Northwestern College

NATIVE NORTH AMERICAN

SOCIETIES & CULTURES

History/Sociology 317x-1, Fall Semester 2010
(4 Credits)

Professor: Douglas Firth Anderson

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Class Period: T/Th, 12:05-1:35 p.m.

Office, Phone, & E-mail: VPH 212, x7054, firth@nwciowa.edu

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Class Location: VPH 207

Office hours: MWF, 2:10 p.m., or by appointment

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Web page: http://home.nwciowa.edu/firth
Course materials and grades available on MyNorthwestern

 

WISDOM FOR JOURNEYING IN THE PAST


I. Why Study History?

A. [W]e intend Northwestern graduates to be persons who

    Engage Ideas

  • Demonstrating competence in navigating and contributing to the world of ideas and information, having learned to listen, read, question, evaluate, [and] write ... with a disciplined imagination.
  • Pursuing truth faithfully in all aspects of life; developing, articulating, and supporting their own beliefs; and seeking meaningful dialog with those holding different convictions.

From the NWC Vision for Learning

B. Life can only be understood backwards ... .

Soren Kierkegaard, as quoted in Laurence J. Peter, ed., Peter's Quotations: Ideas for Our Time (New York: Bantam Books, 1977), 305.

C. [H]istory holds the potential ... of humanizing us in ways offered by few other areas in the school curriculum. ...

The argument I make pivots on a tension that underlies every encounter with the past: the tension between the familiar and the strange, between feelings of proximity and feelings of distance in relation to the people we seek to understand. ...

Sam Wineburg, Historical Thinking and Other Unnatural Acts: Charting the Future of Teaching the Past (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2001), 5.

II. Why Isn't Studying and Understanding History Simple?

A. [H]istory [i]s a web of contingency.  Contingency is about events, choices, and agency. Webs are about structures and processes, which amplify the agency of individual choices in some ways, and constrain them in others.

David Hackett Fischer, "Response to Yerxa, Kersh, Glen, and Morone," Historically Speaking 7 (Sept./Oct. 2005), 25.

B. The historian … might well take as her credo this statement by Karl Marx from The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte: “Men make their own history, but they do not make it just as they please; they do not make it under circumstances chosen by themselves, but under circumstances directly encountered, given, and transmitted from the past. …” Or, as stated more concisely in The German Ideology, “circumstances make men just as much as men make circumstances.”

 

David Nasaw, “AHR Roundtable: Historians and Biography. Introduction,” American Historical Review 114 (June 2009): 578.

C. History-making . . . is a creative enterprise, by means of which we fashion out of fragments of human memory and selected evidence of the past a mental construct of a coherent past world that makes sense to the present.

Gerda Lerner, “The Necessity of History,” in Why History Matters: Life and Thought, idem (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 117.


III. Themes in Understanding Native American History:

A. Conquest:

If you place yourself at a distance, there is no clearer fact in American history than the fact of conquest.  In North America, just as in South America, Africa, Asia, and Australia, Europeans invaded a land full occupied by natives.  Sometimes by negotiation and sometimes by warfare, the natives lost ground and the invaders gained it. ...

We live on haunted land, on land that is layers deep in human passion and memory. ...

Patricia Nelson Limerick, "Haunted America," in Something in the Soil: Legacies and Reckonings in the New West (New York: W.W. Norton, 2000), 33, 73.

 

B. Multiculturalism:

We will dance when our laws command us to dance, we will feast when our hearts desire to feast.  Do we ask the white man, "Do as the Indian does"?  Why then do you ask us, "Do as the white man does"?

Anonymous Kwakiutl (British Columbia), in Native American Testimony: A Chronicle of Indian-White Relations from Prophecy to the Present, 1492-2000, Peter Nabokov, rev. ed. (New York: Penguin Books, 1999), 227.

