Ethics and Native American: American Indian Life and Literature

Pine Ridge Indian Reservation sits in the poorest county in the U.S. Unemployment runs over 80%. Health outcomes are dismal. In the Western Hemisphere, only Haiti has a lower life expectancy. Pine Ridge was also the site of the 1890 Wounded Knee Massacre, the effective end of the protracted struggle of the Indians of the Great Plains to preserve their cultures in the face of “manifest destiny.” Pine Ridge is extreme, but its story is common. Drawing principally on American Indian literature from the West—and on historical works and primary sources—this course explores the contemporary realities of Native American life and traces these realities back into the nineteenth century.