Native American and European Contact in Early North America, ca. 1600-1750

Catalog description

This course will consider contact between Native Americans and Europeans in the early Americas with particular attention to interactions in the greater New England area. Readings stress the diversity of Native lifeways and how contact changed both Natives and Europeans. An equally important theme is to examine the ways in which the history of Native peoples has often been ignored, changed, appropriated, and distorted, as well as reclaimed and re-evaluated over time. Therefore, while the focus is on the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the class will also consider how the histories of that time have been told and retold in later eras, including our own. We will also pay attention to the way in which different historians undertake the study of the past. This seminar has no prerequisites, but please be advised that the workload is substantial. If the class is oversubscribed, preference will be given to Ethnic Studies concentrators.