New Course Offering - Indigenous Land Stewardship: Creating Meaningful Collaborations across Alaska

In line with the Northwest Boreal Partnership's commitment to support collaborative conservation and Indigenous-led initiatives, we are excited to share with you a new course: Indigenous Land Stewardship: Creating Meaningful Collaborations across Alaska. This course has been co-created with the US Fish and Wildlife Service, Alaska Pacific University, Alaska Conservation Foundation, and Northern Latitudes Partnerships. Partnership Director Leanna Heffner will co-teach the class along with five Indigenous scholars and leaders.

Course Description
This is an 11-week course intended to create welcoming, respectful spaces, dialogues, and productive collaborations with Tribes, Indigenous peoples, land managing and conservation agencies and organizations. The course will include topics on the History of Land Management in Alaska, Equity and Inclusion, Indigenous Land Stewardship, and Collaborating Meaningfully with Indigenous Communities & Partners. The course aims to serve land and wildlife managing agencies, Tribal councils and staff, non-profit organizations, and graduate and undergraduate environmental science students. The course is developed by the Indigenous Collaborations Program - a partnership of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), Alaska Pacific University (APU), Northern Latitudes Partnerships (NLP), and Alaska Conservation Foundation (ACF).

Course Instructors
The course will be team taught by Beth Leonard, Deg Xit’an Athabascan (APU), James Temte, Northern Cheyenne Tribe (APU/Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium), Crystal Leonetti, Yup’ik (FWS), Danielle Stickman, Dena’ina and Koyukon Athabascan (ACF), Leanna Heffner, Jewish, Norwegian, Germanic/French (NLP/ACF), and Casey Ferguson, Cup’ik (APU/NLP). Guest speakers will include Indigenous experts (Elders and emerging youth leaders) who are leading dialogues on decolonization and racial equity, and professionals who work for or closely with Tribes and Indigenous Organizations on science and conservation challenges.

Dates/Time
September 24, 2021 – December 10, 2021
Classes will be on Fridays from 10:00–12:00 AKT and offered in-person on the APU campus in Anchorage with the option to join remotely via video/phone on Zoom. First and last class sessions will be 8 hours in-person. Travel expenses for these 2 sessions are limited and may be compensated.

Continuing Education Units
Alaska Pacific University offers for credit and continuing education units (CEU’s) professional development courses in conjunction with outside third-party agencies. Participants who successfully complete this course will be awarded three (3.0) CEUs.

To Register
Please send an email to James Temte at [email protected] with the subject “Indigenous Land Stewardship Course Registration.”  The cost of the course is $110 to cover the APU transcript fee for CEU’s.  Registration will be open until the course is filled. The class size will be limited to 30 students. 

For More Information, Contact:
James Temte at Alaska Pacific University at 907-564-8243 or [email protected]