Study Guide for the Second and Last "in the round" recitation in Plateau Indians

last modified 31 October 2016

 

The following topics, or learning outcomes have been and will be covered.   In addition to the class lectures and presentations, review your associated readings and consider information offered by speakers during the field trips.   

  1. Know the particular oral traditions of your own family (lé·pwey, waĺáwa, q’emiln, chatq’ele’, and s'maq'l) and integrate them into your responses to the questions listed below.

  2. What are the primary ontological principles upon which the Indigenous world of the Plateau Peoples is based and created?   What is Heart Knowledge?  And how is reality experienced?  How does this world and reality differ from the world built upon Head Knowledge?  Discuss the meaning of hnkhwelkhwlnet and tamálwit, while illustrating your response with specific examples.

  3. Who are the Titwa-tita-ya (First Peoples/Animal Peoples) and what are their responsibilities?  Who are the Awakkuléeshe (Little People)?

  4. Identify and provide illustrative examples of five key miyp brought forth by the Titwa-tita-ya and handed down from the elders in the narrative oral traditions.

  5. What is the fundamental nature, and the role and key responsibilities of the Human Peoples?  

    • How does the act of storytelling help facilitate this critical Human responsibility?  What are the responsibilities of the storyteller and of the audience?

    • What are the components and dimensions associated with storytelling techniques, orality, and the power of words?  Discuss each in detail, and how they coalesce with each other.

    • What is the nature and role of snukwnkahwtskhwts'mi'ls in the stories?

    • How does Sqigwts.org help demonstrate the importance of aligning the "how" with the "what" (and discuss the nature of the "how" and the "what")?

    • What is meant by "keeping the bones of the story together"?   And what are the implications of that act for other human actions?

    • And thus by extension, what results from the acts of re-telling the perennial stories, of re-singing the súumesh songs, of re-dancing the spirit dances?

    • How does this all work?  Its efficacy?

  6. Discuss the traditional seasonal round of your family, from winter to spring through summer, into fall and back to winter.  For each of these seasons provide discussion on, which members of your family would be involved and doing what activities, what primary foods would your family be seeking and which technologies would they be using and associated with, and what ceremonial and culturally expressive activities would be conducted?

  7. What are the primary structures, qualities and roles of the family, providing illustrative examples for your discussion?

  8. Outline the general features and procedures you might experience at a Coeur d'Alene or Nez Perce powwow. What is the meaning often associated with the songs and dance associated with the powwow?

  9. What is súumesh and wéyekin, how is it acquired, how is it applied and in what contexts, and how does it work - its efficacy?

  10. How are the various applications of súumesh integrated into the lives of people today? 

    • What are the roles and functions of the Sweat House, Jump Dance, Healing Ceremonies and Funeral and Memorial Give Away?  Consider Frey's healing journey with cancer.  Consider the Ashkísshe and what transpires within.

    • What are the components of the Wake/Burial and Memorial Give Away?

    • What are the components of the Sweat House and Jump Dance ceremonies?

  11. Discuss the meaning of snukwnkhwtskhwts'mi'ls ł stsee'nidmsh and "traditionalism."

  12. As discussed in class and presented in Landscape Traveled by Coyote and Crane, when a Schitsu'umsh speaks of "home," what might that mean?

  13. How would you describe the pedagogical methods used in this class?   Why were they used?  How would you assess their effectiveness? 

  14. Discuss the insights and lessons learned from the three field trips experiences this semester.   If you were not able to make one or more of them, be sure to learn about them from a family member who did attend.    

Organize study sessions and how you wish to approach expressing competency as a family in each of these learning outcomes.

In your responses, consider not only what you convey, i.e., response content, but how you go about conveying it, i.e., the delivery style and technique.

Grading criteria:

Each family will be assessed based upon a "family response" to the questions asked, and not as individual family members.   It will be a shared grade.  The instructor does have the liberty to offer differentiated grades, if, for example, an undergraduate does not contribute or a graduate student does not meet expectations for graduate work. 

Allow up to two hours for the recitation.

 

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