Fall 2005                                            ANTH  316gm / HIST 317gm   

NORTH AMERICAN INDIANS IN AMERICAN PUBLIC LIFE

Walter L. Williams, Ph.D.                                     

Professor of Anthropology, History, and Gender Studies          

University of Southern California      office  Stonier 116

Los Angeles CA 90089-4352

Class time:  Tuesday – Thursday 11:00 – 12:20

Office hours: following each class,  and by appointment.

This class meets the requirement for Category 2 “Cultures and Civilizations II” (Non-Western cultures) in the General Education requirements.  It begins with an analysis of the indigenous cultures of North America before the coming of the Europeans, and then focuses on the historical changes occurring in these non-Western cultures as a result of Indian tribes’ interactions with the United States political system. 

The course will assess whether people of the First American Nations can be classified as the de facto colonial subjects of the United States, and how their political positions evolved from an independent status to a dependent one.  Other major topics of analysis include diverse issues relating to law, economics, gender, sexuality, and military affairs.  By focusing on these issues, students will be expected to think about and make conclusions about the unique realities facing modern indigenous peoples as minorities in their own homeland, and the implications of these realities for an understanding of American notions of democracy.

REQUIRED READING:

Bob Blaisdell, ed., Great Speeches by Native Americans (Dover).

Joel Martin, The Land Looks After Us: A History of Native American Religion  (Oxford University Press).

Mark Sutton, An Introduction to Native North America (Allyn & Bacon).

James Wilson, The Earth Shall Weep: A History of Native America (Grove).

ASSIGNMENTS:

1.   Before Tuesday, September 27, write an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the exhibits representing Native Americans in the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History (just south of USC campus in Exposition Park), and also in the Southwest Museum (in Mount Washington, off the 110 Pasadena Freeway).  Write three double-spaced typed pages on the two museums.  Visit these museums during September, and write your report immediately after visiting each museum while it is fresh in your mind.  You must turn in the report on both museums before the deadline, or it will be counted down for lateness.  

(10% of the semester grade).

2.  Discussion of readings in discussion section.  Each week you will read an average of about 100 pages, which is the College Deans’ standard for reading requirements in a USC General Education class.  Since you must be present in order to engage in discussions, if you miss more than one weekly meeting, you will be graded down. 

(10% of semester grade).

3. Before Tuesday October 4 deadline, turn in take-home MIDTERM TEST, of essay and shorter discussion questions, covering the readings and lectures during the first half of the course

(30% of semester grade)

4.  Before Friday December 2 deadline, turn in your RESEARCH PAPER (9-11 doublespaced typed pages), based on outside readings.  Plagiarism of a paper, or purchasing of a paper, is a serious offense, and will result in an "F" grade in this class.

 (20% of semester grade).

5. Before Tuesday December 13 at 11am, turn in take-home FINAL EXAM, on lectures and readings since the midterm.  Turn it in earlier than this time if possible.

(30% of semester grade).

CLASS SCHEDULE  (dates are approximate and may be revised)

WEEK OF:

August 23 - 25  Introduction to the class. 

  READ:  Earth Shall Weep  Prologue and Chapter 1.

             Introduction Chapter 1.

          [do the reading above during this week, in order to be able to

discuss it during the upcoming discussion section].

**** Assignment:  visit museum during the next two weeks.

           PART I:  NATIVE CULTURES OF THE NORTH AND WEST

August 30 - September 1  Paleo-Indians, Subarctic and Arctic

  READ:  Introduction  Chapters 3 and 4.

September 6 - 8:  Northwest Coast, and Plateau.  

  READ: Introduction  Chapters 6 and 5.

            Earth Shall Weep Chapters 2 and 7.

 *** Deadline of Sept. 13 to turn in research paper proposal.

September 13 - 15  Basin, Mexico, and the Southwest.

  READ: Introduction  Chapters 7 and 9

            Earth Shall Weep Ch. 8.

**** Assignment before September 27 deadline: turn in report on Native American exhibits in the Southwest Museum and in the Los Angeles County Museum of Natural History.

September 20 - 22   California

       READ:  Introduction  Chapter 8.

