About This Book

This text is collected from several copyright-cleared resources and its readings serve as the basis for my ENG 245: Survey Native America Literature course at Jefferson Community College. I have taught this course since 2001 in both online and traditional formats. See the List of Changes for more specific information on the readings. I also use required print copies of Fools Crow, by James Welch, and How We Became Human: New and Selected Poems (1975-2002).

To create the course, I adopted Lumen Learning’s Introduction to Literature course shell, which operates with a CC-BY license and was provided by Ivy Tech Community College. Most of the texts are available through web or PDF links. The basic Introduction to Literature material is mostly hidden from student views, but is kept in case instructors wish to use it. Hidden content may appear in student views of the Table of Contents, so students should be notified of this fact. (MLA title formatting could not be adhered to for subject bars, as the software does not allow for use of quotations.)

While the course is organized by genre, parts could easily be rearranged thematically.

The original version of this book was released under a CC-BY license and is copyright by Lumen Learning. The changes to this book listed are released under a CC-BY-SA license and are copyright by Joshua Dickinson of Jefferson Community College in Watertown, NY. I am available at jdickinson@sunyjefferson.edu and (315) 786-2221 should you have any questions.

I also adapted a Writer’s Handbook resource for the College that goes into far more depth in coverage of the writing process and MLA style. This resource should be available on the SUNY list of OER textbooks and–especially in the free electronic formats–pairs well with the literature text. It is also available at: https://sunyjefferson.libguides.com/JCCOERtextbooks

List of Changes

Renamed the modules as chapters.
Deleted the “Course Contents at a Glance” part.
Chapter 1 is also renamed “Experiencing Native Literatures Through Western Lenses” to reflect how we must approach Native literary content. I added my own lecture content: “Defining Literature: What Does it Do?”, “Reading NA Lit Critically: A Specialized Task,” Six Tips for Being a Better Literature Student,” “Jane Tompkins: ‘Indians: Texuality, Morality, and the Problems of History’,” Experiencing Literature,” “Binaries: A Western Obsession,” and “What Terms do we use When Naming Writers?”
In Chapter 2: Literary Conventions, I reordered items, adding my lectures “Self-Diagnosis of One’s Writing Ailments can be Fun!”, “Proper Source Use in Paragraphs,” “Using Sources: Blending Source Material with Your Own Work,”Use Signal Phrases in Posts, Essays, and Tests,” and “Irony.”
In Chapter 3: Writing About Literature, added several pages: “Annotation: Why Mark Up Your Texts?”, “Academic Writing Review,” “Connecting Reading and; Writing: ‘The Voice You Hear’ Response,” “Not Taking Sides is Like the Beetlejuice Waiting Room Scene. . .,” “How not to Write the Introduction and Conclusion,” “How to Avoid Plagiarizing,” “Academic Integrity Tutorial,” “Paragraph Menu Settings Use No Extra Vertical Spaces,” “Works Cited Entries: What to Include,” and “Checklist: Using Quotations Effectively.”
In Chapter 4: Literary Analysis, added my lectures “Analysis is the Breaking Down of a Whole into its Parts,” and “With Analysis, Focus Upon Functions or Effects.”
Added Chapter 5: Creation Myths
For space’s sake, I relocated some poetry lecture material from Chs. 1-2 to Chapter 7: Poetry. I added my lecture content and reordered items. My pages include “Poems by Wendy Rose,” “Wendy Rose: ‘Just What’s All This Fuss About Whiteshamanism, Anyway’?”, and “Stress.”
Chapter 8: Nonfiction Readings and Responses features deletion of all Western content except Thoreau and Twain. I added the following pages: “Standing Bear: Land of the Spotted Eagle,” “Momaday and His Invitation,” “Leslie Marmon Silko: ‘Language and Literature from a Pueblo Perspective’,” and “N. Scott Momaday: ‘The Way to Rainy Mountain’.”
Added About the Author section to End Matter.

You are free to use, modify or adapt any of this material providing the terms of the Creative Commons licenses are adhered to.