| AAR Syllabi Project | Course Syllabi |
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| Contents | Religions
of Native American Peoples Instructor Jordan Paper Institution York University |
PLEASE NOTE: I have not offered this course for several years, due to released time for course development projects. On my next offering, I would update both the reading lists, with more focus on Native authors, as well as films.
Introduction to the study of non-Western religions, analyzing primal cultures and early civilizations using Amerindian examples, considering traditional (Ojibwa to Inca) and contemporary (American Indian Movement, Peyote Religion) phenomena and their interrelationships with Western religion. Canadian examples will predominate.
The course will be divided into three parts. First, we will examine representative Native American religions prior to contact with European and Euro-American culture. In the second part, we will consider the effects on these religions of domination by the colonial powers. Finally, we will focus on responses to these deleterious effects, including the contemporary revitalization of Native religions.
10%: Class participation (including preparation for discussion as well as meaningful participation in discussion).
10%: Class report (in-class oral and written book report; oral - maximum 12 minutes; written - 1000-1500 words). Report must include a) bibliographic data, b) description of book, c) aspects relevant to week's topic, d) evaluation, e) representative quotations. Books for report will be chosen from those works listed as R# in the course outline; first come, first served. Reporters should be prepared to lead class discussion on book in relation to week's theme and assigned reading. No make-up of the oral report is possible.
15% & 25%: Two examinations (in-class, closed book, cumulative, comprehensive essay questions based on understanding the course material and requiring extensive reference to the course readings; make-up examinations will be given only in case of documented hospitalization or incarceration).
Examination questions: Mid-term: Rewording of Part I of Course Description above.
Final: Rewording of entire Course Description above, plus open-ended question(s) regarding personal interpretations of course themes.
(No special examination preparation will be necessary for students who prepared for and took part in class discussions. For students who did not do so, no special preparation will adequately prepare them for the examinations.)
40%: Project: Topic and format completely open but format and/or media (not the topic) must be one in which the student has prior experience and topic and format must be approved by course director.
Project requirements and due dates (all submissions must be turned in at the beginning of class on the due date in the classroom):
a) written statement of preliminary topic due: Nov. 10.
b) written statement of topic and annotated bibliography due: Jan. 5.
c) written statement of progress and outline (in outline form) due: Feb. 2.
d) completed project due: March 2.
Second copy of requirements "a" through "c", with course director's comments, will be returned the week following the due date; students must be present at class to receive them.
Students notified of required changes on the second copy must return the revision (two copies) at the following class (two classes after original due date).
Summer Reading List (one-day reserve)
1. Leo W. Simmons, ed., Sun Chief (Yale U. Press)
2. Thomas E. Mails, Fools Crow (U. of Nebraska)
3. Gretchen M. Bataille & Kathleen M. Sands, American Indian Women: Telling Their Lives (U. of Oklahoma)
Book List (available in paperback and on 2-hour reserve)
IMPORTANT NOTE: Books that are out of print* will available from Kinko's.
FURTHER IMPORTANT NOTE: Students should not assume that course director agrees with the tone, expressed attitudes, opinions, data, etc. of assigned readngs. Students are expected to learn to read various types of material concerning Native religions with a critical eye.
A. Wolfgank Jilek, Indian Healing (Hancock House)
B. William Powers, Yuwipi (U. of Nebraska)
C. Thomas E. Mails, Fools Crow (U. of Nebraska)
D. Jordan Paper, Offering Smoke (U. of Alberta)
E. Ruth Underhill, Papago Woman (Waveland Press)
F. Anthony Wallace, The Death and Rebirth of the Seneca (Vintage)
G. Gene Weltfish, The Lost Universe (U. of Nebraska)
H. Marla Powers, Oglala Women (U. of Chicago)
I. Leo W. Simmons, ed., Sun Chief (Yale U. Press)
J. Cobo, Inca Religion and Customs (U. of Texas Press)
K. Paul Radin, Autobiography of a Winnebago Indian (Dover)
L. *Salerno & Vanderburgh, Shaman's Daughter (Dell)
M. N. Scott Momaday, House Made of Dawn (HarperCollins)
N. James Mooney, The Ghost Dance Religion (Dover)
O. Weston Labarre, The Peyote Cult (Oklahoma)
Syllabus (Available at Kinko's)
I. Paper, "Slighted Grandmothers: The Need for Increased Research on Female Spirits and Spirituality in Native American Religions."
