HISTORY 294 11 NATIVE AMERICA FALL 2006

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P. Albert Lacson

Department of History

Macalester College

Office: 300 Old Main

Office Phone: 696-6820

e-mail: lacson@macalester.edu

Office Hours: Wed. 2-5, and by appointment

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HISTORY 294 11: NATIVE AMERICA (THROUGH C. 1862)

PURPOSE: This course offers a social, environmental, political, and cultural history of early America from the perspectives of Native Americans. From the point of view of Native Americans, we will examine many familiar topics, like the imperial contest for North America, the American Revolution, slavery, the US Constitution, and the Lewis and Clark expedition.

In examining the influence of Indians on early American history, this course will emphasize three themes: 1) the creative adaptations of Indians to the presence of Spanish, French, British, and Anglo-American peoples in their lands; 2) the diversity of Indian peoples who made these adaptations; and 3) the challenges to modern scholars posed by the reality that non-Indians left behind most written documentation on early Native American history.

In the process, we will deal with a range of the most celebrated (or notorious) figures in the early history of North America, including Cabeza de Vaca, John Smith, Pocahontas, Mary Rowlandson, George Washington, Pontiac (of Pontiac’s Rebellion), Thomas Jefferson, Sacajawea, Joseph Brant, Black Hawk, and Father Junípero Serra. But we will spend most of our time and effort examining the lives of thousands of common American Indians.

Although the bulk of the course focuses on the pre-Civil War period of American history, we will also consider the relationship between the early history of American Indians and current issues that confront Native American communities.

FORMAT: Our class meetings will be a combination of lecture and discussion. In addition to the reading for the course, we will also scrutinize films, material artifacts, images, and places (Fort Snelling and an optional field trip to the Mille Lacs Indian Museum at Lake Mille Lacs). Regular attendance and participation in discussion are essential.

READINGS: The campus bookstore carries the nine books for this course:

(1) Colin G. Calloway, First Peoples: A Documentary Survey of American Indian History.

(2) Colin G. Calloway, New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America.

(3) Theda Perdue, Sifters: Native American Women’s Lives.

(4) Álvar Núnez Cabeza de Vaca, The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca.

(5) Brian Moore, Black Robe.

(6) Mary Rowlandson, The Sovereignty and Goodness of God.

(7) Claudio Saunt, Black, White, and Indian: Race and the Unmaking of the American Family.

(8) Orin Starn, Ishi’s Brain: In Search of America’s Last “Wild” Indian.

(9) Michael Dorris, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water.

WEEK ONE: INTRODUCTION

Class Meetings: Sept. 7.

Reading: None.

WEEK TWO: ORIGINS

Class Meetings: Sept. 12 and Sept. 14

Readings: Douglas Preston, “The Lost Man,” The New Yorker, 6/16/1997, 70-80; First Peoples, 12-16, 33-42; and Vine Deloria, Jr., “Science and the Oral Tradition,” in Vine Deloria, Jr., Red Earth, White Lies: Native Americans and the Myth of Scientific Fact; and David J. Meltzer, “Why Don’t We Know When the First People Came to North America?” American Antiquity 54 (1989), 471-490.

*SHORT ESSAY #1 DUE on Thurs., Sept. 14, beginning of class.

Based on the reading for week two, what explanation (or combination of explanations) for the peopling of North America do you find most convincing? Had American Indians always been in North America? Or, did they migrate here? In this two-three-page paper (as with all of your short writing assignments), you must present an argument for whose interpretation you find most convincing and explain why. We will discuss this issue in depth during class after you submit your papers. The process of writing the essay should fuel a lively class discussion.

WEEK THREE: STRANGERS IN INDIAN HOMELANDS

Class Meetings: Sept. 19 and Sept. 21

Readings: Calloway, New Worlds for All, 1-41; Purdue, Sifters, 1-28; First Peoples, 63-92; and Helen M. White, Guide to a Microfilm Edition of The Lawrence Taliaferro Papers, 5-11.

WEEK FOUR: STRANGERS IN INDIAN HOMELANDS (II)

Class Meetings: Sept. 26 and Sept. 28

Readings: First Peoples, 96-119; Cabeza de Vaca, Narrative, 44-176.

PAPER #2 DUE at beginning of class, Thur., Sept. 28.