C. Tribal Sovereignty:

Indian tribes have a legal status unique among America's distinct racial or ethnic groups: They are also sovereign governments who engage in governmental relations with the Congress.  The United States Constitution expressly provides that Congress has power to "regulate Commerce with foreign Nations, and among the several States, and with the Indian tribes." ...

In 1924, Congress bestowed ... American citizenship on all Indian people born in the United States who were not already citizens.  As a result, members of federally recognized Indian tribes exercise rights of citizenship in three distinct political entities--their own tribe, their state of domicile and the United States government.

N. Bruce Duthu, American Indians and the Law (New York: Viking, 2008), xi, 138.

IV. How Might a Christian Perspective Shape Our Understanding of the Past?

Does Micah’s injunction to “do justice, love kindness, and walk humbly with your God” (6:8) have any bearing on a Christian’s historical work?  I believe that it does.  We do justice when we give all the historical actors their due, not privileging those who had the most power, or for whom we have more data.  Loving kindness means exercising compassion towards our historical subjects.  They were no more limited by their location and biases than we are.  They were creating their lives as they went; we need to re-create those lives with a minimum of moralizing.  To walk humbly is to recognize that even hindsight is not fully accurate and that our accounts are never definitive.

G. Marcille Frederick, “Doing Justice in History: Using Narrative Frames Responsibly,” in History and the Christian Historian, ed. Ronald A. Wells (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1998), 220.

 

COURSE DESCRIPTION:

What is this course? This course seeks to "uncover" the historical development of North American indigenous peoples, from before contact with Europeans until the present.  Within this general focus, however, the more specific concentration of the course will be on those peoples in what became the United States of America.  Topics for some attention include pre-contact life; oral literature; Indian accommodation and selective adaptation to Euro-American societies; U.S.-Indian policies; Native American religion; Christian mission work among American Indians; activism by and on behalf of American Indians; and reservation life.

What will class meetings be like? The course will meet twice a week. There will be some lectures, but other major components of the course's format will include general discussions, student oral reports, and the viewing and discussion of films.

What will be expected in general of each student? The workload of the course reflects its upper division level. Attendance at all class meetings is, of course, expected. Some 2500 pp. of reading, including that for research, will be required. Each student will be expected to research and write a major paper on a relevant topic of their choice.  An in-class exam will be required. Regular discussion and other reports and writings will also be expected. 

COURSE OBJECTIVES (what difference this course should make):1

1.      To build familiarity with the historical experience of North American Indian peoples, who could legitimately regard all non-Indians as "illegal immigrants."  Indians have endured and survived much (including conquest, attempted cultural genocide, and persistent stereotyping), all the while actively engaging in varied ways with changing situations. In short, they are a distinct group of human beings. As such, the study of Native Americans is worth doing if for no other reason than as a way of seeking to better understand some of our neighbors. From such understanding can come a more informed and humble love for our neighbors as ourselves.

2.      To further develop in connection with reading, writing, and discussion what historian Lendol Calder has termed the "cognitive habits" of questioning, connecting, sourcing, making inferences, considering alternative perspectives, and recognizing limits to one's knowledge, since such liberal arts habits are key tools for learning how, with the Apostle Paul, to "take every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Cor. 10:5).

3.      To foster the practice of historical method beyond the lower division level of coursework through attention to such signature practices and concepts as 

·         identifying, critiquing, and comparing culturally grounded assumptions that have influenced the perception and behavior of people in the past;

·         identifying, critiquing, and comparing the theories, concepts, values, and assumptions that historians and other scholars have used to create coherent interpretations of the past;

·         taking responsibility for one's own embeddedness in time and for one's own theories, concepts, values, and assumptions in discussing, reading, and writing about the past.

·         researching primary and secondary sources on a topic in such a way that a major research paper is written demonstrating an ability to construct a critical interpretation (analysis and synthesis) of a selected topic.

4.      To provide tools and opportunity for integrating an understanding of Native Americans with a maturing Christian perspective on faith and life, since "in [Christ] all things hold together" (Col. 1:17).

