History Coursework: Native-Americans of the Eastern Woodlands

For this assignment, you are going to try to discern the difference between descriptive and critical writing (see second attachment in the module: "Descriptive versus Critical Writing"). While Peter Nabokov's and Dean Snow's piece on Eastern Woodlands Native-Americans is largely describing the social, economic, cultural, and political systems and structures of the Algonquians and the Iroquoians, embedded in their account is an argument about the development and evolution of Native-Americans prior to contact with Europeans (their argument is actually a counter-argument to how Native-Americans were viewed by Anglo-Americans and what was taught about them in the United States for hundreds of years, up until the past few decades). Your task, through a close reading, is to find that argument.

Directions: 

1. Read the assigned chapter from the textbook and watch the assigned video.

2. Read closely the attachment in the Learning Module: "Algonquians and Iroquoians: Farmers of the Woodlands".

3. You should annotate the reading, looking for the subtle but important argument that they are making within the abundance          

of descriptions they provide.

4. Once you have identified their argument, post your answer on the discussion board (225-word minimum)