Tag Archives: questioning/inquiry

Sacagawea

“Sacagawea: (1786?-1812) Shoshone Indian woman who, carrying her infant son on her back, traveled thousands of wilderness miles with the Lewis and Clark expedition (1804-6). Though she had been separated from her people for nearly 10 years when the expedition began, Sacagawea was instrumental in obtaining horses and guides from a band of Shoshone (led by her brother, Cameahwait) at a point when the expedition may well have ended. Her fortitude in the face of hazards and deprivation became legendary.”

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

Penutian Languages

“Penutian languages: Hypothetical superfamily of North American Indian languages that unites a number of languages and language families mainly of the far western United States and Canada. The Penutian hypothesis was proposed by Roland B. Dixon and Alfred B. Kroeber in 1913 and refined by Edward Sapir in 1921. Like the Hokan hypothesis (see Hokan Languages), it attempted to reduce the number of unrelated language families in one of the world’s most linguistically diverse areas. At its core was a group of languages spoken along California’s central coast and in the Central Valley, including Ohlone (Costanoan), Miwok, Wintuan, Maidu, and Yokuts. Sapir added Oregon Penutian (spoken along the lower Columbia River), Plateau Penutian (languages of Plateau Indian peoples), Tsimshian (spoken in western British Columbia), and Mexican Penutian (spoken in southern Mexico). Aside from the Mexican group, all the languages today are either extinct or spoken exclusively by older adults. Though the hypothesis remains unproven, at least some languages of the group are probably related to each other.”

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

American Indian Languages

“American Indian Languages: Languages spoken by the original inhabitants of the Americas and the West Indies and by their modern descendants. They display an extraordinary structural range, and no attempt to unite them into a small number of genetic groupings has won general acceptance. Before Columbus, more than 300 distinct languages were spoken in North America north of Mexico by an estimated population of 2-7 million. Today there are fewer than 170 languages, of which a great majority are spoken fluently only by older adults. A few widespread language families (Algonquian, Iroquoian, Siouan, Muskogean, Athabaskan, Uto-Aztecan, Salishan) account for many of the languages of eastern and interior North America, though the far west was an area of extreme diversity (see Hokan, Penutian). In Mexico and north Central America (Mesoamerica), an estimated 15-20 million people spoke more than 300 languages before Columbus. The large Otomanguean and Mayan families and a single language, Nahuatl, shared Mesoamerica with many smaller families and language isolates. More than 10 of these languages and languages complexes still have over 100,000 speakers. South American and the West Indies had an estimated pre-Columbian population of 10-20 million, speaking more than 500 languages. Important language families include Chibchan in Columbia and south Central America, Quechuan and Aymaran in the Andean regions, and Arawakan, Cariban, and Tupian and north and central lowland South America. Aside from Quechuan and Aymaran, with about 10 million speakers, and the Tupian language Guarani, most remaining South American Indian languages have very few speakers, and some face extinction before linguists can adequately record them.”

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

The Weekly Text, 22 November 2024, National Native American Heritage Month Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Pine Ridge

This week’s Text, in observation of the fourth Friday of National Native American Heritage Month 2024, is this reading on Pine Ridge along with its vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet.

The Pine Ridge Reservation entered my consciousness in 1973, when activists from the American Indian Movement (AIM) began the Wounded Knee Occupation. AIM had earlier, for almost two years between 1969 and 1971, occupied the Alcatraz Federal Penitentiary. I was dimly aware of that, but by 1973 I’d become much more aware, having read by then for the first time Dee Brown’s Bury My Heart and Wounded Knee. In 1975, members of the Menominee Nation seized the Alexian Brothers Novitiate in Gresham, Wisconsin; I lived in Madison at the time, and my high school friends and I followed these events with keen interest.

This reading pulls no punches about the role of the United States government in creating neglect and failure in the way it proceeded with establishing Native American reservations. The massacre at Wounded Knee in 1890 took place at Pine Ridge. Enough said.

