Week 4 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Ethnic Studies Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 4 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 60–73 minutes for everything. Each group points back to the matching chapter section and class-session segment, so use the full menu when you want more, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (19–22 min total)

① Nations, treaties, and promises

Chapter 4, Section “Read a treaty as an agreement between nations” · Session 1, Segment 2, “Treaties as agreements between nations” · Remember: a treaty is an agreement between two governments, with promises running both ways, not a gift.

What is Tribal Sovereignty? — Native Governance Center — a short animated explainer from a Native-led organization on sovereignty as a people's right to govern themselves, and on treaties as agreements two sovereign nations make. It gives a count of federally recognized nations; notice that the chapter says that count changes, which is why the course never treats one number as fixed. Use it while completing the Week-4 module overview. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)
From the Trail of Tears to Wounded Knee: Ep 11 of Crash Course Native American History — CrashCourse — an episode on the treaty era, the 1830 removal law, the Trail of Tears, and the 1868 treaty that set up the Great Sioux Reservation. Its death and acreage figures come from other estimates than the chapter's, so compare them with the chapter's sourced figures. Stop at about the 10:05 mark: the closing minute ties the history to a 2016 pipeline protest and calls viewers to keep fighting, the host's own view on current disputes this course does not argue. This builds on Week 3's work with immigrant peoples and colonized or incorporated peoples: listen for who arrived and who was already governing. (video, 10 min) (captions: creator)
Why the Treaty of Fort Laramie Failed to Maintain Peace — Smithsonian Channel — a short clip from a television program on the 1868 treaty, the Black Hills, and the 1874 expedition. Stop at about the 1:30 mark, when the expedition is named: the rest of the clip turns to the career and ambitions of the Army officer who led it, in the language of his era. Before you stop, it calls one point a nuance the Lakota missed; ask whose view that is and whose voices the clip leaves out. (video, 2 min) (captions: creator)

② Removal and the Trail of Tears

Chapter 4, Section “State removal plainly: the 1830 law and the Trail of Tears” · Session 1, Segment 3, “Removal and the Trail of Tears” · Remember: removal was forced, and the number who died is an estimate that sources give differently.

What Happened on the Trail of Tears? — National Park Service — the national historic trail's account of federal removal policy, the Treaty of New Echota, which no elected official of the Cherokee Nation signed, and the forced roundup and journey west, with words from survivors. Notice that it says no one knows how many died, which is why the chapter gives the National Archives estimate in words; it ends in the present tense, with the Cherokee Nation and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians governing now. (reading, 6–9 min)
Cherokee Removal and the Trail of Tears — GPB Education — a public-broadcasting explainer on the Cherokee Nation's government and written language, a Supreme Court ruling in its favor that was not enforced, and the Treaty of New Echota, which a small group signed without the Cherokee government's permission. It says the 1830 law required removal; compare that with the chapter's wording, that the law authorized removal treaties. (video, 5 min) (captions: creator)

③ Land and children: allotment and the boarding schools

Chapter 4, Section “Name the boarding schools plainly” · Session 2, Segment 5, “The federal Indian boarding schools” · Remember: allotment divided the land a nation held in common, and the boarding schools ran from 1819 to 1969.

Land Tenure History — Indian Land Tenure Foundation — a Native-led foundation's account of the General Allotment Act of 1887, why its supporters wanted it, and how land held in trust passed out of Native hands in the decades after it. Read its History of Allotment section for the law itself, and notice its acreage figures, which the chapter does not use. Stop here before the 1934 law that ended allotment; next week takes that up. (reading, 8–12 min)
The History of America’s Indian Boarding Schools: Ep 12 of Crash Course Native American History — CrashCourse — an episode that ties the boarding schools and the Dawes Act together as two policies with one goal, with quotations from Native writers who lived through the schools. It opens with a federal apology for the schools and says Native reactions to it were mixed. (video, 11 min) (captions: creator)
Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative — Bureau of Indian Affairs — the agency's page for the investigation behind the chapter's figures, with links to the 2022 first volume, its list of schools, and a later second volume. The chapter's counts come from the first volume; open the school lists only if you want to see the records themselves. (reading, 3–5 min)
Historical Context of U.S. Indian Boarding Schools — Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition — a Native-led coalition's short overview, including a 1910 letter in which a school refused to send a boy home for the summer. Its count of institutions is larger than the federal report's, because it counts more kinds of schools; ask what each count includes. Its call for a federal truth commission is the coalition's own position on a current policy question, which this course does not argue. (video, 4 min) (captions: creator)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Fort Laramie Treaty (1868) — National Archives — the National Archives' page for the week's treaty, with background on the Great Sioux Reservation, the Black Hills, and the 1877 seizure, and a full transcript; read the background and Article I, and skim the other articles for what each side promised. (reading, 8–12 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

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