HIST-2436 Native American History Since Removal

From Tonto to Moana, U.S. popular culture is filled with mythological images of Native Americans that scarcely resemble real Indigenous peoples and their complex identities. This course in modern Native American history offers a corrective to such mythologies by emphasizing the historical experiences and perspectives of Indigenous peoples. Together we will examine topics as diverse as: Indigenous slavery, the debate over U.S. citizenship, boarding schools, sovereignty and casinos, forced sterilization, and the complicated relationships with the U.S. environmentalist movement from "Iron Eyes Cody" to Standing Rock. We will explore the historical reasons why tropes like the "noble savage" supplanted the particular histories of Indigenous peoples and the ways in which those myths continue to overshadow our understanding of Native communities today. (Offered every other year.)