1. For some of the ideas and terminology in these objectives, I am indebted to Lendol Calder, "Uncoverage: Toward a Signature Pedagogy for the History Survey," Journal of American History 92 (March 2006): 1358-1370 and John C. Savagian, "Toward a Coherent Curriculum: Teaching and Learning History at Alverno College," Journal of American History 95 (March 2009): 1114-1124.

COURSE OUTLINE:

Date (T/Th)

In-Class Subjects, Exams, Reports, & Papers

Reading Assignments
(to be done FOR class on the date noted)

Aug. 24

Course Introduction: Syllabus, Terms, & Problems

*Mihesuah chapter, in MyNorthwestern

Aug. 26

Indigenous Americans I

*Turner, pp. 21-157

Aug. 31

Indigenous Americans II

*Turner, pp. 158-256

Sept. 2

Indigenous Americans III

*Pauketat, pp. 1-84

Sept. 7

Indigenous Americans IV/

GUEST INSTRUCTOR: Jason Titcomb, Archaeologist, Sanford Museum, Cherokee, IA

*Pauketat, pp. 85-170

Sept. 9

Indigenous Americans V

*Childs article, in MyNorthwestern

*Deloria article, in MyNorthwestern

*Charleston article, in MyNorthwestern

Sept. 14

LIBRARY RESEARCH ADVICE

 

Sept. 16

Invasions of the Americas I/

VISITING LECTURER: Jasper Lesage, Provost, NWC

*Turner, pp. 259-374

 

Sept. 21

Invasions of the Americas II

*Jacoby, pp. xv-93

*Limerick chapter, in MyNorthwestern

Sept. 23

Invasions of the Americas III

*Jacoby, pp. 94-180

Sept. 28

Invasions of the Americas IV

*Jacoby, pp. 183-278

Sept. 30

PREPARATION DAY/

NO CLASS

 

Oct. 5

TRIBAL REPORTS I

 

Oct. 7

TRIBAL REPORTS II

 

Oct. 12

PREPARATION DAY/

NO CLASS

 

Oct. 14

ROUND-TABLE DISCUSSION on The Ecological Indian/

BOOK ESSAY DUE

*Krech, entire

Oct. 21

RESEARCH PROSPECTUS DUE

 

Oct. 26

“Farewell, My Nation”: Removing Indians

*Weeks, pp. 1-86

*Turner, pp. 493-527

Oct. 28

 

“Farewell, My Nation”: Concentrating Indians I

 

*Weeks, pp. 88-160

*Turner, pp. 538-556

Nov. 2

 

 

“Farewell, My Nation”: Concentrating Indians II

 

 

*Weeks, pp. 162-202

*Anderson article, in MyNorthwestern

Nov. 4

Life in Indian Country (On the Rez) I

*Weeks, pp. 204-249

*Turner, pp. 567-596

Nov. 9

Life in Indian Country (On the Rez) II

*Turner, pp. 375-482

Nov. 11

Life in Indian Country (On the Rez) III

*Wilkinson, pp. ix-128

Nov. 16

Life in Indian Country (On the Rez) IV

*Wilkinson, pp. 129-268

Nov. 18

Life in Indian Country (On the Rez) V

*Wilkinson, pp. 271-383

Nov. 23

EXAM

 

Nov. 30

FILM DAY

 

Dec. 2

PREVIEW RESEARCH PAPER REPORTS I

 

Dec. 7

PREVIEW RESEARCH PAPER REPORTS II

 

Dec. 9

PREVIEW RESEARCH PAPER REPORTS III

 

Dec. 15

RESEARCH PAPER DUE by Wed., 12:30 p.m., end of scheduled finals period

 

COURSE REQUIREMENTS:

