The course in Native American studies taught at Dartmouth College is a remarkable journey in revelation for someone who was in high school in the 1960's. First, I find that most of the scholarship in this arena has been done in the 1980's (I missed it!), and, second, the application of cross-cultural thought, new research and communications with native americans have accelerated our understanding of history. And it is not "over." I expect in the field of history, language, law and government, that more academic accomplishments will emerge rapidly. For my students, there are three important lessons to be learned: 1) history is an evolving process and takes perspective, time and changes in human nature 2) primary documents can be understood in a variety of ways with multiple points of view 3) the Internet has exploded the possibilities for cross fertilization about ideas in the study of diaries, accounts, pictures, maps and journals.The main topics I would like to share with my students are in the challenges they are facing in the world and in our state: New Mexico with regard to diverse populations, the environment and the economy. Professor Colin Calloway, a Brit/Scot is a leading authority on Native Americans.
Topics covered: Invading and Mapping America; How America Became American; Many Languages of Indian Diplomacy;Thomas Jefferson and US Indian Policy;Rauner Library and the Bernstein Gallery at the Hood Museum of Art; Lewis and Clark in Indian Country I: St. Louis to the Columbia; Lewis and Clark in Indian Country II: Northwest Coast and Home; Indian Country Today: History, Law, and the Persistence of Tribal Nations, Professor Bruce Duthu; Making the West American: the Sioux, Mandans, and Nez Perces, and the United States.
Allan Houser sculpture at Dartmouth. A smaller version of the Allan Houser scultpure. "Serenity" is located on College Street. Allan Houser is a descendent of chiricahua apaches. What is so beautiful about his sculptures (see www.allanhouser.com) is the size, breadth and simplicity of his work
In 1803, Lewis and Clark were sent by President Thomas Jefferson for a trip into the unknown, to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson purchased the land from the French for 15 million dollars. He was concerned about his southern neighbors and wanted to establish the Northwest Passage and notify the Indians to the West of the power of the growing nation. Spaniards in the southwest at the time were wary of the Americans expanding into the southwest.
see website http://lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=752
"And so, Spanish officials basically threw themselves into a frenzy of activity. They put together two different expeditions to block Jefferson's exploration. One was launched out of Nacogdoches, a city that was only about a hundred miles or so from Natchitoches, in Louisiana. The expedition from Nacogdoches was led by a man named Francisco Viana, Captain Francisco Viana. It consisted of about two hundred and twelve Spanish dragoons--including an ancestor of mine, who was a lieutenant in that army; his name was Jose Flores, of Nacogdoches. He was one of the officers, in fact, who ended up meeting with Jefferson's explorers in the summer of 1806. The other force, that was going to be the insurance force, was launched from Santa Fe under the leadership of Lieutenant Fecundo Melgares. It was a six-hundred-man force, and it was to be the insurance policy, as I said. In case the American expedition somehow managed to slip by Viana--or Viana--Melgares was going to try to confront the Americans farther up the Red River. As Peter Custis described it in eighteen-six, "This expedition seems to have thrown their whole country into a ferment." And he was right. The Spanish were determined not to allow this expedition to proceed."They never found them.
Another interesting fact about the trip is when Lewis and Clark encounter the Brulé(Teton/Lakota) on the Upper Missouri. Lewis and Clark misinterpret the importance of gifts as a gesture of good will. The Sioux have been exposed to French and Spanish gift giving and are waiting for more serious gestures of friendship. The encounter goes terribly wrong and the entire trip is jeopardized. Just when things appear to go wrong, a carrot of tobacco is thrown at the Natives and things improve a little. Tobacco from Virginia is far preferable to the native grown tobacco. Then when Sioux women went in pursuit of Lewis and Clark to provide sexual favors to the expedition, Clark sends them away. Why did Lewis and Clark make such a wrong calculation of these offerings? Could be the fear of syphilis or western taboos. In the case of the women, in Sioux culture, it is known that taking a woman is a way to acquire that man's power. So the Sioux wanted the women to bring back the power of the the expedition to their villages.
