University of Wisconsin-Madison
Institute for Environmental Studies

Environmental Studies 400, Section 3
American Indian Environmental Thought

Milford Muskett, Science Hall 125
Phone: (608) 263-7771
Email: mmuskett@facstaff.wisc.edu
Office Hours: By appointment

Course Description:
This course is an exploration of current and historical perceptions of American Indian environmental thought and environmental ethics. The course will also explore other non-Indian perceptions on Native thought and its implications for environmental history, philosophy, and the Environmental Movement. Major conceptual issues will be illustrated through the examination of specific environmental issues, laws, perceptions, key individuals, and current case studies, which will be critiqued and evaluated by the class through discussion.

Textbooks and Readings (Textbooks will be available at Canterbury Bookstore):
Keith Basso. Wisdom Sits in Places. (Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1993).
Vine Deloria Jr. Red Earth, White Lies. (New York: Scribner Press, 1995).
Paula Mitchell Marks. In A Barren Land: American Indian Dispossession and Survival. (New York: William Morrow, 1998).
Calvin Martin. Keepers of the Game: Indian-Animal Relationships and the Fur Trade. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1983).
John G. Neihardt. Black Elk Speaks: Being the Life Story of a Holy Man of the Oglala Sioux. (Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1932).
Richard Nelson. Making Prayers to the Raven: A Koyukon View of the Northern Forest. (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1983).
Thomas Overholt & J. Baird Callicott. Clothed-in-Fur and Other Tales: An Introduction to an Ojibwa World View. (New York: University Press of America, 1982).

Suggested Readings:
J. Donald Hughes. North American Indian Ecology. (El Paso: Texas Western Press, 1983).
Joseph Marshall III. On Behalf of the Wolf and the First People. (Santa Fe: Red Crane Books, 1995).
Christopher Vecsey & Robert W. Vernables. American Indian Environments: Ecological Issues in Native American History. (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1980).

Articles and Extra Readings:
A copy of the articles and readings that are not in the textbooks will be available at the State Historical Society Library in the south corner of the main reading room, and another copy of the articles and the readings will be available in the IES Library in room 15 Science Hall. You can read the material in the library or make copies. Please do not remove the materials for the libraries.

Evaluation, Assignments, and Grading:

1. Participation in Class Discussion (15 percent)
Students are required to participate in the class discussion. The amount and quality of your participation will constitute your class discussion grade. Attendance is required and unexcused absents will incur a deduction from the overall grade.

2. Reading Assignments (25 percent)
Students are required to lead three class discussions. These discussions will consist of 20-25 minutes of readings summary and suggest or outline common components of the readings. The discussion leaders will prepare two questions or two topics that will be discuss in the course of the class.

3. Paper Assignment (35 percent)
Students are required to complete a semester paper that is mutually agreed upon (20-25 pages). This paper assignment will consist of three parts: a prepared proposal (5%), an outline (5%), and the paper (25%). The proposal and outline will be complete by the first half of the semester, and the paper will be due on the last day of class (May 4, 1999).

4. Random Assignments (20 percent)
Students must complete all random assignments that will be given throughout the semester. The assignments will range from questions on the readings assignments, written paragraphs defining terms, and suggesting research inquiry, finding and presenting research material, etc.... Much of these materials will be used for discussion and inquiry into ways we perceive our understanding of the class topics.

5. Personal Discussion and Meeting (5 percent)
Students are required to meet with me at least three times during the semester (February, March, and April) for discussion and questions. The grading will be based on the number of times you met with me; not the content of the meeting. There will be no formal content for the meeting.

Letter grades will be calculated from the percentage grades obtained in class participation, reading assignments, paper assignment, random assignments, and the personal discussion meetings. All assignments are due on the date specified; no later papers or assignments will be accepted. Period. Do not test me on this. Attendance is required. Unexcused absent will incur a deduction from the overall grade. The scale is as follows:
A 100% - 93%
AB 92% - 88%
B 87% - 83%
BC 82% - 78%
C 77% - 69%
D 68% - 61%
F Below 60%

COURSE OUTLINE and SCHEDULE
The following outline contains the topics that I hope to review in this course. Students must read the material referred to from each section. All of the items are either available in journals and books located in the libraries or they are available on reserve in the IES library in 15 Science Hall or in the State Historical Library. There maybe additional reading assign throughout the course. ** are required readings that are in the books purchured for class. ¤¤ are required reading that are available in photocopies at the libraries, but are in the books that are give for suggested purchuse.

I. The Creation of Thought

Week 1: January 19: Course Review & Introduction "Storytelling"
Reading:
¤¤ J. D. Hughes. Chp. 5. "All Beings Share the Same Land." pp. 58-64. North American Indian Ecology.