Based on your reading of The Narrative of Cabeza de Vaca, how did southeastern Indian peoples react to the first Spanish intruders in their homelands?

WEEK FIVE: NATIVE PEOPLES AND THE FOUNDING OF EUROPEAN COLONIES (I)

Class meetings: Oct. 3 and Oct. 5

Readings: Moore, Black Robe (entire book); and First Peoples, 96-119.

WEEK SIX: NATIVE PEOPLES AND THE FOUNDING OF EUROPEAN COLONIES (II)

Class meetings: Oct. 10 and Oct. 12

Readings: Perdue, Sifters, 14-28; and Calloway, New Worlds for All, 68-91.

PAPER #3 DUE, Thursday, October 12.

History books are not the only means of conveying a sense of the past. Film and fiction also have the potential to teach us much about the past. What do you think did the best job of evoking Indian responses to Jesuit missionaries: Moore’s book? Or, the film based on the novel? Alternatively, you might have come to the conclusion that films and novels are not useful in helping us to understand the past, and that we should stick to the written work of professional historians. Regardless of your interpretation, it is imperative to explain how you came to your conclusion.

Thursday, October 12, we will have a field trip to the Minnesota Historical Society

WEEK SEVEN: WORLDS IN UPHEAVAL (I)

Class meetings: Oct. 17 and Oct. 19

Readings: Calloway, New Worlds for All, 42-67, 92-198.

*Transcription of Taliaferro document, DUE THUR., OCT. 19.

WEEK EIGHT: WORLDS IN UPHEAVAL (II)

Class meeting: Oct. 24., NO CLASS ON OCT. 26 (Fall mid-term break)

Reading: Rowlandson, Sovereignty and Goodness of God, 63-168.

WEEK NINE: PEACE AND WAR

Class meetings: Oct. 31 and Nov. 2

Readings: Calloway, First Peoples, 137-155.

PAPER #4 DUE, Thursday, Nov. 2

Drawing upon Rowlandson’s Sovereignty and Goodness of God and Cabeza de Vaca’s Narrative, compare and contrast gender relations between northeastern Indians who held Rowlandson captive and the southeastern Indians encountered by Cabeza de Vaca.

WEEK TEN: IMPERIAL CRISES

Class meetings: Nov. 7 and Nov. 9

Readings: Perdue, Sifters, 29-59; Taliaferro Papers

WEEK ELEVEN: DEFENSE OF THE TRANS-MISSISSIPPI HOMELANDS

Class meetings: Nov. 14 and Nov. 16

Reading: Taliaferro Papers

Identification of document(s) for Taliaferro Papers Project, DUE, Thur., Nov. 16

WEEK TWELVE: WESTERN INDIANS MEET LONGKNIVES

Class meetings: Nov. 21, NO CLASS ON Nov. 23 (Thanksgiving holiday)

Reading: Perdue, Sifters, 60-76; documents for Taliaferro Papers Project.

Field trip on Nov. 21 to Fort Snelling.

WEEK THIRTEEN: INDIAN REMOVAL

Class meetings: Nov. 28 and Nov. 30

Reading: Saunt, Black, White, and Indian; documents for Taliaferro Papers Project

Working hypothesis for Taliaferro Papers Project DUE Thurs., Nov. 30.

WEEK FOURTEEN: LEGACIES (I)

Class meetings: Dec. 5 and Dec. 7

Reading: Dorris, A Yellow Raft in Blue Water (entire)

Book Review of Saunt, Black, White, and Indian, DUE Thur., Dec. 7

WEEK FIFTEEN: LEGACIES (II)

Class meetings: Dec. 12 and Dec. 14

Reading: Starn, Ishi’s Brain (entire)

Taliaferro Papers Project FINAL PAPER DUE Thur., Dec. 21.

EVALUATION: I will base your course grade on class participation (20%), the four short essays (30%), book review (20%), and your Taliaferro Papers project (30%). You must complete all written assignments in order to pass this course.

WRITING ASSIGNMENTS: This course is partly an apprenticeship in the craft of historical production. The most important tool utilized by historians is writing. Regardless of one’s level—i.e., first year undergraduate, Ph.D. student, or tenured professor—engaging and clear writing requires practice. To facilitate your growth as a producer of history (rather than merely a consumer), this course demands a considerable amount of writing.

