University of Florida
Department of History
Semester I, Fall 2009
Flint 105, Tuesdays 3:00 –
4:55pm, Thursdays 4:05-4:55pm
Dr.
Juliana Barr
Keene-Flint
Hall, # 021
(352)
273-3364
jbarr@history.ufl.edu
http://www.clas.ufl.edu/users/jbarr
Office
hours: Wednesdays and Thursdays 2:00 – 3:30pm and by appointment
In
this course, we will examine representations and realities of North American
Indian cultures and history from the pre-Columbian period, through the period
of European-Indian contact in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth
centuries, to the first imperial expansion of the new nation of the United
States in the 1810s. Our focus will
stretch not only over a long period of time but also over the broad regions of
North America. In a course that spans
hundreds of years, thousands of miles, and millions of lives, we have to be
selective in our topics. Thus, although
we will move chronologically through these time periods, we will concentrate on
some particular themes and topics:
§ Constructions of cultural
identity (American Indian concepts of community and nation, European
characterizations of what it meant to be “Indian” and/or “white,” & the ethnogenesis of American Indian peoples in response to the
decimation of disease & warfare)
§ Diplomacy and warfare
between Indian nations & European invaders
Required
Readings
It
is of great importance that you complete the assigned readings each week by class
time on Tuesdays. This course will
consist primarily of participatory class discussion, and in order to
participate -- and participation makes up a critical amount of your final grade
-- you need to have the assigned readings completed by class time. If you miss readings, you do not simply run
the risk of falling behind, getting lost, and having to catch up -- you may
miss the one and only opportunity to express yourself on that reading. Potentially dire grade and
intellectual loss indeed. The
following THREE BOOKS are required reading; they can be purchased online or at Goerings bookstore (1717 NW 1st
Ave, phone 377-3703):
Calloway,
Colin G. First Peoples: A Documentary
Survey of American Indian History (3rd
edition)
Hudson,
Charles M. Conversations with the
High Priest of Coosa
Peter
C. Mancall and James H. Merrell, eds.
American Encounters: Natives and Newcomers from European Contact to Indian
Removal, 1500-1850 (2nd edition)
Students
will write two take-home essays, seven email reader response
essays, and will be responsible for class attendance and participation
in discussion. The grading breakdown is
as follows:
Take-home Midterm Essay (due October
15): 30%
Take-home Final Essay (due December
15): 30%
Reader responses, Attendance &
Participation: 40%
*Improvement made over the
semester will be taken into consideration in assessing final grades.
PARTICIPATION:
In
this readings-based course, your lively and informed participation in class
discussion is expected, and indeed, required.
It is your responsibility to remain current with the weekly reading
assignments in order to make possible intelligent questioning and discussion in
class. The participation grade will be based on the quality (and to some degree
the quantity) of your contributions to the class. Though the spirit may be willing, if the body
is not present, troubles they will arise.
If the body is present but unaccompanied by an active mind, troubles
they will arise. In effect, participation
serves to grade attendance and vice versa:
if you’re not in class, you don’t get credit, and your grade suffers; if
you participate in discussion, you’ll get credit and benefit your grade.
MIDTERM
AND FINAL TAKE-HOME ESSAYS:
At
mid-semester and at the end of the semester, you will be given a choice of
questions concerning course readings and discussions, from which you will
choose two questions to answer in critical essays for a total of 1500-2000
words or roughly 7-8 pages in length, double-spaced, with 1-inch margins. These essay exams will give you the
opportunity to demonstrate your skills of synthesis and will be evaluated for
how clear, convincing, and logical is the interpretation, how well it pulls together
the various course materials as evidence to make specific statements and
arguments (using quotations whenever applicable), and how well your
interpretation is presented by clarity of prose.
*Style
Guidelines for writing the two essay assignments will be handed out in
class along with the questions.
EMAIL
READER RESPONSE ESSAYS:
These
will be short (less than 500 words/ 1-2pp), “thought pieces” on the readings
assigned for a particular week. You must
submit seven of the possible
14 reflections. Reflections should be
e-mailed to me by midnight on the Monday before class.
