Online Course Syllabus:
Native American History
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All lecture notes, online quizzes and course resrouces and can
be downloaded for free from the site. Please do not bring lecture
notes to class…they are for home study and use only. Prerequisite:
None—But there is an intensive amount of analytical writing
in this course as well as critical thinking. However, it is assumed
that most of you do not have college level or academic writing
skills and there will be online help available.
*Note: Syllabus subject to possible revision
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Requirements: Students must watch or listen to at least
30 minutes of national or international news per day. If you
take the local newspaper or the Los Angeles Times make sure that
you read the national and international news.The New York Timesis
also an excellent freeon line newspaper. The key for doing well
in this course and understanding the history that we cover is
that you be informed as to what is happening about you. History
is not "dead", it is constantly affecting your reality,
and if it is dead, then we all are affected by the ghosts of
the past. History is the analysis and understanding of processes
that have created our present reality….you will need to
be up on current events in order to be effective in the discussion
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Course Description: A survey of Native American history
from the time of European Contact to the present. The course
is essentially an attempt to give a voice to the “People
Without History”, since history is almost always written
by the conquerors and in this case that would be white, European
males. Our area of focus will be the Indigene tribes and nations
north of the Rio Grande river, but there will be some allusive
comparisons to Azteca and Incan civilizations as well. Lecture
content will emphasize the historical development of Native American
society, politics, culture and religion. Then the course will
examine how contact with whites altered preexisting tribal structure.
In this sense we will analyze “how the west was lost”
as Native Americans suffered what can only be describe as a conscious
effort of genocide and ethnic cleansing on the part of a United
States driven by emergent capitalism, militarism, rampant racism,
and expansionism. But the story doesn’t end there as Indian
reality will be examined in light of the twentieth century and
what has been described as the “New Custerism” where
White media and middle class society expropriates Native American
culture and religion for box office profit and “New Age”
spiritualism while US Indigenes continue to languish in Third
World poverty. Hence, first Native American lands were commodified
and taken and then their culture in the 20th century. Note: Because
of the many years and regions that the course covers the lecture
cannot be encyclopedic. Therefore the course will proceed through
historical illustration. There is much reading in the course,
but the student should not read to memorize. Understanding historical
trends has nothing to do with memorization. Rather, students
should browse read, in that you read for the main ideas for the
chapter, or section and highlight accordingly. Be sure that you
understand the main historical arguments that the author(s) make
and why they make them, and you will do well in the course. In
other words, do not lose sight of the forest because of the trees.
It is the forests, the big chunks of history that we are concerned
with understanding. Ultimately, the readings are a resource base
that will provide the data you will use to write your essays.
This is not a "lollipop" history course where everything
turns out for the best. Native American history is an epic drama
full of victories as well as horrifying atrocities. For this
reason you will not be fed disconnected facts so common in courses
that focus on what can only be described as American mythstory.
In this sense great analytical importance will be placed on "imagining
Indians", or how mainstream culture viewed them as "savages"
and today as "noble savages". Of course neither interpretation
is true, but rather reflects how we wish to "represent"
Native Americans in order to justify the past and present. This
course emphasizes critical thinking and understanding processes
of causality that forged the saga of Native American reality
between 1500 and 1988. |
Required Texts:
First Peoples by Colin G. Calloway The American Holocaust by
Stannard Both
Books are available for purchase at the VVC bookstore, College
Books and Resources in the Wimbledon Shopping Center on Hesperia
Road in Victorville, or you can order them online at www.cbar.bkstr.com
Finally…there are lecture notes and links on the site that
proceed in order. And you will click to them when you get to
the course readings. |
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Attendance: Students must attend class regularly. Weekly
attendance will be marked by completion of one discussion response
over the material covered that week. However, if your absences
are work related or due to family situations, or circumstances
beyond your control we can work around this as long as you keep
up with all readings and assignments. The key thing is that you
let me know. It is the students’ responsibility to make
sure that they have been dropped, reinstated, or are currently
enrolled in the course. I will not do any grade changes that
are related to attendance policy. IT IS
YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO MAKE SURE YOU HAVE BEEN DROPPED. DO NOT
ASSUME THAT I WILL DROP YOU AS A MATTER OF COURSE DUE TO YOUR
LACK OF ATTENDANCE |
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Grading: Students may turn in extra-credit film reviews,
or research papers if they so desire as long as they clear the
title or topic with the instructor first. The grade break down
is as follows: Midterm = 25% of final grade; Final Exam = 25%
of final grade; Book Review = 25% of final grade; and Discussion
Postings = 25% of final grade. In order to pass the course all
outstanding assignments or exams must be turned in by the day
of the final examination. The Book Review is due on the day of
the Final Exam. Finally the course is progressively graded in
that grades can only help you. 90%-100% A 80% -89% B 70% -79%
C 60% -69% D 0% -59% F |
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Course Mechanics: The course is lnternet driven. Therefore
it is essential to surf the net regularly. Video tapes of my
lectures are available. The video taped lectures are designed
to complement the readings. On the video taped lectures we usually
will not go over the readings, but on occasion I will lecture
on them or from the chapter that is assigned. I encourage on
line class participation in the forms of comments, questions,
contention, and even debate. And there is a discussion sectionwhere
you are required to sound off. My ultimate goal in the course
besides teaching world history is to create students who will
be able to argue logically, and back up their assertions with
evidence. An objective of this course is to teach students the
skills that they need to educate themselves. While the course
is "text" driven I will suggest films and movies, that
students can analyze either as on line individuals or as on line
groups.. The course stresses on-line, team-learning interaction.
This course will not be a passive learning experience, it will
be highly interactive in terms of how you explain historical
causality and outcome. Audio: R. Carlos Nakai Emergence: Songs
of the Rainbow World Native American Flute Music "Dreamer's
Chant" 1992 |
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