HIS 351 - Native American History to 1840

This course is an interdisciplinary survey of American Indian history from the period immediately prior to contact with Europeans and Africans until the end of the removal era. We will learn how Native people have survived the colonization of their homelands, and we will focus on key reasons explaining cultural continuity despite change over time. Likewise, we will seek to understand the “big picture” of Indigenous North America, but we will not attempt to create a “master narrative” that summarizes the stories of all Native peoples. Rather, because we take cultural and experiential diversity as our starting point and recognize that what brings Native American people together today is not a monolithic past or a uniform present, we will draw comparisons among the Indigenous nations of the United States. Our goal is a nuanced appreciation for the range of Native American experiences and not a simplistic chronology. Course content will expose students to the histories of many Native societies in relationship to their arts, sciences, and spiritual traditions. We will cultivate a respect for diversity and an appreciation of the values and ethics of Indigenous civilizations.

Counts towards the Western History (Europe & US) requirement in the History major.
Satisfies a requirement in the History minor.
Satisfies an Historical Thought distribution requirement.
Satisfies the cultural diversity requirement.