American Indian and Indigenous Studies Minor

The American Indian and Indigenous Studies minor provides a meaningful grounding in the histories, cultures, and contemporary experiences of peoples indigenous to North America, as well as their encounters with settler states. The curriculum increasingly provides opportunities for students to gain a hemispheric perspective that includes the histories, cultures, and contemporary experiences of the indigenous peoples of the Americas. 

Department Programs

Majors

• American Studies Major, B.A.
• American Studies Major, B.A.–American Indian and Indigenous Studies Concentration
• American Studies Major, B.A.–Folklore Concentration
• American Studies Major, B.A.–Global American Studies Concentration
• American Studies Major, B.A.–Southern Studies Concentration

Minors

• American Studies Minor
• American Indian and Indigenous Studies Minor
• Folklore Minor
• Global American Studies Minor
• Southern Studies Minor

Graduate Programs

• Ph.D. in American Studies
• M.A. in Folklore
• Graduate Minor in American Studies
• Graduate Minor in Folklore

Requirements

In addition to the program requirements listed below, students must:

• take at least nine hours of their minor "core" requirements at UNC–Chapel Hill
• earn a minimum of 12 hours of C or better in the minor (some minors require more)

For more information, please consult the degree requirements section of the catalog.

The undergraduate minor in American Indian and indigenous studies consists of five courses. Courses listed more than once can be counted for only one category. At least one course must be at the 300 level or above.

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
Core Requirements
AMST/HIST 110	Introduction to the Cultures and Histories of Native North America	3
History (at least one, see list below)		3
Law and Social Science (at least one, see list below)		3
Language and Expressive Culture (at least one, see list below)		3
Elective (one from the above categories)		3
Total Hours		15

Students may petition the director of undergraduate studies to have courses not listed approved to fulfill minor requirements; such courses will be evaluated on a case-by-case basis.

History

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
AMST 337	Beyond Red Power: American Indian Activism since 1900	3
AMST 339	The Long 1960s in Native America	3
AMST 341	Digital Native America	3
AMST 510	Federal Indian Law and Policy	3
AMST 511	American Indians and American Law	3
AMST/ANTH 203	Approaches to American Indian Studies 1	3
AMST/ANTH/HIST 234	Native American Tribal Studies H	3
AMST/HIST 231	Native American History: The East	3
AMST/HIST 233	Native American History: The West	3
AMST/HIST 235	Native America in the 20th Century	3
HIST 142	Latin America under Colonial Rule	3
HIST 145	Latin American Indigenous Peoples	3
HIST 240	Introduction to Mexico: A Nation in Four Revolutions	3
HIST 526	History of the Andes	3
HIST 529	Mexico, 1750-1870: War, Independence, and Reforms: Citizenship and Conflict in a New Nation	3
HIST/WGST 576	The Ethnohistory of Native American Women	3

H	Honors version available. An honors course fulfills the same requirements as the nonhonors version of that course. Enrollment and GPA restrictions may apply.

1	Strongly encouraged, though not required.

Law and Social Science

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
AMST 510	Federal Indian Law and Policy	3
AMST 511	American Indians and American Law	3
AMST/ANTH/HIST 234	Native American Tribal Studies H	3
FOLK/ANTH 230	Native American Cultures	3
ANTH 121	Ancient Cities of the Americas	3
ANTH 206	American Indian Societies	3
ANTH 231	The Inca and Their Ancestors: The Archaeology of Andean South America	3
ANTH 232	Ancestral Maya Civilizations H	3
ANTH 250	Archaeology of North America H	3
ANTH 252	Archaeology of Food	3
ANTH 451	Field School in North American Archaeology H	6
ANTH 550	Archaeology of the American South	3
RELI 448	Native and Christian: Indigenous Engagements with Christianity	3

H	Honors version available. An honors course fulfills the same requirements as the nonhonors version of that course. Enrollment and GPA restrictions may apply.

Language and Expressive Culture

Course List

Code	Title	Hours
AMST 246	Indigenous Storytelling: Oral, Written, and Visual Literatures of Native America	3
AMST 336	Native Americans in Film	3
AMST 338	Native American Novel	3
AMST 340	American Indian Art and Material Culture through Interdisciplinary Perspectives	3
AMST 439	Meaning and Makers: Indigenous Artists and the Marketplace	3
ANTH 406	Native Writers	3
ARTH 160	Introduction to the Art and Architecture of Pre-Hispanic Mesoamerica H	3
ARTH 469	Art of the Aztec Empire	3
CHER 101	Elementary Cherokee Language I	3
CHER 102	Elementary Cherokee Language II	3
CHER 203	Intermediate Cherokee Language I	3
CHER 204	Intermediate Cherokee Language II	3
LING 558	Ancient Mayan Hieroglyphs	3
LING 560	Mesoamerican Languages and Linguistics	3
LING 561	Native Languages of the Americas	3
MAYA 401	Introduction to Yucatec Maya	3
SPAN 344	Latin@ American Cultural Topics	3
SPAN 374	Mesoamerica through Its Native Literatures	3
SPAN 625	Indigenous Literatures and Cultures of the Américas	3
SPAN 683	Linguistics of Indigenous Languages	3

H	Honors version available. An honors course fulfills the same requirements as the nonhonors version of that course. Enrollment and GPA restrictions may apply.

See program page here for special opportunities.