American Indian Culture and Research Journal

"'Cowboys and Indians'! What are you going to teach, Zane Grey and Gary Cooper?" my incredulous colleague asked as we sat around a table, far from the small college where I worked. My friends had asked that question every time I had mentioned the new course. I smiled a practiced smile and began to justify "Cowboys and Indians." My friend sipped his sherry, listened attentively but seemed bemused like all the others before him. The genesis of "Cowboys and Indians" was unique. The Indian Studies Department formally requested the English Department to structure a course which treated Native American literature. This request was not as strange as it seems. Mount Senario College is a small liberal arts college in rural northwestern Wisconsin with a student population that is 24.5% Native American. The Indian Studies Department was understaffed and, more importantly, lacked faculty trained in literature. This invitation had the added advantage of allaying the unspoken anxiety that we, as Whites, were inherently presumptuous and bound to fail in attempting to teach such a course. But the English Department was hesitant to accept the invitation. After all, who among us had studied Native American literature in graduate school? We had read an occasional work by a Native American author, but who were the significant authors? Where were the critical texts to be found? How could the works be approached? Where to begin?