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Winter 2002
This information effective for Winter 2002.
Check with instructor the first day of class for any changes.
Winter 2002
Instructor: Sara C. Sutler-Cohen
Office: 201 College Eight
Phone: 459-1543
E-mail: saracher@juno.com
TTH 4:00–5:45 p.m.
Stevenson 150
Please always email me first. I will get back to you within 48 hours.
Office hours: TBA and by appointment. If you need to cancel an appointment, please make every effort to do so in a timely manner (i.e., don’t call me 10 minutes before we’re supposed to meet!). Please also be sure to make appointments with your TA.
Introduction:
This course provides an historic and contemporary perspective on the social,
political, and cultural issues of the Indigenous Peoples of North America. Students
will be exposed to an overview of American Indian life, including Indian-White
relations (past and present), federal Indian law and policy, tribal government,
art, literature, and film. This course is taught from an American Indian perspective
with the intent of focusing not on “who Indian people were” but on
“how Indians came to be who Indian people are.” These concepts will
be demonstrated through lectures, readings, multi-media presentations (including
film and television clips), guest lectures, and library research. Further, you
are encouraged to bring in outside items of relevance (a newspaper or magazine
article, for example) when and if it occurs to you to do so.
The learning focus in the course will be at the knowledge, comprehension, application,
and analysis levels. Each student will be expected to fully participate and
express their learning in writing and in discussions. Students are expected
to attend all class lectures and discussion section meetings, and complete all
assigned readings within the designated dates. If you miss more than two classes
or sections, you may not pass. Always inform you TA and/or instructor if you
know you will miss class or section. Special circumstances may excuse an absence
but it is important that you notify us well ahead of time.
Goals and Objectives:
Upon completion of this course:
Required Books and Materials:
The American Holocaust, by David Stannard
Native American Testimony, ed. by Peter Nabokov
Electronic Course Reader
Class Handouts
(All material will be available on reserve in McHenry Library)
Suggested Reading: Atlas of Native History, by Jack Forbes
NOTE: An additional reading list will be provided for those who are interested
in looking at Native American political, social, and/or cultural issues. Please
ask the instructor for a copy.
Course Requirements:
Students with Disabilities:
Students with temporary or permanent disabilities are encouraged to seek assistance
through UCSC’s Disability Resource Center at 459-2089 or 459-4806 (TDD/TTY
for hard of hearing and deaf students). Email: drc@cats.
Please notify the instructor and your TA if you require special accommodations
in the classroom or for exams. Special accommodations for exam-taking must be
arranged in advance. Students requiring accommodations based on physical and/or
learning disabilities need to notify the instructor.
Course Grading:
| Midterm | 20 points |
| Research Paper | 40 points, total (see details below) |
| Media Assignments | 15 points (5 each) |
| Website Evaluation | 10 points |
| Attendance and Participation | 15 points |
| TOTAL: | 100 points |
Please note: All written work must be written in Times/Times New Roman 12pt. font and double spaced.
Pop Culture/Media Assignment:
You will turn in three media assignments over the course of the quarter. A handout
with general guidelines will be provided in class. For this assignment you will
need to write a short paper (no more than three pages, no less than two) on
a newspaper article, a television show, the news, a magazine, or a popular film
that relates to American Indians in any way and your choice must be contemporary
(i.e., within the last year). For example, you may find an article in a sports
magazine that discusses the use of Native American people in spots logos and/or
names. You will want to try and figure out which side (if any) the writer is
on. A series of questions and guidelines for this assignment will be in a handout
that will walk you through the assignment. If you have questions, please speak
with the instructor and/or the TA.
Website Evaluation:
For this assignment, you will be applying your critical thinking skills to the
World Wide Web. Your first step will be to locate at least one internet site
dedicated to the discussion of Indigenous peoples’ social, political, or
cultural issues. You may cover any group of First Nations people, from North,
South, Central America, or Canada. Your topics can range from political to legal,
from education to art, but you must qualify your site’s legitimacy on paper,
using the guidelines described below and on the Internet. A handout will be
distributed in class for this assignment.
