HIST 346-000: The Indian In American History (Spring 2010)

Content:  This course will deal with the story of the North American Indian from pre-Columbian times to the present.  Since the course deals with a non-literate people it requires a non-traditional approach.  The method employed here will be through “ethnohistory,” an interdisciplinary approach that links anthropology and history.  The main focus of the course will be on the various ways that Indian and Anglo-American cultures have interacted with and influenced each other at the “Indian-White Frontier.”  The course is organized into three parts.  Part I deals with Indian pre-history and culture, that is, what Indians were like before Europeans arrived.  Part II outlines prevalent patterns of interaction and influence between Indians and transplanted Europeans.  Part III then traces the story of Indian-White interaction through four periods from the colonial era to the present.

Texts:  Roger Nichols, American Indians in U.S. History; Lynda Shaffer, Native Americans before 1492; Ruth Underhill, Red Man’s Religion; Alden Vaughan, Roots of American Racism; James Axtell, The European and the Indian; Richard Aquila, The Iroquois Restoration; Anthony Wallace, The Long, Bitter Trail; Robert Utley, The Indian Frontier of the American West; Donald Parman, Indians and the American West in the Twentieth Century.  Additional readings on reserve.

Grading:  An hour mid-term examination; a two hour final examination; term paper of about six pages.  Grades assigned on following basis; final exam (40%), mid-term exam (20%), paper (20%), contribution to class sessions (20%).