Blog 1 – Introduction

Hello! I’m Tove (they/them) and I’m a senior creative writing & environmental studies double major. After graduating, I think I would like to pursue a career that combines these two interests, but I’m not really sure yet exactly what form I want that to take. I enjoy nature writing and scientific journalism, and I also am interested in the idea of doing both physical work and communications work in a conservation field. Outside of that, I like creative writing in many other forms, drawing and painting, swimming, and identifying plants and animals.

Although history isn’t my area of study, I’ve always been interested in it—particularly Native American and Indigenous history, Middle Eastern history, and Mediterranean history—and haven’t really had the opportunity to learn much history in an academic setting since basically middle school. I have tried to make an effort to learn more since then, including through my job at the Science Museum of Minnesota in which we have a really wonderful exhibit about Native American history in Minnesota, but I have always planned on taking this course and/or HIST 281 at Knox if I could find the time.

When I look back to past units on Native American and Indigenous history, I remember primarily learning about the tragedies, the genocides and massacres, and while that is all very important history and I’m grateful for what education I did receive, I always felt like these events were being treated as the end—we never talked much about Native American culture in those classes, or important events, resistance, and sovereignty in contemporary times.

One of my primary areas of interest in Native American history as well as current events is related to environmental justice and treaty rights, especially regarding health and food security—an area I would definitely be interested in working in someday. I am taking BIOL 320 Ethnobotany concurrently with this class, so I am excited to focus on one very interesting area of Indigenous history and culture in that class and a more well-rounded introduction in this one. I am very excited to learn more about a variety of things, because I feel like the majority of my education so far has been focused in only one or two areas.