History 367: Survey of American Indian History

 

 

Contact Information

Dr. Michael Witgen
Office: 3749 Haven Hall
Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:00-2:30 pm
Email: mwitgen@umich.edu

  

Class Meetings

Tuesday and Thursday 10:00-11:30 am

Room: 1359 Mason Hall

Campus Map

 

 

Course Description

This course is an introduction to the history of the Native peoples of North America.  Instruction will focus on the idea that indigenous people in North America possess a shared history in terms of being forced to respond to European colonization, and the emergence of the modern nation-state.  Native peoples, however, possess their own distinct histories and culture.  In this sense their histories are uniquely multi-faceted rather than the experience of a singular racial group.  Accordingly, this course will offer a wide ranging survey of cultural encounters between Native peoples and European and Euro-American empires, taking into account the many different indigenous responses to colonization.  This course will also move beyond the usual stories of Indian-white relations that center either on narratives of conquest and assimilation, or stories of cultural persistence.  We will take on these issues, but we will also explore the significance of Native peoples to the formation of modern North America.  This will necessarily entail an examination of race formation, and a study of the evolution of social structures and categories such as nation, tribe, citizenship, and sovereignty.

 

 

Graded Assignments

 

Essays: 30%

Each student must complete three take-home essays, which will be a written response to the study questions for any given week.  Responses to the questions should draw from assigned readings, but may also involve additional research.  Each essay response should be 8-10 pages, double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 pt font.  Your response should be written as a single synthetic essay. Do not answer the study questions individually.  Your assignment is to identify and explicate a theme or idea in the assigned texts and study questions so as to provide insight into a particular historical experience, event, or persona.  Essays are due one week from the class to which they were assigned, and must be submitted to your drop box as a word doc.  The grader will retrieve your essay, make comments, assign a grade using track changes, and will return the graded document to your box. 

[For grading parameters, see the rubric on americanindianhistory.pbworks.com] 

 

 

Participation: 20%

This class will focus on the development of interpretive, analytical, and presentation skills.  For each class students are asked to examine information from a variety of sources delivered through a variety of platforms.  Your task is to evaluate these sources of information to determine how they might be used to form a historical narrative.  Exploring the origin and nature of the assigned texts, students should be able analyze, interpret, and synthesize the content of specific historical and cultural artifacts.  Each class will focus on how we process and engage with information and ideas in order to assign meaning to the past, and to create a narrative understanding of past experience.

 

In order to develop this skill set, you will be asked to work collaboratively in small groups at the beginning of each class where you will work through the assigned study questions.  This will require that you read or watch the assigned materials before class.  Small groups will then be asked to present their findings briefly and succinctly.  You will also be called upon to answer follow up questions from the instructor or fellow students as they arise.  Each student will be expected to serve as the primary presenter for his or her group at least once during the semester.  

 

There will be seven pop-quizzes during the course of the semester, each worth five points.  Only five of the quizzes will count toward your final grade.  The quizzes should be easy for anyone who has read or watched the assigned materials for a given class.  These 25 points will represent a quarter or your participation grade.

 

 

Final Research Project: 50%

An original historical research project will serve as the final for this course. This research project may take the form of a traditional research paper 12 to 15 pages in length (standard formatting:double-spaced, Times New Roman, 12 pt font), or it may take the form of a wiki.  The wiki should be comparable in scope to a written paper 12 to 15 pages in length.  Regardless of the format the research project must center on the analysis, interpretation, and presentation of primary source evidence.  Your task is to find a historical event, person, or experience and explain why and how you think this subject is important and or meaningful in its particular historical moment, and now in the present day.

 

[For more grading parameters,see the rubric on americanindianhistory.pbworks.com.]

