Tag Archives: first nation/indigenous peoples’ history

Cultural Literacy: Dawes Act of 1887

Posted on November 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Dawes Act of 1887, a piece of well-intentioned–at least from some points of view, though not mine–legislation designed, really, to destroy once and for all the communitarian. tribal, lifestyle of indigenous peoples in the rapidly expanding (at the time of the Act’s passage) United States.

This is full-page worksheet with a reading of four sentences and three comprehension questions. So, it’s just the basics. But, like almost everything else on Mark’s Text Terminal, this is a Microsoft Word document you can tailor to your needs. The Dawes Act opens a lot of discursive doors into discussion rooms on imperialism, militant individualism and anti-collectivism, the theoretical and practical limitations of libertarianism, and simple–and simple-minded racism.

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.

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Arapaho

Posted on November 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

“Arapaho: Plains Indian people of Algonquian language stock who lived along the Platte and Arkansas rivers in the 19th century. Like other Plains groups, the Arapaho were nomadic, living in teepees and depending on the buffalo for subsistence. They were highly religious and practiced the sun dance. Their social organization included age-graded military societies as well as men’s shamanistic societies. They traded with the Mandan and Arikara and were often at war with the Shoshone, Ute, and Pawnee. A southern branch was long allied with the Cheyenne and fought with them against Colonel G.A. Custer at Little Bighorn in 1876. Today about 2,000 Arapaho live in Wyoming and another 3,000 Arapaho/Cheyenne in Oklahoma.”

Excerpted from: Stevens, Mark A., Ed. Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Encyclopedia. Springfield, Massachusetts: Merriam-Webster, 2000.

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The Weekly Text, 4 November 2022, National Native American Heritage Month Week I: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on American Imperialism

Posted on November 4, 2022 | Leave a comment

This week’s Text, in observance of National Native American Heritage Month, is a reading on American imperialism with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. This seems like a pretty good place to begin considering the genocide of the indigenous peoples of the Americas.

This is the first year Mark’s Text Terminal has observed, with posts, National Native American Heritage Month. I can plead extenuation only through ignorance; I really hadn’t been aware that the month existed. For me, that is especially shocking, because Native American History was a surpassing interest of mine in high school. Indeed, my entire crowd took an interest in those days, the mid-to-late 1970s. We kept up with Akwesasne Notes (available in those days at numerous outlets in my hometown of Madison, Wisconsin), owned copies of Seven Arrows by Hyemeyohsts Storm, and kept up with the American Indian Movement’s affairs. We cheered the Wounded Knee occupation retrospectively, since we weren’t a crowd back in those days. Similarly, we supported the Menominee Warrior Society in its seizure of the Alexian Brothers Novitiate in Gresham, Wisconsin, with attendance at their trials (I seem to remember one at held at Juneau, Wisconsin, for some reason).

Personally, I carried a Free Leonard Peltier petition around in my book bag for several months, gathering just over 3,000 signatures before sending it, to no avail, to President Jimmy Carter. I read Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee by Dee Brown twice by my fifteenth birthday–which then and now exercised an enormous effect on my consciousness. So, I have no excuse neither for my ignorance of this holiday, nor the paucity of materials I currently possess related to it.

Henceforth, I seek to remedy this oversight.

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.

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Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee

Posted on July 21, 2021 | Leave a comment

“Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee: A historical study (1971) by Dee Brown (1908-2002) of the conquest of the American West and the destruction of the Native American tribes. The title comes from the last verse of a poem ‘American Names’ (1927), by Stephen Vincent Benet (1898-1943):

‘I shall not rest quiet in Montparnasse.

I shall not lie easy in Winchelsea.

You may bury my body in Sussex grass.

You may bury my tongue at Champmedy.

I shall not be there. I shall rise and pass.

Bury my heart at Wounded Knee.’

Wounded Knee, in South Dakota, was the site of a massacre of Teton-Sioux by US forces on 29 December 1890, in which at least 150 Native Americans and 25 US soldiers were killed. It marked the final suppression of Native American resistance. In the Wounded Knee protest of 1973, two years after the publication of Brown’s book, some 200 armed members of the American Indian Movement occupied the symbolic site. The occupation ended after a 70-day siege, but helped to focus international attention on the US government’s treatment of Native Americans.”

Excerpted from: Crofton, Ian, ed. Brewer’s Curious Titles. London: Cassell, 2002.

