FRONTIER HERITAGE - SUMMARY

SCHEDULE | SYLLABUS | WEB READINGS | SCORES | FORUM

The course is aimed at helping us discover both the common threads and the differentiating patterns that characterize frontier experiences of European and Native Americans in Canada and the United States. The course also attempts to explore the experiences of both men and women in these groups and of other minority groups where relevant. If we are to treasure the diversity of our cultures, we need to understand the archetypes and stereotypes which blur and obscure the ways in which indigenous and European cultures changed and continue to change each other. Such patterns have been the focus of scholary work since 1893 when Frederick Jackson Turner announced the closing of the American frontier and speculated about the significance of the frontier in American history. A similar set of speculations about Canadian character is the work of Margaret Atwood.

  • Last of the Mohicans

    • Hawkeye and Cora Last of the Mohicans is one of two films we use to open our discussion of the fontier experience. James Fenimore Cooper's novel of the same name has inspired a number of film versions. It is a tale we keep telling ourselves with slightly different emphases. What makes it interesting for our purposes is precisely its status as one of the continuing myths of American culture. The most recent version of this movie differs significantly from Cooper's novel and earlier films. You might want to compare Cooper's version of a meeting between Magua, the Huron ally of the French, and the French commandant, Montcalm, with the same scene in the film. You can also explore the Mohican perspective on the history of their people. Prepare for our discussion by printing the Last of the Mohicans Discussion Guide and bringing it to class.

  • Black Robe

    • This film provides a sharp contrast to Last of the Mohicans in every way. It is based on research and a novel of the same title written by Brian Moore who also wrote the screen play. It explores the relationships between the First Nations and the Jesuit missionaries who sought to "convert" them to christianity. Roger Ebert's review of the film explores the background and explains the reception the film received from critics and audiences including Ebert. If Last of the Mohichans is a story we keep telling ourselves, Black Robe may be a story we don't want to hear. What interests us is why. Prepare for our discussion by printing the Black Robe Discussion Guide and bringing it to class.

    Spirit of the Border

    Zane Grey says in his introduction that he wrote Spirit of the Border, to set the record straight on a great indian fighter, Lew Wetzel, and to honor his ancestors. The problem with the stories we tell ourselves is that we believe them, especially if the fiction we're reading is "historical." Allan W.Eckert's account of the events clarifies who was responsible for the deaths of the Christianized Indians. Apparently Ebenezer Zane's Journal, or his descendant's retelling of its contents, was the story they wanted to tell themselves or us, rather than the story of a savage attack by revolutionary colonists on Native Americans who had accepted their religion, and who in the name of non-violence refused to ally themselves with either the yankees or the soldiers of the crown. Prepare for our discussion by printing the Spirit of the Border Discussion Guide and bringing it to class.

    The Métis

    metis In the Canadian films Ikwe and Mistress Madelaine we meet, a people who came to view themselves as a new people,the Métis of Canada and the United States, a people born of the meeting between peoples of the First Nations and Europeans, living in the Great Lakes region and in the Canadian Northwest. We already encountered one of the Métis' forebearers, the young Frenchman who travels with the Jesuit missionary in Black Robe. The Métis are descendants of French traders and peasants who married First Nation women. What distinguises them is that they chose to stay on the frontier rather than return to civilization. Ikwe chronicles the process that led to the emergence of the new people. Mistress Madelaine illustrates the difficulties the Métis faced in the development of a new community at Winnipeg. Lord Selkirk, a Scotch noble, purchased Rupert's Land (all of Western Canada, including parts of present day Minnesota, North Dakota and Montana) from the Hudson's Bay company. Selkirk purchased the land to establish a colony of displaced Scottish peasants and retired Métis employees of the HBC at the site of present day Winnipeg. His agent, Governor Semple, siezed their supplies of pemmican, a staple of the traders, and tried to force the Métis, many of whom worked for the Northwest Fur Company, to restrict their trading to the colony and the Hudson's Bay Company. These actions and the treatment of the Métis illustrated in Mistress Madelaine resulted in the Battle of Seven Oaks.

