Courtesy of the KU Museum of Anthropology . Founded in 1997, the Indigenous Nations Studies Program at the University of Kansas is a graduate program offering a master's degree of cross-disciplinary studies in order to understand the complexities of indigenous peoples in the Americas. Graduate students working on a master's degree in INS at KU have the opportunity to work with more than twenty professors who are experts in their fields and who teach courses on indigenous nations. KU has a unique opportunity through the serendipity of faculty strengths, student interest , and geography, to offer a master's degree program with its focus and opportunities for collaboration and research with the Tribal Law and Government Center School of Law and the Center of Latin American Studies at Kansas University and Haskell Indian Nations University . Also see The University of Kansas First Nations Student Organization.
History reflects that in many instances.
The indigenous peoples have not adapted to the economic and political realities of the industrial world, and thus have been threatened with extinction as distinct peoples in North, Central, and South America. Regardless of how indigenous people might be categorized, their continued existence in the Americas and their desire for self-determination created an area of study and research of importance to all people. The Indigenous Nations Studies Program addresses this important academic need.