Welcome to the Introductory Composition @ Heritage University portal on MyHeritage. We are glad you have landed here. On this "public page," we will post announcements, student resources, and other important information related to our Composition Program.

Located on the traditional territory of the Yakama Nation, we are currently working to create the most dynamic, creative, and robust Composition Program in our region by transitioning toward a "translingual approach" that blends practices and values of Indigenous oratory tradition with contemporary multimodal technologies. We focus on developing what Robert Bringhurst describes as "polyhistorical" sensibilities in the interest of decolonial justice and restoration. This work is in response to the unique place of Heritage University as one of only two universities in the United States that is both a Native American-Serving Nontribal Institution (NASNTI) and an Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI). 

Yakmumamí Tiichám (The land of the Yakama People)

Heritage University occupies its home on the traditional lands of the Yakama People. These ancestral homelands are the Yakama, Palouse, Pisquouse, Wenatshapam, Klikatat, Klinquit, Kow- was-say-ee, Li-ay-was, Skin-pah, Wish-ham, Shyiks, Ochechotes, Kah-milt-pa, and Se-ap-cat, who today are represented by the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation [Treaty of 1855] and, whose relationship with this land continues to this day. Heritage University, grounded in the vision of the two Yakama women founders, respects Indigenous peoples as traditional guardians of the lands and the enduring relationship that exists between Indigenous peoples and their traditional territories.  We offer gratitude for the land itself, for those who have stewarded it for generations, and for the opportunity to study, learn, work, and be in community on this land. We acknowledge that our University’s history, like many others, is fundamentally tied to the first colonial developments in the Yakima Valley. Finally, we respectfully acknowledge and honor past, present, and future Indigenous students who will journey through this home called Heritage University.

Heritage University Mission

Heritage University empowers a multi-cultural and inclusive student body to overcome the social, cultural, economic and geographic barriers that limit access to higher education. Rooted in the homeland of the Yakama Nation, we embrace transformational student-centered education that cultivates leadership and a commitment to the promotion of a more just society.

The assessment system for the Composition Program at Heritage University encompasses all composition courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Each course contains course-specific program learning outcomes (PLOs) aligned, as appropriate, to university-wide student learning outcomes and Department of Literature and Languages program learning outcomes. In effort to fulfill the mission of Heritage University and honor the homeland of the Yakama peoples on which our campus is located, it is vital that the Composition Program at Heritage University develop PLOs in the interest of decolonial justice and the preservation of tribal sovereignty. As such, our PLOs seek not only to disrupt and dismantle coloniality within higher education but also to establish Heritage University as an “education destination” for robust, Indigenized scholarly work and student accomplishment. By developing PLOs aligned to a “medicine wheel” framework as opposed to “Bloom’s taxonomy,” the Composition Program at Heritage University invests in intentional Indigenization by adopting a translingual approach to curricular integration and multicultural practice, reflected through the assessment of these PLOs.

Composition Program Learning Outcomes are organized under four rubrics:

• Multimodal Composition Processes and Conventions [Physical]
• Rhetorical Knowledge and Critical Thinking [Intellectual]
• Collaboration and Advocacy [Emotional]
• Community Engagement and Repair [Spiritual]

INDIGENOUS WRITING STYLE GUIDES [online]

• Native American Journalists Association (NAJA) | "Reporting and Indigenous Terminology"

• First American Art Magazine (FAAM) | "FAAM Style Guide"

• Alaska Native Studies Council | Writing Style Guide

• Bob Joseph (Indigenous Corporate Training, Inc.) | "Indigenous Peoples Terminology Guidelines" [Canada]

INDIGENOUS WRITING STYLE GUIDES [recommended]

Elements of Indigenous Style: A Guide for Writing By and About Indigenous Peoples

Indian Country Stylebook

INDIGENOUS PEOPLES-Guide to Terminology-1.pdf