II. Paper, "Through the Earth Darkly"
III. Paper, "'Sweat Lodge': A Northern Native American Ritual for Communal Shamanic Trance."
IV. Hallowell, "Ojibwa Ontology, Behavior and Worldview."
V. Jenness, The Indians of Parry Island, Their Social and Religious Life
VI. Selections from Benton-Banai, The Mishomis Book
Report readings [R:] (see course outline - on one-day reserve)
Reserve list (all books listed above and under "R" below, plus the following recommended for reference):
Hultkrantz, The Religions of The American Indians
Hultkrantz, Belief and Worship in Native North America
Hultkrantz, The Study of American Indian Religions
Sullivan, Native American Religions, North America
Vecsey, Religion in Native North America
Carrasco, Religions of Mesoamerica
Films (to be shown in class)
September 22: The Shadow Catcher
September 29: To Find Out Lives
October 06: Eduardo the Healer
October 13: Iyahknix: Blackfoot Bundle Ceremony
October 27: Attiuk: Cree Hunters of the Mistassini
November 10: Green Corn Festival
November 24: Age of the Buffalo
January 26: The Longhouse Religion
February 09: Appeals to Santiago
February 16: [Get Lost or Get Real]
March 2: A Strict Law Bids Us Dance
March 09: Wandering Spirit Survival School; [The Spirit of Crazy Horse]
March 16: The Sacred Circle - Recovery
[**denotes readings relevant to feminist studies; #denotes extra credit; list number = week]
Problems and the missing element| Kit:*I,*II
R3a: *Horse Capture, ed., The Seven Visions of Bull Lodge
R3b: Lizot, Tales of the Yanomami
R4a: #Merkur, Becoming Half Hidden
R4b: #Wilbert, Tobacco and Shamanism in South America
R5a: Radin, The Road of Life and Death
R5b: Walens, Feasting With Cannibals
R6a: Lopez, Giving Birth to Thunder, Sleeping With His Daughter
R6b: Thompson, Tales of the North American Indians
Northern Woodland| Kit:IV,V
R7a: Brown and Brightman, The Orders of the Dreamed
R7b: **Dahlberg, ed., Woman the Gatherer
R8a: *Wyman, Blessingway
R8b: **Frisbie, Kinaalda, a Study of the Navaho Girl's Puberty Ceremony
R9a: Tooker, The Iroquois Ceremonial of Midwinter
R9b: Tooker, An Ethnography of the Huron Indians, 1615-1649
R10a: Catlin, Ewers, ed., George Catlin's O-kee-pa
R10b: #*Powell, Sweet Medicine (2 Vol.)
R11a: **Jones, Sanapia, Commanche Medicine Woman
R11b: Nabakov, Two Leggings
R12a: #*Geertz & Lomatuway'ma, Children of Cottonwood
R12b: **Brown, Tsewa's Gift
R13a: **Silverblatt, Moon, Sun, and Witches
R13b: Carrasco, Quetzalcoatl and the Irony of Empire
MID-TERM EXAMINATION
Post-contact effects I| K: all
R14a: **Lurie, Mountain Wolf Woman
R14b: Spindler & Spindler, Dreamers Without Power
R15a: **Landes, Ojibwa Religion and the Midewiwin
R15b: Vennum, The Ojibwa Dance Drum
R16a: Deloria, Jr., God is Red
R16b: #Geertz, The Invention of Prophecy
Transformative Movements: Handsome Lake| *F: part III
R17a: Parker, The Code of Handsome Lake, The Seneca Prophet
R17b: Dusenberg, The Montana Cree, A Study in Religious Persistence
R18a: Edmunds, The Shawnee Prophet
R18b: Martin, Sacred Revolt
R19a: Stewart, Peyote Religion
R19b: Steinmetz: Pipe, Bible and Peyote Among the Oglala Lakota
R20a: Jorgenson, The Sun Dance Religion
R20b: Dewdney, Sacred Scrolls of the Southern Ojibway
R21a: LaViolette, The Struggle for Survival
R21b: Ruby & Brown, Dreamer-Prophets of the Columbia Plateau
R22a: Lame Deer and Erdoes, Lame Deer, Seeker of Visions
R22b: #Matthiessen, In the Spirit of Crazy Horse
R23a: Black Elk & Lyon, Black Elk, The Sacred Ways of a Lakota
R23b: Young, Cry of the Eagle: Encounters With a Cree Healer
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Latest update: August 02, 2002
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