PRECOLUMBIAN HIST OF NAT AMER

"Pre-Columbian Histories of Native America" is about the heritage and historical development of Indigenous North America. But it is also about storytelling and how the Native American past comes to figure in the accounts of archaeologists, descendant communities, and other concerned commentators. Lectures are structured around five core narratives: (1) the colonization of the New World, (2) the rise of (and response to) Cahokia, North America’s first monumental urban center, (3) the rise of (and response to) a religiopolitical center at Chaco Canyon in the American Southwest, (4) the stories of Western Apache places, and (5) the emergence of a Comanche equestrian empire in the 18th and 19th centuries. Our goal is to critically consider the archaeological evidence, indigenous understandings, and the political stakes that surround these narratives.