“Potboiler: A work written merely to gain a livelihood. The term is at least as old as the 18th c. A classic example of the potboiler that transcends its immediate end is Johnson’s philosophical ‘novel’ or didactic ‘romance’ (qq.v.) Rasselas (1759), which was written in the evenings of a week to defray the expenses of his mother’s funeral and to pay her debts. See KITSCH.
Excerpted from: Cuddon, J.A. The Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms and Literary Theory. New York: Penguin, 1998.
OK, for the penultimate post of National Native American Heritage Month 2025, here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Trail of Tears. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two sentences and two comprehension questions. In other words, a very basic introduction to this great tragedy in the history of the United States.
Incidentally, you might want take a look at the first of the two sentences in the reading: it is long, and might be best rewritten as two sentences. If you do so, you might want to add another question to align with your reading.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
For the final Text of National Native American Heritage Month 2025, here is a reading on British settlement in North America with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. While this text never explicitly mentions the indigenous peoples of North America or the devastation brought upon them by British colonists and their successors, I think that might be a useful point of entry for students.
One simple question: Who is missing here? Or, if you prefer, was anyone displaced or marginalized by the arrival in North American of European colonists? Or, you might follow this up with material on the Pequot War, which answers the two previous questions. Or, consistent with the current administration’s view of historical inquiry, you could say that the British arrived to a mostly empty continent (which, of course, is nonsense), and what few indigenous peoples inhabited this land were quick to abandon their complex and ancient culture to start driving Buicks.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“Creek: Muskogean-speaking North American Indian people that originally occupied much of the Georgia and Alabama flatlands. There were two major divisions: the Muskogee (or Upper Greeks), and the Hitchiti and Alabama (or Lower Creeks). They cultivated corn, beans, and squash. Each Creek town had a plaza or community square, often with a temple, around which were built the rectangular houses. Religious observances included the Busk (Green Corn) ceremony, an annual first-fruits and new-fire rite. In the 18th century, a Creek Confederacy–including the Natchez, Yuchi, Shawnee, and others–was organized to present a united front against both white and Indian enemies. It proved a failure, however, since at no time did all groups contribute warriors to a common battle. The Creek War against the U.S. (1813-1814) ended with the defeated Creeks ceding 23 million acres and being forcibly removed to Indian Territory (Oklahoma). Today, about 50,000 Creeks live in Oklahoma, many of them fully assimilated into white society.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Shawnees, a midwest tribe whose numbers included the now legendary Tecumseh. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two–longish, perhaps in need of editing down to something simpler–sentences with two comprehension questions.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on animism. This is a half-page worksheet with a two-sentence reading and two comprehension questions. The first of these two sentences, duty obliges me to mention, is quite long and might be best rewritten, especially for emergent and struggling readers.
While this ethic–I hesitate to call it a religion because of its manifest respect for the material, natural world, something Christians, for example, tend to dismiss as paganism–is global in scope, I post it here during National Native American Heritage Month 2025 because the indigenous peoples on this continent, virtually to a one, were animists in some manner or another.
Incidentally, I particularly like the turn of phrase “so-called primitive people” in this document.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“Joseph Brant: (1742-1807) Mohawk Indian chief and Christian missionary. Brant was converted to the Anglican Church while attending a school for Indians in Connecticut. He fought for the British in the French and Indian War (1754-63). He led four of the six Iroquois nations on the British side in the American Revolution, winning several notable battles. After the war Brant was granted land along the Grand River in Ontario, where he ruled peacefully and continued his missionary work.”
Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.
Until I read this reading on St. Augustine, Florida, I was unaware, as the text’s first sentence points out, that St. Augustine “…is the oldest continuously occupied settlement established by Europeans in the United States.” You probably already know, given the theme of this month’s posts, that indigenous peoples in Florida didn’t fare well after the arrival of the Spanish in that state. In fact, they suffered the same devastation as the Taino in the Caribbean.
If you’re interested in this, Raoul Peck, in his series Exterminate All the Brutes, documents all of this compellingly–to say the very least.
In any event, here is the vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet that attends the reading above. This reading ties in with the the material below: the British briefly gained control of Florida in 1763 after the French and Indian War. Then, during the American Revolution, Spain sided with the Americans and consequently regained possession of Florida. The state became territory of the United States in 1821 under the terms of the Adams-Onis Treaty.
If you find typos in these documents, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Pocahontas. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of three sentences and three comprehension question. Just the basics on this important, but misunderstood, figure in American history.
If you find typos in this document, I would appreciate a notification. And, as always, if you find this material useful in your practice, I would be grateful to hear what you think of it. I seek your peer review.
“Sitting Bull: (1834?-1890) Native American chief. Sitting Bull was the leader of the Sioux forces, along with Crazy Horse, during the Sioux War of 1876-1877 and was present at the battle of the Little Big Horn, during which a U.S. contingent under George A. Custer was wiped out. Forced to flee to Canada, he returned to the U.S. in 1881 and was settled on a reservation. He was killed by Indian police.”
Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.
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