The
purpose of these e-mail essays is to stimulate thinking about the issues,
questions, and problems raised by the readings and class discussions. In writing your reader responses, you may
explore, mull over, ruminate upon, or raise questions about the readings and
develop or clarify your own ideas. If you want, you can “speak back” to the
readings, disagree with points made by the authors, make connections between
these readings and strands of analysis in other course materials, etc. The responses should be expressive and
exploratory, and, as such, will not be penalized for being disorganized,
tentative, or fragmentary as you “think out loud” on paper.
For
the most part, you will be rewarded for the process of thinking rather than the
end product you produce—i.e. they will not be evaluated on how well they are
written, but rather on the extent to which they reveal your engaged thinking
about the topic. They are also a chance
for you to suggest issues that you think are important to be raised in class
discussion. I may use these responses to
build discussion, but in doing so, I will not name names.
[1]
ATTENDANCE:
Class
attendance is compulsory if you wish to do well in the course. There will be an attendance sheet on which to
sign in each class. If you must miss
class, you should let me know as far in advance as possible. The only EXCUSED absences are those due to
medical emergencies, university business that requires that you be out-of-town
(such as athletic participation), religious holidays, etc. Unexcused absences will garner a failing
grade.
[2]
TARDINESS:
I
appreciate the difficulties of moving around campus, but it is important to be
on time, especially as important announcements about the course, assignments,
etc. may be provided at the beginning of class.
If you are late, please take a seat as unobtrusively as possible and, at
the end of class, be sure to sign in on the attendance sheet.
[3]
LATE OR MISSED ASSIGNMENTS:
People
get the flu, have family emergencies, find themselves
overloaded with work. It happens. That said, students
who complete assignments on time deserve to have their timeliness
recognized. Thus, late assignments
will be accepted, (but a late penalty will be assessed ) only 1] if your
lateness is due to extreme circumstances, 2) if you notify me of the delay
prior to the due date, and 3) if you provide written proof of the situation
that impelled your lateness (doctor’s note, funeral notice, bail bond receipt,
etc). Please keep in mind that a missed
assignment warrants a zero grade—a much lower numerical grade than an “E.”
I
take my honor code obligations seriously and expect you to do the same. In this course, it is especially important
that you do not commit PLAGIARISM – which is the failure to properly cite and
give credit when you use the ideas, words, phrases, or arguments of other
people in your writing assignments. One
of the biggest dangers that risks plagiarism is the use of the web in writing
your papers – avoid this at all costs.
Plagiarism constitutes intellectual theft and academic dishonesty. If you are at all worried that you might be in
danger of plagiarism or any other honor code violation, you should ASK me (not
another student) in advance. The
University of Florida’s honesty policies regarding cheating and plagiarism and
the consequences for violating those policies may be viewed at http://www.dso.ufl.edu/sccr/honorcodes/honorcode.php
-- consequences that include a zero grade for the assignment, a failing grade
for the course, and sometimes expulsion from school.
Any
student with a disability who needs special accommodations should contact me as
soon as possible with the proper documentation from the Dean of Students Office
(http://www.dso.ufl.edu/drc).
Weekly
Topics and Reading Assignments
(Topics,
due dates, and other scheduled events are subject to revision by the professor;
reading assignments must be completed by Tuesday each week)
Week
1: August
25, 27 – Introduction to Course
Week
2: September
1, 3 – The More Things Change. . . .
Readings:
·
Charles Hudson, Conversations
with the High Priest of Coosa (all)
·
Neal Salisbury, “The Indians’ Old World,” in American Encounters,
pp. 3-24
·
Colin Calloway, First Peoples,
chp. 1, pp. 14-69
Week
3: September
8, 10 – Europeans Imagine the “Fantastic” & Indians Wonder at the “Other”
Readings:
·
Natalie Zemon Davis, “Iroquois Women,
European Women,” in American
Encounters, pp. 84-106
·
Juliana Barr, “A Diplomacy of Gender,” in American Encounters,
pp. 393-426
·
Colin Calloway, First Peoples,
chp. 2, pp. 127-130, chp.
