Spring 2000, MWF 10, Mr. Beckman
This course is a study of Native Americans, those who lived on the North American continent long before the arrival of Europeans and who still live here, though now strongly marginalized by the prevailing US socio-political system. My goal in offering this course is to provide an opportunity to learn more about these people and, through them, to learn more about ourselves and the land in which we live. For example, we can learn much about our own relationships with the natural environment when we study Native Americans, who saw their relationships with nature in quite different ways.
Native people lived throughout North America and developed remarkably rich and diverse societies and cultures. Traditionally, these cultures differed widely because of profound environmental differences; however, their recent histories (over the last 500 years) also differed widely because of the diverse paths and times of European encroachment within these environments. A one-semester study of all Native Americans would be completely impossible, in any depth, and would become uselessly superficial if attempted. I have chosen, instead, to focus attention on the indigenous people of the Western United States, with emphasis on California, the Pueblo Southwest, and the Northwest Coast from Washington to Alaska. For one reason, these are the Native Americans closest to us; for another reason, portions of the West, even then, were more densely populated with native inhabitants than many other parts of North America. California itself boasted of more tribal and tribelet groups, more diverse languages, and ultimately more reservations than any other state in the nation.
In studying any group of people, there are two main paths that we can follow. One is to view them from the "outside," using our own culture and techniques as our foundation; the other is to attempt to view them from "inside," trying to understand and adapt to their culture and techniques. In this course, we will do some of each, but I have tried to organize our approach to encourage the latter path. In other words, we will try to achieve some "experience" of the Native world rather than taking that world as merely the object of a textbook tradition.
My goal in offering this course is to encourage an understanding of Native Americans. But, in understanding them, we must come to understand ourselves better. We must confront Euro-American prejudices, greed, selfishness, and violence; we must deal with the blatant exploitation of land, resources, and people that possessed many of our own ancestors. And, somewhere in all of this, we must ask who we are as the off-spring, not too far removed, of these Euro-American conquerors. In the end, we must question whose approach to life and to the natural world stands in greater harmony and promises better opportunities for long-term survival and stability. (See my first essay in the Course Notes.)
Personal Information
Course-related materials are all to be found on the Web at http://www4.hmc.edu/humanities/western/. Generally speaking, updates to these materials will all occur on the Web without hard copies. My office is Room 1249 in Parson's Hall. You can reach me at 607-3148; but you can usually reach me faster by e-mail at Tad_Beckman@hmc.edu. My HomePage is located at http://www2.hmc.edu/~tbeckman/.
Assignments and Expectations
Attendance in class and participation are expected. If there is any reason why you cannot regularly attend this class, please discuss this with me immediately. Since one of our main activities in this class will be discussion of reading materials, you should complete reading assignments prior to the class session for which assigned (See the Schedule).
There will be two mid-semester papers and a semester research project. These are described in the accompanying page, Papers and Projects.
In addition, throughout the semester, we will have presentations by students who have read materials in addition to those assigned for general reading. See Presentations for a description and schedule.
Grading in this course will be based approximately on the following:
two papers (15% each)
in-class participation (20%)
presentation (20% -- 10% oral & 10% written)
research paper (30%) [a portion of this grade includes meeting deadlines for phases of the project throughout the semester].
Required Texts
Dixon, E. James, Quest for the Origins of the First Americans (University of New Mexico Press, 1993)
Shipley, William ed., The Maidu Indian Myths & Stories of Hanc'ibyjim (Heyday, 1991)
Wright, Barton ed. The Mythic World of the Zuni: As Written by Frank Hamilton Cushing (University of New Mexico Press, 1992)
Reid, Bill. The Raven Steals the Light, 2nd ed. (University of Washington Press, 1996)
Benedict, Ruth. Patterns of Culture (Houghton Mifflin Company, 1989)
Bean, Lowell John. Mukat's People (University of California Press, 1972)
Updated on October 12, 2000. Click here to return to course home page.