    Tchipayuk

    Flag Lavalle's novel takes up the story of the Metis about 50 years after Seven Oaks. While some of Cuthbert Grant's people are trying to maintain the Métis way, a blending of European and First Nation life styles, others are trying to fit into the emerging Euro-Canadian society. Askik, the protagonist of the novel, seeks education and wealth, dreams of marrying his superior's daughter, and tries to decipher who he is. During the 20 years Askik moves from youth to manhood, his people, under the leadership of Louis Riel, are engaged in their final and decisive struggles with the emerging nation of Canada. Askik remains uninvolved and unconcerned about these events until the dominant culture in the East rejects him and he returns to the West as a reporter to witness the last battle between the Métis and the Canadian government. Louis Riel and his general Gabriel Dumont lead their people and several tribes of the First Nations at the Battle of Batoche. Where they make a last defense of the way of life and the land they have come to love E. Pauline Johnson's short story ,"As It Was in the Beginning" helps carry the story of People of mixed descent into the twentieth century, and provides us with a connection to Louise Erdrich's Tracks.

    Jeremiah Johnson

    Jim Bridger Robert Redford became the '70s incarnation of the Natty Bumpo (Hawkeye) archetype based on his performance as Jeremiah Johnson, last of the mountain men; these frontiersmen were American trappers working out of St Louis in the Rocky Mountains between 1810 and 1840. The mountain man has the same civilization hating, wilderness loving, character as Hawkeye and Lew Wetzel. The film also supplies the typical stereotyped portrait of the faithful native wife. If you want to read about such a hero you might try A.B. Guthrie's Big Sky Country and read the story of Boone Caudill and Teal Eyes.

    Fools Crow

    James Welch's remarkable novel, Fools Crow, enables us to see the montain men and the settlers from the perspective of the people, the Loneeater band of the Pikuni (Blackfeet). The event described in the novel occur around 1870 in the upper Missouri country and represent yet another instance of betrayal and pointless slaughter. At the same time Fools Crow and his band demonstrate courage and a capacity to persist in spite of the advancing European culture.

    Shane

    Legends of the Fall

    This film based on a novel by Jim Harrison explores the impact of the closing of the frontier on the kind of rugged individualist whose character American stories and histories have lionized. What happens to the frontier hero when the frontier disappears? As usual the role assigned to women in such stories is troublesome and misleading. For novels that provide more realistic accounts of women on the closing frontier in Montana visit Amazon Books and search their database using the Advanced Query search engine. Type in "Montana and Women ranchers." Examining reviews of this film is interesting because the critics conclusions are so contradictory. Compare Roger Ebert's with those in the Washinton Post for example.

    Tracks

    Louise Erdrich's novel, Tracks, the final reading for this course straddles borders and frontiers and takes us back to the Turtle Mountain region of Canada and the United States, home of a mixed band of Ojibwe, Sioux Métis. It explores the blending of traditions and the rootedness in place characteristic of first peoples and the Métis. Some of the controversy about whether someone who is part Native American and who has never lived on the reservations can speak for people of the First Nations misses what our literature and our history are about. The questions of who we are and whether we belong, if we are mixed, Métis or "pure", Scotch, Irish, Norwegian, German, French, Italian, Huron, Ojibwe, Sioux, seem somehow to miss part of truth that lies between us, a truth that emerges from our common humanity and our learning to hear, see, taste and touch with each others' ears, eyes, tongues and fingers. As we met and meet each other on the borders and frontiers at our best we became and become each other. At our worst we killed and kill each other. We also learn to live with each other, on the way of the people.

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    • The views and opinions expressed in this page are strictly those of the page author. The contents of this page have not been reviewed or approved by the University of Minnesota. This web page (http://www.d.umn.edu/~tbacig/scifi/) is maintained by Tom Bacig, and was last updated Sunday, 10-Sep-2000 20:14:58 CDT. Send comments to tbacig@d.umn.edu.

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