YouTube Recording – You will be sent a link to a private playlist containing all sessions from Winter 2021 within 48 hours during standard office hours.

This is a continuation and expansion of the “To 1815” courses offered by SPARK over the last year.
The course will examine the relationships of Native Americans and Canadian First Nations with their respective national (or imperial?) governments – and with the settlers and corporations that continued to move West and North. Equally important, we will examine the internal adjustments made by native people in reaction to the advance of EuroAmerican and Euro-Canadian cultural and military power.
We will look at several specific tribes and confederations, including the Cherokee and the Sioux, as well as Canadian Cree and the Me’tis people involved in the 19th Century Riel Rebellions. Who are the Me’tis? Take the course and find out!

There will be a good deal of discussion of the evolution of American and Canadian policy, including the establishment of reservations and reserves, the rise and demise of boarding schools and the “Indian New Deal”

We will also consider American continental expansion as a prelude and warmup for American expansion overseas, which effectively began in 1893. Why 1893? Take the course and find out! There will be several short articles for reading and in-class discussion.

Class Fee: $30

Instructor: Dr. Alan Perry shares with us his knowledge, experience and a life-long enthusiasm for history. Dr. Perry graduated from Washington University in St. Louis and Victoria University in Wellington, New Zealand with degrees in history. He served over 15 years as Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Missouri-Kansas City and taught history at Park University in Kansas City. He also has served as an Archivist for the National Archives and Records Administration in Washington, DC, the Virgin Islands and Kansas City.