Anacortes Senior College

Guns, germs, and steel (to employ Jared Diamond’s actors) plied their trades with vigor as the Old World met the New World.  But what were the philosophical and ethnological underpinnings of the agents who wielded those forces sometimes knowingly and sometimes inadvertently?  What did Columbus, his masters, and his fellow adventurers expect, and what did they say, of the people they “discovered?”

How did aboriginal Americans fit in the European view of humanity, especially in the view of the deeply Christian explorers?  Were the slaughter and enslavement encouraged or discouraged?  Did anyone object as the damage unfolded?

This course in Week 1 will examine the social context of Columbus’s time, considering Aristotle’s thinking which impacted centuries of thought on barbarians outside the civilized community.  We will also look briefly at the Spanish Inquisition which, in full swing in Columbus’s time, permeated the explorers’ world. 

Week 2 will consider Columbus’s reports and what he delivered to the Spanish monarchs.  We will consider the scholarly arguments both supporting and objecting to the unfolding treatment of indigenous Central and South Americans.

Week 3 will shift focus to North America and the exploration and settlement vectors from Britian.  We will consider the evolving ethnological expressions of settlers and Pilgrims.  The course will conclude with a brief review of the United States’, including its Supreme Court’s, thought on the indigenous people of the New World.

Instructor:  Carl “Bud” Ullman

Bud is a retired attorney who has worked in the field of Indian law for 32 years.  He represented the Quinault Indian Nation and the Klamath Tribes focusing on treaty rights, particularly fishing and water rights, and on endangered species and hydropower issues.  He also served for five years in the Office of the Attorney General of the Federated States of Micronesia, the last two years as the Attorney General.