1. Reading:

  • Anderson, Douglas Firth. “’More Conscience Than Force’: U.S. Indian Inspector William Vandever, Grant’s Peace Policy, and Protestant Whiteness.” The Journal of the Gilded Age and Progressive Era 9 (April 2010): 167-196. ON MYNORTHWESTERN
  • Charleston, Steve. “The Old Testament of Native America.” In Native and Christian: Indigenous Voices on Religious Identity in the United States and Canada. Edited by James Treat. New York: Routledge, 1996. ON MYNORTHWESTERN
  • Childs, Craig. “Pillaging the Past: A Journey along the Fine Line between Scholarship and Graverobbing.” High Country News, April 28, 2008, 10-16. ON MYNORTHWESTERN
  • Deloria, Vine, Jr. “If You Think about It, You will See that It is True.” In Spirit and Reason: The Vine Deloria, Jr., Reader. Golden, CO: Fulcrum Publishing, 1999. ON MYNORTHWESTERN
  • Jacoby, Karl. Shadows at Dawn: A Borderline Massacre and the Violence of History. New York: Penguin Books, 2008.  ISBN 9780143116219
  • Krech, Shepard, III. The Ecological Indian: Myth and History. New York: W.W. Norton, 1999  ISBN 9780393321005
  • Limerick, Patricia Nelson. “Haunted America.” In Something in the Soil: Legacies and Reckonings in the New West. New York: W.W. Norton, 2000. ON MYNORTHWESTERN
  • Mihesuah, Devon Abbott. “Stereotypes and Others Mistakes.” In So You Want to Write about American Indians? A Guide for Writers, Students, and Scholars.  Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.  ON MYNORTHWESTERN
  • Pauketat, Timothy R.  Cahokia: Ancient America’s Great City on the Mississippi. New York: Viking, 2009.  ISBN 9780670020904
  • Turner, Frederick, ed. The Portable North American Indian Reader. New York: Penguin Books, 1977.  ISBN 9780140150773
  • Weeks, Philip.  Farewell, My Nation: The American Indian and the United States in the Nineteenth Century. 2nd ed. Wheeling, IL: Harlan Davidson, 2001.  ISBN 9780882959566
  • Wilkinson, Charles. Blood Struggle: The Rise of Modern Indian Nations. New York: W.W. Norton, 2005.  ISBN 9780393328509

2. Recommended Resources:

3. Assignments:

A. A RESEARCH PAPER will constitute 45% of the course grade.

1) WHAT IS YOUR TASK IN THIS RESEARCH PROJECT?

  1. To select a primary document/set of primary documents significantly connected to American Indians about which
  2. you pose an interesting historical/anthropological/sociological problem or question and make a significant claim
  3. persuasively supported by your substantive analysis of the primary document(s) and research of relevant context
  4. in a paper that demonstrates critical historical/anthropological/sociological understanding of the primary and secondary sources and makes a persuasive case for the significance of the topic in relation to American Indian studies.

2) WHAT ARE THE KEY STAGES IN THE PROCESS FOR THIS PROJECT?

