STUDY QUESTIONS FOR VANCOUVER, June 24

1.     What kind of man was George Vancouver, and what attributes (or "cultural baggage") did he bring to his exploration and his observations of the Puget Sound area?  What did it mean that he identified his voyage with the "noble science of discovery"?

2.     Consider the importance of Vancouver's arriving by sea rather than by land.  How might his experience have differed from that of such overland explorers as Lewis and Clark?  Consider, for example, relations with Indians.

3.     What were Vancouver's reactions to the country he was seeing?  What potential, or practical value, for Europeans did he think it possessed?  What places did he most like and dislike, and why?

4.     How did Vancouver respond to the Indians he and his men encountered?  What kinds of evidence were there that suggested an awareness of whites among Indians and some impacts of whites upon Indians—even though Vancouver was the first non-Indian to sail into Puget Sound?

5.     What can readers learn about Indian culture, society, and demography from Vancouver's account?   In turn, what can readers learn about Vancouver's own culture and society from his comments on Indians?

6.     There is basically one voice in Vancouver's account—Vancouver's.  What other voices would be needed to provide a fuller and more complicated picture?

7.   Who was Vancouver's audience?  For whom did he write?

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BIOGRAPHICAL AND TEXTUAL BACKGROUND

Captain George Vancouver was sent to the Northwest Coast of North America by Great Britain in order to help resolve the Nootka Sound controversy, a diplomatic dispute between the British and the Spanish.  He and a Spanish captain, Juan Francisco de la Bodega y Quadra, were supposed to implement the terms of the Nootka Sound Convention of 1790.  (After meeting the two men could not agree on how to interpret the agreement, so they politely referred it back to diplomats in Europe.)  Vancouver was also supposed to explore the North Pacific Coast, and indeed he mapped the coastline between Baja California in the south to Alaska's Cook Inlet in the north in the years 1792-1794.  Vancouver was not the first non-Indian to chart the west coast of North America, but he was the first non-Indian to explore certain parts of it.  He determined, for example, that Vancouver Island was in fact an island and not an extension of the mainland, and he was also the first European to sail into Puget Sound.  The excerpt assigned here describes Vancouver's voyage through the Sound from late April to late June of 1792.

It is important to keep in mind that Vancouver's voyage of 1791-95 was not his first to the North Pacific.  Born in 1757, Vancouver grew up close to the sea in King's Lynn, England, and at age fourteen was sent to train under the premier English navigator of the time, James Cook.  Vancouver accompanied Cook on the latter's second and third voyages to the Pacific.  Cook's second voyage, from 1772 to 1775, toured the South Pacific.  The third voyage, from 1776 to 1780, went to the North Pacific.  Vancouver and Cook's crew spent a month at Nootka Sound on Vancouver Island in March and April of 1778, and it was there that he first encountered the peoples and lands of the Northwest Coast.  When touring Puget Sound in 1792, note how Vancouver constantly compared and contrasted the Indians he finds there to "the Nootkas" he had met in 1778.

Vancouver's expedition to the North Pacific broke his already fragile health, and he spent his few remaining years preparing an account of the voyage for publication.  It was not quite finished when he died on May 12, 1798.  The published account tells us much about what Vancouver was trying to leave for his audience.  He had little patience for what he called "theoretical geographers," and categorized his own work as "the noble science of discovery" (p. 224 of Vancouver's account).  In other words, he took pride in describing what he had observed with his own eyes, and in leaving a record for others who followed.   Indeed, as you read Vancouver's account of Puget Sound you may well become impatient with the level of detail with which he described waters and lands.  Try to keep in mind that he was leaving information for sailors who needed to know how deep a harbor was and where to find fresh water and new spars for their ships.  Also, such close description was incontrovertible proof that Vancouver, unlike the "theoretical geographers" who imagined America from their libraries and salons back in Europe, had actually been there.  Vancouver realized that this kind of description might strike readers as dull, but he saw his duty as providing detailed information "in a way calculated to instruct, even though it should fail to entertain."  (A good and attractively illustrated introduction to the man and his expedition is Robin Fisher, Vancouver's Voyage:  Charting the Northwest Coast, 1791-1795 [Vancouver and Seattle, 1992].)

