SOC 249:
Native Nations of the US,
TR
10-11:50
OL 215
Fall 2006
DePauw
University
Professor Thomas Hall
Office: 106 Asbury, x4519, email: thall@depauw.edu
OFFICE HOURS:
TuTr 1-1:50; W 11-12; & by appt
Study Guide for
FINAL
FRIDAY DEC. 15, 2006, 8:30 am
Last Updated 12-5-06
The final, scheduled for Friday, Dec. 15, 8:30 am. I will be cumulative, covering the entire course. No new topics or items from the before the midterm will be added. The final will consist of 40 points of short answer questions, and 4 sets of essays.
Material will include:
Iverson ALL
Sutton ALL
Wilkins ALL
Mann ALL
Reserve Readings
Videos: Incident
at Oglala, Lakota Woman, In Whose Honor, White Shamans, In the
Light of Reverence, Who Owns the Past, Winds of Change, Harold of Orange
All lectures and discussions.
You MAY USE, but are not required to use, the three books for reactions papers, and the videos you reviewed.
TERMS TO KNOW:
Delaware Prophet
Shawnee Prophet
Winnebago Prophet
Ghost Dance [twice]
Handsome Lake Church
Delaware Big House Religion
Kickapoo Prophet
Shaker Church
Native American Church
supra-tribal movement
termination
trail of broken treaties
WARN
White Shamanism
Richard ADick@
Wilson
Winters Doctrine
Some Sample ESSAY Questions:
The following essays are designed to help you review, some may be used in
slightly revised wordings on the final.
NOTE: you MAY use any material on Indians in constructing your answers,
including the films. However, you are only required to use material that
we have used in class.
1. Suppose in 20 or 25 years one of your children goes to college and takes a course on Native Nations, and one of the texts is the 7th edition of Mann's 1491. In what ways would you expect it to be different? In what ways would you expect it to be the same?
2. Why are the debates of the number of indigenous peoples in the Americas at the time of Columbus's arrival important today? What are the major issues? What are the major camps or positions? What is the current consensus?
3. Some scholars argue that Indians are excellent ecological stewards of the land. Others argue that they modified the land extensively. What is the most reasonable position on this debate? What evidence do you use to support your position?
4. Why are images of Native Peoples as "savage" and "backward" wrong? Besides garden variety racism and ignorance, why might some people now, and in the past seen them as incapable of building large civilizations?
5. How isthe image of "wilderness" distorted by lack of correct informaton about Native Americans? What are the consequences for such distortions for Native Americans today?
6. Suppose a village somewhere in the Americas was unearthed and investigated by scientists, who found beyond any doubt:
What would this do to debates about the origins of Native Peoples in the Americas? Would any current [2006] Native group have a legal claim to these remans? A moral or ethical claim? What kinds of other conflicts would such a discovery settle? What kinds of conflicts might it generate?
7. A sceptic asks, "If Indians were so smart as to make accurate calendars, why did they not discover and use wheels." How would reply? [As usual, a factual, NOT ad hominem, argument is needed].
8. How and WHY is the portrayal of American Indians in film important to real Indians in their everyday lives? What are some of the harmful consequences of inaccurate portrayals? Illustrate by using materials (videos, films, ethnographies, novels, reports) from this course.
9. What is the mascot issue? Why is it important to Native Peoples? What does Ward Churchill say about this issue? What does James Fenelon say about this issue?
10. Someone argues that Native Americans are all becoming rich from gaming operations. Comment in light of the evidence. [Note a factual commentary, not an editorial or an attack!].
11. You are assigned to design a one month segment for a college course on Indian - White relations which must cover both historical and contemporary relations. A) what topics would you emphasize? and B) what topics would you leave for "outside reading"? Why? (that is, justify both what you include, and why you put in the first or second category). NOTE: this is NOT an education or communications exercise, but an intellectual exercise. That is, I am concerned with your intellectual choices and the reasons for them, not techniques of transmittal, or political consequences or intentions.
12. What kinds of laws and practices are likely to INcrease the survival American Indian cultures? What kinds of laws and practices might DEcrease the survival probabilities of American Indian cultures? What types of actions by Native Americans are likely to INcrease their cultural survival? What types of actions by Native Americans are likely to DEcrease their cultural survival? As usual, the why, the justification for your list, is far more important than your specific choices.
