. Local ecological knowledge is important for us to understand as
tribal cultures alter their landscapes. All cultures alter their landscapes.
Survival and Stability are the reasons that this occurs. To understand how
and why tribal cultures altered their landscapes requires our attention. To do
so, we must understand the use of fire and efficiency.
Part 3, May 24 to May 28, 2012
Territorial behavior is important to understanding how people act ethically
toward each in resource allocation. On the other hand, we will have to
understand how people try to avoid the “Tragedy of the Commons.” To avoid
the tragedy, communities have to manage and govern their common pooled
resources. No culture has a monopoly on the management and governing of
the common pooled resources, but in an attempt to do, we will examine
different models and games to create different scenarios. Tribal communities
today also employ or find themselves in these general models. Some of
readings will be found on electronic reserve and they are Garret Hardin, "The
Tragedy of the Commons,” and Fikret Berkes, “Common-Property Resource
Management and Cree Indian Fisheries in Subarctic Canada,” White, Jr.,
"The Historical Roots of Our Ecological Crisis.” Garrett Hardin, “Extensions
of “The Tragedy of the Commons,” and James Hagengruber, “A Montana
Hunter in Bavaria.” These are some of the articles we will be reading for
this section of the class. We also will examine the idea that a people’s
relationship is a dialectical relationship, based on reason opposites. Since
this class fulfills an ethics requirement, we will also begin our journey into
several essays that are on electronic reserve through the library’s network
system and the password is NASX303, which discuss ethical issues. These
articles will be stepping stones for further issues on avoiding the tragedy.
Part 4, June 1 to June 7, 2012
We will continue our discussions of territoriality behavior be looking at
specific examples of tribal communities managing and governing their
common pooled resources. One area that we want to examine in detail is how
communities create institutions to manage and govern common pooled
resources. The area that we will want to examine will be models and
scenarios and policies. We want to understand modeling to understand the
importance of creating policies that encourage people to cooperate and not
defect in the use of common pooled resources. In looking at these models and
policies, we will look at the importance of rules and punishment. To do so, we
will look at historical and contemporary communities. We will be most
interested in the creation of rules and policies and why rules and following
rules are important in preventing the tragedy of common pooled resources.
Part 5, June 11 to June 13, 2012
Here will we will turn our attention to social relations with the landscape. We
will continue to apply environmental concepts to tribal relationships with
their landscapes. We will want to look at the creation of cultural landscapes.
Though tribal hunting, and its associated ethical behavior and ritual, will be
a common discussion topic, the ideas we discuss will be applicable to other
tribal cultures including those that farm or fish for a livelihood. During the
course of these lectures, we will refer to tribal literature as our authority.
That will require each of you to understand tribal literature and its role in
environmental ethics. We will also want to begin our examination of
environmental ritual. An article that will be helpful in writing your essay is
Beatrice A. Bigony, “Folk Literature as an Ethnohistorical Device: The
Interrelationships between Winnebago Folk Tales and Wisconsin
Habitat,”Ethnohistory, Vol. 29, No. 3 (Summer, 1982), pp. 155-180.
Part 6, June 14 to June 18, 2012
Discussions this week will continue with the themes presented the previous
week. Accordingly, it is important for you to do the readings and to attend
class prepared to discuss the readings and lecture materials that have been
presented in class. Be patient, as we will continue to work our way through
student-selected readings. As you can tell, outside readings and discussions
are important.
Part 7, June 19 to June 20, 2012
Disease and cultural disease theory are part of everyone's relationship to the
landscape. Understanding how and why disease afflicts tribal communities
must be understood by understanding tribal culture and the relationship of
disease avoidance and ethical behavior. We will be examining other concepts,
the game masters and keepers and their tie to disease and successful
hunting. You will have to have read Calvin Martin, “European Impact on the
Culture of a Northeastern Algonquian Tribe: An Ecological Interpretation,”
The William and Mary Quarterly, Third Series, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Jan., 1974),
pp. 4-26 on JSTOR and James Mooney, “The Origin of Disease,” also on
ereserve.
Part 8, June 21, 2012
Often the way that cultures alter their landscape creates conflict between
tribal cultures and non-tribal cultures. When this occurs, it is due to a
condition that we can call as cultural environmental conflict occurs. It is
important to remember then, that environmental conflict is not just a
resource conflict stimulated by scarcity, but philosophical conflicts. This is
why we must read with care George Wenzel’s two essays on reserve is an
important text that will accompany our lectures and discussions. In addition,
the section from the Jesuit Relations found on reserve will be helpful in
writing your last essays.
Outside readings
Some of your readings have been placed in the syllabus. This is not all of
your readings. I will be adding readings to your reading list each week. You
will want to read these readings outside of class to get a better insight into
the class materials. At the same time, some readings will be specifically
mentioned in the essay questions. I will try to have your readings posted
each day and you will want to take the time to complete these readings. The
readings will provide evidence, illustration, and supplement our lectures and
discussions. Also, the readings will be important for answering your essays.
Attendance
Attendance, outside readings, note taking, and class discussion will be
important to understanding the concepts that we are going to discuss.
Despite the importance of attendance and note taking, I will not make class
attendance mandatory, but you will be responsible for all materials covered in
class.
Grading
Critical thinking, reading comprehension, and synthesis are complementary
goals of this class so there were will essays on the assigned readings and over
our lectures. Some of the questions will force you to integrate materials from
both the readings and the lectures materials. There will be take home exams
and they will be typed, doubled spaced and cover your topic completely. You
will need to use lecture material, discussion themes, and readings, to
construct responses to problems many questions will asked. Think of these
essays as research papers.
These three exams, two mid-terms and one final, will have more than one
part or essay and these parts may include essays on the assigned readings.
These exams will be your entire grade; each will be one third of your grade. I
may give you the exams in parts. To answer the exams, you will want to use
material from lectures and your notes and the outside readings. I will add
these essay questions to the electronic reservation where you can find them.
Proper citations will be required. If not done, you will receive a failing grade.
Remember that the focus of this class is tribal relations with the landscape
and that environmental ethics, a study of ethical behavior, provides the
foundation of this relationship. Always keep in mind, that a relationship with
the landscape includes (1) knowledge of the tribal landscape, (2)
understanding of tribal environmental belief, (3) awareness of proper tribal
ethical behavior, and (4) understanding of the tribal relationship between
ethical behavior and successful acts of production. I will be looking for your
understanding and ability to express properly concepts in your papers and
the cause and effect relations between ethics and production in your final
paper. Citations will be required in these scholarly papers. This article is
available at JSTOR. This search engine is one search engine of the
Mansfield Library’s data bases and is free.
Each paper must begin with a statement of the subject and purpose of the
paper. Then state its thesis or theses, conclusion or conclusions,
immediately. These theses will convey your judgment on what the other
readings and discussions add to the selected questions and you are to
present your informed and evidenced conclusions on the relationship
between tribal people, their culture, and their landscape. That this, each
paper should have at least three sentences giving the exact organization and
logic employed in crafting these papers.
Academic Honesty:
The University of Montana expects its students to be academically honest,
particularly in regards to plagiarism. Plagiarism is taking someone else's
ideas and thoughts and presenting them as one's own. Copyright laws are
rigid as it concerns plagiarism, as is the University. Please refer to the
current University catalog for more specific information regarding penalties
for such action. Academic dishonesty in Native American Studies classes
will result in a failing grade in the course and disciplinary action consistent
with University policies.