AMIND 141 Spring 2022 Week 2 PowerPoint Lesson

Introduction to Key Terms

  • Lecture Topic: Key Terms Week 2 Lecture

Native Americans? American Indians? Or Indigenous Peoples?

  • Terminology:

    • All three terms (Native Americans, American Indians, Indigenous Peoples) can be correct—depends on personal or community preference.

    • Most Accurate: Specific name of the nation or tribe is preferred.

Indigenous Nations Today

  • Current Status:

    • 574 federally recognized indigenous nations in the present-day US.

    • Comprising nearly 3 million individuals.

  • Government Relationship:

    • Maintain a government-to-government relationship with the US.

  • Cultural Context:

    • Modern indigenous communities are shaped by historical resistance to colonialism.

Key Term: Colonization

  • Definition:

    • "Colonization is an ongoing process of control by which a central system of power dominates the surrounding land and its components (people, animals, etc.)"

    • Reference: Wikipedia.

Key Term: Decolonization

  • Goal:

    • Aims to undo/remove the influences of colonization to regenerate indigenous knowledge, culture, and way of life.

  • Scope:

    • Can occur on both large scales (physical and political) and personal/community levels.

Key Term: Historical Thinking

  • Definition:

    • Involves critically analyzing history instead of merely memorizing facts.

  • Evidence Importance:

    • Understanding requires ample evidence; this evidence can alter historical narratives.

  • Power Dynamics:

    • History often linked to power—determined by who narrates it and the prevailing narratives of "good" and "bad" factions.

  • Perspective Conflict:

    • The American Indian perspective often clashes with mainstream U.S. historical narratives.

  • Critical Questions:

    • Influences on understanding history: how these perspectives change previous understandings.

How to Engage in Historical Thinking

  • Strategies:

    1. Investigate multiple accounts and perspectives.

    2. Interpret primary sources critically.

    3. Conduct further research (sourcing).

    4. Analyze the context of historical events.

Key Term: Context

  • Significance:

    • There is no text without context.

  • Considerations for Analysis:

    • Time period of the event.

    • Location of occurrence/document publication.

    • Intended audience.

    • Contributors to the event or document.

    • Social, political, and religious climates at the time.

    • What was at stake?

Key Term: "Firsting and Lasting"

  • Concept:

    • A phrase by Ojibwe historian Jean O’Brien describing American Indians' representation in mainstream U.S. history.

  • Practice of Writing Out:

    • Involves "writing Indians out of existence," which includes the overwriting of their stories, histories, and presence.

"Firsting and Lasting" Continued

Examples of "Firsting"

  • Example:

    • "The First School in the U.S." questionable origins of thought regarding instruction in early education (Ezekiel Cheever).

Examples of "Lasting"

  • Artistic Representation:

    • Early 1900s sculpture “End of the Trail” by James Earle Fraser.

  • Literary Reference:

    • 1757 novel by James Fenimore Cooper located in Wisconsin.