3, pp. 181-184
Week
4: September 15, 17 – The Columbian
Exchange and a Way of Death
Readings:
·
David S. Jones, “Virgin Soils Revisited,” in American Encounters, pp. 51-83
·
Peter Mancall, “‘The Bewitching Tyranny of
Custom,’” pp. 269-89
·
Colin Calloway, First Peoples,
chp. 1, pp. 80-82
Week
5: September
22, 24 – Conquistadores and Caciques in the Spanish Borderlands
Readings:
·
Steven Hackel, “The Staff of Leadership,” in American
Encounters, pp. 637-664
·
James Brooks, “‘The Evil Extends Especially,’” in American
Encounters, pp. 510-
532
·
Colin Calloway, First Peoples,
chp. 2, pp. 82-92, 108-119, 130-145
Week 6: September 29, October 1 – French
Newcomers to Canada, Louisiana, & the Great Lakes
Film:
Black Robe
Readings:
·
Bruce White, “Encounters with Spirits: Ojibwa & Dakota Theories
about the
French &
their Merchandise,” in American Encounters, pp. 216-245
·
Colin Calloway, First Peoples,
chp. 2, pp. 92-98, 119-127
Week 7: October 6, 8 –
Englishmen Along the Atlantic
Readings:
·
Virginia De John Anderson, “King Philip’s Herds,” in American
Encounters, pp.
246-268
·
James Merrell, “The Indians’ New World: The Catawba Experience,” in American
Encounters, pp. 25-50
·
Colin Calloway, First Peoples,
chp. 2, pp. 98-107
Week
8: October 13, 15 –
TAKE-HOME MIDTERM ESSAY EXAM DUE OCTOBER 15
Missions
Readings:
·
David Silverman, “Indians, Missionaries, & Religious Translation,”
in American Encounters, pp. 149-176
·
Jane Merritt, “Dreaming of the Savior’s Blood,” in American
Encounters, pp. 177-200
·
Rebecca Kugel, “Of Missionaries & Their
Cattle,” in American Encounters, pp. 201-215
Week
10: October 27, 29 – Conflicting
Economies? Capitalist Europe meets
Gift-Giving Native America
Readings:
·
Daniel Usner, “The Frontier Exchange
Economy,” in American Encounters, pp.
290-313
·
Joshua Piker, “‘White & Clean’ &
Contested,’” in American Encounters,
pp. 336-
360
·
Colin Calloway, First Peoples,
chp. 3, pp. 154-162
Week
11: November
3, 5 – In Love and War: Fur Trade as Colonial Melting Pot
Film: Ikwe
Readings:
·
Susan Sleeper-Smith, “Women, Kin, and Catholicism,” in American
Encounters,
pp.
107-130
Week
12: November
10, 12 – Codes of Diplomacy, Violence, and War
Readings:
·
Daniel Richter, “War & Culture: The Iroquois Experience,” in American
Encounters, pp. 427-452
·
Timothy Shannon, “Dressing for Success on the Mohawk Frontier,” in
American Encounters, pp. 533-558
·
John Mack Faragher, “‘More Motley than
Mackinaw,’” in American Encounters, pp. 665-684
Week
13: November 17, 19 – New Forms of Bondage:
Captivity and Slavery
Readings:
·
Brett Rushforth, “‘A Little Flesh We Offer
You,’” in American Encounters, pp.
455-482
·
James Axtell, “The White Indians of Colonial America,” in American Encounters,
pp. 483-509
·
Colin Calloway, First Peoples,
chp. 3, pp. 173-175, 191-197, 207-210
Week
14: November
24 – A Clash of Empires across Indian Lands [NO CLASS ON
NOVEMBER 26 due to THANKSGIVING]
Film:
Last of the Mohicans
Readings:
Calloway,
First Peoples, chp.
3, pp. 162-173, 175-180
Week
15: December
1, 3 – Tecumseh, a Red Nation, and the “Noble Savage”
Readings:
·
Gregory Evans Dowd, “Thinking & Believing,” in American
Encounters, pp. 561-
584
·
Colin Calloway, First Peoples,
chp. 4, pp. 218-228
Week
16: December
9 – Indian Empires in the West
Readings:
·
Richard White, “The Winning of the West,” in American Encounters,
pp. 685-704
·
Pekka Hämäläinen, “The Rise
& Fall of Plains Indian Horse Cultures,” in
American Encounters, pp. 361-392
Tuesday,
December 15: TAKE-HOME FINAL ESSAY EXAM
due by 12noon