Tag Archives: readings/research

Apache

Posted on October 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Apache: American Indians of the southwest U.S. Culturally, the Apache are divided into Eastern Apache, which include the Mescalero, Jicarilla, Chiricahua, and Lipan, and Western Apache, which include the Cibecue. The Eastern Apaches were predominantly hunting and gathering societies, while their Western counterparts relied more on farming. Their ancestors had come down from the north to settle the Plains, but with the introduction of the horse they were pressed south and west by the Comanche and the Ute. They attempted to be friends with the Spanish, the Mexicans, and later the Americans. In 1861, however, there began a quarter-century confrontation between U.S. military forces and the Apache and Navajo. The Apache wars were among the fiercest fought on the frontier. The last ended in 1886 with the surrender of Geronimo. The Chiricahua Apache were evacuated from the West and held successively in Florida, Alabama, and Oklahoma. The Apache today total about 11,000 and live largely on or near reservations in Arizona and New Mexico.”

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

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The Weekly Text, 1 December 2023, National Native American Heritage Month Week IV: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Tupac Amaru

Posted on October 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

For the fourth and final Friday of National Native American Heritage Month 2023, here is a reading on Tupac Amaru II with its attendant vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. If you recognize this name, it is because, as you have probably already inferred, this eighteenth-century rebel against the Spanish colonial presence moved Afeni Shakur to name her son Tupac Amaru Shakur, who is of course the late, lamented, Hip-Hop star.

You’ll also find Tupac Amaru II in a namesake organization, the Tupamaros, a rebel group in Uruguay in the 1960s and 1970s. They were famous for urban guerilla actions in Montevideo like hijacking grocery delivery trucks, driving them into poor districts in that city, opening them, then walking away–which, editorially speaking, appears to meet or exceed the accepted standards for efficiency and effectiveness in such actions. The Tupamaros also, in one particularly famous incident, got their hands on Dan Mitrione, who was in Uruguay on behalf of the United States Central Intelligence Agency to teach torture techniques to various of the Uruguayan security services.

If you’re interested in learning more about the Tupamaros, the justly famous film by Costa-Gavras, State of Siege, tells the story of the kidnapping and murder of Dan Mitrione, often with actual documentary footage. Also, Netflix offers a documentary series on Jose Mujica,  who fought with the Tupamaros, and later became president of Uruguay, called El Pepe: A Supreme Life. President Mujica is known affectionately as “El Pepe,” apparently a Spanish nickname for Jose.

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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Quetzalcoatl

Posted on October 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Quetzalcoatl: Feathered serpent, a major deity of ancient Mexico. Quetzalcoatl began as a god of vegetation in the Teotihuacan civilization. For the Toltecs he was the god of the morning and evening star. The Aztecs revered him as the patron of priests, the inventor of the calendar and of books, and the protector of goldsmiths and other craftsmen. He was also identified with the planet Venus and was a symbol of death and resurrection. One myth held that he was a white priest-king who sailed away on a raft made of snakes. The belief that he would someday return from the east led Montezuma to regard Hernan Cortes as the fulfillment of the prophecy.”

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

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Aztecs

Posted on October 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Aztecs: Nahuatl-speaking people who in the 15th and early 16th centuries ruled a large empire in what is now central and southern Mexico. They may have originated on the northern Mexico plateau before migrating to their later location. Their migration may have been linked to the collapse of Toltec civilization. Their empire, which at its height comprised 5-6 million people spread over 80,000 square miles (200,000 square kilometers), was made possible by their successful agricultural methods, including intensive cultivation, irrigation, and reclamation of wetlands. The Aztec state was despotic, militaristic, and sharply stratified according to class and caste. Aztec religion was syncretic, drawing especially on the beliefs of the Maya. The Aztecs practiced human sacrifice; in a particularly gruesome episode, 20,000-80,000 prisoners were said to have been killed in four days. The empire came to an end when Hernan Cortes took the emperor Montezuma II prisoner and conquered the great city Tenochtitlan (present-day Mexico City). See also Nahua.”

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

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Cultural Literacy: Montezuma

Posted on October 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

Here is a Cultural Literacy worksheet on Montezuma. This is a half-page worksheet with a reading of two simple sentences and two comprehension questions. This document, I think, epitomizes the concept of the do-now exercise: you know, something to settle students at the beginning of  class session after a change of instructional periods? This is a spare introduction to Montezuma, more properly spelled Moctezuma, but a good place to start, I think, a discussion of the conquistadors in what we now call Latin America.

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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Quiche or K’che or Kche

Posted on October 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Quiche or K’che or Kche: Indian population of the Guatemalan highlands, largest of all ethnic groups speaking a Mayan language. The Quiche Mayas had an advanced civilization in pre-Columbian times. Records of their history and mythology are preserved in the Popol Vuh. Traditional Quiche are agricultural. Their homes are thatched huts, and they practice weaving and pottery. Nominally Roman Catholic, they conduct pagan rituals as well, Many were killed or displaced during the Guatemalan military’s counterinsurgency campaign of the early 1980s. At present they number between 700,000 and 800,000.”

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

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The Weekly Text, 24 November 2023, National Native American Heritage Month Week III: A Reading and Comprehension Worksheet on Spain in the New World

Posted on October 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

For the third Friday of National Native American Heritage Month 2023, this week’s Text is a reading on Spain in the New World along with its accompanying vocabulary-building and comprehension worksheet. I think the effect on indigenous peoples of the arrival of Spanish explorers, then the conquistadors that succeeded them, is obvious and in no need of belaboring here. Put another way, remember that the Aztecs, Mayas, and Incas were indigenous populations–and that the conquistadors’ legacy of abuse of indigenous populations persists: I offer you, as one egregious example, the late and loathsome Efrain Rios Montt.

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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Blessing Way

Posted on October 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Blessing Way: Central ritual in the complex system of ceremonies performed by the Navajo to restore equilibrium in the cosmos. Of the major categories of Navajo rituals, the largest group is the Chant Ways, which are concerned with curing. The Chant Ways include a subgroup of chants called the Holy Ways, which are further divided into the Blessing Way and the Wind Ways (used to cure illness). Lasting for two days, the Blessing Way is a simple chant performed for the well-being of the community rather than for a specified curative purpose.”

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

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Sauk or Sac

Posted on October 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Sauk or Sac: Algonquian-speaking North American Indian people closely related to the Fox and Kickapoo who traditionally inhabited the region of what is now Green Bay, Wisconsin. In summer, the Sauk lived in bark-house villages near fields where women raised corn and other crops. In winter the village separated into patrilineal family groups that erected pole-and-thatch houses. In spring the tribe gathered on the Iowa prairie to hunt bison. By c.1800 the Sauk had settled along the Mississippi River in central Illinois, but were forced to cede these lands to the U.S. In 1832 a group of Sauk and Fox led by Black Hawk made a tragically unsuccessful attempt to return to their Illinois lands. Today about 1,000 Sauk live in Oklahoma.”

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

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Mohegan

Posted on October 7, 2023 | Leave a comment

“Mohegan: Algonquian-speaking North American Indian people who inhabited the area of southeastern Connecticut. They later seized land in Massachusetts and Rhode Island from other tribes. Their economy was based on corn cultivation, hunting, and fishing. In the 17th century, the Mohegan and the Pequot tribes were ruled jointly by a Pequot chief, but a rebellion led to Mohegan independence and the destruction of the Pequot. Having made an alliance with the English, the Mohegan were the only important tribe remaining in New England after King Philip’s War (1675-76). Today there is a remnant (approximately 1,000) near Norwich, Connecticut.”

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

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