Understanding and Teaching American Indian as (not in addition to, or a-part from)
United States History
History 592
Summer 2006
Tuesdays and Thursdays, 10-2
Homewood Flossmoor High School
Instructor:
Offices:
Phone:
Email:
Brian Hosmer
University Hall 1015 UIC
Newberry Library’s McNickle Center for American Indian History
312/996-5482 (UIC)
312/255-3563 (Newberry)
hosmerb@uic.edu
Course Description and Objectives:
This class is oriented around problems—and opportunities—associated with integrating
American Indian historical experiences into classroom lessons on United States History. It
proceeds from the conviction that American Indian historical experiences are integral to United
States History, not simply exotic, distant, romantic, tragic, or somehow different. Indeed I hope
to consider how American Indian History informs our understanding of U.S. History, but what it
means (for our students and ourselves) when we leave it out, and how examples from American
Indian experiences can enhance lessons on a whole range of topics. Even more broadly, this class
is designed to explore, together, the concept that U.S. History can be understood as plural
histories, sometimes running as parallel streams, sometimes intersecting, always informing one
another.
To accomplish all (or some) of this, I am going to ask you to accomplish several intertwined
tasks:
 Read Chapters in Calloway, First Peoples, a well-regarded American Indian History
textbook. Consider this context as I am assuming (if erroneously, I apologize) from the
outset that you may benefit from basic background in the basics of American Indian
history.
 Read for discussion chapters in Hoxie and Iverson, ed., Indians in American History.
These essays are more or less “interpretive,” designed to offer suggestions and examples
for integrating American Indian historical experiences into U.S. History.
 Read for discussion, chapters in Iverson, ’We are Still Here,’ a reader on American
Indian history during the twentieth century.
 Read for discussion scholarly essays in American Encounters: Natives and Newcomers
from European Contact to Indian Removal, 1500-1850, and American Nations:
Encounters in Indian Country, 1850 to the Present.
o Once each week (6 times totally), I will ask you to prepare a lunchtime
presentation on an article of your choice from the list for that class period (and
from the above-mentioned essay collections). You also will be required to hand
in a 3 to 5-page response paper in connection with each of these article
presentations. Essays are due on the date of the presentation.
o We will work out a presentation schedule during our initial class meeting

Read for discussion essays (as indicated in our class schedule) from the McNickle
Center’s conferences on “The Impact of Indian History on the Teaching of United States
History. These papers date from the 1980s, so I want us to consider them as historical
documents, and opportunities to discuss the “state” of teaching in this area. For each, I’ll
ask you to consider:
o issues raised by essayists,
o suggested solutions,
o and (most importantly, I think) whether and where these essayists anticipated
changes in the treatment of American Indian historical experiences.
In addition to the six short response papers, I will ask you to produce two lesson plans. I will
evaluate these exercises and offer feedback.


The first will ask you to reshape an existing lesson by substituting an American Indian
example for the one you already use. I will ask you to explain how focusing on
American Indians might help you describe, explain, and enliven your discussion on a
particular era in U.S. History (the American Revolution, the New Deal, etc.). This lesson
plan must be accompanied by a written explanation of why you chose that particular
topic, demonstrate familiarity with an historical debate surrounding interpretation and
presentation of the issues at hand, and specify content objectives, materials to be used,
the process students will follow, and assessment protocol to gauge student achievement.
I will expect short oral presentations on Lesson Plan #1 during week 5
The second will ask you to develop a primary source based lesson plan, again based
around American Indian historical experiences. Here, you may draw upon primary
sources in the Calloway volume, but you are welcome to find your own, or offer a
combination of the two. And as with the first lesson plan, I will ask you to explain how
focusing on American Indians might help you describe, explain, and enliven your
discussion on a particular era in U.S. History, and a description of expectations, process,
and assessment. I will expect short oral presentations on Lesson Plan #2 during week
6
Symposium: TBA
Schedule
Week 1: Setting the Stage; Contours of American Indian History and Historiography
Tuesday, June 25
We’ll settle our reading/presentation schedule and discuss how and where American Indian
history appears in their teaching, and in the textbook you use.
**If you can, bring the textbook you currently use in class**
Read for Discussion (articles available on the class homepage). Please read in advance of our
class meeting.
R. David Edmunds, “Native American Voices: American Indian History, 1895-1995”
Frederick E. Hoxie, “’Thinking Like and Indian’: Exploring American Indian Views of American
History”
Ned Blackhawk, “Look How Far We’ve Come; How American Indian History Changed the
Study of American History in the 1990s”
Hoxie, “The Indian Versus the Textbook: Is There Any Way Out?” McNickle Center Occasional
Papers, Vol. 1A.
Thursday, June 27:
Common Readings:
Calloway, First Peoples, Chapter 1
Hoxie and Iverson, Indians in American History, Introduction and Chapter 1
Iverson, We Are Still Here, Introduction
Readings from McNickle Center Conferences (for discussion)
Occasional Papers, 2A
Axtell, “The Indian in American History: the Colonial Period”
Jennings, “Some Implications of Human Status”
Henretta, “The Impact of ‘New Indian History’ on United States History”
Week 2: Colonial Encounters
Thursday, July 6 (NOTE. We meet from 10-3 on this day only): Colonial Encounters
Common Readings:
Calloway, First Peoples, Chapter 2
Hoxie and Iverson, Indians in American History, Chapter 2-3
Additional readings for Presentation, and Discussion:
From Mancall and Merrell, American Encounters:
Salisbury, “The Indians’ Old World: Native Americans and the Coming of Europeans:
Merrell, “The Indians New World: The Catawba Experience”
Crosby, “Ecological Imperialism: The Overseas Migration of Western Europeans as a
Biological Phenomenon”
Film: “The New World”
Readings from McNickle Center Conferences (for discussion)
Occasional Papers, 3A
Fogelson, “Night Thoughts on Native American Social History
White, “Teaching Indian History and Social History: Comments and Reflections”
Salisbury, “Indians in Colonial History”
Zuckerman, “Comment in ‘Indians in Colonial History’”
Week 3: American Indians and Wars for Empire
Tuesday, July 11:
Common Readings:
Calloway, First Peoples, chapter 3
Additional Readings for Presentation and Discussion:
(All are from Mancall and Merrell, American Encounters)
Jaenen, “Amerindian Views of French Culture in the Seventeenth Century”
Davis, “Iroquois Women, European Women”
Ronda, “Generations of Faith”
Usner, “The Frontier Exchange Economy of the Lower Mississippi Valley”
Richter, “War and Culture”
Bushnell, “Ruling ‘the Republic of Indians’”
Axtell, “The White Indians of Colonial America”
Thursday, July 13
Common Readings:
Hoxie and Iverson, Indians in American History, chapter 4
Additional Readings for Presentation and Discussion:
(All are from Mancall and Merrell, American Encounters)
Mancall, “’The Bewitching Tyranny of Custom’”
Kugel, “Of Missionaries and Their Cattle”
Hatley, “The Three Lives of Keowee”
Vickers, “The First Whalemen of Nantucket”
Shannon, “Dressing for Success on the Mohawk Frontier”
Hauser, “The Berdache and the Illinois Indian Tribe during the Last Half of the
Seventeenth Century”
Readings from McNickle Center Conferences (for discussion)
Occasional Papers 4A
Sheehan, “Indians in the American Revolution”
Norton, “Indians and the American Revolution—Approaches to History”
Occasional Papers 5A
Morrison, “Native Americans and the American Revolution: Historic Stories and Shifting
Frontier Conflict”
Week Four: Interracial and Intercultural Relations during the Nineteenth Century
Tuesday, July 18
Common Readings:
Calloway, First Peoples, chapter 4
Hoxie and Iverson, Indians in American History, 5-6
Additional Readings for Presentation and Discussion:
(All are from Mancall and Merrell, American Encounters)
Dowd, “Thinking and Believing”
Tanner, “The Glaize in 1792”
Herndon and Sekatau. “The Right to Name”
McLaughlin, “Cherokee Anomie, 1794-1810”
Hackel, “The Staff of Leadership”
Sandos, “Levantamiento!”