Let me add a few points on the Vancouver selection.  Over the years, I have tried to find a good map of Vancouver's trip around Puget Sound to reproduce with the reading, but it has never photocopied well.  You may locate a good map, however, in Robert Ballard Whitebrook, Coastal Exploration of Washington (1959).  A special map may not be necessary, because Vancouver was so busy naming so many things (with names that stuck) that it should not be too difficult to follow his travels on a regular map.  Keep in mind, too, that Vancouver's longitudinal readings are unreliable.  European navigators had not yet perfected instruments for measuring longitude (although they were getting close).  Finally, I recognize that this account is not easy to read because in many places the letter s looks like f.  This is because some early-modern European publishers used two types of s in printing—a long or "medial" s, meant to be (but not always) used in the middle of words, and a short or round s, similar to the one is use today.  (This practice died in the 19^th century.)  It does not bother me to use this account—partly because it gives readers a sense of how documents from different eras can look different, and partly because this old account is not subject to modern copyright law, and therefore requires no copyright permission fees.

Finally, you might appreciate learning how Vancouver regarded rival sailors on the North Pacific Coast.  He makes comments suggesting that he was not too impressed with Spanish explorers.  And he also disparaged the accounts of discovery by the American fur trader Robert Gray, the first non-Indian to record entrance into the mouth of the Columbia River.  To learn more about Vancouver's perceptions of his U.S. competitors, go to http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Hist%20n%20Lit/Part%20Two/Commentaries/Boit%20Gray%20comm.html.

HSTAA 432                                                                                                                Summer 2009

Study Questions for “George Simpson’s Remarks…,” for June 26

1.  What did Simpson value about the lands through which he traveled?  What did he not value?  Where did his values regarding the land come from?  Contrast Simpson’s attitudes toward the land and its resources to those of George Vancouver.

2.  Explain the organization of the Hudson’s Bay Company, as reflected in Simpson’s writing.  How did different kinds of employees fit in?  Where did outsiders belong?  Think about for whom Simpson was writing, and how his intended audience may have affected what he wrote.

3.     Using Simpson’s account as evidence, describe gender relations in fur trade society.  How did Simpson regard Indian women, and why?  Summarize his “family values.”

4.  How did the Hudson’s Bay Company, acting through agents such as Simpson, assert British interests in the Pacific Northwest?  Compare its “imperial” methods to those of the explorer George Vancouver and those of the Spanish on the Northwest coast.

5.  What roles did Indians play in fur trade society?  How did they try to turn the trade to their advantage?  Using Simpson’s account, what can we deduce about natives’ responses to European trade and traders? 

6.      Fur trade society brought together a quite diverse mixture of people.  How did Simpson view this diversity, attempt to control it, and attempt to make use of it?  Do you think he was as effective in controlling members of fur trade society as he claimed to be?

Study Questions for Judson, A Pioneer's Search for an Ideal Home, pp. 1-152

1.  With any primary source (or secondary work), readers ought to be trying to ascertain its trustworthiness. 

      a. Perhaps the first step in assessing a source's dependability is understanding exactly how it came into being.  Explain why, when, and for whom Judson's account was composed.  (The necessary information may not entirely fall within pp. 1-152.)  Consider how the conditions under which the memoir was produced could have affected its veracity.

      b. How reliable is Judson's memoir as evidence of people's experiences on the overland trail and in early Washington?  Can you identify specific passages that attest to just how it is reliable or unreliable?

2.  Evaluate the impact of the Judson family, its traveling companions, and its neighbors on the environment of the American West—as migrants, settlers, and entrepreneurs.  How much of this impact does Judson grasp and acknowledge?  How might the pioneers' environmental impact have affected Native peoples along the overland trail and in Washington Territory?

3.  What does A Pioneer's Search for an Ideal Home tell us about domestic life in 19^th-century America?  To narrow this question down, consider relations between the sexes and the roles of women and men; the role of families (nuclear as well as extended) in westering migration and the development of communities; the significance of relationships between white men and native women and of mixed-blood children; or the frequency and significance of death and disease within families.  How did Judson's "family values" affect what she included and excluded in the account?

