Overview

Description

CALENDAR DESCRIPTION:

Special topics. Breadth-Humanities.

COURSE DETAILS:

History of Indigenous Sovereignty, Resistance, and Resurgence

Since the late tenth century, Indigenous peoples have dealt with colonies, empires, and settlers in a multitude of ways. These approaches often grew out of existing diplomatic, economic, kinship, and religious practices. This course examines this complex history of Indigenous sovereignty and resistance in North America. Indigenous nations carefully controlled the movement of trade goods, created selective alliances with European powers, and, when all else failed, launched wars that threatened the colonies’ existence. As settler colonialism spread, many Indigenous people used political activism, international travel, art, or writing to assert their people’s history, sovereignty, and hopes for the future. Others fomented spiritual transformation or political revolution. In the twentieth century, Indigenous communities increasingly turned to legal action, activism, protest, political organization, and cultural resurgence.

To navigate the instability of spreading imperialism and colonialism(s), Indigenous strategies adapted over time. Many individuals and communities adopted elements of settler technology and culture while rejecting others. Likewise, they formulated sharp critiques of settler society while offering their own visions for the future. Indigenous people were (and are) diverse, and their visions and strategies were equally varied. To understand this complexity, we will pay special attention to specific individuals, movements, and events within the context of broader themes and ideas.

This course will examine key questions including:

• What is Indigenous resistance?
• What is Indigenous sovereignty?
• What are colonialism and imperialism?
• How did European/settler and Indigenous relationships change over time and in different places?
• What strategies did Indigenous individuals, communities, nations, and confederations use and how did these change over time?
• What is the relationship between resistance, reconciliation, and resurgence?

COURSE-LEVEL EDUCATIONAL GOALS:

This course will help students to develop their abilities to:

• Research effectively
• Communicate clearly through writing and discussion
• Critically analyze primary and secondary sources
• Thoughtfully discuss complex events and ideas
• Make connections between events, people, and ideas from different times and places
• Think historically by identifying cause, effect, change, and continuity over time

Grading

Materials

REQUIRED READING NOTES: