1. A brief summary of the seminar. Include any highlights for you – new information, a particularly useful exercise, a favorite moment. Be sure to identify the main historical themes and the core documents presented in the seminar.

I was most struck by what appeared to be, for lack of a better term, "white guilt" over the apparent "disappearance" of the Indians. There was more of it than I expected, considering the time frame. The poetry--as hyperbolic and sentimental as it was--indicated a real angst on the part of at least some of the population as did some of the paintings (the one of the Native American family and their confused dog on the shores of the Pacific). The McKenney & Hall folio exhibited this same sense of having done something terrible wrong (if inevitable) to the original peoples of the continent. I wasn't surprised by the excuses that were made about native 'limitations' (intelligence, versatility, etc.) but I was very much taken aback that whites (at least some liberal whites) felt so strongly about the wrongness of what was happening.

2. What questions did the seminar raise for you and how will you follow-up on those questions? Will you need to do further research – and if so, how will you approach that research and what sources are available to you?

I would like to follow up more on the question of dissent from the predominating policies.

I would also like to see any Indian artwork, poetry, and other expressions about how they experienced the period and also whether or not there were connections being made between white dissenters and Indians.

3. How would you use this material in the classroom?

In an AP class I would want to use images and text from the McKenney Hall folios (images are available from the Library of Congress and elsewhere) and perhaps some of the bad poetry. I'd also like to compare how the dominant population "adopted" an Indian heritage for themselves at a time when they would have been loathe to adopt anything from the black population. Do people have to 'disappear' before it is safe to claim a connection with them?

4. How does the material presented in the seminar deepen your understanding of the relationship between representation and reality in the history of New England natives?

It is pretty clear that even while the dominant population mourned the "disappearance" of native peoples--there were still Native Americans/Indians in their midst right here in New England--often very obviously so. I wonder how and why the same people who acted as 'guardians', employed Indians as servants and workers, and wrote of the Indian past could not see them right in front of their eyes? This is a psycho-social-historical question that really fascinates (and troubles) me.