This review is for the Final Exam, which is worth approximately 25% of your final grade. Students will turn in a final essay response to only one of the following three prompts by Friday, December 18th at 5pm. They will have unlimited time to write this essay, which should be at least 4 pages double spaced (approximately 1000 words) to be graded as ‘complete’. Essay Prompt #1 One of our major readings throughout this course has been Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz and Dina Gilio-Whitaker’s ‘All the Real Indians Died Off’ and 20 Other Myths about Native Americans. In various overlapping and distinct ways, these myths continue to frame most (settler) discourse on American Indian peoples and prevents major discussions of Native sovereignty, representations and knowledges. In your opinion, which 3 of the ‘Myths’ identified by Dunbar-Ortiz and Gilio-Whitaker are most harmful to these concepts? You must clearly identify why you believe this as well as at least one reading/viewing from the course which best counters these Myths. Essay Prompt #2 In Philip Deloria’s Indians in Unexpected Places, he writes “the world we inhabit is the shared creation of all peoples, though the costs and benefits have been parceled out with astonishing inequality, as have the notions about who has been active in that creation and who has been acted on” (2004, 6). Utilizing this concept, you must discuss 2 of Deloria’s sites of investigation we have read in class (athletics, representation/movies, technology, music) and discuss how American Indian peoples have navigated these spaces of ‘shared creation’. To do this, you must connect each concept you discuss to at least one reading/viewing from the course (2 concepts and at least 2 readings/viewings) which highlights Native engagements (positive and/or negative) with the concepts selected. Essay Prompt #3 Sovereignty has long been discussed as a foundational concept for Native nations and for the discipline of American Indian Studies. In this class, we have engaged with various readings/viewings which both explicitly and implicitly deal with Native sovereignty as enacted/envisioned by American Indian nations. After 16 weeks of this course, what are your views on the concept of ‘Native sovereignty’? What are some aspects of sovereignty (positive and/or negative) which you seem in representations of American Indian peoples in both settler/Native medias? What are some challenges for sovereignty, historically and currently? Your essay response should engage with these three proceeding questions by using at least 3 class readings (including chapters from our two course books) and at least 1 class viewing (or podcast) to support your views.
