Precolumbian history essay
Please write an essay on the following prompt. Around 1200 words (4 pages).

Please read and use the following readings (NO outside sources allow)

God is Red (pdf given: very important)

Wisdom Sits in Places (this is very important and is required: find a copy of this textbook online or at a library, if you cannot please let me know so we can either find a way or refund the project: Basso, Keith. 1996. Wisdom Sits in Places: Landscape and Language Among the Western Apache. Univ. of New Mexico)

Separation of Church and Kiva (pdf given: please read if see if it applies)

Prompt:

Prior to the readings given, our focus has been on a handful of many remarkable histories of pre-Columbian Native America: Paleoindian, Mississippian, Puebloan. We have explored the material traces of those histories that are used by archaeologists and Native communities alike to construct their accounts of the past. We have discussed the political implications of these historical accounts. And we have considered how we might build alternative histories that escape what Todorov referred to as the finalist strategy of interpretation, alternative histories that—among other things—articulate a different sense of historical values and priorities.

But are there alternatives to the search for alternative histories? Might we instead follow Vine Deloria and Basso’s Western Apache companions in imagining a spatial alternative to history itself? What would history look like were it to take the form of a kind of storied geography? And what would be the politics—or better, the moral stakes—were we to make this shift from history to place? Consider these questions or ones of your own design, providing it draw you into a serious consideration of both God is Red and Wisdom Sits in Places.

ill be assessed according to (1) the originality and thoughtfulness of your response, (2) your accuracy in representing the positions of others, (3) your success in incorporating the course readings, and (4) the style and clarity with which you compose your response.