 

 

 

 

 

 

CLASS SCHEDULE

 

NB: Links to the sources and study questions are on americanindianhistory.pbworks.com

 

 

WEEK 1: COURSE INTRODUCTION

 

Thursday 1/5

Course Introduction

 

An Introduction to the Problems, Issues, and Study of American Indian History

No Readings for the First Day of Class

 

 

WEEK 2: NATIVE NORTH AMERICA AND THE ATLANTIC WORLD

 

Tuesday 1/10

Native North America: Origins and Evolution 

 

Readings

 

• John Noble Wilford, Human Presence in Americas Is Pushed Back a Millennium, New York Times(February 11, 1997) (University login required).
• Jack Hitt, Mighty White of You: Racial Preferences Color America's Oldest Skulls and Bones, Harper's (July 2005)
• Michael D. Lemonick and Andrea Dorfman, Who were the First Americans?, Time (March 13, 2006) 
• Suzan Shown Harjo, Kennewick Man: The Greatest Show Unearthed, Indian Country Today (March 22, 2006)
• Native North America (PDF)
• Charles Joseph Latrobe, The Rambler in North America (1835). Read pp. 21-28. 
• John Denison Baldwin, Ancient America, in Notes on American Archaeology (1871). Read pp. 33-34.  
• H.M. Brackenridge, Views of Louisiana: containing geographical, statistical and historical notices of that vast and important portion of America (1817). Read pp. 166-183.

 

Thursday 1/12

The Atlantic World Comes to North America

 

Readings

 

• Neal Salisbury, “Squanto, Last of the Patuxets,” in Struggle and Survival in Colonial America. [CTools]
• William Bradford, Of Plymouth Plantation (1630-47). Read pp. 62-86, 176-177. Skim this text, and focus on Bradford's mentions of Squanto and the relationship between the Pilgrims and the Native peoples they encountered. 
• Reverend Increase Mather, A Brief History of the Warr with the Indians in New-England (1676). Read pp. 69 (August 1) and pp.71-72 (Part of August 12).
• William Apess, Eulogy on King Philip (1836). Start at [40], skip [48-49], read [50-57], skip [58-63], and read [64-66].

 

 

WEEK 3: THE NATIVE NEW WORLD

 

Tuesday 1/17

Adapting to European Settler Colonies

 

Readings

 

• Peter Schagen, Letter Reporting the Purchase of Manhattan(1626) 
• The Dutch Arrive on Manhattan: An Indian Perspective(1765)
• Laws of the Confederacy, in The Constitution of the Five Nations or the Iroquois Book of the Great Law (97-108)
• John Locke, On Property, from The Second Treatise of Government (1689)

 

Thursday 1/19

The Native New World 

 

Readings

 

• Daniel Richter, War and Culture: The Iroquois Experience, in The William and Mary Quarterly vol. 40 no. 3 (1983)
• From The Jesuit Relations: Journey to the North Sea by Land and the Discovery of Hudson's Bay (1671-162). Read p. 155-217.
• Nicolas Perrot, Memoir of the Manners, Customs, and Religion of the Savages of North America (1721). Read pp. 148-168 and 173-178. (Reproduction of 1721 copy). 

 

 

WEEK 4: THE MIDDLE GROUND AND FRENCH COLONIZATION

 

Tuesday 1/24

The Middle Ground, Part One 

 

Readings

 

• Richard White, Although I am Dead, I am Not Really Dead (1997)
• From The Jesuit Relations:
• Of the Mission of the Holy Ghost among the Algonquians(1670-72) 
• Indian Murderers Punished by Du Luth(1684). Read pp. 114-125.

 

 

Thursday 1/26

The Middle Ground, Part Two

 

Readings

 

• From The Jesuit Relations: 
• Claude Dablon, Explanation of the idea that should be held Regarding all the missions included under the name Outaouac (1670-71). Read pp. 95-105.
• Claude Dablon, Taking Possession, in the King’s Name, of all the Countries commonly included under the name Outaouac (1670-71). Read pp. 105-115.
• Claude Dablon, On the Nature and Some of the Peculiarities of the Sault(1669-70). Read pp. 129-139.
• Claude Dablon, Massacre of the Ten Ambassadors of the Nadouessi(1673-74). Read pp. 257-263.
• Jesuit Map of Lake Superior and parts of Lake Huron and Lake Michigan  
• Vincenzo Coronelli, Partie Occidentale du Canada ou de la Nouvelle France (1688 map of New France)

 

 

WEEK 5: ENGLISH AND SPANISH COLONIZATION

 

Tuesday 1/31

Spanish Colonization

 

Readings

 