4.  Assess the role of government (especially the federal government) as it affected such experiences as migrating on the Oregon Trail, interacting with Natives, acquiring land, and organizing the society and economy of Washington Territory.  What were the Judsons' attitudes toward government?

5.  For non-Indian peoples in the U.S., migrating to and settling in the 19^th-century West was usually motivated at least in part by economic considerations.  Just how successful were Phoebe and Holden Judson in financial terms?

6.  Compare and contrast the orientation and purpose of Judson's account to those of Vancouver's and Simpson's accounts, considering such factors as male vs. female authorship, the significance of religion, and the relation of each account to national and business enterprises.

Study Questions for Judson, A Pioneer's Search for an Ideal Home, pp. 151-315

1.  According to Judson, what was woman's proper role in the home, in the world of politics, and in pioneer society?  What was the importance of "white" womanhood, as opposed to the other kinds she perceived?  How might her view of woman's proper role have influenced her account of events?

2.  Throughout A Pioneer's Search for an Ideal Home, Phoebe Goodell Judson depicts interactions with Native Americans.  Did her perceptions of Native Americans change over time, or with particular circumstances, in a recognizable pattern?  What did she say and do regarding the intermarriage of white men and Indian women?

3.  Judson frequently uses the phrase "developing the resources of the country" (or some variation) to depict her and her husband's primary contributions to 19^th-century Washington.  Explain the significance of that phrase.

4.  Summarize the impact of Judson's family on the physical environment of the Nooksack Valley.  To what extent did Judson recognize that impact in her memoir?  What was her own attitude toward "nature" and the effect of the "progress" of U.S. society on it?

5.  What did Judson expect from and receive from government?  What roles did the federal government play in structuring her family's lives, economic opportunities, and relations with Native peoples?

6.  What importance lies in Judson's identity as a "pioneer"?

Study Questions for Thrush, Native Seattle, pp. xiii-xvi, 3-65, for July 6

1.  How does the interpretation in Native Seattle differ from more conventional accounts of a) Indian-white relations in the Pacific Northwest and b) the founding of Seattle?  Speculate on the reasons behind Thrush's divergent portrayals.  That is, why has he been able to uncover a past that has largely been overlooked?

2.  Compare and contrast the interpretation of "pioneers" in Native Seattle to those offered by the pioneers themselves, such as Arthur Denny, Phoebe Goodell Judson, and others.

3.  Accounts of Northwest history in the mid-19^th century have tended to focus on the experiences of the agriculture-oriented settlers in the Willamette Valley.  Explain how a focus on town life alters the story line concerning regional development.

4.  In contrast to the accounts of Vancouver, Simpson, and Judson, Thrush's book is a secondary work rather than a primary source.  That is, it makes a historical interpretation of the past by drawing upon primary sources as evidence, but it is not itself a primary source in this context.  Assess the kinds of evidence upon which Coll Thrush relies in Native Seattle.  To what extent does Thrush succeed in capturing Native perspectives on the events that non-Indians, such as Phoebe Goodell Judson, also depicted?  Can you suggest examples of how Native Seattle might be used to correct some of the impressions left by Judson and other white pioneers?

5.  The appendix to Thrush's book, "An Atlas of Indigenous Seattle," pp. 209-255, has not been assigned as part of the required reading for HSTAA 432.  But it is strongly recommended that you take a look at it.  Among other things, it forms the basis for Thrush's understanding of how Native peoples perceived the environs around Seattle.  It also attests to the value in historical research of knowing languages other than English.

Study Questions for "H.H." [Helen Hunt Jackson], "Puget Sound" (1883), 218-31, and

Holden, "Gender and Protest Ideology," 223-43, for 9 July

1.       Consider Helen Hunt Jackson's background, identity, and audience (see biographical sketch below).  How might these have affected her views about the Pacific Northwest in 1883?  As part of your answer, consider closely the words Jackson used to describe industry and nature.

2.      "Americans are often reproached, and justly, for their lack of reverence for the past; there seems even a greater dishonor in their lack of sense of responsibility for the future" (p. 223).  Explain and comment on this assertion by Jackson.  Contrast it with the outlook of Phoebe Goodell Judson regarding western natural resources.

