Master of Science in Native American Leadership Online

This course examines different types of leadership styles and provides an introduction to the different frames in which leaders can view behaviors and responses within an organizational context. The course will pay special attention to a student's individual assessment of their personal leadership style, the role of self-care in leading, and gender differences in leadership. The structural, political, human resources, and symbolic frames and the impact those frames have on organizations will be examined. The course will also compare and contrast native leadership styles with styles more closely associated with Western culture.

This course covers issues involved in multicultural organizations, including developing consensus within the organization for valuing diversity, relationship building, communicating across cultures, and managing people of different genders, races and cultures with an emphasis on diversity as it pertains to Native American people in the workforce. Issues of stereotype, bias and resistance are examined from both a personal and an organizational perspective with an emphasis on making meaningful contributions to diversity initiatives within organizations.

Leaders not only need a vision, but a way to effectively communicate that vision. This course will prepare the student for a variety of leadership roles by exploring contemporary concepts about the meanings and functions of communication and presentations in organizations. Communication styles of Native American peoples will be examined to better understand the characteristics that may include eye contact, assertiveness and body language. Students will analyze key aspects of knowing the audience, developing persuasive content, effectively using media, understanding delivery techniques, and the use of story in presentations. Students will contend with these concepts from a personal standpoint by using examples from their own experiences to apply best practices and improve their own communication and leadership skills.

This course examines the mental activities needed to effectively formulate or solve problems, make decisions, or understand and conceptualize issues. Concepts such as free will, determinism, truth, knowing, and moral judgments will be explored and applied to the modern leader. Barriers to effective problem solving will be reviewed and, along with strategies, form improvement. Special attention will be paid to the role of creativity in the problem-solving process and the role of native culture in viewing problems.

This course examines the development of leadership within individuals and explores the influence of leaders regardless of position. The course will pay special attention to the role of mid-level managers in tribal organizations and their ability to work both up, down and across organizational tribal structures. The challenges of balancing the needs of supervisors, subordinates, colleagues and citizens will be addressed, along with case studies exploring how leaders successfully handled challenges and crises.

The course will examine issues that directly impact the daily operations of tribal governments and the tribal members of those governments. The course will highlight areas from a broad range of topics with the understanding that these topics of interest are constantly changing and developing. Areas such as economic development, health and education, social services, culture and language, and tribal governance will be studied so to provide the students with a broad range of knowledge as the topics relate to them or their communities.

This course is a survey of historical and contemporary developments regarding native education. Conflicting values at a personal, tribal, state and federal level will be explored, along with the results of such governmental policies. The course will give careful examination to the Meriam Report, Kennedy Report, Indian Education Act of 1972, Johnson-O'Malley Act of 1934, No Child Left Behind, Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act of 2006, and current policy as it is developed. The course will begin with a historical perspective on Indian education prior to the arrival of Spanish and European influences.

This course examines North American historical geography with an emphasis on the historical relationships of American Indians to place and indigenous mapping techniques, thereby allowing students to better contextualize "contemporary" issues. Generally, the course focuses on place and territorial identity in the historical and contemporary life of North American Indians and, as a result, provides insight regarding other indigenous peoples around the world. The course may touch on, but not emphasize, native themes that are not related to place. The course has four ongoing components: 1. North American historical geography, 2. Native people's "Geographies of the Homeland," 3. Historical cartography of North America, and 4. Native American treaties.

This course presents an overview of major legal principles of federal Indian law, major developments in federal Indian policy, and how they have affected the education of American Indians and Alaska Natives. Three fundamental legal principles of federal Indian law are presented: Tribes are independent sovereign governments, separate from the states and the federal government; tribal sovereignty generally extends over a federally recognized geographic territory and over the activities and conduct of tribal and nontribal members within that territory; and tribal sovereignty is inherent and exists unless and until Congress takes it away. Court case examples illustrating these principles are used. Since questions about tribal sovereignty are often viewed as questions of the intent of Congress, acts of Congress concerning treaties, statutes and public laws are reviewed, along with court case examples. A history of federal Indian education laws and policies traces tribal control from pre-contact through federal control, state control, and finally to the return toward tribal control.

Ethnohistory is the study of ethnographic cultures and indigenous customs by examining historical records. It is also the study of the history of various ethnic groups that may or may not exist today. Ethnohistory of Native Peoples uses both historical and ethnographic data as its foundation. Its historical methods and materials go beyond the standard use of documents and manuscripts. Practitioners recognize the utility of such source material as maps, music, paintings, photography, folklore, oral tradition, site exploration, archaeological materials, museum collections, enduring customs, language, and place names.

Specifically for the Special Studies course, the objectives are to provide a flexible evaluation of skills needed regarding the organization and history of Native American peoples and tribes. The course may be adjusted to fit specific needs of employers and individuals pursuing the degree while remaining focused on Native American Leadership.