H425 Topics in American History Prof. Michael Snodgrass

Fall 2004 Office: CA 503S 278-7761

Room CA 221 Office hours: M 2-4

Monday 5:45-8:25 E-mail: misnodgr@iupui.edu

COMPARATIVE NATIVE AMERICAN HISTORY

Course objectives:

This course offers a comparative study of the history of Native Americans in the region we today know as North America (Mexico, Canada, USA). The themes we examine highlight the cultural, economic, and political relations that developed between Natives, Europeans, and then white Americans during the last five centuries. We focus not only on the distinct experiences of the diverse peoples called ‘Indians.’ We also explore the forces that shaped their history by analyzing the attitudes and policies of the white settlers, traders, missionaries, and government officials who worked with (and often against) Indians in the making of a New World in the Americas. The history of Native Americans permits us to explore broader historical themes as well, from the nature of colonialism and its legacies in the Americas to the means by which seemingly dominated groups like Indians maintain their dignity through distinct means of resistance and accommodation.

Consistent with IUPUI’s Principles of Undergraduate Learning, this course is designed to develop student skills of critical and comparative analysis, improve writing proficiency, and enhance one’s capacity to organize and express his or her thoughts. Students will sharpen these skills by writing short essays, engaging in classroom discussions and constructive debate, preparing for examinations, and conducting research for term papers.

Given its strong focus on Spanish America and Mexico, history students may use H425 to satisfy the non-US/non-European component of the major.

Required readings (books at Indy’s College Bookstore, 601 W. 11^th St., or IUPUI Bookstore):

* Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West

* Inga Clendinnen, Ambivalent Conquests: Maya and Spaniard in Yucatan

* John Kicza, Resilient Cultures: America’s Native Peoples Confront European Colonization, 1500-1800

* ERROL readings posted to the library’s Electronic Reserves system. (To access these readings, go to http://errol.ulib.iupui.edu/, click Snodgrass under instructor, click on our class H425 and then enter the password HISTH425 to open the documents.)

* Oncourse readings are posted under the SCHEDULE tab as pdf files

* Online documents are accessible through a) the website addresses listed on this syllabus or

b) direct links via the syllabus posted to the Oncourse system

This syllabus, class announcements, lecture outlines, assignments, and grades will be posted to Oncourse (go to https://oncourse.iupui.edu/). Students unfamiliar with the Oncourse system may find a “Getting Help” guide at the website or see the professor for assistance.

Course requirements and grading (based upon 1,000 total points):

One mid-term exam = 200 points

One term paper = 300 points

Two essays (150 points each) = 300 points (assignments provided in class)

Critical reading analyses (4H25 points) = 100 points*

Class participation = 100 points

* Students will prepare four 2-page critical reviews of selected readings based upon questions provided on the previous week’s lecture outline and posted to the Oncourse system (under the SCHEDULE tab). Students may choose to write the critical reading reviews on any four of the six days indicated in the course schedule by an asterisk (*).

Final grade scores: A (1,000-930), A- (929-900), B+ (899-880), B (879-830), B- (829-800), C+ (799-780), C (779-730), C- (729-700), D (699-600), F (599 or less).

Remember...

* You are expected to attend all classes and come prepared to discuss all reading assignments. Class participation grades reflect active participation in classroom discussions.

* All late assignments will be penalized as follows: one grade (B to C) for assignments not turned in on due date, and two full grades (B to D) for assignments turned in more than one week late. ASSIGNMENTS MORE THAN TWO WEEKS LATE ARE NOT ACCEPTED.

* Be sure to save all papers on your hard drive and a diskette and to retain graded assignments until final grades are posted. Check Oncourse to ensure your grades are recorded correctly.

* Plagiarism and cheating will be punished in accordance with university policy, as outlined in the Indiana University Academic Handbook (p.123) and the IUPUI Campus Bulletin, 2000-2002 (p.36). The following is from the School of Liberal Arts official statement on plagiarism:

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“Plagiarism is the use of the work of others without properly crediting the actual source of the ideas, words, sentences, paragraphs, entire articles, music or pictures. Using other students’ work (with or without their permission) is still plagiarism if you don’t indicate who initially did the work. Plagiarism, a form of cheating, is a serious offense and will be severely punished. When an instructor suspects plagiarism, he/she will inform the student of the charge; the student has the right to respond to the allegations. Students whose work appears to be plagiarized may be asked to produce earlier drafts of work or all the books/articles used in a paper or speech. Students should, for this reason and as a protection in cases of lost papers, retain rough drafts, notes, computer files and other work products for three weeks after the end of each semester. The penalties for plagiarism include reprimands, being failed for a particular take-home exam, paper, project or the entire course, disciplinary probation, or dismissal. Faculty, after consulting with their chair and/or the School of Liberal Arts Dean of Students must notify students in writing of their decision. Students have the right to appeal such decisions by submitting petitions to the Academic Affairs Committee. Petitions can be obtained in CA 401. For further information, see ‘Code of Student Ethics,’ available in CA 401.”