3.      Compare the Washington Territory described by Jackson to that described by Judson.  Had the area changed in ways that Judson did not detect, or had perceptions of the region changed?  Note that Jackson wrote on the eve of the transcontinental's arrival.

4.      The selections by Judson, Jackson, and Holden provide perspective on 3 different women's experiences of the Pacific Northwest (Judson, Jackson, and Keenan).  Account for the factors that differentiated these women's views of the Northwest from one another.  How did each view the role of women in the region, and how did their constructions of womanhood depend on constructions of race?

Study Questions for Thrush, Native Seattle, 66-150, for 10 July

1.  Looking back on the early days of Seattle in 1888, pioneer Arthur Denny included the following commentary in his reminiscences:

The object of all who came to Oregon in early times was to avail themselves of the privilege of a donation claim, and my opinion to-day is that every man and woman fully earned and merited all they got, but we have a small class of very small people here now who have no good word for the old settler that so bravely met every danger and privation, and by hard toil acquired, and careful economy, saved the means to make them comfortable during the decline of life. These, however are degenerate scrubs, too cowardly to face the same dangers that our pioneer men and women did, and too lazy to perform an honest day's work if it would procure them a homestead in paradise. They would want the day reduced to eight hours and board thrown in . . . . The man who had the best stock of health and the most faith and pluck, was the most wealthy, for we were all capitalists in those days. Each one expected to help himself, and as a rule all went to work with energy to open up the country and make homes for themselves, and at the same time they were ever ready to help each other in case of need or misfortune, and I will presume to say that if the people now possessed more of the spirit that then actuated the "old moss backs," as some reproachfully style the old settlers, we would hear less about a conflict between labor and capital, which in truth is largely a conflict between labor and laziness. We had no eight hour, nor even ten hour days then, and I never heard of any one striking, not even an Indian….

What do Denny's words suggest about changing perceptions of opportunity, class, and Native Americans?  Consider in particular the idea that pioneers like Denny toiled to "open up the country," including from a Native perspective.

2.  The growth of Seattle's population and economy between 1880 and 1930 is customarily regarded as evidence of the city's progress from pioneer town to major metropolis.  How did that "progress" affect the different Native peoples who lived in or passed through the city in the period 1880-1930?  Keep in mind Thrush's distinction between "indigenous" Seattle and "Indian" Seattle.

3.  In Part One of the course, we spent some time considering the role of the federal government in shaping economic and social conditions in the 19^th-century Northwest.  In what ways did the national government serve as an influential force in the urbanization and industrialization of the Northwest between 1880 and 1920?  In realms such as Indian policy and immigration policy, were federal rules and regulations rigorously followed?

4.  How does Native Seattle reshape our understanding of the relationship between Seattle and its hinterland?

Study Questions for Dick, "When Dams Weren't Damned," for 14 July

1.  The readings by Margaret Holden (on race, gender, and organized labor), Coll Thrush (on Indians and urbanization), and Wesley Dick (on the New Deal state and technology) all explore visions of progress in an industrializing Pacific Northwest between 1880 and 1940. 

a)      Compare and contrast how the different groups (unions, suffragists, urban boosters, New Deal planners) analyzed their society (e.g. in terms of class and race, rural vs. urban divisions, gender differences, etc.), understood the contributions of technology to "progress," and conceived of the proper role of government.   

b)      How did social and political conditions change between 1880 and 1940?  According to Holden, Thrush, and Dick, what were some of the key turning points that altered Northwest visions of progress?

c)   Consider the kinds of evidence that Holden, Thrush, and Dick use to make their arguments.  In particular, to what extent do the different historians recover (or try to recover) the experiences of peoples of color in the modernizing Northwest of 1880-1940?

d)  The era between 1880 and 1940 saw the emergence and intensification of regional identities associated with the idea of the Pacific Northwest.  Compare and contrast these identities as outlined by Thrush and Dick.

