Step 1: Understand some of the recent chronology of Native America
- Native American Sovereigntyfrom CQ Researcher
Not sure where to start? Below is a list of just a few Native American Nations.
| Arapaho | Apache | Cherokee |
| Choctaw | Navajo | Ojibwe |
| Sioux | Oneida | Mohawk |
| Lakota | Iroquois | Hopi |
| Omaha | Comanche | Huron |
| Blackfeet | Pawnee | Ponca |
| Seminole | Pontiac | Creek |
| Shawnee | Ottowa |
International Indigenous Groups
- Indigenous PeoplesThere are 476 million Indigenous people around the world and spread across more than 90 countries. They belong to more than 5,000 different Indigenous peoples and speak more than 4,000 languages. Indigenous people represent about 5% of the world’s population. The vast majority of them – 70% – live in Asia.
- Indigenous Peoples: Respect not DehuminazationUnited Nations
Step 3: Consider the assignment
GSTR 410-D: Humor and resistance: ‘Weapons of the Weak’ Spring 2024
Instructor: Dr. Burnside; Reference Librarians: Ms. Amanda Peach and Mr. Angel Rivera
Documented Research Homework: Due: January 31st_________
Humor of Indigenous Cultures: Selected Social Facts
Purpose: This exercise, supported by our library work-session, is designed to provide opportunity to develop these student learning outcomes (SLO):
- Apply humanistic and scientific concepts and theories to understand complex problems and the functions of humor, when present.
- Become acquainted with a variety of types of humor evident in various cultures.
Instructions: Select one Native American tribal nation, or another indigenous group, to research using Hutchins library resources, to discover social facts*. These can include social conditions of their societies and cultural elements, such as humor, in your selected tribal nations’ experiences.
Write a reflective essay to share your chosen social facts (large or small) and relate uses of humor by members. Use in-text citations with Works Cited list of three sources (minimum); typed, word count = 750-800. Along with a Peer Review completed form, submit your essay on paper, due January 31st. In class, your brief oral presentation (four to six minutes) can include visuals, such as power point slides (three to five).
*French sociologist Emile Durkheim developed the concept of social facts to include values, cultural norms, as elements of society that can be measured, often using empirical means, so we can observe and study these facts' influences on individuals and groups thoughts, attitudes and behaviors.
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/abs/10.1002/9781405165518.wbeoss151.pub2
accessed January 22, 2024.
Look at this site for tips about which terms to use for various race and ethnic groups:
https://apastyle.apa.org/style-grammar-guidelines/bias-free-language/racial-ethnic-minorities
accessed January 22, 2024.
Rubric for Grading with a rating scale: (Very Good = 20-18; Good = 17-16; Fair = 15-14.
Insufficient quality = 13-12: Poor = 11-0).
An emphasis will focus on quality of key details about your group (e.g. social facts and folklore), application of concepts, theoretical perspectives and your ideas. A few points will be detracted if grammar and mechanics interfere with readability, so remember to proofread and use in-text citation (include page numbers, if available) with your Works Cited list. Use a Peer to Review strategy and submit a completed form or other confirmation of your Review with your work.
_________ Title and introduction announces subject in memorable way.
_________ Selected important points about facts are clearly presented, and explanations show
good comprehension.
_________ Concepts provide relevant aspects that clearly support each fact & lead
to thoughtful interpretations.
_________ Sentences flow smoothly from one to another & are clearly linked to each
other. The reader can follow the line of reasoning.
_________ Writing mechanics (grammar, punctuation, spelling, citations): The
writing is free or almost free of errors and has proper word count.
__________ Quality and quantity of sources satisfactory; and appropriate citations style (APA, MLA,
Chicago) for in-text and Works Cited list;
__________ Writing was peer reviewed (e.g. form attached or other evidence).
__________ Grade: _____________________________________________________________
Step 4 :Choose a social fact
| pursuit of sovereignty | land rights activism | climate change activism |
| artifacts | burial mounds | commercialization and appropriation of Indigenous art |
| kinship | language | coming-of-age rituals |
| holidays/traditions | food | education |
| folktales/creation stories | religion/spirituality | attire |
| music | art/crafts | social organization |
Step 5: Look for 3 Sources
Source Type # 1: ARTICLES
Ethnic Newswatch is a great place to search because it includes newspapers, magazines, and scholarly journal articles written by the actual Native American tribes you are researching.