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Native Americans

Posted on June 29, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on Native Americans and its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

This reading is only four paragraphs. It uses the story of the Nez Perce Tribe, and especially Chief Joseph’s legendary speech–“Hear me, my chiefs!” I am tired. My heart is sick. From where the sun now stands, I will fight no more forever”–to tell the story of the destruction of the indigenous civilizations that inhabited North America prior to the arrival of the first European immigrants from England.

Given the disturbing, but unsurprising, discovery of mass graves at Canadian Indian Residential Schools, now is a very good time to take a look at what (if you happen to be of European descent, as I am) our forefathers wrought. It is not a pretty picture. But neither is ignoring these crimes. In any case, I think we are just seeing the first of the remains of this genocide.

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.

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Cultural Literacy: Burundi

Posted on February 22, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Central African nation of Burundi. This is another African nation that fell victim to the depredations of colonialism, in its case Germany and then Belgium. Like its neighbor, Rwanda, Burundi’s principal ethnic groups are the Hutus and the Tutsis; also, as in Rwanda, the Tutsis have attacked the Hutus and perpetrated a genocide–known as the Ikiza–against them. And, in 1993, one year before the genocide in Rwanda, there was civil conflict following an attempted coup in Burundi that resulted in the deaths of 25,000 Tutsis.

In other words, this worksheet, which is a full page and as such useful for independent practice, opens the door to an exploration of European colonialism and its legacy in colonized nations.

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.

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French and Indian War

Posted on January 4, 2021 | Leave a comment

Here is a reading on the reading on the French and Indian War (known contemporaneously in Europe as the Seven Years’ War) along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. The war raged in North America between Britain and France, who had as her allies Native American tribes. This is a turning point in Great Britain’s hegemony in its North American colonies: while Britain won the conflict, it was at enormous cost. In his attempts to extract payment–by way of unpopular legislation like the Stamp Act— from the American Colonies, King George III so antagonized colonists that he provoked a revolution.

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.

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Multiculturalism

Posted on November 2, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Multiculturalism: This movement focuses primarily on changing traditional canons throughout the humanities. With the expansion of canonical traditions and exposure of students at all levels to artists, writers, and historical movements previously marginalized in general bodies of knowledge, the next generation is expected to have a better grasp of an increasingly diverse society in a world in flux. In the realm of art in the United States, this has resulted in a greater emphasis on and interest in non-Western art and on works produced in communities without previous access to museum and gallery exposure (e.g. African-Americans, Hispanic-Americans, Asian-Americans, women, gays, and lesbians).”

Excerpted from: Diamond, David G. The Bulfinch Pocket Dictionary of Art Terms. Boston: Little Brown, 1992.

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Arawak

Posted on September 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Arawak: At the time of Columbus, Arawak speakers inhabited the Greater Antilles and parts of mainland South America. Since languages of the Arawakan family are not found in North or Mesoamerica, it is likely that these people reached the islands from the south. In support of this view, pottery of the Saladoid type is found in a great arc from western Venezuela to the West Indies, and in the northern islands there seems to be a ceramic continuity from Saladoid ware to insular Arawak. Spanish sources describe the island Arawaks as settled farmers with an elaborate religion based on a Zemi cult.”

Excerpted from: Bray, Warwick, and David Trump. The Penguin Dictionary of Archaeology. New York: Penguin, 1984.

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Descent to the Underworld

Posted on August 15, 2020 | Leave a comment

“Descent to the Underworld: The motif of numerous stories in the mythology and folklore of all peoples. The descent is usually made to rescue someone either abducted or rightfully dead, to find the answer to a question of discover a secret from the ruler of the underworld, or to seize some treasure. To partake of the food of the dead (or of fairyland in later folklore) prevents the visitor from ever returning. Among the most famous descent stories are the Greek myths of Orpheus and Eurydice, Demeter and Persephone, and Heracles bringing of Cerberus up from Hades and his rescue of Alcestis. Also well known are the Babylonian story of Ishtar’s descent to rescue Tammuz and the Norse myth of Hermod’s journey to Hel to bring back Balder. There are similar tales in Hindu, Chinese, and Japanese writings, and among the Ainu, Melanesians, North American Indians, and Eskimos. Descents to Hell are common also in early Christian literature.”

Excerpted from: Murphy, Bruce, ed. Benet’s Reader’s Encyclopedia, Fourth Edition. New York: Harper Collins, 1996.

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