Massachusetts College of Liberal Arts Presentation, Appendices

The Frontier as an American Idiom

An idiom is a phrase or turn of speech that has taken on a special cultural meaning beyond the meanings of just the words that make up the phrase. The term "frontier" has become an American idiom, implying many meanings beyond those associated with the lexicographical meaning of the term frontier. Thinking about Turner's definition of the "frontier" and about the ways the term is used in American popular culture, write a brief informal essay (2-3 pp.) which answers the following questions. Draw concrete examples from the readings and from the culture around you to support your assertions.
What are some examples of "frontiers" that exist in American culture today?
Considering the ways in which the term is used today, what does the term "frontier" mean now, and how is that different from Turner's use of the term?
Why have Americans used the frontier idiom? What does the continued use of the term imply about the significance of the Frontier in American history?

Wildness

Thoreau wrote in Walden, "In Wildness is the preservation of the world." After your own experience in "wildness," what do you think Thoreau meant by this? To what extent was his idea of Wildness a construct, a way of looking at a place like Walden Pond as a "wild" place in spite of its being surrounded by and in close contact with a town, industry, and people? Given that a construct serves a purpose or it would never be constructed, what purpose did Thoreau's idea of wildness serve? How is this construction of wildness like the construction of Native Americans as "wild" or "savage" in the nineteenth century?

Authenticity: Trip to the National Museum of the American Indian, Battery Park

Please answer the following in a three to five page essay. Be sure to provide specific support for your argument--the name of a specific museum artifact, and direct quotes from the text--in order to prove your point.
After visiting the National Museum of the American Indian and reading and discussing John Neihardt's Black Elk Speaks and Zitkala Sa's "Impressions of an Indian Childhood," you should have an inkling of the significant contestation over "authenticity"--"real" Indianness versus "phony" or "polluted" Indianness--that rages in the field of Native American Studies. With those experiences in mind, provide four examples--one of which should come from Black Elk Speaks or "Impressions of an Indian Childhood"--of ways in which Native American cultures have adapted to contact with Europeans. Then provide four examples--one of which should come from Black Elk Speaks or "Impressions of an Indian Childhood"--of ways in which Native American cultures have resisted changes caused by contact with Europeans. That contact may consist of either the moment of meeting between Indians and Europeans or changes in the patterns of interactions with Europeans and Euro-Americans after contact. Describe and explain the meaning of each example. Considering the evidence of these adaptations, and the debate over "authenticity" which we have discussed in class, explain why it is so important for people--especially scholars--to understand and document the ways in which Native American peoples have adapted to and resisted against European and Euro-American culture.

Chicken Enchiladas

1 stewing chicken
1 large container sour cream
reserved 1/2 cup chicken stock
1 chopped onion
1 cup diced green chiles
1 can whole olives
1 teaspoon cumino
2 teaspoons hot chile powder (or to taste)
salt and pepper to taste
1 and 1/2 pounds grated mild cheddar or monterey jack cheese
8-12 corn tortillas
Stew chicken in water slowly until legs are loose, about 2 hours. Reserve 1/2 cup of skimmed stock. Bone chicken.
Combine sour cream, reserved stock, halved olives, onion, green chile, and spices.
Put enough of sour cream mixture on bottom of 9x13" pan to moisten tortillas. Cover with tortillas, then 1/2 sour cream mixture, 1/2 chicken, 1/2 cheese. Repeat for second layer.
Cook approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour at 350 degrees F.
Serve with fresh tomatillo salsa, salsa cruda, or guacamole. Garnish with cilantro if desired.

Prepared by Professor Catherine Lavender, The College of Staten Island of The City University of New York. Send email to lavender@postbox.csi.cuny.edu
Last modified: Wednesday 26 April 2000.