Introduction To Indians In The US & Canada, & Class Notes For 09/30/2009

Introduction (xii to xvii, Indians In The United States & Canada):
a. 5 million to 10 million in N. America before white settlers
b. Indian populations fell dramatically when white settlers arrived
c. trade between whites & native populations was overcome by greed
d. cooperation between whites & native populations was overcome by brutality
e. goodwill between whites & native populations was overcome by violence
f. invaders often took physical control
g. North America, Australia & New Zealand were overcome by invasions
h. disease killed millions of natives
i. whites had superior technology: metal tools, firearms, wheeled vehicles, domesticated animals. Whites could dominate native peoples easily with their advanced technology.
j. white society/European political structures valued hierarchy as a means of social organization

The succession of tribal life
1. tribal independence: tribes governed their own affairs
2. Indian/white equality: white settlers & native peoples had similar rights
3. dependent tribes: native tribes depended on whites economically
4. marginality: native tribes were marginalized and stood on the fringe of society & tribes were not economically powerful

Books:
1. Custer Died For Your Sons, critique of destructive white impacts on tribes
2. The Unjust Society, about white settler’s use of government & government actions by whites which were intended to destroy native communities
3. Indians lost their homelands
4. Spain, France, Great Britain, Canada & USA all embraced different governmental policies which affected Native Americans

European’s Beliefs:
1. Christianity
2. private property
3. top-down political structures
4. advanced technology
5. advanced ethnocentrism: characterized by or based on the attitude that one's own group is superior

Class Notes, 09/30/2009

Wilson
1.German sources are academically acceptable

Fixico
1. code of ethics with which to approach Native American/tribal history
2. tribal histories: histories of native peoples
3. America-centric: use American values/an American lens to consider history
4. metaphysical
5. naming
6. environment
7. environment
8. experts/specialists
9. histeriography
10. Non-consenting communication
11. Middle Ground
12. Consent requires inner tribal political engagement

Activist
1. field work
2. oral sources
3. repetition
4. sacred knowledge
5. * protocols
6. respect
7. allies
8. agency

One Tribal Story:
1. a chief that lives below the world wants to marry this one particular girl within a village, one of the villager’s daughters
2. the village chiefs consult to determine whether the daughter should marry the “underworld chief” 
3. the village chiefs realize that the daughter does not want to marry the “underground chief”
4. The village chiefs decide that it would be against the daughter’s will to force marriage upon the daughter against the daughter’s will
5. the “underworld chief” angrily attacks the villagers with fire & the villagers must wade in a nearby lake in order to survive the onslaught of fire
6. Significance: geologically important events were transmitted inter-generationally through oral stories. There probably was a geologically significant event that was of note that elders wished to pass on to younger generations. Such stories also served as entertainment.
7. What is history? What is historical evidence?

Oral Stories Vs. The Oral Tradition (see handout)
1. scholars consolidate oral stories to eliminate redundancy which isn’t favorable within the written/literate tradition

Oral Tradition
1. stories that are told through generations and by many different people
2. Moralistic, cautionary
3. repetitive
4. roots in pre-literate cultures
5. metaphysical
6. lineage/heritage
7. relationship between story teller & audience
8. Of time long ago

Oral History
1. a recounting of personal, individual experience
2. democratic, social history
3. non-elite
4. roots in post-WWII recording technology & social history
5. experience based, rooted in material reality
6. relationship between interviewer & interviewee
7. of a time within the interviewers life

Quotes (Handout)
1. “These definitions are applicable to Native American oral history & oral tradition only in a very limited way.... From a Native perspective, I would suggest instead that oral history is contained within oral tradition. For the Dakota, ‘oral tradition’ refers to the way in which information is passed on rather than the length of time something has been told.” (-Angela Cavendar Wilson, “Grandmother to Granddaughter: Generations of Oral History in a Dakota Family,” American Indian Quarterly, vol. 20, no. 1 (Winter, 1996)