  1. Oct. 21 (Th.): Research Prospectus due by 11:55 p.m., Th., Oct. 21. A prospectus should be a preliminary description of your project.
  • The prospectus should be 2 pages, typed single spaced, with a header (your name, a preliminary title, the prospectus due date, your e-address).
  • It should contain on one page an explanation of your topic
  • and a second page consisting of a preliminary bibliography (including your primary document[s]), formatted in Chicago or APA Style. (See style guides for this form either linked to the Ramaker Library homepage or to LibGuide.)
  • Please submit the prospectus as a Microsoft Word file (that is, .docx, .doc, or rtf. file) through MyNorthwestern (when in your MyNorthwestern account, click on the link to this course, then click on coursework, then click on the appropriate assignment, then, in the drop box, search for your Word file, select it, and send it in).  If you encounter trouble in submitting the paper through MyNorthwestern, consult with the folks in the Computer Center, especially Tina Jansen and the Help Desk folks (helpdesk@nwciowa.edu).
  • The prospectus will not be graded. However, failure to submit a prospectus that meets the above specifications by the specified due date will mean that the final paper will receive a penalty reduction of a third of a letter grade. That is, if the paper is a B+, the penalty will knock it down to a B; if a B, then down to a B-, etc.
  1. Dec. 2, 7, & 9: Preview Research Paper Reports (who reports when will be sorted out after the course begins). Each report will be graded (5% of course grade), and each report should conform to the following specifications:
  • You should prepare a preliminary outline of your research paper to present to the class in two forms, written and oral.  Both forms should address the following (not necessarily in this order): a) what is the topic and what is/are your primary source(s)? b) what relevant problems, issues, and/or controversies are connected with your sources and/or topic, and how are you proposing to deal with them? c) what thesis or claim are you making about your topic? d) what main points, supported by what kind of evidence, from what sort of sources, do you intend to make? e) how is your topic significant in relation to American Indian studies?
  • The written form should be 1-2 pp., typed single spaced, with a header including your name, the assigned presentation date, your RSC Box #, and the title of your research project.  You should make enough copies for yourself, for each other class member, and for the instructor.  Distribute these at the beginning of your oral presentation.
  • The oral form should be based on the written form that you have distributed.  The oral report should take no longer than 15 minutes to present. (The timing is subject to change depending on how many reports have to be made in total.)
  • Class members and the instructor will listen carefully, ask questions following your report, and return to you within 24 hours your written report with any questions, advice, or comments. (In other words, this oral presentation is a chance to get feedback before the paper is completed.)
  • I will also include a grade on the written report that I return to you.  The most important factors in evaluating the report (written and oral) include a) how completely and well are all of the formal specifications stated above met? and b) how clear, coherent, and thoughtful are the two forms of the report?
  1. Dec. 15: Paper due by 12:30 p.m. (end of scheduled final period). The paper itself is worth 40% of the course grade. It can be turned in earlier, of course; late papers are subject to the penalty stated in the Course Miscellany section of this syllabus. Please submit the finished paper as a Microsoft Word file (that is, .docx, .doc, or rtf. file) through MyNorthwestern (when in your MyNorthwestern account, click on the link to this course, then click on coursework, then click on the appropriate assignment, then, in the drop box, search for your Word file, select it, and send it in).  If you encounter trouble in submitting the paper through MyNorthwestern, consult with the folks in the Computer Center, especially Tina Jansen and the Help Desk folks (helpdesk@nwciowa.edu). A graded copy will be returned to you by e-mail attachment.
  2. I will be happy to meet with you about the paper at any point in the course; do not be shy about scheduling one or more meetings with me.

3) WHAT IS A PRIMARY DOCUMENT?

  1. A primary document is a firsthand source.
  2. Primary documents come in many forms, e.g., recorded oral accounts, memoirs, diaries, correspondence, sermons, speeches, government reports, court documents, editorials, paintings, songs, photographs, films, novels, financial records, buildings, clothing, tools, etc.

4) HOW MIGHT I CONSTRUCT AN INTERESTING QUESTION AND A CLAIM?

  1. Sometimes a problem or question easily presents itself, either before or during research: Why was this document written/created? How could the author think this when they did something that seems to contradict this? What does this document mean? Is this really what went on, or is this intentionally misleading?  Was this really written by the author? Why was this document so popular/unpopular?  Why do historians disagree about the meaning/importance/authenticity of this document?
  2. When a problem or a question does not so easily present itself, try working back from what seems a significant claim or a thesis supported by the historical evidence. That is, turn into a problem or a question that which you wish to argue or claim about the document(s) and their author.

5) WHO IS THE AUDIENCE FOR THIS PAPER?

  1. Address your paper to adults who know little about your topic, but who are curious about the past and who appreciate well-researched, thoughtful, and clearly written work.

6) WHAT ARE THE RESEARCH REQUIREMENTS FOR THIS PAPER?