2.  Woody Guthrie sang, "Big river while you're rambling,/ You can do some work for me."  What do these lyrics suggest about ideas during the 1930s regarding the relationships between humans, nature, and technology?  How did these attitudes differ from those in earlier times, such as the periods about which Phoebe Goodell Judson and Helen Hunt Jackson wrote (the 1850s-1880s) and the period of the intense urbanization depicted by Coll Thrush (1880-1920)?

3.  After the Civil War, the federal government took on new and different roles in the Northwest and the nation.  Trace the changes to those roles through such readings as Jackson, Holden, Thrush, and Dick, and assess the extent to which workers, radicals, populists, progressives, and New Dealers saw their particular visions realized in the Pacific Northwest.

Study Questions for Roger Daniels, "The Exile and Return of Seattle's Japanese"

1.  In "The Exile and Return of Seattle's Japanese," Roger Daniels pays very close attention to language.  Considering how he defines "internment," for example (pp. 167-68), and his preference for the term "concentration camp" (p. 169), please speculate on why he chooses the particular words that he uses.  What are the implications of the wide-ranging terms used by Daniels to describe the peoples who were interned and concentrated (i.e. "Japanese," "Japanese Americans," "Nikkei," "Issei," "Nisei")?

2.  More broadly, consider the word choices or phrasing of two or more of the authors we have read during Part II of this summer's class—Holden, Dick, Daniels, Findlay, Thrush, and Kittredge.  Why do words matter so in history?

3.  Daniels's essay provides additional evidence of the growing influence of the federal government on society, and particularly race relations, in the Pacific Northwest after 1850.  Use his and at least one other secondary work from part II to explore the way that the federal government shaped race relations in the modern Pacific Northwest.

Roger Daniels is professor of history at the University of Cincinnati.  He specializes in the history of immigration to the United States, concentrating in particular on peoples from Asia.  He has published widely on immigrants from Japan and their experience during World War Two, and he played a large role in the movement for redress.

Study Questions for John Findlay, "Something in the Soil?"

1.  "Something in the Soil?" considers the sources of cultural attainment in the modern Pacific Northwest.  Speculate on the relationship between advances in such realms as literature and architecture, and growth in the region's economic and political power.

2.  "Something in the Soil?" traces the emergence of regional identity, and so do works by Thrush, Dick, Kittredge, and perhaps others.  Consider how at least two of these writers have explained the emergence of a Pacific Northwest identity.  What factors triggered the strengthening of regional identity?  What factors worked against it?  Are there more and less satisfactory ways of assessing regional identity?

Study Questions for William Kittredge, "Owning It All"

1.  Using "Owning It All" and other secondary works for examples, explain how attitudes toward natural resources in the Pacific Northwest have changed (and are still changing) in the years since 1900.  How might war have influenced attitudes toward resources?

2.  As attitudes toward natural resources have changed, different groups of people have come into conflict.  Identify and discuss the divisions that exist within the Pacific Northwest over the "proper" use of natural resources, calling upon not just Kittredge but also Jackson, Dick, Findlay, and other materials (including current news) as appropriate.  Look for divisions based on class (working vs. middle classes), geography (urban vs. rural, metropolis vs. hinterland), sex (men vs. women), race (Indians vs. non-Indians), generations (older vs. younger), political views (conservative vs. liberal), and proximity to problems (insiders vs. outsiders, local vs. federal agencies).

3.  What has been the relationship between the natural resources of the Pacific Northwest and the regional identity of its residents, and how is that relationship changing?  Again, reviewing other secondary works—Thrush, Dick, Findlay—along with Kittredge may help put this question into clearer perspective.  In what ways is "nature" known and consumed throughout the region?

BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND:  William Kittredge, who teaches in the renowned creative writing program at the University of Montana, ranks among today's leading writers of and on the American West.  He grew up in the rural Pacific Northwest—south-central Oregon, specifically—and has become one of the region's most articulate critics.  The autobiographical chapter assigned for this class, "Owning It All," comes from a collection of essays by the same name.  He presents a fuller version of his life in Hole in the Sky:  A Memoir (1992).  He has published two collections of stories, co-edited (with Annick Smith) The Last Best Place:  A Montana Anthology (1988), and produced a novel, The Willow Field (2006).