• Juliana Barr, Geographies of Power, in The William and Mary Quarterly, 68, no.1 (2011).    
• Relación del Suceso, Document 29 (1539-42)
• Declaration of the Indian Juan (1681). Read pp. 232-238
• The Pueblo Revolt of 1696 (From J. Manuel Espinosa, The Pueblo Indian Revolt of 1696 and the Franciscan Missions in New Mexico): 
• Letter of Fray Francisco Corbera, March 10, 1696
• Letter of Fray Francisco de Vargas to the Provincial, July 21, 1696
• Letter of Governor Vargas, November 28, 1696
• Spanish map from 1728
• Spanish map from 1744   
• Map of Colonization

 

Thursday 2/2

English Colonization

 

• The Natives and the English: Crash Course History #3 [Great place to start, provides context]
• John Smith, The Generall Historie of Virginia, New England & the Summer Isles, pp. 61-69 (through first paragraph), 77-82, 85-104.
• First Charter of Virginia (1606) 
• John Eliot's translation of the Bible (1663) 

WEEK 6: RESISTANCE AND ADAPTATION

 

Tuesday 2/7

Resistance: The Militant Response to European Expansion

 

Readings

  

• J.A. Brandao and William J. Starna, The Treaties of 1701: A Triumph of Iroquois Diplomacy (1996) 
• Treaty of Lancaster (1744)   
• Conrad Weiser, The Journal of Conrad Weiser, Indian Interpreter(1748). Read pp. 26-44.
• George Croghan, Description of Logstown(1750-1751)  

 

Thursday 2/9

Adaptation: The Diplomatic and Cultural Response to European Expansion in the West

 

Readings

 

• Descriptions of the Comanches(1749-1752) 
• Thomas Veles Cachupin, Report on New Mexico(1753)
• Bishop Tamaron's Visitation of New Mexico(1760) 
• Pedro Vial and Francisco Xavier de Chaves, Description of Comancheria(1785) 
• George Ruxton, Adventures in Mexico and the Rocky Mountains (1847)

 

 

WEEK 7: CONFRONTING NEW POWERS IN EASTERN NORTH AMERICA

 

Tuesday 2/14

Pontiac’s War, British Indian Policy, and the Early Republic

 

Readings

 

• The Papers of Sir William Johnson, Vol 3. (Must be logged in to access Hathitrust; also available at Archive.org.) Pay attention to discussions of Indian policy, presents, and alliance. Read the following letters:   
• Sir William Johnson to General Jeffrey Amherst (Dec. 8, 1759). Pp. 183-184 
• Gen. Amherst to James Hamilton (March 30, 1760). Pp. 204-206 
• Michigan Historical Collections,  Vol. 19. (Hathitrust, need to be logged in). Read the following letters:
• Gen. Jeffrey Amherst to Col. Henry Bouquet (July 25, 1762) Pp. 157-158.
• Capt. Donald Campbell to Col. Henry Bouquet (Oct. 27, 1762) Pp. 172-173. 
• Documents Relative to the Colonial History of the State of New-York Vol. 7
• Sir William Johnson to the Lords of Trade (Nov. 13, 1763). Pp. 572-580.
• The Papers of Sir William Johnson, Vol. 4
• General Thomas Gage to Sir William Johnson (Jan. 12, 1764).  Pp. 290-293
• General Thomas Gage to Sir William Johnson (March 4, 1764). Pp. 355-357.
• 1763 Proclamation Line and the Treaty of Fort Stanwix 
• Battle of the Wabash, General William Darke to George Washington, November 9, 1791
• Major John H. Buell Congratulates the Federal Army, August 23, 1794 (HathiTrust), 369-370 and Captain Alexander McKee to Joseph Chew, August 27, 1794, pp.370-372. Account of the Battle of Fallen Timbers by Kinjoino [read the italic text and footnote 11] (Odawa war leader near present-day Grand Rapids) as told to W.H. Howard, government interpreter and later supervisor of Indian removal in Ohio).  