Week 2: January 26: "Storytelling"
Reading:
**Paula Mitchell Marks. "Introduction" pp. xv-xxiv & Chp. 1: "An Uneasiness on Our Mind." pp. 1-32. In A Barren Land.
Leslie Marmon Silko. "Long Time Ago..." & "The Storyteller's Escape." pp. 130-137 & 247-253. Storyteller.
¤¤ Joseph Marshall III. "On Behalf of the Wolf and the First People." pp. 1-26. & "Voices in the Wind." pp. 133-152. On Behalf of the Wolf and the First People.
N. Scott Momaday. "Oral Tradition of the American Indian." pp. 294-307. Contemporary Native American Address.
**Keith Basso. Chps. 1&2. "Quoting the Ancestors" & "Stalking with Stories." pp. 3-70. Wisdom Sits in Places.
Joseph Bruchac. "Storytelling and the Sacred." 70-99. Roots of Survival.

Week 3: February 2: The Existence of Native Environmental Thought
Readings:
**Paula Mitchell Marks. Chp. 2 "Nothing Will Satisfy Them But the Whole of Our Hunting Grounds." pp. 33-58. In A Barren Land.
George Cornell. "Native American Perceptions of the Environment." pp. 21-41. Buried Roots and Indestructible Seeds.
N. Scott Momaday. "Native American Attitudes to the Environment." pp. 1-11. Stars Above, Earth Below: American Indians and Nature.
Clara Sue Kidwell. "American Indian Attitudes Towards Nature." pp. 277-293. Contemporary Native American Address.
**Calvin Martin. "Prologue." pp. 1-21. Keepers of the Game.


Week 4: February 9: Chief Seattle and the "Speech"
Readings:
**Paula Mitchell Marks. Chp. 3 "Get a Little Farther." pp. 59-88. In A Barren Land.
Simon Ortiz. "The Land and the People are Speaking." American Indian Economic Development.
Gli Gifford & R. Michael Cook. "How Can One Sell the Air?" & "My Words are Like the Stars." pp. 31-77. How Can One Sell The Air?: Chief Seattle's Vision.
Paul Wilson. "What Chief Seattle Said." Environmental Law. 22:1451 (1992).

Week 5: February 16: Indians as Creator of Their Environments (creation stories)
Reading:
**Paula Mitchell Marks. Chp. 4 "I Am Driven Away from Home." pp. 89-112. In A Barren Land.
¤¤ Joseph Marshall III. "An Indian Viewpoint of History." pp. 65-92. On Behalf of the Wolf and the First People.
¤¤ Christopher Vecsey. "American Indian Environmental Religions." pp. 1-38. American Indian Environments.
¤¤ J. D. Hughes. Chps. 1 & 2 "The Unspoiled Continent & The Sacred Universe." pp. 1-22. North American Indian Ecology.
**Keith Basso. Chps. 3&4 "Speaking with Names," "Wisdom Sits in Places," & "Epilogue." pp. 71-152. Wisdom Sits in Places.

Assignment: Paper Assignment Proposal Due

Week 6: February 23: Non-Indians as Creator of Native Environments
Readings:
**Paula Mitchell Marks. Chp. 5 "Take Away Your Paper." pp. 113-145. In A Barren Land.
**Calvin Martin. Chps. 1 & 2. pp. 27-65. Keepers of the Game.
J. Baird Callicott. "American Indian Land Wisdom?: Sorting Out the Issues." In Defense of the Land Ethic.
William Denevan. "The Pristine Myth: The Landscape of the Americas in 1492." in Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 82 (3). (September, 1992).
Richard White. "American Indian and the Environment." Environmental Review. Vol. 9 (2) Summer 1985.

II. The Application of Thought

Week 7: March 2: The Lakota Stories
Readings:
**Paula Mitchell Marks. Chp. 6 "Run Them About." pp. 146-171. In A Barren Land.
**John G. Neihardt. Black Elk Speaks. pp. All.

March 9: Spring Break

Week 8: March 16: Koyukon Stories
Reading:
**Paula Mitchell Marks. Chp. 7 "I Hope to God You Will Not Ask Me to Go to Any Other Country." pp. 172-191. In A Barren Land.
**Richard Nelson. Making Prayers to the Raven. pp. 1-65 & 200-248. (Skim pp. 66-199)

Week 9: March 23: Ojbiwa Stories and Fur Trades
Reading:
**Paula Mitchell Marks. Chp. 8 "Cornered in Little Spots of the Earth." pp. 192-214. In A Barren Land.
**Thomas Overholt & J.Baird Callicott. pp. xv-xvii, 1-32, Narrative 1, 2,?????, and pp. 139-166. Clothed-in-Fur and Other Tales.
**Calvin Martin. Chps. 3&4. pp. 69-109. Keepers of the Game.