Course Midterm:
The midterm will give you an opportunity to demonstrate the knowledge and comprehension
you have acquired through the readings, lectures, classroom and section discussions,
and media examples. The midterm is take-home. The exam questions elicit knowledge,
comprehension, applications, and analysis. The exam will be in essay form, and
you will have a choice of answering three out of five questions posed to you.
In addition to the essay, the midterm will have a series of five short answer
questions.
Research Paper:
A handout providing the parameters for the research paper will be distributed
the second day of class. Students must submit their research paper topic to
both the instructor and TA by Week Two. In addition to guidelines, you will
receive a list of possible topics to choose from (but you are not limited to
these topics). Please note: The final paper will be due the week of finals.
Class Schedule:
Week 1: Introduction
Overview of Course and quarter activities
Introductions of instructor and TAs
Class Discussion: Your assumptions about Native American Studies and
expectations for the course
Week 2: Indian History
Research Topic Due (3x5 cards will be dist.)—hand one each to TA and
Instructor
Contact
Clash of Values
Indian Nations as Sovereigns
Reading Assignments:
American Holocaust: “Before Columbus”
Native American Testimony: “Premonitions and Prophecies”
Reader: “Red Eyes” from Lies My Teacher Told Me by James
Loewen
Reader: “‘Nits Make Lice’: The Extermination of North
American Indians, 1607–1996” by Ward Churchill
Week 3: Indian History
Media Assignment 1 Due
Contact
Issues of assimilation
Early Indian Activism
Reading Assignments:
American Holocaust: “Pestilence and Genocide”
Native American Testimony: “The Long Resistance”
Reader: “Introduction” from Off the Reservation by Paula Gunn
Allen
Reader: “Columbus, the Indians, and Human Progress”
Reader: “Utopian Legacies” by John Mohawk
Week 4: Tribal Government—Indian Law and Policy
Research Paper Outline Due
Federal Indian Law
Indian Tribal Reorganization Act, Termination, and Self-Determination
Reading Assignments:
Reader: “The Evolution of Tribal Governments” by Vine Deloria,
Jr.
Reader: “Indian Nations, The United States and Citizenship”
by John Mohawk
Reader: “A Look at the Indian Health Service Policy of Sterilization,
1972–1976” by Charles R. England
Reader: “Indian Child Welfare Act” by James Cadwell
Week 5: Indian Education
Media Assignment 2 Due
“Kill the Indian to Save the Man [sic]”
Science meets the Indians
Video: “Where the Spirit Lives”
Reading Assignments:
Native American Testimony: “To Learn Another Way”
Reader: “Domesticity in the Federal Indian Schools: The Power of
Authority over Mind and Body” by Tsianina Lomawaima
Reader: “A Long Story” by Beth Brant
Reader: “The American Indian Woman in the Ivory Tower” by Elizabeth
Cook-Lynn
Reader: “Knowing and Understanding: Traditional Education in the
Modern World” by Vine Deloria, Jr.
