Oberlin College
Department of History

Gary J. Kornblith
History 325
Rice 306
Fall 2006

x58526
gary.kornblith@oberlin.edu
Office hours: Wednesdays, 2-4 pm,
and by appointment

Native American History, ca. 1450-1900

[Note: The official, up-to-date syllabus for this course is online at http://www.oberlin.edu/history/GJK/H325F06/.]

This course approaches Native American experience from a sympathetic yet unromantic cultural perspective. We begin with the premise that Native Americans were active agents in producing their history both before and after the European invasion of North America--not just victims of white oppression and/or abstract social forces. Topics include cultural diversity in North America on the eve of European colonization; the dynamics of early Indian-European encounters in different regions of North America; the role of slavery in Native American societies and in Indian-European relations; the political and spiritual dimensions of accommodation and resistance to Euro-American expansion in the eighteenth century; the construction and reconstruction of Indian identities in the era of the American Revolution; the process of Indian Removal; and nineteenth-century struggles on the Great Plains. Emphasis will be placed on current scholarly debates and varieties of historical analysis. Students are encouraged to think independently, and student participation in class discussions (both online and face-to-face) is essential to the success of the course. Written work, like class discussions, will focus on the wide-ranging and intellectually challenging assigned readings.

Format: The class meets regularly on Mondays from 2:30 to 4:20 p.m. Class attendance is mandatory, participation in class discussions is expected, and students are also required to post a question or comment on Blackboard in advance of class sessions.
Evaluation: Final grades will be based on two 8-10 page papers (33% each) and class participation, including contributions to Blackboard (34%). The instructor reserves the right to exercise some discretion in assigning final grades.
Honor Code: All course work is governed by Oberlin's Honor Code. If you have a question about how the Honor Code applies to a particular assignment, you should ask the professor in advance of the due date.

Purchases: The following books should be bought and brought to class for the relevant discussions. They are available for purchase at the Oberlin Bookstore.

  • Colin G. Calloway, One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West before Lewis and Clark (Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, 2003)
  • James D. Drake, King Philip's War: Civil War in New England, 1675-1676 (Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, 1999)
  • Alan Gallay, The Indian Slave Trade: The Rise of the English Empire in the American South, 1670-1717 (New Haven : Yale University Press, 2002)
  • Richard White, The Middle Ground: Indians, Empires, and Republics in the Great Lakes Region, 1650-1815 (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1991)
  • James H. Merrell, Into the American Woods: Negotiators on the Pennsylvania Frontier (New York : W.W. Norton, 1999)
  • Gregory Evans Dowd, A Spirited Resistance: The North American Indian Struggle for Unity, 1745-1815 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992)
  • Claudio Saunt, A New Order of Things: Property, Power, and the Transformation of the Creek Indians, 1733-1816 (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 1999)
  • Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green, eds., The Cherokee Removal: A Brief History with Documents, 2nd ed. (Boston: St. Martin's Press, 2004) [Note: The first edition is also acceptable]
  • Jeffrey Ostler, The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee (Cambridge, Eng.: Cambridge University Press, 2004)

Schedule of classes and assignments:
Sept. 11

Perspectives and Methodologies

  • Calvin Martin, "An Introduction Aboard the Fidèle" in Martin, ed., The American Indian and the Problem of History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1987), 3-26 [on reserve and on ERes]
  • Daniel K. Richter, "Whose Indian History?" William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 50 (April 1993): 379-93 [in JStor]
  • Angela Cavendar Wilson, "Power of the Spoken Word: Native Oral Traditions in American Indian History," in Donald L. Fixico, ed., Rethinking American Indian History (Albuquerque : University of New Mexico Press, 1997) 101-116 [on reserve and on ERes]
  • Richard White, "Using the Past: History and Native American Studies," in Russell Thornton, ed., Studying Native America: Problems and Prospects (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1998), 217-243 [on reserve and on ERes]

Sept. 18


Cahokia

America before European Invasion

Sept. 25


Quarai Mission

Early Native Encounters with the Spanish

  • Ramón A.Gutiérrez, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away, 39-94 [on reserve and on ERes]
  • Brooks, Captives and Cousins,1-59 [on reserve and on ERes]
  • Calloway, One Vast Winter Count, 119-211
Oct. 2 No class (Yom Kippur)

Oct. 9


Metacom (King Philip)

Early Native Encounters with the English: New England
Oct. 13 (Friday)

First paper due by noon

Fall Break
Oct. 23

Early Native Encounters with the English: Southeast

Oct. 30


Jesuit Relations

Native-French Relations in the Eighteenth Century: Great Lakes Region

Nov. 6
Native-English Relations in the Eighteenth Century: Pennsylvania
  • Merrell, Into the American Woods, 19-71, 95-105, 115-21, 128-224, 253-56, 270-82, 302-15.
  • Jane T. Merritt, "Metaphor, Meaning, and Misunderstanding: Language and Power on the Pennyslvania Frontier," in Andrew R.L. Cayton and Fredrika J. Teute, eds., Contact Points, 60-87 [on reserve and on ERes]

Nov. 13


Neolin

Racialism, Pan-Indianism, and the American Revolution

  • Nancy Shoemaker, "How Indians Got to be Red," American Historical Review 102 (June 1997): 625-644 [in JSTOR]
  • Dowd, A Spirited Resistance, xi-xxiv,1-115
  • Calloway, One Vast Winter Count, 313-426

Nov. 20

Native Responses to the Rise of the United States

  • Dowd, A Spirited Resistance, 116-190
  • Saunt, A New Order of Things, 38-185, 233-272

Nov. 27


Trail of Tears

Indian Removal

Dec. 4



Crazy Horse

Struggles on the Great Plains (I)

Dec. 11

Struggles on the Great Plains (II)

  • Ostler, Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism, 109-168, 217-369
Dec. 17

Final paper due