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Native Peoples of North America

Season 1
The Great Courses has partnered with Smithsonian to bring you a series that reveals new perspectives on the historical and contemporary experiences of Indigenous peoples and their significant impact on this country. Gain a new point of view on seemingly familiar stories America was built on, and be prepared to change how you understand American history.
201624 episodesTV-PG
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Episodes

  1. S1 E1 - Native America: A Story of Survival
    October 20, 2016
    38min
    TV-PG
    Begin by comparing the commonly held views of Native Americans to the realities of what was, and still is, a tapestry of rich and vibrant cultures. Professor Cobb explains the pitfalls that occur when history doesn't provide this crucial viewpoint, and will break down the fallacies that result from the common mistake of consigning Native Americans to the past. #History
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  2. S1 E2 - The Columbian Exchange: New Worlds for All
    October 20, 2016
    31min
    TV-PG
    Explore how the misleading dichotomy of "Old World" and "New World" has impacted perceptions of Native Americans for decades. Delve into the "Columbian Exchange," which is the crux behind the creation of "new worlds for all" and learn about the enduring ramifications these processes had in shaping everything from the fauna and flora to the cuisines of the world.
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  3. S1 E3 - The Native South and Southwest in the 1600s
    October 20, 2016
    32min
    TV-PG
    Examine the cultures that existed prior to the Spanish Invasion, the struggle for power through Hernando de Soto's entrada through the Southeast, and the Pueblo War for Independence in the Southwest. Dr. Cobb introduces the Native American worlds that were born in the aftermath of these transformative events.
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  4. S1 E4 - Werowocomoco and Montaup in the 1600s
    October 20, 2016
    30min
    TV-PG
    Dr. Cobb demonstrates how connections were forged between Native Americans and newcomers as they incorporated each other into their worlds. In doing so, both cultures were transformed. You'll examine specific examples across the Northeastern Woodlands down to Werowocomoco to understand how the search for common ground began at first contact and still exists today.
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  5. S1 E5 - Iroquoia and Wendake in the 1600s
    October 20, 2016
    29min
    TV-PG
    Once Europeans arrived, the Native peoples of the Northeast were determined to maintain their autonomy, despite becoming more integrated with the newcomers. Focusing on the strategies and experiences of the Wendat and Iroquois, you'll understand how Native Americans transformed the European colonial project while preserving a measured separatism.
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  6. S1 E6 - Indian-European Encounters, 1700-1750
    October 20, 2016
    32min
    TV-PG
    Through an exploration of the Iroquois Confederacy and the Lenape (or Delaware) people in the Northeast, the Great Lakes region, and the Southeast, learn how Native Americans kept or lost their lands through treaties, war, and negotiations. In many cases, the repercussions of these conflicts sometimes went beyond relocation, resulting in enslavement or near annihilation.
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  7. S1 E7 - The Seven Years' War in Indian Country
    October 20, 2016
    30min
    TV-PG
    The French and Indian War is often portrayed in history as a crucial turning point for Native nations in the East. For some, it served as a victory, for others, a defeat. And for a greater number still it had no immediate impact on their lives. This episode will change the storyline you've heard by exploring the perspectives of Native people who experienced the era quite differently.
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  8. S1 E8 - The American Revolution through Native Eyes
    October 20, 2016
    31min
    TV-PG
    Examine three ways Native Americans experienced the American Revolution: as allies, as participants in their own civil wars, and as neutral parties. For many Native Americans, the resolution of the American Revolution held little meaning: There would be no liberty for them under the rule of the colonists or the Crown.
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  9. S1 E9 - Indian Resistance in the Ohio Country
    October 20, 2016
    31min
    TV-PG
    Explore how the 1783 Treaty of Paris, which settled the American Revolutionary War between England and the colonists, brought no peace to Native Americans. Programs that were instituted during this period to help Native nations become self-sufficient (such as "expansion with honor" or establishing reservations) ultimately had the opposite effect.
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  10. S1 E10 - Indian Removal: Many Trails, Many Tears
    October 20, 2016
    32min
    TV-PG
    One of the most well-known and dramatic stories in American history is that of the Cherokee nation and the Trail of Tears. Professor Cobb reveals the story behind the story: one of two nations emerging and transforming, during which legal battles, political manipulations, and a clash between the ill-defined limits of federal and state jurisdiction and tribal sovereignty.
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  11. S1 E11 - Native Transformations on the Great Plains
    October 20, 2016
    29min
    TV-PG
    From John Wayne to Dances with Wolves, we are presented a very distinct view of Native Americans in the West. Professor Cobb presents a profoundly different perspective. Learn about Lewis and Clark's "discovery" of a West that was an established home for thousands people and the three factors that drove more change than anything else: guns, horses, and disease.
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  12. S1 E12 - Indians, Manifest Destiny, and Uncivil Wars
    October 20, 2016
    33min
    TV-PG
    The Civil War is a turning point in American history, upholding the Constitutional promises of freedom for...some. Examine one of the pivotal components of the decades leading up to the Civil War: expansion into the West under the doctrine of Manifest Destiny, which drew non-Indians into the West and sparked innumerable conflicts with Native nations.
