Final Reflection PaperIn this class you will write a final reflection paper synthesizing one key cross-cultural encounter—warfare, religious activity, or government policy (see below)–over time.A refection paper is not a formal thesis in which you must do research and engage the scholarly literature. Nonetheless, it is more than a summary of your personal feelings about the past. You must present an analysis of your topic, not just describe it.It is, indeed, your informed thoughts about the historical processes you observed in the course materials. Here are just some of the questions you should be asking about the American Indian Nations that we have encountered this semester. What patterns did you notice in your topic? How do the responses of Indigenous Peoples shift from situation to situation over time? (HINT: This question is really important in a history class. ) What strategies did they employ to preserve their cultures and their political status as “Domestic Dependent Nations”?And most of all, please remember that Indigenous nations are still here. They have not vanished or had their cultures obliterated. Rather, Indigenous Peoples adapt and selectively chose elements of the dominant culture to accept, and they do so according to Indigenous values and worldviews. We must discuss the horrific effects of colonialism, but we must never paint Indigenous Peoples as just victims. They are survivors.THE SCOPE AND STRUCTURE OF THE PAPERYour paper MUST discuss at least one specific example from each period that we studied. There is some overlap of topics in these time frames, but the general patterns of contact shift across these periods. As historians, we analyze change over time.You will draw documentary examples from the three major periods we studied:1. The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries: Contact, Colonization and Empire2. The Late Eighteenth and Early Nineteenth Centuries: Indian Removal and The Reservation System3. The Late Nineteenth and Early Twentieth Centuries: The Reservation System: Resistance, Accommodation, and Cultural RenewalThe more evidence you gather and cite, the better your argument will be.You must base your analysis predominantly on primary sources, supplemented with the lecture notes. In this class, you are a historian, and you must base your reasoning not only on the interpretations of other historians but also on evidence from primary sources. Primary sources are accounts of the people at the time of the historical incident in question.NOTE: all information drawn from course sources MUST be cited. Failure to cite your sources is plagiarism. Plagiarism is a serious academic offense!!Since we are all working with the same materials, you may use in text citations at the end of your sentences; actual footnotes are not necessary. Please follow the guidance for second citations.This citation MUST include:o the AUTHOR of the work you are using.o the TITLE of the work you are using.o AND ESPECIALLY the PAGE NUMBER where you found the material. I will spot check these and need to know from whence they came.o For documents cite the DATE that the document was created, if you have it.When you cite a document in one of your readers cite it thusly:• Sally M. Reese, Letter to Reverend Daniel Campbell, July 25, 1828, in Perdue and Green, 45.• SECOND CITATION: Reese, Letter, 45 (or another page number if that is the case for your second citation.)When you cite a document on the Canvas site use the same format:• James McLaughlin, Indian Agent at Standing Rock Reservation, letter to Herbert Welsh, President of the Indian Rights Association (19th January, 1891), HST 337, ASU, Fall 2019.• SECOND CITATION: McLaughlin, Letter to Welch.Cite lecture notes thusly:• The Ghost Dance and Wounded Knee, lecture notes, HST 337, ASU, Fall 2019.• SECOND CITATION: Ghost Dance.Follow the rules for citation placement found on the plagiarism handout.Please consult my handout on plagiarism to make certain you are not unintentionally plagiarizing or not following the specific rules of the handout.TECHNICALITIES OF THE PAPEREach paper must run from 5 to 7 pages. You cannot develop a strong analysis in less than 5 pages, and a three or four page paper will not pass.Please do not use fonts smaller than 10 or larger than 12. I prefer either Times New Roman or Ariel fonts, but if you have one you prefer I am not going to dock points for using it. Unless I cannot read it, in which case I will send it back to you and dock you a letter grade for my troubles. Please have mercy on my worn-out, middle-aged eyes. Please double space these and provide one-inch margins all around. Also, please include page numbers.I count off for spelling and grammatical mistakes. Just because the writing is informal does not mean it can be sloppy. From this point on, no matter how unfair it is, people will judge your intelligence by the way you use language. You might as well take the time to give a good impression.All final reflection papers MUST use the following naming convention:• YOUR last name• DO NOT USE YOUR FIRST NAME UNLESS INSTRUCTED TO DO SO• Final Reflection Paper (which is the title of assignment)I will dock you 10 points if your final is not titled correctly. I file all of these in a special folder, and this system helps me greatly.ALL PAPERS MUST BE IN WORD. PLEASE, NO ADOBE FILES.HOW TO FRAME YOUR SYNTHESIS: THE “BIG PICTURE”At its most fundamental level, Native American history consists of multiple accounts of the disparate groups that we call tribes or nations. Each has its own sacred stories of creation that explain its cultural values, worldviews, and social and political configurations. Each has its own tales of encounter with the dominant cultures that came to colonize their homelands in the Americas–its own narrative of struggle, loss, adaptation, and renewal. Each constructs its own unique identity from the singular experiences of their peoples across time and space. Yet, taken together, these individual stories weave themselves into the history of the nation that comes to be the United States of America in ways that suggest certain patterns of encounter. This course is a study of those patterns.To synthesize the experiences of nearly five hundred different indigenous cultures into a coherent narrative suitable for a semester’s time frame, I borrow a concept from the National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, D.C. (See, Website for the National Museum of the American Indian, http://www.nmai.si.edu/subpage.cfm?subpage=exhibitions&second=dc&third=current , accessed August 19, 2009). The Museum devotes space to numerous groups to tell their individual stories, but they also consider three experiences that all Indigenous Peoples have had in common since European colonization began five hundred years ago. They group several exhibits around three themes: warfare, missionary activity, and U.S. government policy. This course borrows that model, expanding upon it.WARFAREThe class explores how Indians engaged in warfare in a variety of historical contexts: as autonomous tribes or confederacies with their own imperial designs; as adversaries and allies of various colonial powers; and, finally, as forces that withstood American expansion and conquest following the founding of the United States. Additionally, Native Americans embraced shifting patterns of alliance and antagonism with one another as they grappled with the “new world” created by colonialism.MISSIONARY ACTIVITYReligious encounters likewise engaged Indigenous Peoples in a range of responses. Indian experiences with Christianity created a new religious synthesis for many people. These religious adaptations include: syncretism (or blending of religions); revitalization of indigenous spiritualties in the face of colonial onslaughts (such as the Ghost Dance Revitalization movement), challenges and resistance to the Judeo-Christian tradition and its’ proselytizing proponents; and conversions to Christianity for a range of reasons.GOVERNMENT POLICYFinally, with respect to government policy, Indians’ unique political status as peoples with a separate juridical status shapes their experiences with the American state in unique ways. In the early years of colonialism, Indigenous Peoples negotiated with representatives of the colonizers’ governments. In later years, they maneuvered around the policies that state and federal governments had designed to force compliance to the dictates of the dominant culture.In each of these arenas of encounter, American Indians adopted strategies that perpetuated their cultures and aided their survival as a distinct people. Your final paper for this class will reflect on these strategies.PROMPTAmerican Indian History from Pre-Columbian times to the Indian New Deal is the story of how Indigenous Peoples resisted, adapted, and survived colonization. Please pick one of the three topics–war, religion, or government policy—and reflect on how the Native Peoples of what became the United States of America engaged and endured colonialism in this area. As noted, you must base your reflective analysis on the evidence you have encountered in this class. Please do not bring in outside sources.
