CU Native and Indigenous Studies 1001

The Cheyenne, Arapaho and Ute Peoples

SYLLABUS

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 21^st 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: 20^th-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 20^th Century 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: Native responses to Global Warming
Week Fifteen: Closing	Review and Summary

Assignments

Key Sources

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 / We Are Going 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, 18^th century to the present.

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

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