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PALOMAR COLLEGE
SYLLABUS / COURSE OUTLINE
email:llewis@palomar.edu
COURSE TITLE :
The American Indian and the U.S.
Political System
COURSE NUMBER :
A.I.S. 102
I. COURSE
DESCRIPTION :
Surveys the role of American Indian people in the U.S.
political systems and
institutions. Includes
and examines American
Indian political structures and functions from pre-contact
to
contemporary
as well as
analyzing Federal Indian Policy and the
leading issues and
organizations that affect the American Indian
community.
A basic goal
which I pursue in all my classes, and one to
which I am committed in this
course, is the
goal of exposing students
to the many and varied experience of the time period
being studied
as
well as the conflicting
views as to what happened, and why it
happened, and how
it happened. I do
not share the belief that history
and politics can be easily incapsulated in
some simplistic
ideological
or patriotic synthesis. Even the ever popular narrative pattern of
politics
leaves something to be
desired.
Those of us of middle age
have seen many of the historical and
political generalizations we
grew up with and absorbed as truisms thoroughly ventilated and
fractured in
the
last several decades.
This is certainly true for the history of Indian / non-Indian
relations in North America. To me, then, a
basic purpose or goal for
A.I.S. 102 is to expose students to the
variety of
historical /
political
experience and to hope that this might add to their understanding
(wisdom) of life. If you
become more aware of the need to maintain
cultural pluralism in American life
today by this class
experience, I
will be content.
II. COURSE
CONTENT :
Module #1 -
Introduction to American Indian Politics -
The Theoretical Framework
Module #2 - The
Constitution and the American Indian
Module #3 -
Congress and the American Indian
Module #4 - The
Reform Movement, Part I
Module #5 - The
Reform Movement, Part II
Module #6 - The
Termination Period
Module #7 - The
Executive Branch and the American Indian
Module #8 - The
Judiciary and the American Indian
Module #9 - Political
Participation and Contemporary Politics
III.
EVALUATION :
Students will
work to attain mastery level of competency in
all modules, critiques, papers, observations, simulations or other assigned
work deemed necessary by
the instructor to be included in
the evaluation
process.
All written
work will be graded on the following scale :
90 - 100 = A
Student has mastered the work exceptionally well.
80 - 89 =
B Student has mastered the work well.
70 - 79 =
C Student has mastered the work.
Below 70 = N/C No Credit. Student has not achieved the minimum criteria
level
of competency yet. Must see the
instructor to obtain the necessary
remediation to bring the
level of competency
up to
the minimum. Usual
method employed is make-up testing wherein a maximum score
on the retake
of same test is 70, with a score of 60 - 69 = D and
below 60 = F. N/C students
may be required to attend a Learning Resource Center. Each N/C
grade must
be removed before the next post-assessment or it converts
to 60 - 69 = D and
below 69 = F. There are normally five or
more post-assessments in
any
given semester.
DISTRIBUTION OF
GRADES :
1. Post-Assessments................................70%
2. Case Study (See Separate Instructions)20%
3. Participation (Attendance).....................10%
IV. METHOD OF
INSTRUCTION
The instructor
utilizes a modular approach and class time includes
lectures, group discussions,
multi- media, field trips, simulations.
V. TEXT AND
SUPPLIES
The required
text for this course is :
Johnson,
Troy, ed.Contemporary Native American Political Issues.
Walnut Creek: Alta Mira Press, 1999.
Wilkins,
David E. American Indian Politics and the American Political
System.
Lanham, Maryland: Rowman & Littlefield, 2002.
Canby,
William C. American Indian Law. St. Paul: West Publishing,
200_
VI.
ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS
Any student
accumulating absences which exceed 6 % of the total hours
that a class is
scheduled to meet during its full term may be dropped by the instructor.
(3 Absences). Instructors may excuse absence when
the absence results from illness, accidents, or circumstances beyond the
student's control. (See
college catalogue for
further clarification.
Date Revised : Summer
2005
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