- Ethnic NewsWatch This link opens in a new windowEthnic NewsWatch™, the current file, covers 1990 to present and includes newspapers, magazines, and journals of the ethnic and minority press, providing researchers access to essential, often overlooked perspectives. The publications offer both national and regional coverage. Ethnic NewsWatch™ is the only current database devoted to presenting multi-ethnic and multi-cultural publications in one resource. Coverage begins in 1990 and is updated daily with new content. Many of the titles are not found in any other aggregated resource.
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowAcademic Search Complete is the world's most valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 8,500 full-text periodicals, including more than 7,300 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 12,500 journals and a total of more than 13,200 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. The database features PDF content going back as far as 1887, with the majority of full text titles in native (searchable) PDF format. Searchable cited references are provided for more than 1,400 journals.
- JSTOR Collections This link opens in a new windowJSTOR offers high-quality, interdisciplinary content to support scholarship and teaching. It includes over one thousand leading academic journals and thousands of e-books across the humanities, social sciences, and sciences, as well as select monographs and other materials valuable for academic work.
Source Type # 2: background information:
We also have an online database of electronic encyclopedias, called Gale Virtual Reference, which you can search, as well as an anthropology database.
- Gale Virtual Reference Library This link opens in a new windowGale Virtual Reference Library offers a wide variety of full-text interdisciplinary content on virtually any subject area to support assignments, papers, projects, and presentations. Includes the Scribner Writers Series.
We have print encyclopedias, listed below, which you can find in the Reference Area on the main floor of Hutchins.
The Gale Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes by Publication Date: 1998Providing essays on the history, culture and current status of approximately 400 Native American groups, this work is divided into four geographic volumes. An overview essay introduces each of the ten regions covered, giving a geographic perspective on the tribes covered, as well as insights on cultural and tribal communalities. Individual tribal entries follow alphabetically. Also featured are biographical profiles of prominent tribal leaders.
Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes by Publication Date: 2006Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, Third Edition is a fully updated reference discussing more than 200 American Indian tribes of North America, as well as prehistoric peoples and civilizations. Arranged alphabetically by tribe or group, this comprehensive work offers 60 new entries on tribes not covered in depth in the previous editions. The informative, accessible text summarizes the historical record - locations, migrations, contacts with non-Indians, wars, and more - and includes present-day tribal affairs and issues. The book also covers traditional Indian lifeways, including diet, housing, transportation, tools, clothing, art, and rituals, as well as language families. ""Encyclopedia of Native American Tribes, Third Edition"" includes at least one representative tribe from each language family or language isolate for each of the culture areas. Many new entries include tribes in California, Alaska, and Canada. New entries include: Beaver (Tsattine); Bella Coola; Cahuilla; Coahuiltec; Columbia (Sinkinse); Cowichan; Diegueno; Keres; Mobile; Nanticoke; Puyallup; Quinault; Salinas (Salinan); Tewa; Tolowa; Washoe; Yellowknife; and more.
Multicultural America by Call Number: REF 305.8009 M9605 2013Publication Date: 2013William H. Frey with the Brookings Institution, told The Washington Post that this has been a pivotal decade. "We're pivoting from a white-black-dominated American population to one that is multiracial and multicultural." Multicultural America: A Multimedia Encyclopedia explores this pivotal moment and its ramifications with more than 900 signed entries not just providing a compilation of specific ethnic groups and their histories but also covering the full spectrum of issues flowing from the increasingly multicultural canvas that is America today.
Gale Encyclopedia of Multicultural America by Call Number: REF 305.8 G152Publication Date: 1995Essays on ~150 cultural groups in the United States, with their language customs, immigration patterns, religion, family dynamics, traditions, and famous individuals from each culture.
Source Type # 3: BOOKS
We have many print books, including children's books, related to Native American culture:
- Noopiming : the cure for White ladies
"In fierce prose and poetic fragments, Leanne Betasamosake Simpson's 'Noopiming' braids together humor, piercing detail, and a deep, abiding commitment to Anishinaabe life to tell stories of resistance, love, and joy. - Humor in Contemporary Native North American Literature : Reimagining Nativeness
In contrast to the popular cliché of the 'stoic Indian, ' humor has always been important in Native North American cultures. Recent Native literature testifies to the centrality of this tradition.
