Welcome to History in the Heartland Explore History Webinar:

American Indians

Thursday, February 11, 2010 Presenter: Glenn McCaskey, A.B.D.

[email protected]

Our Readings

• Calloway,

New Worlds for All

 “textbook” • Calloway, ed.

The World Turned Upside Down

 “reader” • Covers many significant topics in Native American history: – Creating a New World, Land, Disease, Religion and Conversion, Warfare, Frontiers, New Societies • A few scattered points of reinforcement….

Stereotypes and Misconceptions

1. A “Wilderness”

A quote from a social studies textbook for home schooled elementary students: The year was 1585, and the English people were ready to begin a very difficult task. They were going to plant a colony in the

wilderness,

a wild, empty land that has not been settled. America was that wilderness. Of course there were many Native Americans living in America. Some stayed in one area and farmed while many others traveled from place to place. But for the most part, America was still a wilderness —a wild, unsettled land.

2. Weaponry and Technological Advantages

• Hernán Cortéz and the Aztecs (1519-21) – Horses, firearms, steel weapons – Indian allies  The Tlaxcalans • Pequot War (1637) – The Massacre at Mystic • King Philip’s War (1675-76) – Smoothbore flintlock muskets replace the matchlock – The Philip and his allies enjoyed the matchlock, but the English preferred the flintlock • Forges, but not gunpowder – Burning towns (Where did Philip learn this?)

3. “Discovery”: The Red Paint People

• Maritime Archaic • Flourished 5,000 BCE • Fished for swordfish and whales • Red ocher dyes • Remains found in Brittany and Norway

4. Timelessness / Unchanging Societies

• They

always

… • All cultures undergo change over time Newark Earthworks, Newark, OH Serpent Mount, Adams County, OH

Models of Colonial Settlement

Three colonial modes

: expulsion, articulation, stratification

Source: D. W. Meinig,

The Shaping of America: A Geographical Perspective on 500 Years of History; Volume One: Atlantic America, 1492-1800

(New Haven: Yale University Press, 1986), 71.

Stratification of European elites over Native peoples: Spain

Articulation/intermingling of colonizers with Native peoples: France

Expulsion of Native peoples for European settlement: England

Encountering the Other

Sir Walter Raleigh and his son Wat.

Painting by John White labeled “great Lorde of Virginia” John White’s painting of the Roanoke chief Wingina

Can we get at an American Indian Perspective?

The Problem of Sources

TAKE up this subject in order to add or correct in my preceding Relations what from day to day I discover to be new or more positive information. Let us begin with the feasts of the Savages. They have one for war. At this, they sing and dance in turn, according to age; if the younger ones begin, the old men pity them for exposing themselves to the ridicule of the others. Each has his own song, that another dare not sing lest he give offense. For this very reason, they sometimes strike up a tune that belongs to their enemies, in order to aggravate them. An unusual exhibition of nakedness sometimes slips in, not through lewdness, but to propitiate the Manitou, who, they say, is pleased with this. Father Buteux wrote me, that the Prince

one day absented himself from the dance of the naked girls, "Because," said he, " he who has made all hates these indecent acts, and Father le Jenne would be angry with me if I went there." They have the usual food at these feasts, —except that in accordance with their dreams they occasionally eat a dog, a dish as shameful in the eyes of our Montagnés as it is rare and delicious in those of the Hurons.

I have already mentioned how the Charlatans, or jugglers and Sorcerers are obeyed here; sometimes more than he who has made all, as we say in these. Countries, is obeyed by those who acknowledge him. One of these new Physicians one day ordered a patient to get a pair of stockings like those of the Black robes, the name they give us. When Father Buteux visited this poor man, his relatives declared that the patient's recovery depended only upon him. The Father asking what they meant, they replied, " Give him thy black stockings, and thou wilt soon see him upon his feet, for thus the Manitou has told him." …

For Further Reading and For Further Reference

Best References

Carl Waldman,

Atlas of the North American Indian

. 3 rd ed. New York: Checkmark Books, 2009.

