Resources:
For the first week, for a general examination of the American plagues, I will be using the CGP Grey video “Americapox” which explains why there was not a countervailing plague that affected the Old World from America, with similarly terrible results. For depictions of native peoples, I will be utilizing various old newspapers retrieved from online sources and databases, as well as the book Political Cartoons by Charles Press for additional context and visual resources.
Another subject I would like to work into the section on the America’s is the Nationhood theory of American Nations, as I think it is a useful lens through which to examine our nation’s history. This is particularly relevant to my 10th graders, as it’s a tool I’d very much like them to have going into the US History tests the following year. While it is not specifically art focused, art could be used to support the theory, as the treatment of natives and African slaves are both key concepts of the differentiation between the American nations. It’s possible that this topic would be best addressed in a third week, but I’ll have to further develop what I want to do with it, either way.
In regards to the second portion, focused more on the native peoples and their experiences, singular works are a somewhat harder to find. This unit will rely rather more heavily on specific examples, including the wooden Nigerian sculpture of Queen Victoria in the Pitt Rivers museum, and the Met Gallery’s South India chintz painting of a European conflict as seen by a South Indian artist. I would also like to challenge the students to try to put themselves in the shoes of people who had never seen or heard of metal armor or guns before, and what kind of strange things those would be to people with no experience with them, probably with some manner of drawing or creative writing exercise (potentially both, to allow for differentiation and student choice.
Overall, I’m very excited to teach and further develop this unit in the intensive session of the program, and look forward to further developing it with the assistance of all of the other educators going through the program. I expect that the points of view from our representatives from the Navajo nation will be particularly helpful in this endeavor.
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