Allan Houser sculpture at Dartmouth. A smaller version of the Allan Houser scultpure. "Serenity" is located on College Street. Allan Houser is a descendent of chiricahua apaches. What is so beautiful about his sculptures (see www.allanhouser.com) is the size, breadth and simplicity of his work
In 1803, Lewis and Clark were sent by President Thomas Jefferson for a trip into the unknown, to explore the newly acquired Louisiana Purchase. Jefferson purchased the land from the French for 15 million dollars. He was concerned about his southern neighbors and wanted to establish the Northwest Passage and notify the Indians to the West of the power of the growing nation. Spaniards in the southwest at the time were wary of the Americans expanding into the southwest. see website http://lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=752
"And so, Spanish officials basically threw themselves into a frenzy of activity. They put together two different expeditions to block Jefferson's exploration. One was launched out of Nacogdoches, a city that was only about a hundred miles or so from Natchitoches, in Louisiana. The expedition from Nacogdoches was led by a man named Francisco Viana, Captain Francisco Viana. It consisted of about two hundred and twelve Spanish dragoons--including an ancestor of mine, who was a lieutenant in that army; his name was Jose Flores, of Nacogdoches. He was one of the officers, in fact, who ended up meeting with Jefferson's explorers in the summer of 1806. The other force, that was going to be the insurance force, was launched from Santa Fe under the leadership of Lieutenant Fecundo Melgares. It was a six-hundred-man force, and it was to be the insurance policy, as I said. In case the American expedition somehow managed to slip by Viana--or Viana--Melgares was going to try to confront the Americans farther up the Red River. As Peter Custis described it in eighteen-six, "This expedition seems to have thrown their whole country into a ferment." And he was right. The Spanish were determined not to allow this expedition to proceed."They never found them.
Another interesting fact about the trip is when Lewis and Clark encounter the Brulé(Teton/Lakota) on the Upper Missouri. Lewis and Clark misinterpret the importance of gifts as a gesture of good will. The Sioux have been exposed to French and Spanish gift giving and are waiting for more serious gestures of friendship. The encounter goes terribly wrong and the entire trip is jeopardized. Just when things appear to go wrong, a carrot of tobacco is thrown at the Natives and things improve a little. Tobacco from Virginia is far preferable to the native grown tobacco. Then when Sioux women went in pursuit of Lewis and Clark to provide sexual favors to the expedition, Clark sends them away. Why did Lewis and Clark make such a wrong calculation of these offerings? Could be the fear of syphilis or western taboos. In the case of the women, in Sioux culture, it is known that taking a woman is a way to acquire that man's power. So the Sioux wanted the women to bring back the power of the the expedition to their villages.
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| Hollow Horn Bear of the Brule Sioux What did Lewis and Clark bring on this journey? Native American Presents 5 lbs. White Wampum 5 lbs. White glass beads mostly small 20 lbs. Red beads assorted 5 lbs. of Yellow or Orange beads assorted
30 Calico shirts
12 Pieces of East India muslin handkerchiefs sprtiped or check'd with brilliant colors 12 Red silk handkerchiefs 144 Small sheap looking glasses 100 Burning glasses 4 Vials of Phosphorous 288 Steels for striking fire 144 Small cheap scissors, 20 Pair large scissors 12 Groce needles assorted. 1 to 8 Common points. 12 Groce assorted with points for sewing leather. 288 Commong brass thimbles
10 lbs. Sewing thread assorted 24 Hanks sewing silk 8 lbs. Red lead 2 lbs. Vermillion 288 Knives small such as are generally used for the Indian trade, with fox'd blades & handles inlaid with brass 36 Large knives 36 Pipe tomahawks 12 lbs. Brass wire assorted 12 lbs. Iron wire, generally large 6 Belts of narrow ribbons colours assorted 50 lbs. Spun tobacco 20 Small falling axes to be obtained in Tennesee 40 Fish giggs such as the Indians use with a single barbed point - at Harper's Ferry 3 Groce fishing hooks assorted 3 Groce Mockerson awls assorted 50 lbs. Powder secured in a keg covered with oil cloth 24 Belts of worsted feiret or gartering colours brilliant and assorted 15 Sheets of copper cut into strips of an inch in wideth & a foot long 20 Sheets of tin 12 lbs. Strips of sheet iron 1 inch wide and 1 foot long 1 Piece of red cloth secong quality 1 Nest of 8 or 9 small copper kettles 100 Block-tin rings cheap kind ornamented with colored glass or mock-stone 2 Groces of brass curtain rings & sufficiently large for the finger 1 Groce cast iron combs 24 Blankets 12 Arm bands silver 12 Wrist bands 36 Ear trinkets 6 Groce drops of silver 4 dozen rings for fingers 4 Groces broaches of silver 12 Small medals http://lewis-clark.org/content/content-article.asp?ArticleID=2561 We used the book An American Epic of Discovery The Lewis and Clark Journals 2003 by Gary E Moulton LARGEST MASS EXECUTION IN AMERICAN HISTORY IS IN MANKATO MINNESOTA As a result of the killing of an American officer, Abraham Lincoln orders the largest execution of over 300 Indians http://www.unitednativeamerica.com/hanging.html Did Native Americans suffer a genocide? http://hnn.us/articles/7302.html |