Contains more than 120 color maps and more than 140 photographs, along with descriptive chapters on history, traditions, and conflicts.

R. David Edmunds, Frederick E. Hoxie, and Neal Salisbury,

The People: A History of Native America

. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2007.

I find this to be the best available textbook on Native American history, covering pre-contact to the present day.

Other highly accessible studies: Clara Sue Kidwell and Alan Velie,

Native American Studies

. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2005.

Describes the key issues behind the Native American Studies approach.

Colin G. Calloway,

One Vast Winter Count: The Native American West before Lewis and Clark

. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 2003.

Historians have given the American West renewed attention in the past few years. Here, in this 631-page study, Calloway provides a sweeping history of Native peoples of the American West.

Daniel K. Richter,

Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America

. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2001.

We tell a story of the westward rush of settlers to the New World, but how might American history look different if we face east, from an Indian perspective?

John Demos,

The Unredeemed Captive: A Family Story from Early America

. New York: Knopf, 1994.

The story of Eunice Williams, who was seven years old when she was captured in the Mohawk raid on Deerfield Village, Massachusetts, in 1704. Adopted into Mohawk society, Eunice would remain the “unredeemed captive,” refusing to return to her Puritan family.

Karen Ordahl Kupperman,

Indians and English: Facing Off in Early America

. Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2000.

Explores how English and Indian encountered each other in early America. Colin G. Calloway,

The Scratch of a Pen: 1763 and the Transformation of North America

. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.

A fast and enjoyable read, Calloway links the conclusion of the Seven Years’ War, Native American history, and the coming of the American Revolution.

James Axtell,

1. The European and the Indian: Essays in the Ethnohistory of Colonial North America

.

2. After Columbus: Essays in the Ethnohistory of Colonial North America

.

3. Beyond 1492: Encounters in Colonial North America

.

4. Natives and Newcomers: The Cultural Origins of North America

.

All from Oxford University Press.

Collections of essays by a senior scholar of Native American history at the College of William and Mary.

For Reference: The French and

1.

Indian War

s

King William’s War, 1689-1697 – War of the League of Augsburg 2.

Queen Anne’s War, 1702-1713 – War of the Spanish Succession 3.

King George’s War, 1739-1748 – War of Jenkins’ Ear, merging with – War of the Austrian Succession 4. French and Indian War, 1754-1763 – Seven Years’ War

Questions? Comments?

• Please enter a “take-away point” in the chat window— – an insight you gained from the textbook, – something new you learned, – or a new perspective offered by the textbook.

Modeling: How to read historical documents

• In our reader: “Powhatan’s Speech to John Smith,” page 39 of our reader.

• Bloom’s Taxonomy – Invert it!

• Summarizing • Contextualizing • Inferring • Monitoring • Corroborating

Summarizing:

• What type of document is this?

• What information does the document provide?

• What is the subject or purpose of the source?

• Who was the author and audience of the source?

Contextualizing:

• When and where was the source produced?

• Why was the source produced?

• What was happening within the immediate and broader context at the time the source was produced?

• What summarizing information can place the source in time and place?

Inferring:

• What is suggested by the source?

• What interpretations may be drawn from the source?

• What perspectives or points of view are indicated in the source?

• What inferences may be drawn from absences or omissions in the source?

Monitoring:

• What evidence beyond the source is necessary to answer the historical question?

• What ideas, images, or terms need further defining from the source?

• How useful or significant is the source for its intended purpose?

• What questions from the previous stages need to be revisited in order to analyze the source satisfactory?

Corroborating:

• What similarities and differences are there between different sources?

• What factors could account for the similarities and differences?

• What conclusions can be drawn from the accumulated interpretations?

• What additional information or sources are necessary to answer more fully the guiding historical question?

Based upon the “SCIM-C Explanation,” by Peter Doolittle, David Hicks, and Tom Ewing. http://www.historicalinquiry.com.

Now its your turn!

Let’s get into the documents!