  1. A general rule of thumb: the deeper and broader one researches, the deeper and broader the possibilities for understanding.
  2. Required: the substantive use of one or more significant primary documents.
  3. Required: the use of at least the following sorts and numbers of secondary sources:

·         one specialized reference work, e.g., a biographical or topical dictionary or encyclopedia (Wikipedia and general encyclopedias such as Encyclopedia Britannica are NOT specialized reference works)

·         three books, i.e., topical monographs, biographies, and surveys

·         two academic articles (normally, in a journal published quarterly, and with foot- or endnotes; articles in topical book collections can count for this).

  1. Of course, assigned course materials are appropriate for your use, as relevant.
  2. Online sources are not required, but you might well find important primary and secondary sources there, so do look. Consider the links I have made to the LibGuide for this course, at http://nwciowa.libguides.com/americanindians.
  3. Recommended databases for periodical literature are America: History and Life and JSTOR, both available through the NWC Ramaker Library Homepage under Databases/Major-discipline/History.
  4. I and the reference staff of Ramaker Library will be happy to provide advice on research possibilities if you ask.

7) WHAT IS THE REQUIRED FORMAT FOR THIS PAPER?

  1. An opening section should introduce readers to the topic, that is, what your paper is about, what problem or question you are addressing, and what your position/claim/thesis in relation to the problem or question is.
  2. A concluding section should summarize your position/claim/thesis in relation to the problem or question you raised at the beginning of the paper (and which you have kept before readers in the course of your paper), and provide some final reflections about the historical significance of your topic.  These reflections should not come as a surprise to the reader; rather, they should arise “naturally” out of the analysis and argument that you have made in your paper.
  3. The paper should have annotations (Chicago or APA style; see guides for this form either linked to the Ramaker Library homepage or to LibGuide). Annotations are required for all quotations. Annotations may also be used to alert the reader to one or more source of information even when not directly quoted, and they may be used to provide further detail or discussion that is relevant but which would divert readers from the main argument if put in the main text of the paper.
  4. The paper should have a bibliography or works consulted page (Chicago or APA style; see guides for this form either linked to the Ramaker Library homepage or to LibGuide). A bibliography should include all sources consulted, not only the ones cited.
  5. The paper should have a title page including a title, your name, the due date, and your e-address.
  6. The paper should be typed double spaced, except for single-spaced block quotations, footnotes, and bibliography.
  7. The paper should be 17-20 pp. including title page and bibliography.

8) WHAT ARE THE CRITERIA FOR EVALUATION OF THIS PAPER?

  1. How consistently have you met the stipulations of the assignment?
  2. How thoughtfully and thoroughly have you researched your topic?
  3. How analytically attuned is your project (i.e., accuracy, engaged with historical context, aware of interpretive challenges)?
  4. How lucid and cogent is your presentation, including presenting and supporting your problem/claim/thesis?
  5. How deep and insightful is your analysis and interpretation, including your consideration of your topic’s significance in relation to American Indian studies?

B. AN IN-CLASS EXAM will constitute 20% of the course grade.

  1. An exam will be given in class on Tu., Nov. 23.
  2. The exam will consist of at least two essay questions to be written in class.
  3. A study sheet will be distributed a week ahead of the exam.
  4. On the exam day, no textbooks or other course material should be used during the exam (on penalty of voiding the entire exam) except for one 8 ½ x 11 inch exam note sheet of outlines and notes (typed or handwritten, both sides if necessary).  This exam note sheet must be handed in with the exam blue book.
  5. Blue books will be required for the exam.  (These are available in the NWC bookstore.)

