CU Native and Indigenous Studies 1001

CU Native and Indigenous Studies 1001

The Cheyenne, Arapaho and Ute Peoples

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This course offers a general introduction to the Cheyenne, Arapaho and Ute peoples – the most prominent Indigenous Peoples of Colorado. The 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty recognized lands north of the Arkansas and South of the North Platte as those of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, so those two tribes could be considered the recent Native tribes of the CU-Boulder area. Native history long-predated 1851 however, and the Ute people occupied and used much of Colorado for many centuries. They were officially “recognized” as occupying lands to the west of the continental divide.

The course will cover the long history of these peoples, including pre-contact language and culture, the challenges of European contact and colonization, and the contemporary story of the tribes and their citizens as they seek to increase their tribal sovereignty and maintain or revitalize many language and culture practices, while also adapting to the challenges of the 21st century in their own unique Indigenous ways.

Content Schedule
Week

Content

Week One: Deep Tribal Histories

Day One:Tribal Creation Stories

Day Two:The languages, language families, related languages, and historical/geographic origins

Day Three:Native Place Names in Colorado – an alternative view of the landscape

Week Two:Pre-contact Cultural Areas and Lifeways

Day One:The Great Plains area: Cheyenne and Arapaho lifeways in broader context

Day Two:Social organization and patterns

Day Three:The bison in life, language, and ceremony

Week Three: Pre-contact Cultural Areas and Lifeways (cont.)

Day One:The Great Basin area: Ute lifeways in broader context

Day Two:Social organization and patterns

Day Three:Thinking about “nomadism” and worldview among Indigenous peoples

Week Four: Verbal Arts

Day One:“legends” and “myths” – a general introduction to the traditional verbal arts

Day Two:“The Eagles”: one Arapaho story, its language, structure, and lessons

Day Three:the trickster in Arapaho, Cheyenne, and Ute society and verbal arts

Week Five: Music, Dance, and Ceremony

Day One:Cheyenne and the Sun Dance

Day Two:Arapaho and age-grade societies

Day Three:Ute and the Bear Dance

Week Six: Early European Encounter and Adaptation

Day One:Exploration and the Fur Trade

Day Two:Native views of Europeans

Day Three:Early “treaty-days” history to 1860

Week Seven: The Warfare Era

Day One:Plains Indian Wars in context

Day Two:The Sand Creek Massacre and its historiography

Day Three:Ute conflict

Week Eight: Early Reservation Era

Day One:The Shift to Reservation Lifestyle and its Consequences

Day Two:Early Indian Education and Boarding Schools

Day Three:The BIA, the Dawes Act and reforms of the 1930s

Week Nine: 20th-Century Reservation Lifeways

Day One:Pre-WWII Reservation Life, Politics and Economics

Day Two:Post-WWII Changes, Natural Resource Extraction, Indian Relocation, Increasing Integration into Non-Indian Life

Day Three:The Rise of Pan-Indianism, National Indian Organizations, and Resistance

Week Ten: 1970-2000

Day One:The Legal History of the 20thCentury and Efforts to Regain Tribal Sovereignty; Tribal Courts

Day Two:The BIA, IHS, Tribal Education, and the Rise of Tribal Government

Day Three:Organized/Western Religions, Traditional Religions, and Syncretism

Week Eleven: Contemporary Times, 2001-Present

Day One:The Ute: Prosperity and Tradition

Day Two:The Northern Cheyenne and Arapaho:…

Day Three:The Southern Cheyenne and Arapaho: Bison Back, Land Back, Ceremony Back

Week Twelve: Language Back as Study of Self-Determination and Recuperation

Day One:Ute Language Status and Revitalization Efforts in Global Context

Day Two:Northern Arapaho Education-based and Literacy-based Language Efforts; Southern Arapaho Oral/Interaction-based Language Efforts: Differing Approaches

Day Three:Cheyenne Language Revitalization and Missionary Linguistics

Week Thirteen: Contemporary Dance, Music, Art and Ceremony

Day One:The Pow-wow

Day Two:Varieties of Contemporary Music; Contemporary Visual Arts

Day Three:Modern Ceremonialism

Week Fourteen: Contemporary Ecology

Day One:Recovering Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK)

Day One:Co-management of Lands, and Defending Traditional Usage Rights

Day Three:Nativeresponses to Global Warming

Week Fifteen: ClosingReview and Summary

Ute

Jones, Sondra G. Being and Becoming Ute: The Story of an American Indian People.

Smith, Anne M. Ute Tales. Traditional Ute narratives.

Young, Richard K. The Ute Indians of Colorado in the Twentieth Century. Covers both Southen Ute and Ute Mountain Ute.

Cheyenne

Killsback, Leo. A Sacred People: Indigenous Governance and A Sovereign People: Indigenous Nationhood. Two-volume history of the Northern Cheyenne people, by a Northern Cheyenne scholar.

Leman, Wayne, ed. Náévâhóó'ôhtséme /WeGoing Back Home: Cheyenne History and Stories. Told by James Shoulderblade and Others.

Arapaho

Anderson, Jeffrey. The Four Hills of Life. Describes “traditional” arts, ceremony, religion and philosophy of the Arapaho.

Cowell, Andrew, William C’Hair and Alonzo Moss, Sr eds. Arapaho Stories, Songs and Prayers: A Bilingual Anthology. Documents Arapaho verbal arts from around the year 1900.

Fowler, Loretta. Tribal Sovereignty and the Historical Imagination. Documents Southern Arapaho history, 18th century to the present.

Wiles, Sara. Wind River Journeys. Heavily interview- and photo-based book which captures 20th-century history and lifeways on Wind River Reservation (Northern Arapaho) though life stories of a number of emblematic individuals.