Washington State is filled with a rich Native American history and the Department of American Indian Studies (AIS) at the University of Washington is a place that fully recognizes the innumerable resources that this area provides. This department is the heart of American Indian and Indigenous knowledge at UW. Their goal is to nurture Indigenous wellness, political sovereignty, cultural revitalization, and cross-cultural understanding. Yet, even though Native American resources have always been abundant around UW, it took decades of work to establish a Native American Studies department.
The journey towards creating a department started in 1970. Students protested against the lack of diversity in UW’s curriculum, faculty, staff, and students. During this time a group of likeminded Native American students came together and collaborated on ways to enhance the diversity on campus. Their mission was to develop a strategy for a highly interdisciplinary academic program that the UW could implement to solve the issues that Native American’s faced on campus. The sum of their goals for the AIS Center were to increase Native American student recruitment and retention, create courses that would address every major area of Native American life and history, attract new Native American faculty; and create a place for Native American students on campus. Their program was supported by the Dean and administrated through the creation of an American Indian Studies Center on campus. The need and status of the Center grew and decades later in the 2003/2004 academic year AIS received status as a Program. This programs growth and popularity was so positive that in the 2008/2009 academic year a major in American Indian Studies was offered. The establishment of an American Indian major on campus was a stepping stone towards recognizing the importance of Native American culture and heritage. However, the growth of this major could not be sustained and in 2009 the Dean of Arts and Sciences approved Native American’s Studies as its own academic department.
The UW’s growing values towards building a more diverse community and the student’s motivation toward achieving this goal helped bring Native American Studies to the status that it deserved. Now this department offers a major in American Indian Studies, a minor in American Indian Studies, and a Master’s degree in Native American Documentary Film, Video, and New Digital Media in partnership with the Department of Communication. This departments’ development has helped foster equality for American Indian students as well as increased the significance of Native American culture on campus. Recently UW has even added a requirement that all undergraduates take a minimum of three credits that focus on the sociocultural, political, and/or economic diversity of the human experience at local, regional, or global levels. This new requirement is intended to help students develop an understanding of the complexities of living in increasingly diverse and interconnected society. The UW Department of American Indian Studies (AIS) is located in Padelford Hall C-514.