^*Alternative Course Description (Why it is a Cultures and Peoples Course):
The course is essentially divided into three sections:
The core of the first part of the course concerns how American Indians dealt with scarcity, both before and after the arrival of Europeans. Prior to the arrival of Europeans (the pre-equestrian era), Indians lived in small bands (typically, but not exclusively, kinship groups). The introduction of the horse changed dramatically Native American society. Many tribes gave up farming to move on to the Great Plains to hunt the bison. Trade expanded as tribes traded in agricultural products, bison meat, slaves, and horses. The wealth of Native Americans rose significantly. But the horse—by making Native Americans more mobile—brought more warfare as tribes competed for access to bison and additional horses (which provided access to bison).
The second part of the course deals with warfare—first intertribal wars and then later war with the whites. The raid-or-trade model is used to explain why relations between whites and Indians were relatively peaceful up until the early 1840s, and why after the 1840s warfare became more common. Had tribes been able to overcome their hatred for each other, they could have resisted the white expansion westward for many years. But intertribal war and the destructive effect of European diseases (e.g., smallpox) left the Indian Nations with too few warriors to forestall the white advance.
The third part of the course deals with Indians on the reservation. Native Americans are the poorest people in America. They earn about half the average national income, and one-third of them are in poverty. The Dawes Act of 1887, the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, and the Indian Self Determination Act and Education Assistance Act of 1975 have done nothing to improve the situation on reservations. These policies have been more detrimental than helpful. Also, we find that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) has pursued policies that have not benefited Indians.
We focus on some of the success stories among tribes—the White Mountain Apache in Arizona, and the Flathead in Montana—asking what accounts for success (sovereignty being a prerequisite for economic development), and why so many Indian Nations are impoverished (e.g., the Crow in Montana, and the Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Sioux in South Dakota).
- Teacher: John McArthur