HIST 4500 Myth and the U.S. West

The course will focus on Native Americans from the days when pre-contact Native American societies flourished, to subsequent European and Russian domination, and finally their loss of sovereignty under the U.S. government. The course will also emphasize the nineteenth and twentieth centuries when the West became represented different visions of a prosperous future; to the Chinese, it was the "Golden Mountain"; to Spaniards and Mexicans, it was "El Norte"; to the newly-emancipated Africans, the West represented freedom; to many other newly arrived immigrants, it was a land of opportunity; to the Native Americans, it was their sacred home. Special emphasis will be placed on the above issues where clashes have erupted.