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.

Chief Joseph Surrenders

[Speech of surrender at tend of Nez Perce War, 5 Oct. 1877:] “I am tired of fighting…. I want to have time to look for my children and see how many of them I can find. Maybe I shall find them among the dead.

Chief Joseph, Quoted in Herbert J. Spinden, The Nez Perce Indians (1908)

Excerpted from: Schapiro, Fred, ed. The Yale Book of Quotations. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2006

Anasazi Culture

“Anasazi Culture: North American civilization that developed from c.AD 100 to historic times, centering on the area where the boundaries of Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah intersect. Anasazi (Navajo for “Ancient Ones”) is used to refer to the ancestors of contemporary Pueblo Indian peoples. Anasazi civilization is customarily divided into five periods: Basketmaker (AD 100-500), Modified Basketmaker (500-700), Developmental Pueblo (700-1050), Classic Pueblo (1050-1300), and Regressive Pueblo (1300-1550). As among present-day Pueblo peoples, religion was highly developed and centered on rites partly conducted in underground circular chambers called kivas. The best-known Anasazi ruins are the great cliff dwellings at Mesa Verde (Colorado) and Chaco Canyon (New Mexico).”

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

Cultural Literacy: Navajos

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on the Navajos, who, as you may know, call themselves the Dine, pronounced dee-nay. The Navajo nation is the largest federally recognized First Nation tribe in the United States; they inhabit the largest reservation here.

This is a full-page worksheet with a reading of five sentences with five comprehension questions. Beware the final sentence, which is a doozy of a compound separated by two (!) semicolons. Because of my commitment to presenting excerpted text with complete fidelity to the original, I have not edited this final sentence. If you look at each clause, you’ll see that separating this is relatively easy, as in something like this:

Original: Today, they are known for their houses, called hogans, made of logs and earth; for their work as ranchers and shepherds; and for their skill in weaving distinctive blankets and fashioning turquoise and silver jewelry.

Revision: Today, they are known for their houses, called hogans, made of logs and earth. The Navajo also work as ranchers and shepherds. Their skill in weaving distinctive blankets and fashioning turquoise and silver jewelry is also well known.

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.

Black Hawk

“Black Hawk: (1767-1838) Sauk Indian leader of a faction of Sauk and Fox whose defiance of government orders to vacate villages along the Rock River in Illinois resulted in the brief but tragic Black Hawk War of 1832. Long antagonistic to whites, Black Hawk, who had been driven into Iowa from his native Illinois in 1831, led his people back across the Mississippi the following year, only to face military opposition and eventual massacre, though he himself survived. The ruthlessness of the war so affected neighboring Indian groups that by 1837 most had fled to the far West, leaving most of the Northwest Territory to white settlers.”

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

Tepee

“tepee: Tall tent dwelling used by the Plains Indians. It was suited to a nomadic life of buffalo hunting, being easily folded and dragged by a horse. It was made by stretching dressed and fitted buffalo skins over a skeleton of 20-30 wooden poles, all slanted in toward a central point and tied together near the top. A flap at the top allowed smoke to escape, and a flap at the bottom served as a doorway. The tepee became a popular symbol of all Indians, although the wigwam, wickiup, hogan, igloo, and longhouse were at least as important.”

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

Totemism

“Totemism: Complex of ideas and practices based on the belief in kinship or mystical relationship between a group (or individual) and a natural object, such as an animal or a plant. The term derives from the Ojibwa word ototeman, signifying a blood relationship. A society exhibits totemism if it is divided into an apparently fixed number of clans, each of which has a specific relationship to an animate or inanimate species (totem). A totem many be a feared or respected hunted animal or an edible plant. Very commonly connected with origin myths and with instituted morality, the totem is almost always hedged about with taboos of avoidance or of strictly ritualized contact. Totem, taboo, and exogamy seem to be inextricably intertwined.”

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