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AIS/HSTAA 332, Winter 2010
American Indian History since 1840 QUESTIONS TO GUIDE READING AND DISCUSSION
Week of January 4-8
McMurtry, Crazy Horse,
pp. 1-63: 1. According
to McMurtry, Crazy Horse was not a typical Sioux man. Instead, he was an
eccentric loner who flouted some key Sioux customs. If this is so, why study
his life in this survey course on Indian history? What can we learn from
focusing on a man who was in some important ways an exception to the rule in
his society? 2. McMurtry
characterizes the Sioux as "highly individualistic people" (p. 24).
What is the factual basis for this characterization? Would such individualism
have been advantageous or detrimental in the Sioux struggle to preserve their
territory and way of life as the 3. What
sources and types of power did the Catlin, Letters and
Notes on...North American Indians, Letter No. 58: 4. What
were Catlin's aims in painting and writing about Indians? What attitudes and
beliefs regarding Indians did he attribute to white Americans? How did his own aims
and his impression of American attitudes influence his depictions of Indians? 5. Which
aspects of Indian society did Catlin choose to depict? Why do you suppose he
chose to focus on those subjects rather than others? Which of his depictions
seem to provide the most reliable information on the customs and conditions of
Indians he visited? Which of his depictions seem least credible and why? 6. Compare
Catlin's analysis of Indian governments and warfare to the analysis in
McMurtry's book. 7. What
can we learn from Catlin's letter about the extent and nature of Indian
contacts with non-Indians in the trans-Mississippi West as of 1844? Can you
think of likely places and types of contact that he does not mention? ASSIGNMENT: No later than
Week of January 11-15
McMurtry, Crazy Horse,
pp. 64 to the end: 1. Why
would "a considerable body of Crow and Shoshone scouts" have assisted
and fought with U.S. army troops under General Custer's command in 1876 (page
93)? 2. When
you view the documentary film "Last Stand at Little Bighorn" on
January 14, compare its account of General Custer's famous last battle to
McMurtry's account. Do the book and the film provide different information? Do
they emphasize different facts? Do they offer differing analyses of the
battle's significance? 3. Make a
list of developments, circumstances, and occurrences that induced various Sioux
bands to stop fighting and settle near a government agency. Could the Sioux
struggle for freedom have played out differently if any of the things on your
list had not occurred or had not affected the Indians? 4. McMurtry
asserts that the 5. When
McMurtry describes Crazy Horse as the one Sioux "who had never learned to
walk the white man's road" (page 139), he implies that other chiefs and
warriors named in his book did learn to walk that road. Does that metaphor
fairly or helpfully describe the accommodations those other Sioux leaders made?
New York Daily Times articles, 1851: 6. What
information can you glean from these articles to supplement McMurtry's
depiction of mid-nineteenth-century relations between the 7. To the
author of the article titled "The Indian Treaty-Ground," what was the
significance of the ceremonies and the elaborate apparel he saw among the
Indians gathered at Heizer, letters and
petitions from The Destruction of I recommend that you read
these items in chronological order. 9. What policy
or policies toward Indians did the authors of these documents recommend and
why? Drawing on the articles for evidence, identify and explain the challenges
that American officials would have faced if they had embraced and tried to
carry out those recommendations? 10. Compare
the circumstances facing California Indians and their relations with
non-Indians to the circumstances and relations of the Sioux in the 1850s.
Explain any differences you identify. Week of January 18-22
Adams, Education for
Extinction, through page 59: 1. 2. Why
did 3. Do the
educational aims of late-nineteenth-century schools for Indians differ from the
aims of present-day American public schools? If so, in what ways? Reports of the
Commissioner of Indian Affairs, 1873: As of the 1870s it was 4. What
can you tell from these reports about the nature and the extent or limits of 5. What
challenges did these federal officials face as they tried to fulfill their task
of persuading and teaching Indians to live like "civilized" white
Americans? What challenges did Indians face who made an effort to comply with
their federal supervisors' advice or expectations? 6. What
hardships did reservation life entail for these Indians in 1873? Why? 7. Did
Indians on these various reservations have some kinds of experiences in common?
