History 600
Charles L. Cohen
Spring, 1998
Tel: 263-1956, -1800 (Dept.)
Email: clcohen@facstaff.wisc.edu
Professor's Webpage: http://www.wisc.edu/history/clc
 

AMERINDIANS AND SETTLERS IN THE EASTERN WOODLANDS, 1500-1800

The encounter between Amerindians and European settlers comprises one of the most problematic issues in American history. So you were expecting maybe something uncomplicated?

The following books are required reading and may be purchased at Canterbury Booksellers, 315 W. Gorham Street:

    Colin Calloway, New Worlds for All
    Gregory Dowd, A Spirited Resistance
    Peter Mancall, Deadly Medicine
    Carol Mason, Introduction to Wisconsin Indians
    James Merrill, The Indians' New World
    Daniel Richter, Ordeal of the Longhouse
    Ian Steele, Warpaths

A packet of required materials entitled:

    Walks in the Woods: A Reader for History 600

is available at the Humanities Copy Center, 1650 Humanities Building. All additional assignments come from this packet. The College Library in H.C. White Hall has placed all of the readings on three-hour reserve.

Automatic Honors
History 600 confers Honors Credits automatically; students in the Honors Program should consult with the instructor.
Written Assignments
The major written assignments consist of one 5-page paper and one 10-page research paper. There are also five brief minor assignments. All papers must be typed and double-spaced; the minor assignments are due in class on the day indicated, and the major assignments are due at 5:00 on the indicated Friday. Please note that you may choose between two options for the 5-page paper, due on different dates. Pages 3-4 below list the paper topics and due dates. There is no final exam.
Rewrite Policy
You may rewrite the 5-page paper. To begin the rewrite process, you must first talk with me about such details as the new due date and the kinds of changes to be made. You must inform me of your decision to rewrite by 5:00 on the Friday afternoon after I return the original version. You will ordinarily receive one week to rewrite, but I am flexible about negotiating extensions for good cause. The old draft (plus any separate sheet of comments) must accompany the new version. Rewriting cannot lower your grade (nor can changing your mind about handing in a revised paper), but it does not by itself guarantee a higher one; you must substantially rework the essay, following my comments and initiating your own improvements too. If a rewrite does receive a higher grade, you will be credited with that grade, not the average of the two marks.
Grading
The 5-page paper counts for 30% of the final grade, class participation 30%, and the final paper 40%. Class participation will be evaluated on a combination of attendance and quality of discussion (which is not identical to quantity). The minor assignments will be ungraded, but failure to turn them in will lower your class participation grade.
Email
By Jan. 28 everyone in the class should have a personal email account. To contact me alone, send messages to clcohen@facstaff.wisc.edu; to contact everyone in the class (including me) simultaneously, send messages to:

    east-woods@lists.students.wisc.edu

DATE                                                            ASSIGNMENT FOR CLASS DISCUSSION
I. Introduction

Jan.  21                                    Colin Calloway, ed., The World Turned Upside Down,
                                                28-32;   James Adair, History of the American Indians, 274;
                                                John  Heckewelder, "Indian Tradition" (class handouts)

II. Overviews

        28                                     Ian Steele, Warpaths

                                                      Minor Assignment: #1

Feb.   4                                     Colin Calloway, New Worlds for All, 1-91; Roger Williams, A
                                                 Key to the Language of America, 140-51, 159-70, 182-200;
                                                 Gabriel Sagard, The Long Journey to the Country of  the
                                                  Hurons, 90-131

                                                      Minor Assignment: #2

         11                                    Colin Calloway, New Worlds for All, 92-198; William Apess, "A
                                                  Son of the Forest," 3-97

         18                                    Peter Mancall, Deadly Medicine, 1-191; Joseph P. Donnelly,
                                                 "Belmont's History of Brandy,"  42-63

III. Tribal Histories

Feb.   25                                    James Merrell, The Indians' New World, 1-133; John Lawson,
                                                  "A Journal of a thousand miles travel among the Indians from
                                                  South  to North Carolina"

                                                       5-Page Paper - Due Friday, Feb. 27

March  4                                    James Merrell, The Indians' New World, 134-281; William L.
                                                  McDowell, ed., Colonial Records of South Carolina:
                                                  Documents Relating to Indian Affairs, May 27, 1750- Aug. 7,
                                                  1754, 175-200

          11                                    Spring Break (take a walk in the woods)

          18                                    Daniel Richter, Ordeal of the Longhouse, 1-132; "The
                                                  Constitution of the Five Nations"

                                                       Minor Assignment: #3

          25                                    Daniel Richter, Ordeal of the Longhouse, 133-280; Alden
                                                  Vaughan, gen. ed., Early American Indian Documents ..., v. 8:
                                                  Barbara Graymont, ed., New York and New Jersey
                                                  Treaties, 1683-1713, 367-68, 370, 446-51, 463-65, 466-71,
                                                  473-91, 494-99, 518-36

                                                       Minor Assignment: #4

April     1                                    Carol Mason, Introduction to Wisconsin Indians, 63-279; Paul
                                                   Radin, "The Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian," 450-73;
                                                   Elizabeth Tooker, ed., Native North American Spirituality of
                                                   the Eastern Woodlands, 144-63

