I. General Information

1. Course Title:
American Indian History

2. Course Prefix & Number:
HIST 2411

3. Course Credits and Contact Hours:

Credits: 3

Lecture Hours: 3

4. Course Description:

This course is a survey of pre-contact Native North America to the present. It will spend time examining the world of Indian peoples before the arrival of Columbus, the invasions of America by Europeans, the fur trade and interactions of Indians and whites during the colonial period, federal Indian policy in the early national period, conflict on the plains, efforts to Americanize the American Indian, twentieth century issues including urbanization and relations with the federal government.

5. Placement Tests Required:

6. Prerequisite Courses:

9. Co-requisite Courses:

II. Transfer and Articulation

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

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
• Goal 7 – Human Diversity

IV. Learning Outcomes

1. College-Wide Outcomes

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

V. Topical Outline

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

1. Lecture Sessions

• American History before Columbus
• Pre-contact population
• Creation stories
• Pre-contact societies of North America
• Culture areas: West, Southwest, Eastern Woodlands, Plains
• Tribes and Confederacies

• First Contacts
• Columbian exchange
• First impressions- the creation of stereotypes
• Differences in first encounters
• Spanish: Pueblo Revolt
• French: Fur trade
• English: “New” England and King Philips War

• Indians in the Atlantic World
• Economic exchanges
• Cultural exchanges
• Impact of the fur trade

• Indians and the Wars of the 18^th century
• Indian diplomacy
• French and Indian War
• American Revolution
• Captivity narratives
• Divisions within tribal communities
• Aftermath of the Revolution

• American Indians Confront the New Nation
• United States Indian policy
• Indians confront American expansion
• United Indian Resistance
• Accommodation or Resistance?
• Treaty of Ft. Finney
• Treaty of Ft. Stanwix
• Treaty of Greenville
• Lewis and Clark Expedition

• Indian Removals
• Removal Policy
• Cherokee resistance and debate
• Removal
• Treaty of New Echota

• The Indian West
• Introduction of horses and guns to the plains
• New ways of life for plains peoples
• Ravages of Smallpox
• Ethnic cleansing in Texas and California
• Losing the West
• Wars and treaties of the 1860’s
• Battle for the Black Hills
• Treaty of Ft. Laramie
• Strategies for survival
• Prophets

• Americanizing the American Indian
• Politics of detribalization
• Dawes Allotment Act
• Indian Territory becomes Oklahoma

• The Assault on Indian Children
• Removing children from the tribe
• Boarding School experiences
• Between two worlds- life after the boarding school
• New Indian leadership

• Depression and World War II
• Indian New Deal
• Indian Reorganization Act and it opposition
• Indians and WWII

• Termination and Self-determination
• Indian Claims Commission
• Removing the Government’s Trust Responsibilities
• Relocation
• Urban Indians
• Growing militancy- Siege at Wounded Knee
• Legacies of Wounded Knee
• Indian Sovereignty and the Courts

• Indian Country since 1980
• Changes at the Bureau of Indian Affairs
• Issues of Tribal Sovereignty
• Who is an Indian?
• Indian Gaming
• Indian Education
• Drugs and alcohol
• Indian leadership