Sketch of a traditional Schitsu'umsh longhouse, which would have a dugout floor of 15-30 inches deep, with a width of 15-43 feet and a length of 50 feet and up to 100 feet. The larger longhouses had as many as "six fires," each fire for each extended family occupying the lodge. Image from the Nez Perce National Historical Park Archive collection.
From Sharon Alker, Mary A. Denner professor of English and general studies:
The students taking “Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Literature: Anxieties of Empire” this Spring have thus far studied British Literature which engages with alterity, travel and emergent concepts of empire from the point of view of canonical British writers. In April, the class will turn to a series of understudied writers of color who published their work in Britain, including Ignatius Sancho, Dean Mahomet, Quobna Ottobah Cugoano and Olaudah Equiano. A visit to the Long Tent will be part of this series, albeit one that is distinct in foregrounding oral rather than print culture and engaging the works of Native American storytellers on their own terms.
Before our visit, the class will be reading excerpts from "Salmon and His People," recommended by Associate Professor of English Chris Leise, who specializes in Native American and African American Literature, along with several stories from "Coyote Was Going There" and a document entitled, “A Review of Oral History Information of the Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation.” We will discuss the way in which oral stories, passed down outside the world of publication dates and European printing practices, make social and cultural meaning and the way in which they reflect a rich, multifaceted culture that resoundingly rebuts the simplistic representation of Native American culture that appears in British texts. We will also work together to craft some questions for our wonderful guides and teachers for the Long Tent, Roger Amerman and Lonnie Sammaripa, Jr.