                                                        Minor Assignment: #5

IV. Resistance and Revitalization

              8                                    Gregory Dowd, A Spirited Resistance, 1-115; [Robert
                                                    Navarre], The Journal of  Pontiac's Conspiracy, 2-27; John
                                                    Heckewelder, History, Manners, and Customs of the
                                                    Indian Nations Who Once Inhabited Pennsylvania and the
                                                    Neighboring States,  290-99; Journal of James Kenney,
                                                    171-72

            15                                    Gregory Dowd, A Spirited Resistance, 116-201; "The Gaiwiio
                                                    Code of Handsome Lake"

V. Research

            22                                    Class Discussion about Research Papers

            29                                    Class Discussion about Research Papers

May       6                                    Conclusion

                                                         Research Paper Due Friday, May 8
 

Paper Topics
In writing this essay, you should draw on any and all material from the readings and class discussions, making specific statements firmly rooted in the evidence, using quotations whenever applicable, and evaluating the arguments of all "authorities" (including me!). You may choose another topic if the suggested ones bore, fatigue or disorient you, but you must consult with me before so proceeding.

5-PAGE PAPER

Due Feb. 27. The relationship between Eastern Woodland native peoples and European colonists 1500-1800 has been characterized primarily as one of hostility. Discuss the satisfactoriness of this view, taking into account the evidence and arguments presented by Calloway, Mancall, and Steele.

RESEARCH PAPER

Due May 8. You may write on any aspect of the history of Amerindian-European settler relations in the Eastern Woodlands, 1500-1800. The topics need not be "large"--you do not have time to undertake a major project--but the paper must prominently utilize at least one significant primary source. You should start developing your topic during the first two months of the course, and must hand in a brief proposal on April 1. Each student will be responsible for giving a 5-minute presentation about his/her research on either April 22 or 29, with the rest of the class providing feedback.

Minor Assignments
#1: Due Jan. 28. In one sentence NOT EXCEEDING 50 words (the 51st word and its successors face a terrible fate), summarize Steele's argument. Make two copies of your summary, one with your name (for me) and the other without (for another student).

#2: Due Feb. 4. Put your name on the anonymous analysis you received and in the margins evaluate both its writing and content.

#3: Due March 18. In one or two sentences NOT EXCEEDING 75 words (do not let the increased word limit seduce you into loquacity), critique Richter's discussion of the League of the Iroquois in light of the evidence provided by the "Iroquois Constitution."

#4 Due March 25. In one or two sentences NOT EXCEEDING 75 words (yadda, yadda, yadda), use the documents in the Graymont anthology to reconstruct the diplomatic objectives of the Five Nations in negotiating with the French and English authorities in 1700-01.

#5: Due April 1. In a paragraph NOT EXCEEDING 125 words, sketch out the topic of your research paper and note at least one significant primary source you expect to use.

A PROCLAMATION
Regarding Late Papers

Whereas it may come to pass that one or more individuals, whether through dilatoriness, dereliction, irresponsibility, or chutzpah, may seek respite and surcease from escritorial demands through procrastination, delay, and downright evasion;

And whereas this unhappy happenstance contributes mightily to malfeasance on the part of parties of the second part (i.e., students, the instructed, you) and irascibility on the part of us (i.e., me);

Be it therefore known, understood, apprehended, and comprehended:

That all assignments must reach us, or be tendered to the Department Receptionist, on or by the exact hour announced in class, and that failure to comply with this wholesome and most generous regulation shall result in the assignment forfeiting one half letter grade for each day for which it is tardy (i.e., an "A" shall become an "AB"), "one day" being defined as a 24-hour period commencing at the announced hour on which the assignment is due; and that the aforementioned reduction in grade shall continue for each succeeding day of delay until either the assignment shall be remitted or its value shrunk unto nothingness. And let all acknowledge that the responsibility for our receiving papers deposited surreptitio (i.e., in my mailbox or under my door), whether timely or belated, resides with the aforementioned second-part parties (i.e., you again), hence onus for the miscarriage of such items falls upon the writer's head (i.e., until I clutch your scribbles to my breast, I assume you have not turned them in, all protestations to the contrary notwithstanding).

Be it nevertheless affirmed:

That the greater part of justice residing in mercy, it may behoove us, acting entirely through our gracious prerogative, to award an extension in meritorious cases, such sufferances being granted only upon consultation with us, in which case a negotiated due date shall be proclaimed; it being perfectly well understood that failure to observe this new deadline shall result in the immediate and irreversible failure of the assignment (i.e., an "F"), its value being accounted as a null set and less than that of a vile mote. And be it further noted that routine disruptions to routine (i.e., lack of sleep occasioned by pink badgers dancing on the ceiling) do not conduce to mercy, but that severe dislocations brought on by Acts of God (exceedingly traumatic events to the body and/or soul, such as having the earth swallow one up on the way to delivering the assignment) perpetrated either on oneself or on one's loving kindred, do.

And we wish to trumpet forth:

That our purpose in declaiming said proclamation, is not essentially to terminate the wanton flouting of didactic intentions, but to encourage our beloved students to consult with us, and apprehend us of their difficulties aforehand (i.e., talk to me, baby), so that the cruel axe of the executioner fall not upon their Grade Point Average and smite it with a vengeance.

To which proclamation, we do affix our seal: