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Fall 2014

 

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History (HIST)
275 McKenzie Hall, 541-346-4802
College of Arts & Sciences
Course Data
  HIST 469   Top Black Elk Speaks >IP 4.00 cr.
Variable chronological, thematic, and regional topics, including Indian history to 1860; 1860 to the present; Indians and colonialism; Indians and environments; Indians and gender; regional histories. Repeatable twice when topic changes for maximum of 12 credits.
Grading Options: Optional; see degree guide or catalog for degree requirements
Instructor: Ostler JE-mail
Course Materials
 
  CRN Avail Max Time Day Location Instructor Notes
  17145 16 30 1200-1320 mw 175 LIL Ostler J  

Final Exam:

1015-1215 w 12/10 175 LIL
Academic Deadlines
Deadline     Last day to:
September 28:   Process a complete drop (100% refund, no W recorded)
October 5:   Drop this course (100% refund, no W recorded)
October 5:   Process a complete drop (90% refund, no W recorded)
October 6:   Drop this course (75% refund, no W recorded; after this date, W's are recorded)
October 6:   Process a complete drop (75% refund, no W recorded; after this date, W's are recorded)
October 8:   Add this course
October 8:   Last day to change to or from audit
October 12:   Withdraw from this course (75% refund, W recorded)
October 19:   Withdraw from this course (50% refund, W recorded)
October 26:   Withdraw from this course (25% refund, W recorded)
November 16:   Withdraw from this course (0% refund, W recorded)
November 16:   Change grading option for this course
Caution You can't drop your last class using the "Add/Drop" menu in DuckWeb. Go to the “Completely Withdraw from Term/University” link to begin the complete withdrawal process. If you need assistance with a complete drop or a complete withdrawal, please contact the Office of Academic Advising, 101 Oregon Hall, 541-346-3211 (8 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday through Friday). If you are attempting to completely withdraw after business hours, and have difficulty, please contact the Office of Academic Advising the next business day.

Expanded Course Description
Black Elk, an Oglala Lakota (Sioux), was born in 1863 and lived until 1950. As a young boy, he received a powerful vision in which spiritual beings took him to the center of the earth, the Black Hills of South Dakota. Black Elk was present when the Lakotas and their Cheyenne allies killed Custer on the Little Bighorn in 1876. He traveled to Europe with “Buffalo Bill” Cody’s Wild West Show, participated in the Ghost Dance movement that swept western Indian reservations in the late 1880s, and witnessed the Seventh Cavalry’s massacre of 250 of his people at Wounded Knee in 1890. In the early 1900s, Black Elk was baptized as a Catholic and spent many decades as a catechist, though in his later life, he went to the Black Hills to call on the spirits of his vision. Black Elk Speaks, an interpretation of his life written by John Neihardt, was first published in 1932 and has since become one of the most well-known texts in American Indian studies.

In this course we will use Black Elk Speaks as the basis for exploring several issues about the history and culture of the Lakota and Indian nations of the Great Plains from the 1800s to the present, including:

• the Black Hills, the center of Lakota territory and their most sacred land.

• treaties between the Lakotas and the United States.

• Lakota strategies for dealing with the American invasion of their lands (including militant resistance and various kinds of accommodation).

• Lakotas’ relationships with other Indian nations, including the Cheyennes, Pawnees, Crows, and Arikaras.

• environmental and economic change, including the decline of bison populations and colonial economic relationships.

• the relationship between “traditional” Lakota religion and Christianity.

• scholarly debates about the extent to which Black Elk Speaks accurately portrays Black Elk’s life and his worldview.

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Release: 8.11