NASX 303 Addendum
(1) 300-level course number. As you know, gen. ed. courses are generally
offered at the 100- or 200-level, in keeping with their aim of being introductory
and foundational courses. Would you please provide further justification for
why this course has a 300-level number.
1. As a studies department, we cover all the different aspects of one group
including history, art, beliefs, traditions, political customs, law, and literature
to mention a few. As a result, our department has had to develop several
introductory classes at the 300 level since we could not teach all of our classes
at the introductory level (100-200) and still maintain class distribution between
all levels. Therefore, some of our department’s introductory level classes are at
a 300 level including religion (304) and philosophy (303) and there are no prerequisites. Philosophy 303 provides introductory material on the management
and governance of resources and employs normative (norms, rules, traditions,
customs) ethics that follow duty, responsibility and moral character to explain
resource decision making and tribal relations to their landscapes. This is
important since the ethics and ethical theories that guide tribal people in
decision making are found in all cultures and societies and we cannot imagine
any culture without ethics. Therefore, the class has introductory level ethics
content and upper division content on tribal management and governance of
common pooled resources as well as upper division content on tribal
environmental beliefs.
(2) Ethics content. We were unable to determine from the syllabus what the
main ethical readings are. Would you please provide more details about the
ethical content of your course and how it addresses the two learning goals of
the Ethics gen. ed.?: (1) Students will be able to correctly apply the basic
concepts and forms of reasoning from the tradition or professional practice
they studied to ethical issues that arise within those traditions or practices; (2)
Students will be able to analyze and critically evaluate the basic concepts and
forms of reasoning from the tradition or professional practice they studied.
2. Solving the problem regarding ethical readings is difficult since there is not a
body of literature published focusing on tribal ethics, which is disappointing.
This is an important trend to understand since ethics are universal and found
in all societies. From western writers, I have included Stanford Encyclopedia of
Philosophy and Brian Skyms’ article "The Stag Hunt." The students consult the
former for information beyond the lecture material, where normative ethics is
explained and ethical theories are introduced, and the latter for the importance
of social contract theory, ideas of security, and the importance of cooperation.
Though ethics and the use of ethical theories are universal and all cultures
practice ethics and ethical theories, when it comes to readings, historically
western ethicists have produced the writings on ethics and have focused on
western ethics. Sad but true, there are no readings to assign in Native
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American Studies with titles "Ethics of Native America." One cannot imagine
any society western or non-western without ethics, it just does not happen.
Since all societies have ethics, the study of non-western societies’ ethics
provides a point of commonality between different cultures and opens a
wonderful avenue to study not only diversity, but similarities.
It is unfortunate, but true that Native American class instructors have to
consult western readings on normative ethics, such as Shelly Kagan, Normative
Ethics, Julia Driver's work on normative ethics, and the use of the
universal ideas of duty, responsibility and the moral good to write lectures and
to frame questions applicable to tribal norms and normative ethics. As a
result, lectures, not readings provide the introductory ethical theory framework
in my class. Then, the readings provide tribal specific scenarios for students to
study normative ethics. Western scholars have had centuries of study and
writing ethics and now have a monopoly on the writings and readings on
ethics, but no culture has a monopoly on normative ethics, all practice
normative ethics. From the standpoint of students in Native American Studies,
it is vital that this environmental ethical focus continue or else we will foster
the idea that ethics are found only in western thought and that practice is a
practice that fosters mistruth and myth. Looking at the ethical practices of
others is a rich field of study and also sheds light on one's own ethics as well
as the commonality between cultures. The reality of the lack of readings that
specifically focus on tribal ethics also reveals the introductory ethics nature in
this class.
Many of the environmental readings are tribal specific and provide clear ethical
theory scenarios for students to identify. This also allows student to explain
how tribal, and in some cases non-tribal, people apply ethical theories to guide
their resource decisions. For example, the readings pertaining to Red Lake
explain the walleye destruction on the Red Lake Reservation and the students
must employ an ethical theory (social contract) to explain why the United
States, tribal council, and Minnesota acted unethically by failing to monitor
appropriators and their failure to do their duty damaged the fishery. In this
assessment, students learn how to apply social contract theory to explain the
destruction of a resource using normative ethics, all three institutions had a
responsibility to follow the agreed to rules, but none did not and the resource
collapsed. This exercise forces students to apply normative ethics to
understand the complex ideas behind success and failure of a resource using
ethical lenses. In another reading, students are asked to read Buffalo Bird
Woman's Garden. She does not state in her story, “I am going to explain rule
utilitarianism and based obligations,” but she provides illustrations and
scenarios of these ethical theories. As a result, students gain an understanding
of these theories from several lectures of these ethical theories and then
students read and in an exam identify scenarios where they can critically
analyze and explain decisions the Hidatsa made based on consequences,
outcomes or explain a situation where they must follow one's duty in the
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gardens even if the outcome is not good. Many of the readings from the last
section take into account ancestral law, which provides excellent examples of
norms, customs, rules, and present wonderful illustrations of tribal people
applying normative ethics and ethical theories in their landscape relations.