Week 6: Religion
Research Paper Rough Draft Due
Midterm Distributed
Sacred Living and Balance
Sacred Space/Place/Time
Appropriation of Indian Culture
Video: “White Shamans Plastic Medicine Men”
Reading Assignments:
American Holocaust: Part III: “Sex, Race, and Holy War”
Reader: “Psychological Worldviews” by Bonnie and Eduardo Duran
Reader: “Seeking Life: Definitions of Religion and the Sacred”
by Vera Laski
Reader: “The Great Pretenders: Further Reflections on Whiteshamanism”
by Wendy Rose
Reader: “The Fight For Native American Religious Rights” by
Richard Diaz
Week 7: Images of Indians In Popular Culture
Midterm Due
Hollywood Indians
Stereotypes
Video: excerpts from “Dead Man,” “Powwow Highway,” “Smoke
Signals,” and “Thunderheart”
Reading Assignments:
Native American Testimony: “In and Out of the Mainstream”
Reader: “Indians are Different from Americans” by Jerry Manger
Reader: “I am the Real Hollywood Indian” by Carolyn Dunn
Reader: “Irene Bedard: An Actor's Journey” by Sara C. Sutler-Cohen
Reader: “‘We Ain't Got Feathers and Beads’” by Fergus
M. Bordewich
Week 8: Indian Activism
Media Assignment 3 Due
Environmental Degredation
Red Power Movement
Video: “Incident at Oglala”
Reading Assignments:
Native American Testimony: “Let’s Raise Some Hell”
Reader: “A Warrior Caged The Continuing Struggle of Leonard Peltier”
by Jim Vander-Wall
Reader: “American Indian Women: At the Center of Indigenous Resistance
in North America” by M. Annette Jaimes with Theresa Halsey
Reader: “The Government and the Indians: The American Indian Occupation
of Alcatraz Island, 1969–71” by John Garvey and Troy Johnson
Week 9 Literature
Native American Website Evaluation Due
Voices
Storytelling
Video: Joy Harjo, Muscogee poet
Reading Assignments:
Reader: “Cowboys and…Notes on Art, Literature, and American
Indians in the Modern American Mind” by Jimmie Durham
Reader: “Who Will Tell the Stories?” by Elizabeth Cook-Lynn
Reader: “Stories of Birth and Creation” part I from Through
the Eye of the Deer
Week 10 Indians in the 21st Century
Problems of Contemporary Racism
Environmental Issues
Video: “Oklahoma 2000”
Reading Assignments:
Reader: “Friendly Fire: When Environmentalists Dehumanize American
Indians” by David Waller
Reader: “American Indian Water Rights: The Blood of Life in Native
North America” by Marianna Guerrero
Reader: “American Indian Stereotypes: 500 Years of Hate Crimes”
by Steven W. Baggs
Thanks for a Wonderful Quarter!
Winter 2002
Instructor: Forrest Robinson
Office: Oakes 205
Phone: 459-4566 (messages 2813)
Office Hours: Tu 4:00–5:00 p.m., W 2:15–3:30 p.m.
MWF 3:30–4:40 p.m.
Porter 144
Attendance at all class meetings is required. More than two unexcused absences will be grounds for a failure in the course.
Two essays are required—one of 3–4 pages on a selected period magazine (due on Monday, February 11), and a final effort of 8–10 pages on a topic to be agreed upon by the student in consultation with the staff (due on the last day of class). Students will have the option of substituting a 10-minute oral report for their first essay assignment. Topics for the reports may be selected from an extensive list to be circulated in class.
Required Books (All books are on sale at the Literary Guillotine, 204 Locust Street; the Course Reader is on sale at Bay Tree Books)
L. Frank Baum, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz
Helen Hunt Jackson, Ramona
John F. Kasson, Amusing the Million
Harriet Beecher Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
Owen Wister, The Virginian
Course Reader (CR)
The required reading will include selected book chapters and articles collected in a Course Reader (CR). A list of additional secondary materials (a few of which have been placed on reserve) appears below.
Reading and Class Schedule
F Jan 4 Introduction
M Jan 7 Some Terms and Theory (CR: 2–57)
W Jan 9 Some Terms and Theory
F Jan 11 Minstrelsy (CR: 59–129)
M Jan 14 Minstrelsy
W Jan 16 Spirituals (CR: 131–36)
F Jan 18 Spirituals
M Jan 21 HOLIDAY
W Jan 23 Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
F Jan 25 Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
M Jan 28 Stowe, Uncle Tom’s Cabin
W Jan 30 Barnum, Struggles and Triumphs (CR: 137–213)
F Feb 1 Barnum, Struggles and Triumphs
M Feb 4 Barnum, Struggles and Triumphs
W Feb 6 Jackson, Ramona
F Feb 8 Jackson, Ramona
M Feb 11 Jackson, Ramona (FIRST ESSAY DUE)
W Feb 13 Kasson, Amusing the Million
F Feb 15 Kasson, Amusing the Million
M Feb 18 HOLIDAY
W Feb 20 Kasson, Amusing the Million
F Feb 22 Wister, The Virginian (CR: 215–57)
M Feb 25 Wister, The Virginian
W Feb 27 Wister, The Virginian
F Mar 1 Baum, The Wizard of Oz (CR: 259–78)
M Mar 4 Baum, The Wizard of Oz
W Mar 6 “Birth of a Nation” (CR: 279–307)
F Mar 8 “Birth of a Nation”
M Mar 11 “Birth of a Nation”
W Mar 13 Conclusion (FINAL ESSAY DUE)
Recommended Reading (*indicates on reserve at McHenry)
M.M. Bakhtin, The Dialogic Imagination (1981). Important essays on language, literature and culture, with an emphasis on the primacy of context over text, and on the multiplicity of meaning. Valued especially for its deployment of such notions as chronotope, dialogism and heteroglossia.
