NOTE: This is a DRAFT syllabus, and it is subject to change. The final syllabus will be posted by the first day of class on Monday, March 30.
History of Washington State and the Pacific Northwest (HSTAA 432)
Spring 2026
Monday/Wednesday, 3:30-5:20 p.m.
Art Building, Room 003
Dr. Ross Coen
E-mail: rcoen@uw.edu
Office: Smith 103-G
Office hours: TBD
Course Description:
History of Washington State and the Pacific Northwest (HSTAA 432) is an upper-division course on regional history. It focuses primarily on the territory that today is the states of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, with additional attention to British Columbia, Alaska, western Montana, and California, from the mid-18th to the late 20th century. The course places regional developments in both national and global contexts in an effort to appreciate how the Northwest, nation, and world affected one another.
The course considers Pacific Northwest history over two broad eras. Part I, “Contacts and Contests: Euro-Americans, Native Peoples, and Resources, 1741–1900,” considers how, within the context of colonization by Europe and the United States, different groups of peoples interacted with one another and tried to assert or retain control over the region. It examines Native peoples of the Northwest; the arrival, influence, and impact of European and American explorers, fur traders, missionaries, and settlers; and the efforts of the United States at controlling a large part of the region by asserting authority over the land and Native societies. Part II, “The American Northwest: Urban and Industrial Growth, 1846–2000,” considers the emergence of a modern U.S. region by looking at economic, political, social, urban, and cultural developments during the later 19th and 20th centuries.
Three connected sets of themes provide a focus for the course. One is the changing circumstances of and relationships between the diverse peoples and cultures of the region. The chronology of the course begins with the advent of European and U.S. colonizers in the 18th century, and attention is paid as well to the experiences of both Native peoples in the Northwest and the assorted, multiracial newcomers who arrived from other parts of North America and from Europe and Asia. Another set of themes revolves around peoples’ uses for and attitudes toward natural resources. Of course, diverse groups and cultures had different uses for and ideas about such things as forests, fish, and land, and these views changed over time. It is important to understand how some peoples were able to impose their values and uses for natural resources upon others. The third set of themes, intimately linked to the first two, is how a sense of regional identity evolved over time in the Pacific Northwest. Two aspects of this identity especially preoccupy us—the question of who supposedly belonged and did not belong in the region, and the matter of how regional residents related to and identified with the natural environs of a distinctive place. To a large extent, the answers to these questions were shaped by the agendas of the many newcomers who came to colonize, settle, and exploit opportunity in the Northwest. One way of tracing regional identity is to examine different kinds of writing in and about the Pacific Northwest.
Course Schedule:
The following is a schedule of lecture topics, readings, assignments, and exams. Any changes to the schedule will be announced in class and posted to the Canvas site. It is the student’s responsibility to keep apprised of the course schedule. Students should have completed the assigned readings by the start of the class period in which they are listed. All readings will be posted on the Canvas site in the corresponding weekly module.
PART I: CONTACTS AND CONTESTS: EURO-AMERICANS, NATIVE PEOPLES, & RESOURCES, 1741–1900
Monday, March 30:
Introduction to Course
Lecture: Colonization through Discovery: Europeans on the Northwest Coast
Wednesday, April 1:
Lecture: Maritime Trade and Overland Exploration: Arrival of “Americans” in the Northwest
Reading: John M. Findlay, “A Fishy Proposition: Regional Identity in the Pacific Northwest”
Monday, April 6:
Visit to class by Anne Jenner, curator of Pacific Northwest Collections, Suzzallo-Allen Libraries
Lecture: Development of the Pacific Northwest Land-Based Fur Trade, 1806–1830
Reading: Captain George Vancouver, A Voyage of Discovery to the North Pacific Ocean, and Round the World…, vol. I (London: G.G. and J. Robinson and J. Edwards, 1798), 220-316.
Assignment: Portfolio Essay due by the start of class
Wednesday, April 8:
Lecture: The Impacts of Colonization on Native Peoples
Reading: “George Simpson’s Remarks connected with the Fur Trade &c. in the course of a Voyage from York Factory Hudsons Bay to Fort George Columbia River and back to York Factory 1824/25” (typescript on file at Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, Provincial Archives of Manitoba, Winnipeg, Canada), pp. 42-96.
Assignment: Portfolio Essay due by the start of class
Assignment: Stepping-Stone #1: What topic did you select for your paper?
Monday, April 13:
Lecture: Dividing the Northwest Coast between Britain and the United States
Reading: None.
Wednesday, April 15:
Lecture: The American Pattern of Colonization
Reading: James G. Swan, The Northwest Coast; or, Three Years’ Residence in Washington Territory (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1857), 327-407.
Assignment: Portfolio Essay due by the start of class
Monday, April 20:
Lecture: U.S. Indian Policy in the Pacific Northwest; Native Resistance and Accommodation
Reading: Chief Seattle speech
Assignment: Portfolio Essay due by the start of class
Wednesday, April 22:
Midterm Exam. More information will be provided.
PART II: THE AMERICAN NORTHWEST: URBAN AND INDUSTRIAL GROWTH, 1846–2000
Monday, April 27:
Lecture: Cities, Hinterlands, and Technological Change, 1850–1900
Reading: None.
Assignment: Stepping-Stone #2: What are two sources you have found?
Wednesday, April 29:
Lecture: Class, Race, and Labor Activism in the Urban Northwest, 1869–1900
Reading: “H.H.” [Helen Hunt Jackson], “Puget Sound,” Atlantic Monthly 51 (February 1883), 218-31.
