becoming good ancestors to future generations
We illuminate American Indian and Indigenous culture, the place of American Indian and Indigenous peoples in today’s world, and the changing demands of American Indian and Indigenous peoples in the pursuit of cross-cultural diversity.
Indigenous Studies at MSU
Undergraduate
graduate
community
Paula Gunn Allen
![Our actions today [...] are guided by our reflection on our ancestors’ perspectives and on our desire to be good ancestors ourselves to future generations. Kyle Whyte](https://cdn.casl.cal.msu.edu/uploads/sites/2/sites/60/2021/08/Headshot-IMG_2337-150x150.png)
Kyle Whyte
![If a person wanted to get to the moon, there was a way; [...] it depended on whether you knew the story of how others before you had gone. Leslie Marmon Silko](https://cdn.casl.cal.msu.edu/uploads/sites/2/sites/60/2021/08/920919c675c3a5892455e081ee4a45ea-150x150.png)
Leslie Marmon Silko
![The future of [humankind] lies waiting for those who will come to understand their lives and take up their responsibilities to all living things. Vine Deloria Jr.](https://cdn.casl.cal.msu.edu/uploads/sites/2/sites/60/2021/08/Vine_Deloria-150x150.png)
Vine Deloria Jr.
featured News
New Chapter: College Integration Strengthens Arts and Humanities at MSU
A new chapter at Michigan State University begins July 1, 2026, as the College of Arts & Letters and Residential College in the Arts and Humanities (RCAH) officially integrate, creating new opportunities for students, faculty, and the campus community while strengthening the arts and humanities at MSU. The integration brings together the broad academic programs and creative resources of the College of Arts & Letters with RCAH’s distinctive community-engaged residential education model.
Ask the Expert: How Indigenous Science Fiction Expands the Genre
Science fiction remains an enduring touchstone of pop culture, but it’s broader than spaceships and aliens like you see in the recent “Project Hail Mary” movie — no offense, Ryan Gosling. Science fiction is also an area researched by scholars exploring what it says about our current culture, collective past, and the varying viewpoints of its creators. Michigan State University Assistant Professor Blaire Morseau has a background in cultural anthropology and is a citizen of the Pokagon Band of Potawatomi Indians. At MSU, Morseau merges science fiction and Indigenous culture in her research and teaching, including in her role
MSU-Led Initiative Strengthens and Expands Access to Less Commonly Taught and Indigenous Language Education Across North America
After nearly a decade of transformative language revitalization work, Michigan State University’s Center for Language Teaching Advancement (CeLTA) in the College of Arts & Letters has completed a landmark initiative strengthening and expanding access to less commonly taught and Indigenous language education at dozens of universities and in communities across the United States and Canada. From 2016 to 2025, the Less Commonly Taught and Indigenous Languages Partnership, funded by the Mellon Foundation, leveraged the established strengths of the Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) to collaboratively develop sustainable models for less commonly taught language (LCTL) instruction grounded in proficiency-oriented best practices. Overall, the $3.5 million