Ethnic Studies 112

Ross Frank

A 6-10 page essay is due Monday, November 27, at the beginning of class

Over the next weeks, think about how the history and issues that we encounter in the course resonate with the material chosen for your essay. Further instructions about the assignment will be given out after the midterm exam.

Option 1: Pick one of the following novels upon which you will base your essay::

• Ella Cara Deloria. [Yankton Lakota] Waterlily. The novel describes the lives of a Sioux (Yankton Lakota) family and their extended kin in the later 19th century. The lifeway of the tribe is seen through the life cycle of Waterlily in tremendous detail. Deloria weaves information about the customs, beliefs, and aspirations of the Lakota just before the period of the reservation.
  
  
• Louise Erdrich. [Chippewa-German] Love Medicine. This novel contains a set of related short stories or vignette is set on and around a Chippewa (North Dakota) Reservation. The episodes describe portions of the lives of members of 2 extended families, part Chippewa and part White, and four generations. The material is set in the period 1934 to 1984 and concerns inter-family relations in historical context. Contact me for a Love Medicine reading guide.
  
  
• Linda Hogan. [Chickasaw] Mean Spirit. The novel centers on an historical episode involving scams and murders among the Osage during the Oklahoma oil boom in the 1920s. It is something of a mystery and detective story, and explores Osage and other Indian responses in the face of racist violence and government discrimination and disinterest.
  
• Louis Owens [Choctaw-Cherokee-Irish] Bone Game. Set in part in and around U.C. Santa Cruz, the novel is in part a mystery about a series of strange and horrible murders. Cole McCurtain, an American Indian faculty member at UCSC and the protagonist, works to understand forces that the past exert on the world's present.
  
  
• Frank Waters. [Father part Cherokee] The Man Who Killed the Deer. The novel is set in Taos Pueblo (NM) between the World Wars. A Pueblo man educated in the East at a government school returns to Pueblo. He struggles with groups within and outside of the Pueblo to find out who he is, and which world he can fit in.
  
  

NOTE: If the novel you choose is not available at Groundworks choose another or locate the book at another bookstore.