Elizabeth Fenn’s Encounters at the Heart of the World
For our final discussion of Elizabeth Fenn’s Encounters at the Heart of the World, you have a whole steamboat load (some of you got that reference) of
options for your post and for our in class discussion. Nine, that’s right NINE (Count ‘em!) different choices. Write your discussion post on one of the following
nine topics. At the beginning of your post, please note the topic number on which you are writing.
Note: There is some overlap between some of these topics, so note the way I have worded each—i.e., what I have specifically asked for—and choose the one
to which you think you can make your absolute best answer/post!
As always, your posts must be a minimum of 300 words! This time, especially, anything shorter will be docked points!
Two more epidemics of whooping cough, cholera, and more smallpox…discuss the long-term effects of these epidemics on the Mandans, and why the
Mandans in particular—more so than some other Northern Plains peoples—were so vulnerable to them.
Sheheke. What made Sheheke volunteer for the long journey? What caused Sheheke’s decline as a chief? Did Shekeke want to be “white?” If so, why?
Contrast Sheheke’s attitudes and his approach to being a chief with Mato Tope’s. In particular, reference Mato Tope’s speech on pages 319 and 320.
What happened to the Fur Trade? How did changes in the trade contribute to the declining fortunes of the Mandan?
Rats and Steamboat travel. What were the impacts of each upon the Mandan, and what is the link between these two?
Discuss Mandan vulnerabilities. In your post, reference at least four of the following items, and if and how these items are linked:
“only three villages left”
“cannibalizing the stockade”
Bison shortages
wood shortages
“no float buffalo”
The Lakota Sioux
“seven-eighths of the nation wiped out”
“one great graveyard”
Discuss the shifting relationships between the Mandans, Hidatsas, and Arikaras in Part IV.
Your personal reflection on Bad Gun and the picture of his father.
Your personal reflection on the clinging to tradition and identity, and Cedric Red Feather and the new Okipa.