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  13. S1 E13 - Native Resistance in the West, 1850s-1870s
    October 20, 2016
    32min
    TV-PG
    Delve deeper into the struggle for lands in the Plains between the 1850s and the 1870s. You'll meet the fighters you've heard of, such as Sitting Bull, as well as those you may not have heard about, such as the Hunkpapa Gall. You'll also see the negative repercussions of the 1869 completion of the Transcontinental Railroad.
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  14. S1 E14 - The Last Indian Wars?
    October 20, 2016
    31min
    TV-PG
    Focusing on the Far West, Southwest, and Plateau regions, Professor Cobb examines early laws put in place in California to "control" Native Americans during the gold rush, including state funding to kill or enslave Native Americans. You'll also meet the "real" Geronimo and learn how he came to symbolize the Chiricahua Apache struggle.
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  15. S1 E15 - Challenging Assimilation and Allotment
    October 20, 2016
    32min
    TV-PG
    Discover how Native Americans adjusted to or refused to give in to the extraordinary challenges and changes they faced during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, specifically the federal government's deliberate and multifaceted effort to dismantle tribal lands and obliterate tribal cultures through allotment and assimilation.
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  16. S1 E16 - American Indians and the Law, 1883-1903
    October 20, 2016
    30min
    TV-PG
    Violence and war were not the only options. Even after the alleged "last Indian wars," Native Americans continued to fight for their rights and lands through the same legal system that had worked towards displacing them. You'll review three critical court cases, and meet leaders such as Standing Bear and Lone Wolf who continued to seek justice and defend tribal sovereignty.
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  17. S1 E17 - The Ghost Dance and the Peyote Road
    October 20, 2016
    31min
    TV-PG
    Professor Cobb explores how many Native people took matters into their own hands and gained a renewed sense of place, harmony, and balance through two religious movements: The Ghost Dance (often misperceived as the last gasp of resistance before the Indians' final vanishing act) and the Peyote Road (a critically important pathway to peace, reconciliation, and belonging).
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  18. S1 E18 - Native America in the Early 1900s
    October 20, 2016
    33min
    TV-PG
    Discover how Native Americans confounded the late 19th- and early 20th-century predictions about their inevitable disappearance by getting involved in very public arenas, becoming political actors and writers, artists, and athletes. Professor Cobb examines their actions through four concepts: expectation, anomaly, the unexpected, and authenticity.
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  19. S1 E19 - American Indians and World War I
    October 20, 2016
    31min
    TV-PG
    Explore Native Americans' involvement in World War I and how it changed the meaning of citizenship and sovereignty in the beginning of the 20th century. Examine why Native soldiers fought in all of the major offensives after America's entry into the war, defending a country that was hostile to tribal sovereignty and also reluctant to extend US citizenship to Native people.
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  20. S1 E20 - Making a New Deal in Native America
    October 20, 2016
    33min
    TV-PG
    Uncover some of the hidden histories of the period between the late 1920s and early 1940s as you learn how Native Americans set about making a New Deal for themselves and their communities during an era of uncertainty and convulsive change for the nation at large. You'll also get an introduction to the Indian New Deal.
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  21. S1 E21 - American Indians and World War II
    October 20, 2016
    31min
    TV-PG
    Move from World War I and the turbulent 1930s to World War II to learn how the war and onset of the atomic age transformed the lives of Native Americans. While the challenges and opportunities faced by Native Americans paralleled the ones faced by many other Americans, you'll learn how the outcomes proved to be vastly different. And you'll discover Native American heroes of the War.
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  22. S1 E22 - Indian Termination or Self-Determination?
    October 20, 2016
    35min
    TV-PG
    Explore American Indian experiences during the early Cold War period, when loyalties were often questioned. Native Americans used the politics of the Cold War era to define freedom through the 1950s and 1960s. Nationalism and decolonization then surfaced as conflicts over fishing rights brought the struggle over Native American treaty rights back into the foreground of American consciousness.
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  23. S1 E23 - Native Radicalism and Reform, 1969-1978
    October 20, 2016
    32min
    TV-PG
    The late 1960s and early 1970s saw the efflorescence of American Indian militancy, beginning with the occupation of Alcatraz Island in 1969, to the Trail of Broken Treaties in November 1972 and the Wounded Knee occupation in 1973. Professor Cobb demonstrates how Native American activism intersected with the mainstream movements of the time.
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  24. S1 E24 - Reasserting Rights and Tribal Sovereignty
    October 20, 2016
    40min
    TV-PG
    Professor Cobb reveals how tribal nations haven't settled for survival alone. We're still in the midst of an era of recovery and revitalization, one that has tested the limits of individual rights and tribal sovereignty. He'll follow a few of the critical sites of contemporary struggle.
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Details

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Subtitles
None available
Producers
The Great Courses
Cast
Daniel Cobb
Studio
The Great Courses
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