First Peoples, New People, A New World for Everyone: Indian America to 1820
This year we will explore the history of the First Peoples of North America and their interactions with European explorers and colonists prior to 1820 throughout we will be using the Thinking Like a Historian (THL) pedagogical model to evaluate evidence, text interpretations, and improve our understanding of what it means to “do” history. Information on Thinking Like a Historian is available on the Wisconsin Historical Society’s website.
The Fall Semester, Unit One, will focus (though not exclusively) on North America east of the Mississippi River.
The Spring Semester, Unit two, will examine the contact of cultures in Connecticut and New England.
Process Goals: Thinking like a Historian - at the end of this year, participants will:
- Explore what history is (and what it isn’t), why it matters, and how historical thinking differs from that used in other disciplines
- Evaluate the process all historians follow when “doing” history
- Know and be able to use the categories historians use to ask questions about the past
- Analyze and synthesize the ways historians use and evaluate different kinds of evidence
- Assess the merits of historical interpretations
Content Goals: “First Peoples, New People, A New World for Everyone" - at the end of this year participants will understand.
- First Peoples were a dynamic group of cultures with a long history of development and change prior to contact with Europeans
- The differences and similarities among First Peoples and the Europeans who settled among them
- Forces unleashed by Indian/European interactions transformed the cultures and worldviews of both peoples
- That colonial period of American and Connecticut history is best learned as a story in which Indians were as important actors as Europeans
- How European settlers ultimately came (by 1820) to dominate Indians
- Throughout history, nature has been an important factor in historical change
Enduring Questions:
- What happens when people of very different backgrounds come together?
- Why do people move? How do they survive?
- How does nature affect history?
Schedule Overview
| October 16 |
Dine & Discuss |
CREC |
| October 23 |
Dine & Discuss |
CREC |
November 1
(Saturday) |
Field Trip |
American Institute for Indian Studies, Washington, CT |
| November 6 |
Dine & Discuss |
CREC |
| November 13 |
Dine & Discuss |
CREC |
October 16: America before Columbus: Were Indians the First Environmentalists?
Study Material:
- Charles Mann, “1491” Atlantic Monthly (March, 2002) 41-52 http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/200203/mann
- Ted Steinberg, “Wilderness Under Fire,” Down to Earth: Nature’s Role in American History (Oxford, 1009) 11-21 contact Anne Raymond araymond@crec.org for copy.
- Shepard Krech, “Ecological Indian” mp3 (contact Anne Raymond araymond@crec.org for copy.
Questions to think about when Reading:
- Were Indians the First Environmentalists?
- When Did First Peoples Arrive in the Americas?
- Where Did They Come From? (Single or Multiple Origins)
- How Many People Lived in America When Columbus Arrived?
- Were First Peoples’ Cultures Simple Societies or Technologically Advanced Cultures?
Agenda:
- First Peoples, New People Overview
- Thinking Like a Historian (TLH) Introduction
- “Origins, Populations, Civilizations – Were Indians the First Environmentalists?”
- Facing East Reading Guide
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October 23: The Indian Discovery of Europeans 1400-1600: What Does “Discovery” Look Like Through the Eyes of the “Discovered"?
Study Material
Daniel Richter, Facing East From Indian Country: A Native History of Early America Pg. 1-68 Reading Guide
Questions to think about when Reading
- What principle concepts shaped first people’s world views?
- How were First People’s cultures changing in the period before European contact?
- How did First People learn about Europeans
- How did interactions with Europeans reshape Indian cultures?
- What factors brought about these changes?
Agenda
- Lecture – Woodward
- Nick Bellantoni, Connecticut Archeologist http://www.cac.uconn.edu/ Artifacts as Evidence
- TLH Evidence Exercise or Reading Guide Jigsaw
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November 1: Field Trip to American Indian Studies Institute Washington, CT
http://www.birdstone.org/
10:00 a.m. – 2:30 p.m.
Agenda
- Main exhibit “As we tell our stories”
- Indoor longhouse classroom
- Videos - Archeological and Culture
Outdoor village
- Dr. Lucianne Lavin, Director of Research and Collections - The importance of Multi-culture Education and Cultural Diversity Material Review
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November 6 - Speaking the Same Language: Accommodating the Europeans
Study Material:
Daniel Richter, Facing East From Indian Country: A Native History of Early America 1) Pg. 69-78 or 90-105, 2) Pg 105-109, 3) Pg. 129-150 Reading Guide
Questions to think about when reading:
- How does looking at History through different lenses (perspectives) change what our understanding is of what happened?
- What is the English version of the Pocahontas story? How does it change when sent through Indian eyes?
- Who was Takeri Tekakawitha? How does her story change if we interpret in it terms of Indian religious beliefs and practices?
- In what contrasting but ultimately similar ways did Europeans depict King Philip? Seen through an Indian perspective, why are both of the views inaccurate?
- How did European attitudes toward Indians change by the end of the 1600s?
- Why are treaty minutes particularly useful sources of evidence bout Indians’ evolving relationship with Europeans?
- What problems must be considered when considering treaty minutes as accurate historical records?
Agenda:
- Jigsaw – Groups analyze Pocahontas, Tekakwitha and Philip
- Lecture – Treaty protocols in a changing world
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November 13 - The March to the End of Indian Country
Study Material:
Daniel Richter, Facing East From Indian Country: A Native History of Early America Pg. 151-236 Reading Guide
Questions to think about when reading:
- How did First People’s and Europeans Move from peaceful coexistence and separate empires (1720-1750) to racial hatred and dispossession (1763-1830)?
- What diplomatic strategies did Indians pursue to maintain a balance of power between French and English interests in the early 1700s?
- How did involvement in European trading relationships affect status distinctions within tribes?
- How did Indian and European religious impulses proceed lead to the hardening of racial identities?
- How did the end of the French and Indian war, undermine Indians’ changes for effective resistance to European domination?
- Why was there not one, but two wars for independence in America between 1763-1812?
- How did the American victory in its war for independence affect Indian America? Why?
- How was the United States “civilizing policy” intentionally organized to undermine native authority?
- How did Andrew Jackson justify Indian removal?
Agenda:
- Peaceful Coexistence – 1700-1754 The End of Indian Country
- Teaching resources or Unit review and discussion of enduring understandings
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