C. A TRIBAL REPORT will constitute 20% of the course grade.

  1. Select an American Indian tribe, making sure that a) you are the only one in the class who has picked that tribe and b) you clear your choice with the course instructor. (The appendices of Wilkinson’s Blood Struggle include a list of federally recognized tribes.)
  2. You are to prepare a report on your selected tribe, due either Oct. 5th or 7th.  (Who is assigned to which date will be determined after the course gets underway).
  3. Each report should be prepared in two forms: written and oral.
  4. The written report should be 6-7 pp., typed double spaced, with a header containing your name, the due date, your RSC box number, and a title (the name of your selected tribe.
  5. The written report should concisely and critically present information gathered from at least three sources. At least one of the sources must be print/hardcopy. All sources must be listed in a bibliography or works consulted list at the end of the report (Chicago or APA style; see guides for this form either linked to the Ramaker Library homepage or to LibGuide).
  6. The written report should be divided into five sections (sections 1-4 should each consist of a minimum of one paragraph; section 5 should contain a minimum of three sources, per specification C.5. above):

a)      Origins and Movements (e.g., where and when did the tribe originate, where and when have they lived, and what differences are there, if any, between tribal traditions and external evidence?)

b)      Traditional Lifeways (e.g., did the tribe farm? did they fish? were clans important? matrilineal or patrilineal? were there recognized hereditary leaders, political and religious? important religious occasions? allies? enemies?)

c)      Relations with Euro-Americans (e.g., trade with one or more Euro-American colonial power or nation state? intermarriage with? warfare with? treaties with?)

d)      Homeland(s) (e.g., does the tribe have a reservation? more than one? what major opportunities and/or challenges have arisen one the reservation?)

e)      Bibliography/Works Consulted

  1. Quotations should be annotated, per Chicago or APA style.
  2. The written report is due by class time, either Oct. 5th or 7th, per specification C.2. above. Please submit the finished written report as a Microsoft Word file (that is, .docx, .doc, or rtf. file) through MyNorthwestern (when in your MyNorthwestern account, click on the link to this course, then click on coursework, then click on the appropriate assignment, then, in the drop box, search for your Word file, select it, and send it in; MyNorthwestern will automatically send your report to Turnitin.com). If you encounter trouble in submitting the report through MyNorthwestern, consult with the folks in the Computer Center, especially Tina Jansen and the Help Desk folks (helpdesk@nwciowa.edu). A graded copy will be returned to you by e-mail attachment.
  1. The oral report, adapted from the written report, is to be presented on the class day assigned (Oct. 5th or 7th). The oral report should take no longer than 15 minutes to present. (The timing is subject to change depending on how many reports have to be made in total.)
  2. Evaluation of the report (written and oral) will include the following factors: 1) how completely and well are all of the formal specifications above met? 2) is there substantive evidence in the report of due attention to controversial issues and conflicting evidence and accounts? 3) how broadly, accurately, and thoughtfully is the chosen tribe analyzed and understood? 4) how cogently, clearly, and engagingly is the report written and presented?

D. A BOOK ESSAY will constitute 10% of the course grade.

  1. There is a round-table discussion of Shepard Krech’s The Ecological Indian scheduled for Thurs., Oct. 14.
  2. A round-table discussion means a discussion in which all are equally “at the table.” The book has generated controversy, so there should be plenty of things to discuss.
  3. In order to participate, you not only need to read the book, you also need to write an essay engaging the book.
  4. The essay on Krech should be 3-4 pp., typed double spaced, with a header containing your name, the due date, your e-address, and a title.
  5. The essay should engage Krech’s argument, in whole or in part. That is, your essay should agree and/or disagree with Krech’s overall argument or some significant part of his argument.
  6. Your engagement with Krech’s book should be informed by not only what assigned course materials you have already read and by your tribal report, but also by some familiarity with criticisms of Krech’s book.
  1. Quotations from Kresch and from other relevant material should be annotated, per Chicago or APA style.
  2. The essay is due at the beginning of class, Oct. 14. Please submit the finished written report as a Microsoft Word file (that is, .docx, .doc, or rtf. file) through MyNorthwestern (when in your MyNorthwestern account, click on the link to this course, then click on coursework, then click on the appropriate assignment, then, in the drop box, search for your Word file, select it, and send it in; MyNorthwestern will automatically submit the essay to Turnitin.com). If you encounter trouble in submitting the report through MyNorthwestern, consult with the folks in the Computer Center, especially Tina Jansen and the Help Desk folks (helpdesk@nwciowa.edu). A graded copy will be returned to you by e-mail attachment.
  1. Evaluation of the book essay will include the following factors: 1) how completely and well are all of the formal specifications above met? 2) is there substantive evidence of familiarity with criticism of Kresch’s book? 3) how clearly, cogently, and insightfully does the essay engage Kresch?