          Assignment:  prepare take-home midterm test.

**** Tuesday OCTOBER 4  Deadline to turn in take-home MIDTERM TEST.

 REVISED  PART II: NATIVE CULTURES OF THE EAST AND PLAINS

September 27 - 29  Eastern Woodlands       [97pp.]

  READ:   Introduction Chapters 11 and 12   [69pp.]

              Earth Shall Weep  Ch. 3   [28pp.]

October 4 - 6  Midwestern Indians and the early United States   [119pp.]

  READ:  Earth Shall Weep Chs. 4 and 5   [59pp.]

               The Land Looks  Preface and  Chs. 1 and 2  [60pp.]

October 11 - 13  Southeastern Culture Change, Removal, Decline  [130pp.]

  READ:  Earth Shall Weep  Ch. 6   [40pp.]

             Great Speeches  Note, Part I & Part II through p.89 Osceola  [90pp.]

October 18 - 20   Plains Indians   [77pp.]

  READ:  Introduction Chapter 10   [39pp.]

             Earth Shall Weep  Ch. 9   [38pp.]

October 25 - 27   Plains Indians

  READ:   Great Speeches Part II pp. 122 – 191  [69pp.]

 PART III:   MODERN NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURES

November 1 – 3   Indians as Wards of the U.S., 1880s-1920s   [92pp.]

  READ: Earth Shall Weep Ch. 10  [40pp.]

               The Land Looks  Chs.3 and 4   [52pp.]

November 8 - 10 The Indian New Deal, World War II, Termination

  READ:  Earth Shall Weep Chs. 11 and 12  [77pp.]

November 15 - 17  Protests and Reform in the 1960s --1970s.  [total 77pp.]

  READ:  Introduction Chapter 13.  [10pp.]

The Land Looks Chapter 5  [25pp.]

Great Speeches Part III  [23pp.]

          Earth Shall Weep  Epilogue.  [19pp.]

November 22 (Tuesday): No class, due to previous museum fieldtrips.

November 24 (Thursday):  No class, due to Thanksgiving holiday.

**** Assignment:  Work on the research paper this week.

November 29 - December 1  Native Americans since 1980.

  *** Friday December 2.  final deadline to turn in RESEARCH PAPER***

RESEARCH PAPER TOPICS:

Choose one national or local Indian rights organization, tribal government, individual, or group of Natives, and write a paper evaluating how effective that group or person was in improving the lives of Indian people.  You might focus on efforts to reduce anti-Indian prejudice and discrimination, or efforts to build a stronger local economy on a reservation, or ways in which the work of an individual or a group of people made concrete advances for Native Americans.  If possible, give emphasis to the most recent decades.

For some ideas of how you might approach your topic, see the

essays on Indian reservation and national leaders in Walter

Williams, ed., Indian Leadership.  Do not choose to write on the individuals covered in this book, but use them as possible models for your research.

  Your sources should include at least four books and/or journal articles from libraries.  Los Angeles is the location of some of the world's best library collections about Native Americans.  Besides the USC Library, you should also plan on using at least one of these:

1.  Los Angeles Museum of Natural History (enter at their staff

entrance on the Exposition Street side of the Museum just south of USC campus). 

2.  Los Angeles Public Library (main downtown LA library and the American Indian Collection at the Huntington Park branch).

3.  The Southwest Museum Library (off the Pasadena 110 freeway   on Mt. Washington)

4.  UCLA American Indian Studies Center (3rd floor Campbell Hall)

          and UCLA Graduate Library

5.  You might interview Native people for their oral history recollections, either by interviewing tribal members now living in southern California, or visiting a nearby reservation.

For the most up-to-date bibliography, ask librarians at the reference desk.  You may want to use the "Bibliography of Native North Americans on Disc" (CD-ROM disc, in Doheny Library), or the 4th edition of the Ethnographic Bibliography of North America (1975) and Supplement to the 4th Edition of  "    "     "               "    (1990). You might also seek information from the Human Relations Area Files (HRAF microfishe, and e-HRAF, in the USC Doheny Library reference room).