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Study Questions for Thrush, Native Seattle, 151-207

1. In Native Seattle, Thrush depicts the efforts of the United Indians of All Tribes.  Reflecting on the name of this organization, summarize the composition of the city's Indian population during the later 20^th century.  How did it differ from and resemble the Native population of earlier times?

2.  In the U.S., the years after 1929 were characterized by reforms at the national level, associated with the New Deal, World War Two and the Cold War, and the Great Society, that brought changes in the realms of civil rights, immigration policy, and urban renewal. 

a.       Using Seattle as a case study, explain how these reform movements affected Native Americans, and vice versa.  Should the 1974 Boldt Decision concerning treaty fishing rights be viewed as part of these reforms?

b.      Was the federal government's denial of recognition to the Duwamish tribe in 1979 and in 2001-2002 an indication that the era of national reform in matters of race, ethnicity, immigration, and urban renewal had drawn to a close?

3.  Thrush tells us that in the 1970s people around the world rediscovered Chief Seattle's speech.  What did this rediscovery suggest about non-Indians perceptions of Native Americans as ecologists?  Did Native peoples make effective use of these perceptions?

4.  Native Seattle portrays modern Seattle as "Ecotopian."  How appropriate is this characterization?  Thinking back on 200 years of regional history, put the characterization of the city into historical perspective.   That is, what might George Vancouver or George Simpson or Phoebe Goodell Judson or Helen Hunt Jackson have thought about the prospect of an ecological utopia in the Pacific Northwest?  How about William Kittredge?

Answer one of the following questions.  The exam counts for 30% of the course grade.  You are expected to draw upon our lectures, readings, and discussions for your answer.  Your double-spaced essay (approx. length, 4-7 pp.) is due in class by 12:30 p.m. on Wed. 22 July.  Please plan to stay after submitting the exam for some pizza and conversation.

Please read the question carefully.  Think.  Read the question again.  Organize your answer, preferably by outlining it.  Think.  Then write, answering the question with a thesis statement and utilizing the readings specifically and regularly (Vancouver, Simpson, Judson, Thrush, Jackson, Holden, Dick, Daniels, Findlay, Kittredge) to substantiate or illustrate your argument.  Be prepared to make the question manageable by dividing the two centuries or so under consideration into appropriate periods for the purpose of analysis, or by organizing your answer around a sequence of readings, events, or individuals that illuminate key points. 

1.  Explain how British (Vancouver and Simpson) and American attitudes, from the late 18^th to the late 20^th century, affected treatment of the natural resources of the Pacific Northwest.  Be sure to identify key turning points and phases.

2.  Account for how opportunities for people of color have expanded and contracted in the Pacific Northwest, from the late 18^th century to the late 20^th century.  (By "opportunity" we mean one's ability to participate meaningfully, and to some extent on one's own terms, in the economy and politics of the dominant society.  By "people of color," we refer to such groups as Native Americans, peoples of Asian descent, African Americans, and Latinos.)  Try to identify broad patterns and changes over time, without forgetting the need to mention specific events, policies, groups, or trends.

3.  The Pacific Northwest did not develop in isolation, but rather was shaped by trends and events at the global and national levels.  Select one of the following broader contexts or large-scale developments, and analyze how it played out in the region between 1770 and 2000.  It may help to consider whether the region experienced broader trends in a distinctive fashion or with region-specific meanings.

        A) the evolution of capitalism;

        B) international rivalries (colonization, diplomacy, economic competition, war) and their impact on the American nation in the 19^th and 20^th centuries;

        C) the changing role of the state, especially the federal government, in the U.S.

4.  The environmental writer Barry Lopez, writing in 1991, commented that "One of our deepest frustrations as a culture…must be that we have made so extreme an investment in mining the continent, created such an infrastructure of nearly endless jobs predicated on the removal and distribution of trees, water, minerals, plants, and oil, that we cannot imagine stopping."  Using the American Northwest since the Oregon Treaty in 1846 as your case study, analyze a) the ethos or mindset that justified this "mining the continent" as it evolved over 150+ years, and b) the evolving perspectives of those people who critiqued that ethos or were less than (or not permitted to be) fully invested in it.