E. CLASS PARTICIPATION will constitute 5% of the course grade.

  1. Class participation is a portion of the grade based on the instructor’s estimation of the integrity of each student’s engagement with the course material and the classroom environment.
  2. Part of the material on which this portion of the grade will be based will be various brief written assignments (e.g., developing questions about or reflecting on course material).  A record of the assignments and their general sufficiency will be kept (i.e., pass/not pass).
  3. Another part of the material on which this portion of the grade will be based will be an assessment of the overall consistency and quality of each student's attentiveness and involvement in the course.  Attentiveness and involvement include discussion, listening, and note-taking.  Talkativeness is not the standard, though, any more than is silence.  Listening and note-taking are important.  Rather, the goal for each student is an overall consistent engagement with the material of the course in class, which, while allowing for differences in personalities and variety in class sessions, could by a reasonable observer at the end of the course be deemed "excellent" (if exceptional) or at least "good."
  4. When appropriate, the instructor is prepared to be flexible with occasional student scheduling problems, but the instructor must be consulted.  “Exceptions” are not an entitlement.

 COURSE MISCELLANY:

 1. Late Written Assignments

  1. All assignments are due as stated in the syllabus or announced in class.
  2. Extensions due to illness, approved field trips, regularly scheduled games or performances, or other reasons outside the control of the student can be made, but it is up to the student to petition the instructor for such legitimate extensions.
  1. Written assignments: If a written assignment is handed in late up to a week after it was due and without a legitimate extension, it will normally receive a penalty of at least one full grade down from whatever score the work merits apart from the penalty.  If the assignment is over a week late and without a legitimate extension, it will not be accepted.

2. Academic Honesty

  1. It is expected that all reading and written work done in and for the course will be done with integrity.  That is, reading and writing as assigned is to be done with honest single-mindedness by each student, without undue reliance on others to do the work and without deceit about the work's timeliness, authorship, and sources.  Integrity of this sort is not easy or convenient; it does not provide shortcuts or guarantee "As."  Yet it is the best path to growth in wisdom, and wisdom is the fruit of education most to be savored.
  2. Academic dishonesty includes cheating and plagiarism, as defined in the Student and Faculty Handbooks.
  3. Cheating in quizzes, plagiarizing in papers, and other forms of academic dishonesty, will, when duly determined, lead to a "0" score for the assignment involved and the filing of a report with the Office of the Provost, per the Student and Faculty Handbooks.

3. Grading

  1. We the faculty of the History Department do not believe that "grade inflation" is good for you. Jesus admonishes us to "Let your word be 'Yes, Yes' or 'No, No'" (Mt. 5:37); in other words, let grades have integrity as indicators of knowledge and/or competence for a given assignment or course.
  2. Therefore, an A=excellent or outstanding work; B=good work (more than adequate but not excellent); C=sufficient work (the assignment or the course’s requirements have been met, but not with any remarkable quality); D=insufficient work (does not fully meet the assignment); F=failing work.
  3. Grades for assignments and for the course as a whole are based on a 100% scale, as follows:

A = 90-100

B = 80-89

C = 70-79

D = 60-69

F = 0-59

 
  1. Within the 100% scale for letter grades, + and - will be given on the following scale (exceptions: no A+ or F + or F-):

 

 

+ = x7-x9

- = x0-x2

 

 

 

 
  1. Remember--grades are NOT a measure of your personal worth; that is already established by God! Grades are measures of the quality of your work for a given assignment and/or course--nothing more and nothing less.