In what respects did reservation life differ from agency to agency? ASSIGNMENT: By Questions Based on Student Knowledge and Interest
Have Indians been engaged since 1840 in perpetual
conflict with Has
there been substantial conflict between Indian tribes? If so, why? Has the Have Indians been victims of genocide? Did
the Have reservations been harmful places for Indians? Have Indians lost their cultures as a result of Have Indians been able to resist efforts to change
their cultures? If so, how and when? Has
U.S. Indian policy changed over time? If so, how and why? Have
Indians served in the What
is Indians' present legal/political status in the Why
does the What
has been the basis for status as an Indian and/or a tribe member? When
and why did many Indians settle in cities, and what have been the consequences? Why
did many tribes recently go into the business of operating casinos? As
the twenty-first century began, was the Weeks of January 25-29 and February 1-4
Adams, Education for
Extinction, pp. 60 to the end: 1. What
were the motivations of people who took teaching and administrative jobs in the
Indian schools? 2. To
many or most present-day Americans, both the aim and the regime of Indian
boarding schools seem cruel. Why? Did policy makers and school authorities
consider them cruel at the time? If not, why not? 3. Why
did some Indian families conclude that there were benefits to enrolling their
children in boarding schools? Why did some Indian students speak positively
about their boarding school experience? 4. If
boarding schools were supposed to make Indians like White people, which Whites
were the Indian children supposed to resemble? Which White customs and
behaviors were they supposed to emulate? 5. What
did Tsait-kope-ta mean when he told Pratt, "'Now I am a white man?'"
(p. 46) 6. By
emphasizing industrial or vocational training more than academic skills, did
Indian school administrators do the students an injustice or a service? Were
they being realistic about the career opportunities that students would have?
Were they just serving the needs of capitalists by socializing Indians to
become wage workers at lower levels of the economic system? Hoxie, "From Prison
to Homeland": There are two likely typos
in this article. On page 2, in the second full paragraph, the third-to-last
line should probably say the Interior Secretary believed that white settlement
"made it impossible" for the Indians to maintain their
customs. And the first line of the next paragraph should probably read,
"Not surprisingly, tribal leaders...disagreed with Senator
Dawes...." 7. After
reading this article, do you have new thoughts about Larry McMurtry's comment
that some Sioux leaders learned "to walk the white man's road?" 8. What
circumstances or factors led Indians on the Cheyenne River Reservation to think
they had the power to resist some 9. Hoxie
argues that Indians "used many of the new reservation institutions as
vehicles for...cultural survival." (p. 23) He also asserts that
"despite... upheavals, the culture of those people survived." (p. 24)
How does he seem to define "culture?" What does he mean by
"cultural survival" in the specific case of Cheyenne River Sioux?