Assignment: Portfolio Essay due by the start of class
Monday, May 4:
Lecture: Reforms and Radicalisms in the Northwest, 1890–1919
Reading: Abigail Scott Duniway, Path-Breaking: An Autobiographical History of the Equal Suffrage Movement in Pacific Coast States (Portland: James, Kern, and Abbott, 1914), 2-27, 163-72.
Assignment: Portfolio Essay due by the start of class
Wednesday, May 6:
Lecture: Seattle and the Mastery over Nature
Reading: David B. Williams, “Replumbing the Lakes,” in Too High & Too Steep: Reshaping Seattle’s Topography (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2015).
Assignment: Portfolio Essay due by the start of class
Monday, May 11:
Lecture: The Great Depression and World War Two
Reading: John Okada, No-No Boy (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2014), Chapter 1.
Assignment: Portfolio Essay due by the start of class
Wednesday, May 13:
Walking tour of UW campus
Reading: None.
Monday, May 18:
Lecture: Cold War Washington: Economy, Society, and Culture
Reading: None.
Assignment: Stepping-Stone #3: What is the introduction to your paper?
Wednesday, May 20:
Lecture: Civil Rights in the Pacific Northwest
Reading: Quintard Taylor, The Forging of a Black Community (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 2022), Chapter 6.
Assignment: Portfolio Essay due by the start of class
Monday, May 25:
Memorial Day—no class.
Wednesday, May 27:
Lecture: Northwest Environment and Society in the Late 20th Century
Readings: None.
Monday, June 1:
Lecture: Review & Catch-Up
Assignment: Final Research Paper due by the start of class
Wednesday, June 3
Lecture: Review & Catch-Up
Thursday, June 11
Final Exam, 2:30-4:20 p.m.
Course Assignments:
1) Weekly Portfolio
Nine times this quarter—see the Course Schedule for specific dates—students will submit via Canvas a typed, 300-word essay response to assigned readings. In each portfolio essay, the student should respond to some aspect(s) of that week’s readings they found interesting. I am not expecting polished essays with an introduction, body, and conclusion, all working together to prove a thesis. Simply take the week’s reading and write a response. Think of this as a “free-write” exercise. You might use your essay to explore a theme in greater detail. You might pose questions about something in the readings that confused you. You might connect or compare or contrast themes in one reading to those from a previous week. It’s really wide open, and the choice is yours. As long as your essays demonstrate that you’ve done the readings and engaged with them in a thoughtful manner, you’ll get full credit.
The essays must be submitted on Canvas no later than the start of class on the day the reading is assigned. Late papers will not be accepted without permission. The essays will not be graded on an individual basis but will be assessed on a completed/not completed basis. The portfolio is worth 20 percent of your course grade.
2) Research Paper
Students will research and write a paper on a subject of Pacific Northwest history of their choosing. The paper must be 7-8 typed, double-spaced pages, and it is worth 30 percent of the course grade. Three times during the quarter—April 8, April 27, and May 18—we will go into small groups and workshop each other’s paper ideas, sources, and arguments. The paper must be uploaded to Canvas by the start of class on Monday, June 1. More information will be provided.
3) Midterm Exam
Students will complete a Midterm Exam on Wednesday, April 22. More information on the exam, including a study guide, will be provided as the date draws near. The Midterm Exam is worth 25 percent of your course grade.
4) Final Exam
Students will complete a Final Exam on Thursday, June 11. More information on the exam will be provided as the date draws near. The final exam is worth 25 percent of your course grade.
Grade Breakdown
Weekly Portfolio 20 percent
Research Paper 30 percent
Mid-term Exam 25 percent
Final Exam 25 percent
Please note that students must complete all assignments in order to get a passing grade. For example, if you have a passing grade for the course based on the Research Paper and both exams, but you did not turn in any Portfolio Essays, you cannot pass the course.
Texts, Materials, and Supplies:
There is no required textbook for the course. Instead, throughout the quarter students will read a selection of articles, chapters, speeches, and other materials that are posted under the corresponding Module on Canvas. Please see the course schedule for more information. The instructor has attempted to stagger the reading load across the quarter so as to make it manageable for students. The instructor will give reminders during lectures of upcoming reading assignments, and it is the student’s responsibility to keep apprised of the readings and complete them each week.
Other required materials for the class include a computer with internet access. Please note that Canvas does not always work well on phones so using a computer is highly recommended.
Attendance Policy:
Class attendance is required. I do understand students will be absent on occasion for a variety of reasons, and all I ask is that you contact me before (if possible) or as soon as possible after the class you missed. If you anticipate or encounter a problem with attendance, it is always useful to contact the professor promptly. I respect your privacy and will do what I can to try to reasonably accommodate your situation.
Make-up or Late Work: All assignments are due on the date specified in the course schedule. Any late submissions/assignments will be accepted only with the permission of the instructor, and they will be subject to late penalties at the discretion of the instructor. The instructor will be certain that all readings, written assignments, and course material will be posted well in advance of all deadlines.
Statement on Artificial Intelligence:
The use of artificial intelligence (AI) is not allowed in the course, and the instructor considers any such use a form of academic misconduct. Tools that use AI and large language models to generate text or images include, but are not limited to, ChatGPT, GPT4, Bing Chat, and “Write with AI” in Google Docs. Please do not use any AI tools in this course.