|
“How can I get my proposal accepted for presentation at the annual Pikes Peak Regional History Symposium?” Refer to the Proposal Guidelines. Following the guidelines is especially important as your proposal will be evaluated by the panel of readers using those guidelines. The annual theme offers wide latitude in your selection of topic but the most important thing to remember as you organize your essay/presentation is that the readers are not looking for a retelling of an already well-known event or historical person. Beyond a brief summary or biography of the event or person, if needed, the readers will be looking for a unique interpretation of the evidence in your telling of the story as well how it makes a new contribution to the historical narrative or opens up new avenues of research. Excellent examples of these points were the 2013 presentations at the Massacres of the Mountain West symposium by Chris Rein and Katherine Scott Sturdevant, as follows. Our First Duty Was to God & Our Next to Our Country": The Effects of Religious Indoctrination on the Sand Creek Massacre
“Much of the research on the Sand Creek Massacre has focused on the political and military leaders who organized and led the attack, and the victims and survivors. Numerous works place the event in the context of conflict on the plains during the period. To date, no work has focused on the perpetrators of the massacre itself. This study seeks to understand how men who, by most accounts could be considered typical Americans, could willingly and wantonly engage in such behavior, with an emphasis on religious ideals and views that could have led them to commit one of the nation’s worst atrocities.” … Chris Rein Daughters & Fathers: Family Secrets Behind Colorado’s Indian Massacres “Historically, massacres began with women’s and men’s private-life experiences. Animosities smoldered long distances away, in time and space, from where the firestorm would ignite with tragic results. By gathering Chivington family traditions – and the unsung work of local women historians and genealogists – by releasing a ‘skeleton’ from the family closet, we unlock new understanding of Colorado massacre motivations. Join one historian’s effort to detect and analyze clues, in private and public records, to the complex relationships in Colorado’s era of Indian-white conflict.” … Katherine Scott Sturdevant Both Rein and Sturdevant discussed the possible motives of or influences on Col. John Chivington on November 29, 1864, when he led Colorado militia troops on a surprise attack against peaceable Cheyenne and Arapahoe Indians, killing many people, mostly women, children and elderly. However each scholar offered unique insights into the most prominent and controversial figures of the Sand Creek massacre narrative, and each opened previously un-explored topics of discussion and research. An excellent example of a proposal, which includes all of the requested information, is Dr. Michael Olsen’s for the 2013 presentations at the Massacres of the Mountain West symposium: Proposal for the Pikes Peak Library District 10th Annual Regional History Symposium “Massacres of the Mountain West,” June 8, 2013. Proposed by: Michael L. Olsen Title: Myths and Massacres: An Incident on the Santa Fe Trail Summary On October 24, 1849, the party of Dr. James M. White, a trader on the Santa Fe Trail, was attacked by Jicarilla Apache near Point of Rocks, New Mexico. All in the party except Mrs. White and the White’s daughter died. A subsequent attempt to rescue Mrs. White and the child failed, ending with the death of Mrs. White. This incident has echoed down through the years in regional history, with interpretations of the “massacre” changing as time passed. This paper, using the “White Massacre” as an example, will look at how the “myth” of a massacre changes over time in American culture, down to the present. Précis The thesis of this paper is that perceptions of what constitutes a “massacre” for Americans and in American culture, changes from generation to generation. Certainly in recent years, since the 1960s at least, there has been more of an inclusive interpretation of the elements in what was labeled as a “massacre,” than previously. There is more of an effort to comprehend the circumstances than to condemn. The “White Massacre,” described above and famous in the annals of the heritage of the Santa Fe Trail, will be used as an example of how the myth of a massacre can change. There will be four parts to the analysis:
Some of the sources to be used (in chronological order by date of publication) include:
Comments are closed.
|
Proposal/
|
RSS Feed