 

Thursday 2/16

The Iconography of the American Indian in the Early Republic

 

Readings

• Francis Parkman, The Conspiracy of Pontiac and the Indian War after the Conquest of Canada (1851). Read pp. 190-193, 201-202, 224-228, 262-273.
• Henry R. Schoolcraft's poem, in Thomas L. McKenney, Sketches of a tour to the lakes(1827). (HathiTrust; need to be logged in). Read pp. 136-139. 
• Benjamin Drake, Life of Tecumseh (1850). Read pp. 224-235.
• Charles Mair, Tecumseh: A Drama (1886). Read  pp. 22, 176-177, 182-183.
• Logan's Death Speech in Joseph Doddridge, Logan, the Last of the Race of Shikellemus, Chief of the Cayuga Nation (1868). Read pp. 34.
• James Fenimore Cooper, The Last of the Mohicans, chapter XXXIII (1826). Read pp. 416-430.
• Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, The Song of Hiawatha (1855). Read chapters XXI and XXII.

 

 

WEEK 8: REVITALIZATION AND NATIVE SPACE

 

Tuesday 2/21

Revitalization and Racialization in Native North America

 

Readings

 

• Thomas Jefferson to Benjamin Hawkins (February 18, 1803)
• Thomas Jefferson to Governor William H. Harrison (February 27, 1803)
• James Monroe, Second Annual Address to Congress (November 17, 1818)

 

Thursday 2/23

The United States and the Colonization of Anishinaabewaki

 

Readings

 

• Lorenzo Veracini, Introducing Settler Colonial Studies (2011)
• Jeremy Mumford, Mixed-Race Identity in a Nineteenth-Century Family: The Schoolcrafts of Sault Ste. Marie, 1824-1827 (1999)
• Henry Rowe Schoolcraft, Report of the Lewis Cass Expedition in the Great Lakes(1821) 
• Treaty of Fond du Lac (1826)

 

 

WEEK 9: WINTER BREAK

 

WEEK 10: AMERICAN AND AMERICAN INDIAN EXPANSION

 

Tuesday 3/7

The Old Southwest and Indian Removal 

 

Readings

 

• Lewis Cass, Remarks on the Policy and Practice of the US and Great Britain in their Treatment of the Indians(1827). Read pp. 1-12, 28-32. 
• Lewis Cass, Removal of the Indians (1830)
• John Marshall, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831) and Worcester v. Georgia (1832)
• Andrew Jackson, State of the Unionaddress (1830)

 

Thursday 3/9

American and American Indian Expansion on the Great Plains

 

Readings

 

• Richard White, The Winning of the West (1978)
• Lone Dog's Winter Count (1800-1870) 
• Garrick Mallery, Picture Writings of the American Indians (1894) 
• Victor Collot, A Journey in North America (1826)
• Pathin-nanpaji, Encounter between Omaha Hunters and White squatters in Iowa (1853). Read up until line 15 of the second page (Until "Then we departed.") 

 

WEEK 11: THE WESTERN FRONTIER, PART 1

 

Tuesday 3/14

Whiteness, Indianness, and the Dakota Uprising

 

Readings

 

• Bruce White, The Power of Whiteness (1998)
• Big Eagle's account of the Dakota War
• Alexander Ramsey to Abraham Lincoln (1862)
• Report from General Henry Sibley, (1862)
• Stephen Riggs to Abraham Lincoln (1862)
• Henry Sibley to Abraham Lincoln (1863) 
• Lithograph of the Public Execution (1862)

 

Thursday 3/16

US-Indian Military Conflicts in the American West 

 

Readings

 

• Background on the Sand Creek Massacre 
• John Evans, Letter to Edwin M. Stanton, December 14, 1863: Page 1Page 2Page 3.Click here for a transcription of the letter.
• Proclamation by Territorial Governor John Evans. Second half of page 47. 
• Two editorials from the Rocky Mountain News 
• Congressional testimony of John Smith
• Deposition of John Chivington
• Medicine Lodge Treaty (1867). Click the blue highlighted links to read the treaties.
• The Red River War. Read the first three letters by clicking on them and scrolling down to the transcript.
• Wooden Leg's Account of the Battle of the Greasy Grass
• View Red Horse's pictographs of the Battle below. Click on the image for a larger view.

