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
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
Thursday 1/12
The Atlantic World Comes to North America
WEEK 3: THE NATIVE NEW WORLD
Tuesday 1/17
Adapting to European Settler Colonies
WEEK 4: THE MIDDLE GROUND AND FRENCH COLONIZATION
Tuesday 1/24
The Middle Ground, Part One
Thursday 1/26
The Middle Ground, Part Two
WEEK 5: ENGLISH AND SPANISH COLONIZATION
Tuesday 1/31
Spanish Colonization
Readings
Thursday 2/2
English Colonization
WEEK 6: RESISTANCE AND ADAPTATION
Readings
WEEK 7: CONFRONTING NEW POWERS IN EASTERN NORTH AMERICA
Readings
WEEK 8: REVITALIZATION AND NATIVE SPACE
Tuesday 2/21
Revitalization and Racialization in Native North America
WEEK 9: WINTER BREAK
WEEK 10: AMERICAN AND AMERICAN INDIAN EXPANSION
Tuesday 3/7
The Old Southwest and Indian Removal
WEEK 11: THE WESTERN FRONTIER, PART 1
Thursday 3/16
US-Indian Military Conflicts in the American West
WEEK 13: ALLOTMENT, ASSIMILATION, AND BOARDING SCHOOLS
Thursday 3/30
The American Indian Boarding Schools
WEEK 14: AMERICAN POPULAR CULTURE AND THE ICONOGRAPHY OF AMERICAN INDIANS IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
Tuesday 4/4
John Ford’s The Searchers
Thursday 4/6
Disney’s Pocahontas
WEEK 15: AMERICAN INDIAN SELF-DETERMINATION, PART 1
Thursday 4/13 April
Nations Within a Nation
WEEK 16: AMERICAN INDIAN SELF-DETERMINATION, PART 2
**Not Applicable for Winter term 2016