LISTENING TO THE LAND
What if our best teacher is all around us, even under our feet? For Indigenous peoples, whose worldviews, languages, and lifeways emerge from, and sustain, reciprocal relations to place, land is always teaching. Reflect on "land as first teacher" by considering Indigenous approaches to learning, Indigenous languages in relation to land, and the current environmental health of land. Seeks to live the principles of Indigenous learning through Indigenous foodways and experiential, place-based learning activities. Together, develop a personal relationship to Teejop (Four Lakes, or the Madison region), and explore generational responsibilities to Teejop. What does the land teach? And how do people learn to listen?
Prerequisites & course information
Requisites: None Course Designation: Core GenEd - Natural Science & Wellness + Lab Ethnic St - Ethnic Studies Breadth - Humanities or Social Science Level - Elementary L&S Credit - L&S Liberal Arts and Science Repeatable for Credit: No Last Taught: Fall 2026 Learning Outcomes: 1. Create relationships with each other, instructors, and the land Audience: Undergraduate 2. Understand how indigenous peoples value knowledge and how you, as a student, can ask for and seek knowledge Audience: Undergraduate 3. Begin your own personal relationship - mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually — with Teejop, and to see (and feel) the importance of this place beyond the classrooms and buildings Audience: Undergraduate 4. Critically analyze settler colonialism in higher education, including the cultural norms that it promulgates Audience: Undergraduate 5. Demonstrate an understanding of the history, culture, and perspectives of Native American Nations in the Upper Midwest in relation to place and education; and the particular historical and present-day impacts of settler colonialism on US-tribal relations and the racialization of indigenous people Audience: Undergraduate 6. Research, analyze, discuss, reflect, and present on the history and use of a particular plant or animal. In doing so, demonstrate self-awareness and empathy towards human and non-human people Audience: Undergraduate 7. Reflect on and synthesize hands on learning activities and share with others Audience: Undergraduate 8. Explain the social, economic, and/or environmental dimensions of the sustainability challenges of settler colonialism Audience: Undergraduate 9. Explain the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of the sustainability challenges of settler colonialism and its undermining of tribal communities' sovereignty Audience: Undergraduate 10. Use sustainability principles for developing personal goals and professional values. Audience: Undergraduate Learning Outcomes: 1. Create relationships with each other, instructors, and the land Audience: Undergraduate 2. Understand how indigenous peoples value knowledge and how you, as a student, can ask for and seek knowledge Audience: Undergraduate 3. Begin your own personal relationship - mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually — with Teejop, and to see (and feel) the importance of this place beyond the classrooms and buildings Audience: Undergraduate 4. Critically analyze settler colonialism in higher education, including the cultural norms that it promulgates Audience: Undergraduate 5. Demonstrate an understanding of the history, culture, and perspectives of Native American Nations in the Upper Midwest in relation to place and education; and the particular historical and present-day impacts of settler colonialism on US-tribal relations and the racialization of indigenous people Audience: Undergraduate 6. Research, analyze, discuss, reflect, and present on the history and use of a particular plant or animal. In doing so, demonstrate self-awareness and empathy towards human and non-human people Audience: Undergraduate 7. Reflect on and synthesize hands on learning activities and share with others Audience: Undergraduate 8. Explain the social, economic, and/or environmental dimensions of the sustainability challenges of settler colonialism Audience: Undergraduate 9. Explain the social, economic, and environmental dimensions of the sustainability challenges of settler colonialism and its undermining of tribal communities' sovereignty Audience: Undergraduate 10. Use sustainability principles for developing personal goals and professional values. Audience: Undergraduate
Sources
- Course catalogue ↗2026-2027