 

WEEK 12: THE WESTERN FRONTIER, PART 2

 

Tuesday 3/21

The Creation of Plains Reservations

 

Readings

 

• Report from the Commissioner of Indian Affairs(1869)
• Chief Joseph's flight to Canada (1879). Start reading from "The United States claimed they had bought..."
• Wooden Leg Serving as a Judge (published in 1931).
• Carl Sweezy's Memoir (published in 1966).  

 

 

Thursday 3/23

The Ghost Dance and the Wounded Knee Massacre

 

Readings

 

• From the Bismarck Daily Tribune: 30 October 1890, and 19 November 1890, article 1and article 2. 
• From James Mooney, The Ghost-Dance Religion and the Sioux Outbreak of 1890 (1896). Read the following sections:

 

• The Doctrine of the Ghost Dance (Read up until the paragraph that begins with "The moral code" on page 782.)
• Commissioner Morgan and Agent McGillycuddy's statements about the "causes of the outbreak" 
• Turning Hawk and American Horse, The Indian Story of Wounded Knee

 

• Charles Alexander Eastman's description of the Wounded Knee Massacre from From the Deep Woods to Civilization(1916)

 

 

WEEK 13: ALLOTMENT, ASSIMILATION, AND BOARDING SCHOOLS

 

Tuesday 3/28

Dismantling Tribes and Their Homelands

 

Readings

  

• The Dawes Act (1887). Click herefor a PDF version.
• Standing Bear v Crook (1879)
• Lone Wolf v. Hitchcock (1903)
• Something about Oklahoma statehood.
• Indian Appropriations Act 1889
• Curtis Act 1898 

 

Thursday 3/30

The American Indian Boarding Schools

 

Readings

 

• Richard Henry Pratt, Kill the Indian, Save the Man (1892) 
• Luther Standing Bear, What a School Could Have Been Established (1933)
• Selections from The Indian Leader, printed by the Haskell Institute (1917-1918): 
• Peyote
• Christmas Customs as told by Pupils
• Certificate of Educational Competency
• Commencement Day
• Native Americans in the War
• Photographs of Haskell Institute
• Portrait of Tom Torlino, a student of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School (ca. 1882)

 

 

WEEK 14: AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE AND THE ICONOGRAPHY OF AMERICAN INDIANS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY

 

Tuesday 4/4

John Ford’s The Searchers

 

Readings

 

• Phil Deloria on stereotyping (video) 
• Watch The Searchers (Dir. John Ford, 1956) 

 

Thursday 4/6

Disney’s Pocahontas

 

Readings

 

• Watch Pocahontas (Disney, 1995)  

 

 

WEEK 15: AMERICAN INDIAN SELF-DETERMINATION, PART 1

 

Tuesday 4/11

The Red Progressives and Reform

 

Readings

 

• Charles Alexander Eastman, The Soul of the White Man (1916)
• Zitkala-Sa, America's Indian Problem (1921) 
• John Collier, A Bill of Rights for the Indians (1934)
• The Indian Reorganization Act (1934)

 

 

Thursday 4/13 April

Nations Within a Nation

 

Readings

 

• The Fort Berthold Indians' Petition to Congress on the Garrison Dam Project (1947) 
• House Concurrent Resolution 108 (1953)
• Menominee Termination (1954) 
• Richard Nixon on House Resolution 10717 (1973)
• D'Arcy McNickle and Harold E. Fey on the Termination era (1959) 
• Declaration of Indian Purpose (1961)
• Indians of All Tribes, Proclamation to the Great White Father and to All His People (1969)

 

 

WEEK 16: AMERICAN INDIAN SELF-DETERMINATION, PART 2

**Not Applicable for Winter term 2016

Tuesday 4/18

American Indian Self-Determination, part 2

 

Readings

 

• Clyde Warrior, Testimony before the President's National Advisory Commission on Rural Poverty (1968)
• Committee on the Judiciary, Revolutionary Activities Within the United States: The American Indian Movement (1976). Read pp. 1-23.
• Background on the Voight Decision and Treaty Rights
• 1854 Treaty
• From The Great Lakes Fishing & Wildlife Commission's Moving Beyond Argument: Treaty Rights and Racism (1989):
• Letter to Wisconsin Chippewa chairmen
• Representative Sensenbrenner's abrogation bill
• Ashland City Council resolution
• "Smokes" article
• "Indian shoot" article