WEEK 11 · INQUIRY MODULE
Week 11: Conservation, Reclamation, Extraction, and Tourism
When reformers called western land “public,” whose uses and histories became illegible?
Dates: November 2–6, 2026
Focus
- National parks and Indigenous dispossession
- Federal reclamation and water
- Mining, timber, and conservation
- Tourism, authenticity, and public memory
Before class
- Read: American Yawp, chapters 17 and 20 selected sections.
- Open and inspect the linked primary-source collection(s). Record one source, one context question, and one limitation.
- Scholarship lens: Megan Black, The Global Interior (2018), or Katrina Phillips, Staging Indigeneity (2021), selected excerpt.
Primary-source portals
Tuesday/Thursday meeting plan
| Date | Status | Plan |
|---|
| Tuesday, November 3 | Class | National parks, tourism, and Indigenous dispossession. |
| Thursday, November 5 | Class | Reclamation, water, extraction, conservation, administrative power, and capstone source defenses. |
Capstone Source Dossier due Friday, November 6.
After class
Deliverable: Capstone Source Dossier and Defense; Reading & Reasoning Check 9.
- I can answer the weekly inquiry with a contestable claim.
- I can name at least two pieces of evidence and explain their limits.
- I can identify an interpretation that my evidence supports, complicates, or challenges.