Native Peoples of North America

The commonly held views of Native Americans and the realities of a tapestry of vibrant cultures; Cobb explains the pitfalls that occur when history does not provide this crucial viewpoint; the mistake of consigning Native Americans to the past.

The misleading dichotomy of Old World and New World impacts perceptions of Native Americans; the Columbian Exchange is the crux behind the creation of new worlds for all; shaping everything from the fauna and flora to the cuisines of the world.

The cultures that exist before the Spanish Invasion; the struggle for power through Hernando de Soto's entrada through the Southeast; the Pueblo War for Independence in the Southwest; the Native American worlds born in the aftermath of these events.

How connections are forged between Native Americans and newcomers as they incorporate each other into their worlds; examples across the Northeastern Woodlands down to Werowocomoco; how the search for common ground begins at first contact.

Once Europeans arrive, the Native peoples of the Northeast want to maintain their autonomy; the strategies and experiences of the Wendat and Iroquois; Native Americans transform the European colonial project while preserving a measured separatism.

An exploration of the Iroquois Confederacy and the Lenape people; Native Americans keep or lose their lands through treaties and negotiations; the repercussions of these conflicts sometimes go beyond relocation, enslavement or near annihilation.

The French and Indian War is portrayed in history as a turning point for Native nations in the East; for some, it serves as a victory, for others, a defeat; a changed storyline; the perspectives of Native people who experience the era differently.

The Native Americans experience the American Revolution as allies, as participants in their own civil wars and as neutral parties; for many, the resolution of the American Revolution holds little meaning; the rule of the colonists or the Crown.

The 1783 Treaty of Paris settles the American Revolutionary War between England and the colonists; it brings no peace to Native Americans; programs instituted to help Native nations become self-sufficient ultimately have the opposite effect.

A dramatic story in American history is of the Cherokee nation and the Trail of Tears; one of two nations transforming; political manipulations and a clash between the ill-defined limits of federal and state jurisdiction and tribal sovereignty.

John Wayne and "Dances with Wolves"; a distinct view of Native Americans in the West; Cobb presents a new perspective; Lewis and Clark's discovery of a West that is an established home for thousands of people; guns, horses and disease drive change.

The Civil War is a turning point in American history; one of the pivotal components leading up to the Civil War; expansion into the West under the doctrine of Manifest Destiny; it draws non-Indians into the West; conflicts with Native nations.

The struggle for lands in the Plains between the 1850s and the 1870s; fighters such as Sitting Bull, as well as the lesser-known ones, such as the Hunkpapa Gall; the negative repercussions of the 1869 completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.

The Far West, Southwest and Plateau regions; laws put in place in California to control Native Americans during the gold rush; state funding to kill or enslave Native Americans; the real Geronimo comes to symbolize the Chiricahua Apache struggle.

Native Americans adjust to or refuse to give in to the extraordinary challenges they face during the late 19th and early 20th centuries; an effort to dismantle tribal lands and obliterate tribal cultures through allotment and assimilation.

Even after the alleged last Indian wars, Native Americans continue to fight for their rights and lands; three critical court cases; meeting leaders such as Standing Bear and Lone Wolf who continue to seek justice and defend tribal sovereignty.

Professor Cobb explores how many Native people gain a renewed sense of harmony and balance through two religious movements: The Ghost Dance, often misperceived as the last gasp of resistance; the Peyote Road, a critically important pathway to peace.

Native Americans confound the late 19th- and early 20th-century predictions about their gradual disappearance; they become political actors, artists and athletes; examining their actions through expectation, anomaly, the unexpected and authenticity.

Native Americans' involvement in World War I; it changes the meaning of citizenship and sovereignty; Native soldiers fight in all of the major offensives after America's entry into the war; defending a country that is hostile to tribal sovereignty.

The period between the late 1920s and early 1940s; how Native Americans set about making a New Deal for themselves and their communities; an era of uncertainty and convulsive change for the nation at large; an introduction to the Indian New Deal.

The war and onset of the atomic age transform the lives of Native Americans; the challenges and opportunities faced by Native Americans parallel the ones faced by other Americans; the outcomes prove to be different; Native American war heroes.

The early Cold War period; Native Americans use the politics of the Cold War era to define freedom through the 1950s and 1960s; conflicts over fishing rights bring the struggle over Native American treaty rights back into the American consciousness.

The late 1960s and early 1970s see the rise of American Indian militancy; the Trail of Broken Treaties in November 1972; the Wounded Knee occupation in 1973. Cobb demonstrates how Native American activism intersects with the mainstream movements.

Professor Cobb reveals how tribal nations do not settle for survival alone; an era of recovery and revitalization; one that tests the limits of individual rights and tribal sovereignty; a few of the critical sites of contemporary struggle.