Short essays: The questions for the four essays are listed on this syllabus. Each short essay should be 2-3 pages in length (no more). Since you are provided with very limited space to answer some fairly broad questions, one of your greatest challenges will be to narrow down your argument into something that can be argued in 2-3 pages—no mean feat!!!!

Book review: For your review of Claudio Saunt’s Black, White, and Indian, bear in mind the following questions:

(1) What is the problem/issue/question that Saunt sets out to solve/address/answer?

(2) What evidence does the author employ?

(3) What is Saunt’s central argument?

(4) What method(s) does he employ?

(5) Does Saunt employ the most appropriate evidence and method(s) to address the central problem/issue/question?

(6) What issues (if any) are left unresolved by the author’s approach and argument?

I mean for these questions to inform your reading (and not as a mandatory outline for your book review).

Your book review should explore a particular theme. Your review should present an overall argument advanced in an introduction and clinched in your conclusion. I do not expect you to summarize every aspect of the book. Indeed, that would be impossible in a 5-7 page paper. You should write for an imagined audience of fellow historians who have probably not read Black, White, and Indian. Therefore, you should illustrate and explain your points carefully. Your model should be a review-essay published in a scholarly journal (e.g., The William and Mary Quarterly). I will provide you with a copy of a well-written review essay to exemplify the genre.

Taliaferro Papers Project: This course offers you an opportunity to do more than just read about how other historians have tried to capture the experiences of Indian peoples. This particular assignment provides you with a chance to try your hand at dealing with the biggest challenge for scholars of American Indians during the early periods of American history: use the writings of non-Indians to understand something of the Native American experience.

In 1837, the Chippewa Indians of Minnesota, along with other Indian tribes, signed a treaty with the United States agreeing to sell 14 million acres of their land to the US government. Lawrence Taliaferro (pronounced Tol’-li-ver), served as a United States Indian agent from 1820 to 1839 at the St. Peters Agency, located in very close proximity to Macalester College (near Fort Snelling). Taliaferro left behind unpublished papers that document the activity of Chippewa Indians of the Twin Cities. Your task for this assignment is to use Taliaferro’s papers to explain why the Chippewa signed the 1837 treaty.

I have broken up this assignment into three separate parts (each part with a separate due date):

(1) Transcribe a page of Taliaferro’s 1828 journal. This may not seem like such a difficult task, but wait until you see his handwriting! You will be paired with one of your colleagues to come up with the best transcription possible. It will be up to you and your partner to decide how to proceed. DUE OCT. 19

(2) Identify the documents you plan to use within the collection to make your argument about why the Chippewa signed the 1837 treaty. This 2-3 page paper will be DUE NOV. 16

(3) Working hypothesis. This 2-3 page paper should outline your thesis as it stands. It should include a general structure for your final paper. DUE NOV. 30

(4) Final Paper (15-20 pages) No more than 20 pages! DUE DEC. 21

NOTE: To be sure, it is imperative to read the work of other historians in order to place one’s own work within proper context. But, for the Taliaferro Papers project, I want you to focus only on your interpretation of the documents. DO NOT DO OUTSIDE READING FOR THIS PAPER ASSIGNMENT. There is insufficient time during the semester to keep up with the other course readings while you read the primary documents of the Taliaferro Papers with the care necessary to produce your argument.

POLICIES REGARDING LATE PAPERS: I will grade and return your papers as quickly as possible (within a week or a week-and-a-half). Therefore, it is important that you turn your papers in on time. You should pass in your paper at the start of class on the days that the papers fall due. If your paper is late, you must bring it to my office. If I’m not in, slide your paper under my door, noting the time of delivery on the cover. Do not put your paper in my office mail box.

Late papers will be penalized. You will lose five points (half a letter grade) if passed in after class on the due date, but before 5 p.m. You will lose another five points if passed in by 5 p.m. the following day. You will lose a further five points for every subsequent day that a paper is late. No matter how late, you must write and submit all written assignments in order to pass the course.

In the event of illness, a death in your family, or other personal crisis, I will be sympathetic and flexible in adjusting due dates and providing extra help but only if you alert me immediately and in advance of a due date. A belated excuse for poor or late work will not suffice. If you have any problem that interferes with your work in this course, please inform me as soon as possible.