x58526
gary.kornblith@oberlin.edu

[Note: The official, up-to-date syllabus for this course is online at http://www.oberlin.edu/history/GJK/H325S05/.]

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 Tuesdays from 1:00 to 2:50 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.

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

• Ramon A. Gutiérrez, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away
• James D. Drake, King Philip's War
• Alan Gallay, The Indian Slave Trade
• Richard White, The Middle Ground
• James H. Merrell, Into the American Woods
• Gregory Evans Dowd, A Spirited Resistance
• Claudio Saunt, A New Order of Things
• Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green, eds., The Cherokee Removal [Note: Either edition is acceptable.]
• Jeffrey Ostler, The Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism from Lewis and Clark to Wounded Knee
  

Schedule of classes and assignments:

Perspectives and Methodologies

• Calvin Martin, "An Introduction Aboard the Fidèle" in Martin, ed., The American Indian and the Problem of History, 3-26 [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, 217-243 [on reserve and on ERes]
• Angela Cavendar Wilson, "Power of the Spoken Word: Native Oral Traditions in American Indian History," in Donald L. Fixico, ed., Rethinking American Indian History, 101-116 [on reserve and on ERes]

Feb. 15

Cahokia

America before European Invasion

• Jay Miller, "A Kinship of Spirit" in Josephy, ed., America in 1492, 305-337 [on reserve and on ERes]
• Clara Sue Kidwell, "Systems of Knowledge," in Josephy, ed., America in 1492, 369-403 [on reserve and on ERes]
• Neal Salisbury, "The Indians' Old World: Native Americans and the Coming of Europeans," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd Ser., 53 (July 1996): 435-458 [in JSTOR, accessible from a campus computer]

Early Encounters in the Southwest

• Gutiérrez, When Jesus Came, the Corn Mothers Went Away, xi-xxxi, 3-140
• Brooks, Captives and Cousins,1-59 [on reserve and on ERes]

Mar. 1

Metacom (King Philip)

Early Encounters in New England

• William Cronon, Changes in the Land, 54-81 [on reserve and on ERes]
• Jill Lepore, "Dead Men Tell No Tales: John Sassamon and the Fatal Consequences of Literacy," American Quarterly 46 (Dec. 1994): 479-512 [in JSTOR]
• Drake, King Philip's War, entire

Early Encounters in the Southeast

• James H. Merrell, "The Indians' New World: The Catawba Experience," William and Mary Quarterly 3rd ser., 41 ( Oct. 1984): 537-565 [in JSTOR]
• Gallay, The Indian Slave Trade, ix-xiii, xvii-xviii, 1-69, 91-154, 197-222, 241-357

Video: Ikwe
First paper due

Mar. 22

Jesuit Relations

Middle Ground? Intercultural Relations in the Great Lakes Region

• Daniel K. Richter, "War and Culture: The Iroquois Experience," William and Mary Quarterly, 3rd ser., 40 (Oct. 1983): 528-59 [in JSTOR]
• White, The Middle Ground, ix-xvi, 1-185
• Susan Sleeper-Smith, Indian Women and French Men, 38-53 [on reserve and on ERes]

  Recommended: Susan A. Miller, "Licensed Trafficking and Ethnogenetic Engineering," American Indian Quarterly, 20 (Winter 1996): 49-55 [in JSTOR]

• 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]

Apr. 12

Neolin

Pan-Indianism and the Impact of the American Revolution

• Dowd, A Spirited Resistance, xi-xxiv,1-122
• Colin G. Calloway, The American Revolution in Indian Country, 26-64, 272-91 [on reserve and on ERes]
• Saunt, A New Order of Things, 1-66

Native Responses to the Rise of the United States

• Dowd, A Spirited Resistance, 123-201
• Saunt, A New Order of Things, 67-290

Indian Removal

• Mary Young, "The Cherokee Nation: Mirror of the Republic," American Quarterly 33 (Winter 1981): 502-524 [in JSTOR]
• Theda Perdue and Michael D. Green, eds., The Cherokee Removal, entire

May 3

Crazy Horse

Struggles on the Great Plains

• Richard White, "The Winning of the West: The Expansion of the Western Sioux in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries," Journal of American History 65 (Sept. 1978): 319-343 [in JSTOR]
• Ostler, Plains Sioux and U.S. Colonialism, 1-127, 149-68, 217-369

May 10

Video: Geronimo and the Apache Resistance     

Final paper due