Current trends are discussed, and the implications for American Indians in the 21st Century are explored. A historical study of American Indians in the United States and Canada from the mid-nineteenth century to the present. The active and complex role played by Indian people in their responses to government policies and to socioeconomic changes will be emphasized. Challenges faced and initiatives taken by Indians will be traced from the early reservation years to the current era of self-determination. Cultural change and continuity within Indian communities will be closely examined.
Human language is an intimate part of what it means to be a human being.
Our humanity is, to a large extent, language itself. Linguistics, the study of verbal signs, is looking for answers to our inquiries about human nature through the evidence provided by our language. The course will investigate by linguistic comparison, core human differences in worldview, perception, and identity. This course focuses on Iroquoian thought and worldview as evidenced in culturally central forms of language use. It will focus on a published, native-language, text version of an epic oral narrative, the one that civilized the Seneca, Cayuga, Onondaga, Oneida, and Mohawk peoples.