Text Box: AN 319--Contemporary Native Americans Syllabus, Fall 2007 Professor Sandra Faiman-Silva Office: 100E Burrill Office Pod email: sfaimansilva@bridgew.edu Office Hours: T/Th, 8:45-9:10, 11-12, 1:00-1:45 Phone: 508-531-2369 (most days) and by appt.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This course will introduce students to contemporary Native American issues in the United States, as well as Canada and Mexico as time permits. We will explore definitions of sovereignty and self-determination.  Tribal issues pertaining to political, economic, religious, and cultural self-determination will be examined, including tribal governments, courts, natural and cultural resource rights, resource management, religious freedom, economic development, gaming, the incarceration of Leonard Peletier, Indian women, and gay and lesbian American Indians, among others.   We will explore issues throughout the United States, including the Southwest, Northwest coast, New England, and Southeast, locating tribal issues in local historical and cultural contexts. 

 

The following texts will be used and should be purchased at the Bridgewater State College Bookstore or another local bookstore:

 

                1)  M. Annette Jaimes, Ed. The State of Native America: Genocide, Colonization, and Resistance.

                Boston: South End Press, 1992.

                2)  Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development.  The State of the Native Nations.

                New York: Oxford U Press, 2008

                3)  Sandra Faiman-Silva, Choctaws at the Crossroads: The Political Economy of Class and Culture in

                the Oklahoma Timber Region. Lincoln: U Nebraska, 1997.

 

If you have already read my ethnography, you must select another contemporary Native American ethnography.  Some suggestions:  

à Michael Baughman and Charlotte Hadella, Warm Springs Millennium: Voices from the

Reservation, (U Texas)  

à Bea Medicine, Learning to be an Anthropologist and Remaining “Native”, Selected Writings

Urbana (U Illinois Press, 2001)

à     John S. Matthiasson, Living on the Land: Change among the Inuit of Baffin Island, (Ontario,

Broadview Press, 1992)

à      Karen Blu,  The Lumbee Problem: The Making of an American Indian People

à      Melissa L. Meyer, The White Earth Tragedy:  Ethnicity and Dispossession at a Minnesota Asnishinaabe Reservation (Lincoln:  University of Nebraska, 1994)

 

Students will be required to read class assignments on time and come to class prepared to discuss issues with classmates.   Students will be expected to attend class regularly (absences in excess of THREE will result in reduction in grade); participate in class discussions; and complete assignments on time.  

 

Students will complete FOUR short papers 3-5 pages each, in which you examine issues raised during that section of the course.  Questions will be handed out in class or developed by you approximately five days prior to the due date.  Each paper will focus on a particular topic.  You will critically discuss the topic using material we've explored in class discussions and computer searches.  Papers must be properly referenced using footnotes/endnotes/ or in-text notation systems.  I prefer in-text notes placed in parentheses.  This is standard anthropology style.  We will go over in class how to cite sources and reference material.  Papers must include a Cover page, References page, 1" margins all around, double-spaced, typed if possible, neat, proof-read, and well-organized.  Students will be graded on (1) content; (2) paper's organization; (3) use of sources; (4) style.  (5) how well you follow directions.   Plagiarism will not be tolerated.  Plagiarism is theft of another person's ideas, words, or writing.  You will be expected to comply with the college's plagiarism policy, and students who plagiarize will receive an F on that paper.

 

The final paper will be a group or individual paper in which 2-3 students can work together to develop a specific topic in depth, beyond what we discussed in class.  Topics may include: Indian education, Native American religious issues, resource use rights, Indians and Museums, contemporary Indian women, or tribal federal recognition, Indian gaming.  I will encourage you to investigate a tribe in the region, such as the Mashpee Wampanoags, Naragansetts, Pequots, Gay Head Wampanoags, Boston area Indians, etc.  You will also be encouraged to visit local sites, meet local officials, talk to community members, and find out about current issues pertaining to these Native American communities.  If possible we will try to organize visits to local sites. 

 

You will organize a group paper, in which each student will be responsible for a portion of the topic you select.  Each student will be required to write an 8-10 page paper on his/her topic.  You will discuss with members of your group and educate other students about what you have written about.  Time will be devoted in class to network with students, but you will also be responsible for networking out of class to organize and prepare this assignment.  We will also schedule reports at the end of the semester for each group to report to the rest of the class. 

 

The following weight will be given to various assignments (approximate)

 

FOUR Issues Papers                             20% each

Final Paper                                           20%

Class participation/attendance                +/-10%

 

                                                                            Daily Assignments

Date                Assignment

Sept. 6              Introduction

Sept. 11            Harvard U, Introduction;  Annette Jaimes, The State of Native America  Ch. I

Sept. 13            Harvard U.    Ch. 1, Tribal Govt.

                        Faiman-Silva, Ch. 1

Sept. 18            Jaimes, CH. II,  Harvard U, Ch. 2

Sept. 20            Harvard U,  Ch. 3,  Faiman-Silva, Ch. 2

                        Website:  Look at the Bureau of Indian Affairs Website

Sept. 25            Harvard U, Ch. 5

Sept. 27            Jaimes, Ch. III "Self-Determination"

                        Faiman-Silva, Ch. 3

Oct. 2               Jaimes, Ch. IV, "Identification Policy" 

Oct. 4               Faiman-Silva, Ch. 4-5

                        1st Essay Assignment Today,  Due Oct. 9

Oct. 9               Harvard U, Ch. 6, Native Lands

Oct. 11             Faiman-Silva, Ch. 1-2

Oct. 16             Faiman-Silva, Ch. 3-5

Oct. 18             Harvard U, Ch. 7, Econ. Dev.

Oct. 23             Faiman-Silva, Ch. 6-8 

Oct. 25             Harvard U, Ch. 8, Gaming

Oct. 30             Faiman-Silva, Ch. 9-10

Nov. 1              Faiman-Silva, Ch. 11-14 and Epilogue

                        2nd Essay Assignment Today, Due Nov. 6

Nov. 6              Jaimes, Ch. V,  Harvard U, Ch. 9,  Land/Natural Resources

Nov. 13            Harvard U,  Ch. 10

Nov. 15            Jaimes, Ch. VI, Water Rights

Nov. 20            Jaimes, Ch. VII and VIII, Fishing, ‘Radioactive Colonialism’

                        3rd Essay Assignment Today, Due. Nov. 27

Nov. 27            Harvard U. Ch. 11, Jaimes, Ch. XIII, Education

Nov. 29            Harvard U, Ch. 12, Health,  Jaimes, Ch. IX, Relig. Freedom

Dec. 4              Harvard U, Ch. 13-14, Family,  Jaimes, Ch. XI, Women/Two Spirits

Dec. 6              Harvard U, Ch. 16 and 21 Culture, Urban Indians

Dec. 11            Harvard U, Ch. 19-21, Alaska Natives and Hawaiians

                        4th Essay Assignment Today, Due. @ Final Exam Date

 

Final Exam Date:   Thursday, Dec. 20, 2007, 12:00 Noon.

NOTE:   There will be no final exam in this course.