LECTURES AND READING ASSIGNMENTS

Part One - A New World for All

Aug. 30 Native America before the Europeans

Sep. 13 Europe’s conquest and colonization of Native America

Kizca, Resilient Cultures, 1-64

Sep. 20 Indians and Missionaries in New Spain

Inga Clendinnen, Ambivalent Conquests

Essay #1 due today

Sep. 27 Native accommodation and resistance in Spanish America

Kizca, Resilient Cultures, 67-104, 174-85

Oct. 4 The French in Native America

Kizca, Resilient Cultures, 104-122

ERROL reading: Amerindian Perspectives on French Civilization

Term paper proposals due

Oct. 11 British Colonialism and the Indians’ New World

Kizca, Resilient Cultures, 125-149

* ERROL reading: James Merrell, “The Indians’ New World: The Catawba Experience,” The William and Mary Quarterly (Oct. 1984), 537-65

Oct. 18 Native Americans in the Age of Revolution

* Oncourse reading: Daniel Richter, “Separate Creations,” from Facing East from Indian Country, 189-236

Oct. 25 Mid-term examination

Part Two - Liberty and Justice for All?

Nov. 1 Indians and the Legacies of Colonialism in 19^th Century Mexico

* Oncourse reading: excerpts from Guillermo Bonfil Batalla, Mexico Profundo: Reclaiming a Civilization, pp.41-59, 70-79, 94-107

Annotated bibliographies due

Nov. 8 Integrating Indians into a New and Revolutionary Mexico

ERROL reading: F. Tannenbaum, “The Indian and the Spaniard,” from Peace By Revolution: Mexico After 1910 (l933, pp. 3-33)

* Oncourse reading: Jan Rus, “The ‘Comunidad Revolucionaria Institucional’: The Subversion of Native Government in Highland Chiapas”

Nov. 15 Native Americans Encounter Manifest Destiny

ERROL reading: C. Calloway, “American Indians and the New Nation, 1783-1838"

* Online documents:

1) Refusal of the Chicawaws and Choctaws to Cede Their Lands in Mississippi (l826): http://www.yale.edu/lawweb/avalon/ntreaty/nt007.htm

2) L.H. Morgan, “The Destiny of the Indian” (1851): http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/1851morgan.html

Nov. 22 Diplomacy and Warfare on the American Frontier

Dee Brown, Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Essay #2 due today

Nov. 29 Federal Policy and Indian Activism in 20^th Century USA

Dec. 6 The Resurrection of Indian Activism in 20^th Century Latin America

* Oncourse reading: Joel Simon, “Jungle Warfare,” from Endangered Mexico: An Environment on the Edge

ERROL reading: “A Political Awakening,” The Economist (2/2/04)

Dec. 13 Term papers due

Term Paper Guidelines

Objectives:

All students will submit a 15-20 page term paper that will be due on the final day of class. The paper will explore any theme or issue related to the history of Native Americans and their relations with non-Indians during the past five centuries. All students will first submit a 1-2 page paper proposal that outlines their subject of study and why they chose it. Each proposal must meet the professor’s approval. Students will then submit an annotated bibliography that outlines their principal sources of evidence. Those sources will include, at a minimum, four scholarly books, two articles from academic journals, and two primary sources of documentation (for example, government documents, treaties, first-hand accounts, or newspaper articles). The annotated bibliography should provide a one-paragraph explanation of each source’s content and its relevance to the student’s paper. The objective is not only to conduct an in-depth investigation into a theme of great interest but to enhance the student’s research skills. We will briefly discuss some research strategies in class. Students are also encouraged to schedule a meeting with one of the IUPUI Library’s top research specialists, Kristi Palmer (* add tel and/or e-mail)

Potential themes:

Students can explore research subjects by skimming through the Kicza book and its end-of-chapter bibliographies or through IUPUI’s fairly extensive holdings on Native American history (and less extensive holdings on Latin America). Among the themes students may wish to explore would be broad issues like trade, diplomacy, warfare, religious conversion, or education policies. Within those fields, you may want to explore a more specific topic of relevance, such as the fur trade, the Indian Removal Act (US, 1830), or the role of Jesuits in Spanish or French America. One could examine the history of a specific Indian tribe or nation or a key Native American organization, like the American Indian Movement (US). Or, you could explore Native American history by analyzing a key event such as the Spanish Conquest of Mexico, the Lewis and Clark Expedition, the Caste War (Mexico, l840s), or the more recent Zapatista rebellion in the southern Mexican state of Chiapas.

Guidelines:

Final papers should be no less than fifteen and no more than twenty pages in length, not including the title page and bibliography. They should be prepared in 12 point font, double-spaced, and employ footnotes to cite all primary and secondary sources. For the proper preparation of footnotes and bibliographies consult Richard Marius, A Short Guide to Writing About History (on 2-hour reserve at the IUPUI Library). Final papers will be graded on a) effective use of both secondary and primary sources (papers that rely too heavily on a single source will be marked down), and b) overall organization, grammar, and spelling. While it is not required, students are strongly encouraged to submit a preliminary draft of the paper for comments and suggestions no later than Dec. 6. Failure to submit the proposal and annotated bibliography on due dates or in accordance with guidelines will be calculated into the final paper grade.