John Cawelti, Adventure, Mystery and Romance: Formula Stories as Art and Popular Culture (1976). A standard work. Useful.
---------------, The Six-Gun Mystique (1971). Venerable study of Westerns and their reception.
James H. Cone, The Spirituals and the Blues (1972). Overview by a respected scholar.
John Fiske, Reading the Popular (1989). A readable introductory text with lots of interesting examples.
---------------, Understanding Popular Culture (1989). Ditto.
Richard Wightman Fox and T.J.Jackson Lears (eds.), Culture of Consumption: Critical Essays in American History 1880–1980 (1983). Very useful introduction by Lears, followed by essays on a host of kindred topics.
Frederic Jameson, The Political Unconscious (1981). Argues that political context, however much repressed and concealed, is central to the meaning of literary texts. Dense; assumes familiarity with related theoretical works. A celebrated contribution by an American Marxist.
Neil Harris, Humbug: the Art of P.T. Barnum (1973). The best biography, with useful attention to the framing context of Barnum’s career.
Lawrence W. Levine, Highbrow/Lowbrow: The Emergence of Cultural Hierarchy in America (1988). Influential, eye-opening study of the transition from shared to hierarchical culture during the late 19th century in America, with Shakespearean theater as a leading illustration.
Eric Lott, Love and Theft: Blackface Minstrelsy and the American Working Class (1993). Excellent study of class, racial and sexual politics at the middle of the 19th century. Penetrating.
*Chandra Mukerji and Michael Schudson (eds.), Rethinking Popular Culture (1991). Thorough, scholarly introduction to the field, with wide-ranging essays by influential figures in several disciplines.
Michael Parenti, Inventing Reality: The Politics of Mass Media (1986). Marxist analysis, arguing that it is the “irreducible responsibility” of the press “to continually recreate a view of reality supportive of existing social and economic class power.”
David R. Roediger, The Wages of Whiteness: Race and the Making of the American Working Class (1991). Important study of racism among white workers in the 19th century, with a chapter on “Minstrelsy and White Working Class Formation before the Civil War.”
Alexander Saxton, The Rise and Fall of the White Republic: Class Politics and Mass Culture in Nineteenth-Century America (1990). A meticulous analysis of the spread of the ideology of white racial superiority in the popular culture of the 19th century.
Eileen Southern, The Music of Black Americans, 2nd ed. (1983). A solid general history.
*Dominic Strinati, An Introduction to Theories of Popular Culture (1995). A clear, readable overview of leading approaches, with special attention to the Frankfurt School, structuralism, semiology, Marxism, feminism, and postmodernism. A good place to start.
Robert C. Toll, Blacking Up: The Minstrel Show in Nineteenth-Century America (1974). Solid historical narrative.
Jane Tompkins, Sensational Designs: The Cultural Work of American Fiction
1790–1860 (1985). Essays on Cooper, Stowe, and other popular writers,
designed to illustrate that popular texts work to form and reinforce contemporary
constructions of social reality.
Raymond Williams, Marxism and Literature (1977). A classic, with illuminating
brief chapters on leading terms (e.g., culture, ideology, base and superstructure,
mediation, hegemony, structures of feeling). Indispensable.