I. General Information

1. Course Title:
Minnesota History

2. Course Prefix & Number:
HIST 2404

3. Course Credits and Contact Hours:

Credits: 3

Lecture Hours: 3

4. Course Description:

This course will survey the history of people who have inhabited the land area we know today as Minnesota. Topics will include: Native North Americans, European exploration and the fur trade, early American settlement, Indian and white cultural interactions, post Civil War settlement, the growth of agriculture and industry, protest politics in the 19th and 20th centuries, and an examination of the People of Minnesota. Minnesota will be a case study in which we will examine many of the historical processes which have shaped the Midwest and indeed much of the United States.

5. Placement Tests Required:

Accuplacer (specify test):

Reading College Level CLC or Reading College Level

Score:

6. Prerequisite Courses:

There are no prerequisites for this course.

9. Co-requisite Courses:

There are no corequisites for this course.

II. Transfer and Articulation

1. Course Equivalency - similar course from other regional institutions:

St. Cloud State University, HIST 346: Minnesota History, 3 credits
Bemidji State University, HST 2610: Minnesota History, 3 credits

III. Course Purpose

2. MN Transfer Curriculum (General Education) Courses - This course fulfills the following goal area(s) of the MN Transfer Curriculum:
Goal 5 – History and the Social and Behavioral Sciences

IV. Learning Outcomes

1. College-Wide Outcomes

College-Wide Outcomes/Competencies	Students will be able to:
Demonstrate written communication skills	Successfully complete written assignments based on assigned reading and construct written answers to essay exam questions.
Demonstrate reading and listening skills	Successfully complete objective and essay exam questions based on assigned reading and class lectures.
Work as a team member to achieve shared goals	Participate in small group discussions based on assigned reading, and help produce oral or written summations of the discussion for evaluation.

2. Course Specific Outcomes - Students will be able to achieve the following measurable goals upon completion of the course:

• Employ the methods and data that historians and social and behavioral scientists use to investigate the human condition. MnTC Goal 5
• Examine social institutions and processes across a range of historical periods and cultures.
•   MnTC Goal 5
• Describe and evaluate the development of the political, social and economic structures of Minnesota from pre-history to the present. MnTC Goal 5
• Analyze and interpret primary sources within their historical context. MnTC Goal 5
• Analyze and evaluate secondary sources for their content and usefulness in studying the past. MnTC Goal 5
• Demonstrate an understanding of the development of and the changing nature of group identifies in Minnesota history.
• Describe and discuss the experience and contributions of American Indians to Minnesota society and culture.
• Describe and discuss the experience and contributions of African-Americans to Minnesota society and culture.
• Identify and apply alternative explanations for historical developments. MnTC Goal 5

V. Topical Outline

Listed below are major areas of content typically covered in this course.

1. Lecture Sessions

1. Early Peoples and First Contact
• Pre-Historic peoples
• Ojibwe: Early history and culture
• Dakota: Early history and culture
2. European Exploration/ Fur Trade 1670-1830
• Northwest passage
• French explorers
• Fur trade: how it operated, Indian involvement, companies involved, changes over time
• Interactions between Europeans and American Indians
• British Era in Minnesota
3. Early Settlement 1830-1849
• American Era: Explorations of Zebulon Pike
• Shift from trade to settlement and its impact on European-Native interactions
• Establishment of Ft. Snelling
• Search for the source of the Mississippi
• First land session treaties
4. Minnesota Territory 1849-1858
• Indian Land Sessions
• Treaty of Traverse des Sioux
• Mendota Treaty
• Missionaries
• Transportation improvements
• Growth of St. Paul
• Land speculation
• Life in Minnesota Territory
5. Dakota Conflict, 1862
6. Statehood and the Politics of Freedom 1850-1865
• Issues of statehood in a dividing nation
• Rise of the Republican Party
• Minnesota and the Underground Railroad
• Questions of Black suffrage
• Dueling Constitutional Conventions
• Minnesota soldiers in the Civil War 
7. Peopling the Land/Developing the Frontiers 1865-1900
• Lumbering: Lumber mills, Growth of Minneapolis, Falls of St. Anthony
• Farming: Homestead Act, Wheat production, growth of the Milling Industry,
• Mining: Mineral exploration, Mesabi, Vermillion and Cuyuna Ranges, immigrant labor
• New Immigration: Germans, Scandinavians, Southern and Eastern Europeans
• Railroad Development
• State promotion
8. Populists and Progressives 1890-1916
• Farmer unrest
• National Grange
• Farmers Alliance
• People’s Party: Ignatius Donnelly
• Minnesota Progressives
• Challenges of Industrialization
• Prohibition
• Indian Reform and the Reservations
• Women advocates: social reform and women’s suffrage
9. World War I and the 1920's
• War and patriotism
• Commission of Public Safety
• Non-Partisan League
• Beginnings of the Farmer-Labor Party
• Post-war Racial Tensions: Duluth Lynchings 1920 
10. The Great Depression 1929-1940
• Lives of Minnesotans during the Great depression
• Rise of the Farmer-Labor Party
• Farmer’s Holiday Association
• Citizens Alliance and the Minneapolis Truckers Strike of 1934
• Emergence of Harold Stassen
11. World War II 1940- 1945
• Soldiers in World War II
• Bataan Death March
• German POW’s
• Wartime Politics in Minnesota
• Life on the Home Front: Rosie the Riveter and Minnesota women in the work force
12. Post-War Society in Minnesota 1945-1960
• Growth of suburbia
• Cold War
• GI Bill
• Baby Boom
• Civil Rights Movement: 1948 and the emergence of Hubert Humphrey
• Politics of Liberal consensus
13. Minnesota Politics 1960-2000
• Civil Rights Movement
• Vietnam Protest: Emergence of Eugene McCarthy
• Wendell Anderson and the “Minnesota Miracle’
• Growing Conservatism   
14. Industry and Environmentalism in Minnesota 1900-2000
• Economies of the 20^th century
• Agriculture and flour milling: diversification
• Lumbering: Forest Management
• Iron Mining
• Importance for world wars
• Taconite
• Reserve Mining Court Case