13. There is a protest in Indianapolis against the name of the local baseball farm team, "The Indians." News media call you as a consultant to discuss the background issues to the controversy. They ask you to prepare a memo on uses of Indians as mascots. NOTE: this is NOT an op-ed piece, or an "opinion" piece, but a concise statement of the issues, and a summary of the arguments of Native Peoples.
14. Explain the impacts of federal policy on the following:
15. An American poet of European ancestry, in an effort to bring "magic and wonder" back into American poetry, uses materials taken from Native American traditions. He claims in doing so he "honors" American Indian culture & heritage. Meanwhile, members of AIM and WARN organize a protest at a major poetry reading. (1) What are the major issues involved? (2) Propose an approach that will satisfy, or come close to satisfying both sides. Be sure to justify your answer to part 2 on both sociological and historical grounds.
16. Why is "tribal autonomy" so important to many Native American groups?
17. What are some of the harmful effects of the board school program for Native Americans? What were some of unintended, positive after effects of the boarding school program for Native Americans.
18. A bulldozer operated by a developer working on public land, next to an areas some Native Americans claim is sacred, uncovers some bones. Construction is halted and archaeologists are called in to assess the significance of the find. A preliminary study reveals that the skeletal remains are well over 10,000 years old. Native Americans, on finding out about this "discovery" claim jurisdiction over remains. Archaeologists want to keep the remains for study. The developer argues he has the "rights" to this area and wants to proceed with his construction project. You are called in by local media to provide deep background on the issues involved in the controversy. Sketch the issues involved and the pros and cons for each set of actors.
19. A bulldozer operated by a developer working on public land, next to an areas some Native Americans claim is sacred, uncovers some bones. Construction is halted and archaeologists are called in to assess the significance of the find. A preliminary study reveals that the skeletal remains are well over 10,000 years old. Native Americans, on finding out about this "discovery" claim jurisdiction over remains. Archaeologists want to keep the remains for study. The developer argues he has the "rights" to this area and wants to proceed with his construction project. You are called in to help work out a compromise among the various groups. What are the issues involved in the controversy from each perspective. Propose and justify a compromise which maximizes the positive results for all sides.
20.What are some of the pros and cons of gaming for Native American groups?
21. Compare and contrast "tribal" governments with local governments.
22. Compare and contrast the following situations:
A) a Native American groups asks the U.S. National Park Service [USNPS] to
restrict use of certain public lands during the two week period when they
traditionally hold their sacred ceremonies in that area;
B) a New Age religious group asks the USNPS to allow them to hold "religious"
ceremonies as a hot spring on public land that involves nudity and ingestion of
psychoactive substances;
C) a group of fundamentalist christians object to both A) and B) on the grounds
that they are "pagan," "heathen," "unchristian," and "unAmerican';
D) a civil liberties groups objects to A, B, and C on the grounds that all three
violate the principle of separation of church and state.
23. A local pundit claims that Indian activism in the 60s and 70s was nothing but the actions of a few rabble rousers, and did nothing but upset people unnecessarily. You are asked by the local media to supply deep background on this topic. That is, you are supply facts, history, and interpretations advanced by various groups, but not to take a side yourself.
24. Suppose that somehow you are appointed to a commission that is to propose ways to improve the lives of Native Americans, including redressing past wrongs. What would be your top four priorities. Recall that what is important here, is NOT the specific proposals, as much as your justifications for them and what you think they would do.
25. Why is sovereignty such a vital issue to Native Americans? What are some similarities and differences among Native American groups with respect to their approaches to sovereignty?
26. The originators of the relocation program developed relocation as a part of what policy? What was its relative success? Why is it that relocation to urban areas did NOT eliminate American Indian identities? What were some of the unintended consequences of the policy?
27. What are the issues involved in the debates over use of public lands for Native American religious practices?
28A. Define White Shamanism and/or Plastic Medicine man.
B. Why are many Native peoples concerned about their practices?
C. What are some of the constitutional and political issues that this
controversy raises?
29. Compare and contrast the images of Indian warriors or Indian spirituality in Broken Chain, Geronimo, Incident at Oglala, Lakota Woman, Harold of Orange, Contrary Warrior, and the films you reviewed this semester.
30. What is the significance of the Leonard Peltier case to American Indian politics today? What are its historical roots? How and Why (or How not and Why not) is this issue more important than Peltier's freedom?
31. What are the roles of Indian women in Indian movements? How are American Indian gender roles different from gender roles among Anglo Americans?
32. What, if anything, is the relevance of Native Nations, and indigenous peoples generally, to the immediate future of the human race?
Send comments or questions to thall@depauw.edu
Back to Course Home
Page