Topics in Urban History Saskatoon Indigenous History

3 credits · Undergraduate

Indigenous people remain conspicuously absent from many North American urban genesis stories. In such accounts, the city is seen as inherently modern and the pinnacle of settler achievement. If Indigenous peoples are included it is as recent arrivals moving to cities in increasing numbers since the 1960s. This course challenges the idea that cities are not Indigenous spaces, and critically examines Indigenous peoples' experiences, encounters and interactions in these spaces. The course focuses on Indigenous experiences in Canadian cities to better understand Indigenous experiences in prairie cities, specifically Saskatoon. Course themes include: the manifestation of “urban” or “municipal colonialism” as a key element of the colonial project; the erasure of Indigenous peoples from urban spaces; gendered and racialized colonial violence in urban spaces; the development of urban Indigenous social and political organizations; and, cities as Indigenous gathering spaces and places of resilience and resistance where Indigenous peoples continue to make space for themselves and their relations.