III. The Interaction of Thought

Week 10: March 30: Western Perceptions I
Reading:
**Paula Mitchell Marks. Chp. 9 "Gumbo with Greasewood on It." pp. 215-243. In A Barren Land.
¤¤ Wilbur Jacobs. "Indian as Ecologist and other Environmental Themes.." pp. 46-64. American Indian Environments.
¤¤ William Hagan. "Justifying Dispossession of The Indian: The Land Utilization Argument." pp. 65-80. American Indian Environments.
Shepard Krech III. "Ecology, Conservation, and the Buffalo Jump." pp. 139-164. Stars Above, Earth Below.
William McCleod. "Conservation Among Primitive Hunting People." The Scientific Monthly. 43 (December 1936).
Frank Speck. "Aboriginal Conservators." Bird-Lore. 40 (July 1938).
Daniel Guthrie. "Primitive Man's Relationship to Nature." BioScience. 21 (July 1971).

Assignments: Paper Assignment Outlines Due (5%)

Week 11: April 6: Western Perceptions II
Readings:
**Paula Mitchell Marks. Chp. 10 "Where Are We Now?" pp. 244-269. In A Barren Land.
J. Baird Callicott. "Traditional American Indian and Western European Attitudes Toward Nature: An Overview." In Defense of the Land Ethic.
George Cornell. "Influence of Native American on Modern Conservation." Environmental Review. Vol. 9 (2) Summer 1985.
Donald Grinde and Bruce Johansen. - "Native Americans' America's First Ecologist?" pp. 23-56. Ecocide of Native America.

Week 12: April 13: Indians, Science, and Management of the Environment
Readings:
**Paula Mitchell Marks. Chp. 11 "Who's Got the Button?" pp. 270-291. In A Barren Land.
Paul Martin. "The Discovery of America." Science. 179 (March 1973).
**Vine Deloria Jr. pp. All. Red Earth, White Lies. pp. 9-127 & 231-253.
**Calvin Martin. Chp. 5, 6, & Epilogue. pp. 113-188. Keepers of the Game.
Ted Williams. "A Harvest of Eagles." "Boldt." "Challenges." "Mythology." "Prologue: The Suspension of Thought." and "Subsistence." Don't Blame the Indians

Week 13: April 20: Commonality & Conflict Between Native American Environmental Thought
Readings:
**Paula Mitchell Marks. Chp. 12 "Our Land Is Everything to Us" pp. 292-315. In A Barren Land.
¤¤ Joseph Marshall III. "If Only the Hunter Were Equal to the Prey" pp. 43-64. On Behalf of the Wolf and the First People.
Annie Booth and Harvey Jacobs. "Ties the Bind: Native American Beliefs as a Foundation for Environmental Consciousness." Environmental Ethics. Vol. 12, Spring 1990.
Duane Good Striker. "TEK Wars." pp. 144-152. Defending Mother Earth:
Dennis Martinez. "Traditional Environmental Knowledge: Connects to the Land an Culture." Winds of Change. Summer 1992.

Week 14: April 27: Western Law and Environmental Thought
Readings:
**Paula Mitchell Marks. Chp. 13 "Until We Have Regained Our Rightful Place?" pp. 316-349. In A Barren Land.
Donald R. Wharton. "Implementation of EPA's Indian Policy and Tribal Amendments to Federal Environmental Laws." pp. 1-28. ABA Conference: Natural Resources Management.
James Huffman. "An Exploratory Essay on Native Americans and Environmentalism." University of Colorado Law Review. 63 (1992).
Robert A. Williams. "Larger Binocular Telescopes, Red Squirrel Pi–atas, and Apaches Sacred Mountains: Decolonizing Environmental Law in a Multicultural World." West Virginia Law Review. 96:(1994).

IV. "So What?" Why is this important?

Week: 15: May 4: The purpose of this class!
Readings:
**Paula Mitchell Marks. Chp. 14 "There Is No Place But Here" 250-380. In A Barren Land.
¤¤ Joseph Marshall III. "The Arrival of Wilderness." pp. 223-235. On Behalf of the Wolf and the First People.
¤¤ J. D. Hughes. "Indian Wisdom for Today ." pp. 137-143. North American Indian Ecology.

Assignment:
Paper Assignment Due (30%)

Finals Week: Exam.