Photograph of Stony Brook Harbor wetlands, CC BY 2.0.
The NAIS Initiative was formed in the fall of 2023, with Joseph M. Pierce (Cherokee Nation citizen) serving as the founding director. The Initiative emphasizes environmental justice and the cultural and artistic vibrancy of Indigenous communities on Long Island and throughout the New York metro area, while also engaging with regional and global understandings of Indigeneity. Characterized by interdisciplinary scholarship and research, the Initiative prioritizes community engagement and the centering of Indigenous peoples, knowledge, and history. As an interdepartmental initiative, NAIS collaborates with departments, centers, and institutes across the Stony Brook University. Starting in the spring 2025 semester, the initiative will offer a minor in Native American and Indigenous studies, which is the first of its kind on Long Island, the only such an academic program at a public university in the region.
In its first phase of development, NAIS established a core curriculum, hired new faculty members in the departments of English and Anthropology, respectively, and formed a steering committee including community leaders from the Montauket, Shinnecock, Unkechaug, Setalcott, and Matinecock Nations. The initiative continues to grow through additional faculty hiring, outreach to local communities, K-12 educators, and cultural organizations, and the development of programming grounded in Indigenous methodologies and histories.
Though the NAIS Initiative was founded in 2023, SBU has made additional strides toward engaging with Indigenous peoples and studies. Foremost among these efforts is the Algonquian Language Revitalization Project, which began in 2013 and is housed within the Department of Linguistics. The ALRP expanded in April 2023 by opening the Algonquian Library in the Social and Behavioral Sciences Building, which contains more than 1,500 items relating to the Eastern Algonquian speaking peoples of Long Island and beyond.
Stony Brook University occupies the territory known as Wopowog by the Setalcott people, who have lived on and cared for this place since time immemorial.
As an interdisciplinary academic field, Native American and Indigenous Studies prioritizes the experiences, knowledges, histories, worldviews, and creative expressions of Indigenous peoples. We approach Indigenous studies as a dynamic site of exchange, focusing on vibrant communities with deep ancestral histories that offer innovative and culturally grounded solutions to many of the world’s most pressing problems. Students who enroll in our Minor take core courses that emphasize the history, literature, art, and politics of Indigenous peoples, while also providing place-based instruction in environmental issues, law, and the social sciences. Our program places special emphasis on the Eastern Algonquian speaking peoples on whose territory Stony Brook University resides, while also researching the connections, histories, and relationships between Indigenous peoples, knowledges, and expression both regionally and globally.
Students who minor in Native American and Indigenous Studies may wish to combine the program with a major in the humanities, social sciences, healthcare, education, business, or other fields. The Departments of Hispanic Languages and Literature, Anthropology, Art, English, and Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, all offer complementary courses and electives that may count toward the NAIS minor. Courses in the Algonquian language, offered by the Department of Linguistics, also count towards the minor.
NAIS has an experiential learning requirement, which may be fulfilled by taking NAI 488 (Internship), in collaboration with the Career Center, or another course which carries EXP+ credit. Working in public health, nursing, human rights, community organizing, communications, policy, law, secondary and post-secondary education, among others, are all possibilities that we are happy to support students explore through internships with local community organizations, businesses, and tribal governments.