The stories do not identify these illustrations and scenarios as such; instead,
students are asked to use these theories and provide an analysis of decision
making in the context of a non-western culture. This also provides another
perspective to your first question; this class is an introductory level. As we
know that no culture has a monopoly on the application of ethical theories in
decision making and this class provides students with the opportunity to
understand other cultures through the commonality of normative ethics. As a
result, students should be able to apply and critically analyze basis normative
ethical theories in the context of traditional and contemporary landscape
situations where the moral good and character is so crucial and universal.
Students are constantly asked during class lectures to apply these ethical
theories to their own lives. All persons enter agreements as citizens of states
and the nation. The common pooled resources that the students now and will
used are under social contracts for management and governance. All persons
consider consequences of behaviors when making decisions; and all persons
have duties to fulfill whether we want to do those duties or not. Students will
take these ethical theories and analyze them, generally in their own lives, and
within the content of tribal communities through their resource management
decisions and environmental rituals where they put their beliefs into practice.
(3) Assessment of whether learning goals are met. Thank you for providing
examples of what you use to measure whether learning goals are met. It would
help us if you would also provide a short narrative that relates these
measurement tools to the learning outcomes you obtain and how these
different tools individually contribute to your overall assessment of whether the
learning goals have been met.
3. There are three assigned research papers for this class to assess if learning
goals are met. The first paper incorporates the lecture material on social
contracts where institutions (outside agents, binding contracts, and
privatization) are created to manage and govern common pooled resources. In
the first paper, the students take the readings and lecture material and are
asked to analyze the collapse of the Red Lake walleye in northern Minnesota
they the perspective of social contract theory where three institutions acted
unethically by failing to do their agreed to duties, primarily monitor all the
tribal and non-tribal fisherpersons, and the consequences for failure to fulfill
obligations is terrible. The Red Lake tragedy is a recent illustration of
institutions acting unethically and students compare this story to the Cree of
Quebec where the Cree have created a binding contract as the institution to
manage their fishery, but have not experienced a failure since they monitor
both the appropriators and users and apply sanctions to defectors. The
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learning outcome is that students must understand institutions and an ethical
perspective explains how they act ethically or unethically and the outcomes of
either decision. In short, students must understand the importance
of institutions performing their duties that includes monitoring appropriators
of common pooled resources, and this includes tribal communities as well.
The second exam provides students with an opportunity to apply both act and
rule utilitarianism and duty based obligations to historical landscape scenarios
Buffalo Bird Woman provides in her story as a tribal gardener. The Hidatsa
have norms, customs, and rules that explain how the Hidatsa must act toward
the gardens and other gardeners. She applies utilitarianism in her decisions
thinking about outcomes in the future guided by principles of avoiding chaos,
seeking the greatest good for the greatest number. She also applies duty based
obligations explaining the "Indian way" without regard to outcomes. This
illustrates the importance of lecture material to introduce ethical theories and
the important role that tribal readings play in providing illustrations of ethical
theories.
The third exam requires an understanding of three ethical theories: social
contract, act or rule utilitarianism, and duty based obligations. The readings
are pieces of tribal literature that provide illustrations of tribal beliefs,
ancestral law, and the application of ethical theories that guide tribal decisions.
Students will have to identify rules that were made in the past and continue to
the present and the consequences for not following a good rule or for following
a good rule. In the distant past, animal people and the tribal ancestors made
covenants that require present day members to follow their duty based
obligations and honor these past arrangements. This helps explain why tribal
people defend their landscape against development. In all three assignments,
reading the students' work is crucial and they must identify the illustrations of
ethical theories, provide guidelines tribal people applied in their application of
ethical theories, and consequences. These are crucial learning goals
and assessments and at this level, the class reinforces the introductory aspect
of this class.
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