Does he make a persuasive argument that Sioux culture survived the upheavals of
early reservation life? Harrington,
"Self-Determination for American Red Man": Note that you'll have to
flip each page over to read the continuation of the columns of text. 10. How do
the characterizations of Indians and the future envisioned for Indians in this
article compare or relate to the characterizations and future envisioned by
Richard Pratt and champions of the Indian boarding schools? 11. Not all
Indians supported the proposal to give Indians full ASSIGNMENT FOR WEEK OF
JANUARY 25-29: What is culture? Can change
actually destroy a culture? If so, how much or what kind of change? Such
questions have arisen repeatedly in American Indian history, both for historians
and for the Indians they study. The questions deserve more discussion in this
class. Let's ground that discussion in the specific information available to us
so far by sharing responses to Questions 5 and 9. No later than Week of February 8-12
Philp, "John
Collier and the Controversy over the Wheeler-Howard Bill": 1. Identify
factors that made it difficult for John Collier to realize his dream of
promoting an Indian economic, political, and cultural renaissance. 2. Compare
Collier's image of Indians before 1934 with the picture of Indians that emerges
from Indian comments at the regional congresses in 1934. 3. Note
the differences between Collier's initial legislative proposal and the act that
Congress finally passed in June, 1934. Do any of these differences appear to
address concerns that Indians expressed about the proposed legislation? Cash and 4. Do
these Sioux men describe any consequences of the Indian New Deal that are
consistent with fears expressed by Indians in 1934? Do they describe any
consequences that are consistent with hopes expressed by Indians in 1934? 5. Looking
back in the 1960s, did these men see reasons to like or dislike the Indian New
Deal that were different from those anticipated by Indians in 1934? ASSIGNMENT: Complete this reading by Tuesday, February 9. If
your last name begins with any letter from A through O, come to class that day
with a written response to question 2 above. If your last name begins with any
letter from P through Z, come to class on Tuesday with a written response to
question 4 above. You may be called on to share your response in class. Week of February 15-19
Wilkinson, Blood
Struggle, through Part I, Chapter 3: 1. In his
introduction, Wilkinson reveals personal experiences and a strong conviction
that moved him to write this book and inspired the questions he addresses. Find
two or three places in these chapters where Wilkinson's personal perspective
appears to influence his presentation of historical information. Describe
specifically how you think his perspective influenced the presentation. What
additional kinds of information might help you decide whether to accept
Wilkinson's analysis? NY Times -- " 2. These
articles from the mid-1950s concern the new U.S. Indian policy that Wilkinson
discusses in Chapter 3 of Blood Strugglethe
policy of ending the federal government's self-appointed role as Indians'
guardian. Compare the newspaper presentation to Wilkinson's presentation
of the issues that the policy raised for Indians. What might account for any
differences you see? 3. If
termination of the federal guardianship was dishonorable and damaging to
Indians, as Wilkinson asserts, why did Indians not mount an immediate effort to
block the policy? 4. If
federal officials agreed that terminating the guardianship was the best policy
for Indians, why did they express reluctance to apply the policy to all tribes?
NY Times -- "About 5. Compare
these depictions of Indian experiences in big cities to Wilkinson's discussion
of Indian experiences in the relocation program on page 85. What might account
for any differences you see? Assignment: Sometime
this week, but no later than the end of the day on Friday, February 19, enter a
response on the class Go-Post site to Question 1, 2, or 5. If you answer Question 1, discuss just one place in Blood
Struggle where you detect the influence of Wilkinson's personal
perspective. In addition, comment briefly
on another student's response to one of the questions that you did not choose
to address. Week of March 1-5
1. Compare
these articles about Indians who moved into cities with the articles on the
same subject from 1956 (week 7 reading) and also with the coverage of urban
Indians in "The Forgotten American," a CBS film shown in class on
February 25. 2. What
effects did life in the city have on how Indians identified themselves or
thought about Indians and Indian identity? Indians of All Nations,
"Proclamation to the Great White Father": 3. Critique
the representation of Indians' history in this document. How does it depict that
history and why? Is the depiction consistent with what you have learned in this
course? 4. What
images of Indians did the authors of this proclamation want to promote, and
why? Wilkinson, Blood
Struggle, pp. 127-268: 5. Identify
some interest groups and some government departments or agencies that competed
with Indians to influence federal legislation or the actions of federal
officials. Which groups and agencies persuaded the government to take action
that Indians opposed? How or why did their efforts succeed? 6. What
allies did Indians have in their struggle for greater tribal sovereignty? Why
did those allies support Indians' interests? 7. From
this account of how Indians achieved increasing sovereignty after the 1960s,
can we learn something more general about the nature of political processes in
the ASSIGNMENTS: By Wednesday, March 3, read
Chapters 9 and 10 of Blood Struggle carefully. Note any of the material
regarding the law or legislation that you find hard to understand or would like
to discuss. Come to class with the book and with at least one of your questions
written down. |
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Course Email Last modified: 2/24/2010 11:53 AM |