Perdue, “Cherokee Women”
Readings from McNickle Center Conferences (for discussion)
Occasional Papers, 2A
Wilkinson, “The Place of Indian Law in Constitutional Law and History”
Murphey, “Remarks in Response to Wilkinson’s Paper”
Occasional Papers, 4A
Perdue, “Indians in Southern History”
Thursday, July 20
Common Readings:
Calloway, First Peoples, Ch. 5
Hoxie and Iverson, Indians in American History, 7-8
Additional Readings for Presentation and Discussion:
(From American Encounters)
White, “The Winning of the West”
From American Nations
Osburn, “The Navajo at Bosque Redondo”
Bray, “Crazy Horse and the End of the Great Sioux War’
Thrush and Keller, “I See what I Have Done”
Readings from McNickle Center Conferences (for discussion)
Occasional Papers, 2A
Edmunds, “American Expansion in the 19th Century”
Young, “Indian-white Relations in the Nineteenth Century: Alternative Perspectives”
Occasional Papers, 4A
Sealander, “Integrating Indian History into a Survey Course in Nineteenth Century
American History”
Week Five: Reservation Life toward the Twentieth Century
Tuesday, July 25
Common Readings:
Calloway, First Peoples, Chapter 6-7
Additional Readings for Presentation and Discussion:
(All from American Nations)
Meyer, “Signatures and Thumbprints
McPherson “Naalyehe Ba-Hooghan”
Biolsi, “The Birth of the Reservation”
Emmerich, “Right in the Midst of My Own People”
Lewis, “Reservation Leadership and the Progressive-Traditional Dichotomy”
Presentations on Lesson Plan, #1
Thursday, July 27
Common Readings:
Hoxie and Iverson, Indians in American History, Chapters, 9-10
Iverson, We Are Still Here, Chapter 2-3
Film, “In The White Man’s Image”
Presentations on Lesson Plan #1
Readings from McNickle Center Conferences (for discussion)
Occasional Papers, 4A
Parman, “Indians in the Twentieth Century
Fixico, “The Indian War on Academics”
Presentations on Lesson Plan #1, continued
Week Six: American Indians in Contemporary America
Tuesday, August 1
Common Readings:
Hoxie and Iverson, Chapters, 11-12
Iverson, We Are Still Here, chapters 4-5
Additional Readings for Presentation and Discussion
(all from American Nations)
Jacobs, “Making Savages of Us All”
Harring, “Red Lilac of the Cayugas”
Hoxie, “Exploring a Cultural Borderland”
Savagian, “The Tribal Reorganization of the Stockbridge-Munsee”
Cole, “Jim Crow in Alaska”
Readings from McNickle Center Conferences (for discussion)
Occasional Papers, 4A
West and Gover, “Indians in United States Civil Rights History”
Special Reading (located on our web page):
Paul Rosier, “They Are Ancestral Homelands’: Race, Politics, and Politics in Cold
War Native America, 1945-1961”
Presentations on Lesson Plan #2
Thursday, August 3
Common Readings:
Calloway, First Peoples, Chapter 8
Iverson, We Are Still Here, 6-Epilogue
Additional Readings for Presentation and Discussion
(all from American Nations)
Nagel, “American Indian Ethnic Renewal”
Ellis, “’We Don’t Want Your Rations, We Want This Dance”
Bee, “Riding the Paper Tiger”
Deloria, “Research, Redskins, and Reality”
Readings from McNickle Center Conferences (for discussion)
Occasional Papers, 7A (entire)
Presentations on Lesson Plan #2, Continued
Class Wrap Up