Department of American Indian Studies

The College of Arts & Sciences welcomes students and their families to connect with faculty and staff, learn about a variety of topics, and explore our spaces throughout Family Weekend.

Five local Native American artists and cultural workers shared their feelings about how Lily Gladstone’s Oscar nomination blazes a new path for Indigenous creatives as well as the racist tropes still targeting Native Americans in the media. Charlotte Coté, professor of American Indian studies, is interviewed.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of HistoryLink.org, Pacific NW Magazine lists 10 key events in Seattle's history. Harold Tobin, professor of Earth and space sciences, and Josh Reid, associate professor of American Indian studies at the UW, are quoted, and the founding of the UW Black Student Union is mentioned.

"Native-led organizations have fought to have the Kansas City team’s name changed for years," writes columnist Naomi Ishisaka. Iisaaksiichaa Ross Braine, teaching faculty in American Indian Studies at the UW, is quoted.

“Killers of the Flower Moon," the 2017 true crime book, and its new feature film adaptation, shine a light on the conspiracy to murder Osage people for their oil rights in early 1920s Oklahoma. Jean Dennison, associate professor of American Indian Studies at the UW, is interviewed.

This week, attend the Diversity Lecture Series “Unveiling Maternal Morbidity and Mortality in the United States”, celebrate the Jacob Lawrence Gallery Reopening, listen to Indigenous storytellers at Sacred Breath, and more. November 13, 3:00 – 4:30pm | Diversity Lecture Series: “Unveiling Maternal Morbidity and Mortality in the United States: Disparities and Challenges in Women’s Health”,...

"Killers of the Flower Moon," the Martin Scorsese movie about my people, the Osage Nation of Oklahoma, brings to life the reign of terror we lived through a century ago, as if we were back there on those busy 1920s reservation streets, rubbing elbows with our own ancestors and their murderers. It is a powerful film, vividly and heartbreakingly accurate," writes Jean Dennison, associate professor of American Indian Studies at the UW.

Picture a series of uniform mounds of earth, each about 6-feet high. Enclosing 50 acres, the mounds form an octagon that is connected to a circle. This is The Octagon Earthworks, located in central Ohio, and it’s one of thousands of Indigenous mounds across the eastern half of North America. Chadwick Allen is a professor of English and American Indian studies at the University of Washington, and he studies Native American earthworks and cultural erasure.

Kick off the Autumn quarter and celebrate a return to campus with these can’t-miss recommendations from the College of Arts & Sciences.

The UW participated in its first Tribal Canoe Journey, with students, faculty, staff, and alums working together as a family — the Shell House Canoe Family, č̓away̓altxʷ ʔiišəd — to make it all happen.  

Three new faculty books from the University of Washington cover wide-ranging topics: oysters, the moral contradictions of religion, and Cherokee creature names and environmental relationships.

The Husky 100 recognizes 100 UW undergraduate and graduate students who are making the most of their time at the UW.

This week, head to Meany Hall for the Grammy-nominated Dover Quartet performance, learn about Seattle’s radical women’s liberation movement of the 60s and 70s from Barbara Winslow, celebrate Arab American Heritage Month and more.

Start the new year with lectures, performances, and more.

Community and mentorship made all the difference to Sherri Berdine (2008) as an Alaska Native (Aleut & CIRI Descendent) UW student. Now she's the University's Director of Tribal Relations.