Geographical Context and Prior Knowledge Inference Activity – Companion Document to American Imperialism and Indigenous Nations by Janie Hubbard

Janie Hubbard Link to article on American Imperialism and Indigenous Nations

Sitting Bull (c.1830-1890) was named war chief, leader of the entire Lakota nation, a title never before bestowed on anyone. As a leader, Sitting Bull resisted the United States government’s attempt to move the Lakota to reservations for 25 years (Nelson, 2015, pp. 48-52). Sitting Bull clung to his belief that the Lakota were a free people meant to live, hunt, and die on the Great Plains (Nelson, 2015, book cover).

Timeline to Explore:

Directions: Geographical Context

Work in groups (teacher decides number).

Study maps to gain context about where approximately 600 native nations lived before European contact. Gain further geographical context, regarding this lesson, by analyzing early maps that include native territory now known as Nebraska, Iowa, Minnesota, Wyoming, Montana, and Idaho.

Prior Knowledge Inference Activity

With your group, read and discuss the list of 36 events above. Use the graphic organizer to decide how events may be placed into categories. Write your inferences/hypotheses/guesses (from reading the words) in the list. Note that all events, on this timeline, have something to do with land. You are not required to research at this time, though you may research a bit if you wish.
Expand the graphic organizer as needed.

Appendix 2: Perspectives and Complexity

It is not enough to simply say the colonists, settlers, and the U.S. government were bad, and the native peoples on the continent were good or vice versa. It is not easy to consider solutions to historical problems. However, gathering evidence to support your ideas is a way to look at different perspectives with a critical eye.

Directions:

The teacher will place three large pieces of paper on walls around the room. Each paper will have one of these questions from Harvard University’s Project Zero (2017). The strategy is entitled Stories: Uncovering Accounts of Complex Issues: (1) what is the story that is presented? (2) What is left out of the account? (3) What is your story?

Take time to allow groups to read and view the resources provided on this appendix.
Some sources are from indigenous perspectives, and others are from settlers’ perspectives. Note that the 1952 docudrama about pioneers, is wrought with explicit biases.

Student groups discuss their ideas – considering members’ different perspectives.

After discussing the issues, events, people, society, cultures, and historical narratives, groups either write directly on the large papers or use sticky notes to respond to the questions with various ideas. It is not necessary for groups to agree, after their discussions. Individuals should be free to offer their own answers to the questions.

A thorough and civil class discussion regarding answers to these questions should follow, so students may share perspectives and ideas, perhaps, unnoticed by others.

Stories:
Uncovering Accounts of Complex Issues
Consider how accounts of issues, events, people, society, culture, and historical narratives are presented.
What has been left out, and how you might want to present the account.
What is the story that is presented?
[What is the account that is told?]
What is the untold story?
[What is left out in the account? What other angles are missing in the account?]
What is your story?
[What is the account that you think should be the one told?]
Provide evidence for your ideas.

Appendix 3: Selected Resources for Students’ Research Quotes were taken directly from this article: Library of Congress (n.d.). America at the turn of the century: A look at the historical context, The National Setting Collection: The Life of a City: Early Films of New York, 1898 to 1906. Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/collections/early-films-of-new-york1898-to-1906/articles-and-essays/america-at-the-turn-of-the-century-a-look-at-the-historical-context/

By 1900 the American nation had established itself as a world power.

2. The West was won.
3. The frontier — the great fact of 300 years of American history — was no more.
4. The continent was settled from coast to coast.
5. Apache war chief Geronimo had surrendered in 1886.
6. Defeat of the Lakota at the battle of Wounded Knee in 1891 had brought the Indian Wars to a close.
7. By 1900 the Indians were on reservations and the buffalo were gone.
8. Homesteading and the introduction of barbed wire in 1874 had brought an end to the open range.
9. The McCormick reaper had made large-scale farming profitable.
10. The first transcontinental rail link had been completed in 1869.
11. In 1900, the nation had 193,000 miles of track, with five railroad systems spanning the continent.
12. John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Trust dominated the world’s petroleum markets.
13. In the 1880s Andrew Carnegie had constructed the world’s largest steel mill.
14. Henry Ford had built his first gasoline engine car in 1892 and the world’s first auto race was held in Chicago in 1896.
15. By 1900, telephones were in wide use.
16. Cities were using electricity.
17. Guglielmo Marconi was conducting experiments that would lead to the development of the radio.

Quotes were taken directly from this article: Carter, K. (1997, Spring). The Dawes Commission and the Enrollment of the Creeks. Prologue, 29(1). U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Retrieved from https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1997/spring/dawes-commission-1.html/

1. What can you do when you “discover” a continent, but there are already people living there?
2. Europeans arriving in North America tried a number of approaches to solve what was often referred to as “the Indian Problem.”
3. This was dependent on the relative military power of the natives and non-natives.
4. By the late 1870s most nations had been pushed onto reservations in areas that were generally undesirable and out of the path of settlement.
5. Many friends of Native Americans became convinced that efforts to isolate and then civilize them were not working.
6. They believed that assimilating them into the general population would be a better policy.

Quotes were taken directly from this article: Carter, K. (1997, Spring). The Dawes Commission and the Enrollment of the Creeks. Prologue, 29(1). U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA). Retrieved from https://www.archives.gov/publications/prologue/1997/spring/dawes-commission-1.html/

1. What can you do when you “discover” a continent, but there are already people living there?
2. Europeans arriving in North America tried a number of approaches to solve what was often
   referred to as “the Indian Problem.”
3. This was dependent on the relative military power of the natives and non-natives.
4. By the late 1870s most nations had been pushed onto reservations in areas that were generally
   undesirable and out of the path of settlement.
5. Many friends of Native Americans became convinced that efforts to isolate and then civilize
   them were not working.
6. They believed that assimilating them into the general population would be a better policy.

Additional Research Sources
American Experience (2020). The Trail of Tears (Video file). PBS WGBH Educational Foundation. Retrieved from https://aptv.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/akh10.socst.ush.exp.trail/trail-of-tears/

Description: Reenactment. Cherokee, assimilation, President Andrew Jackson, Indian Removal Act of 1830.

American Experience (2020). The Transcontinental Railroad: Interview: Native Americans. Retrieved from http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/tcrr-interview/

Description: This interview is about the West before white settlement, the impact of the railroad on Native American life, and the near-extinction of the American buffalo (para.1).

The Best Film Archives (2016, September 16). How did pioneers conquer the American frontier in the late 1700s (1952 Docudrama). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ahqnr8kJrHQ

Description: This is a 1952 black and white film with explicit biases. The background music, costumes, and narration illustrate pioneers as heroes and natives as hostile savages. The film is a relevant teaching tool, though the length is about 20 minutes. Teachers and/or students may wish to show/view the video in shorter increments.

Questions for students to ponder:
a. How are the natives portrayed in this film?
b. How are the pioneers portrayed?
c. Who are named “people” in this film? How do you interpret this?
d. How are the following words and phrases used in the context of this story?
Silent enemy, savage Indians, unfortunate victims, relentless enemies, land for families and freedom, oppression and discrimination, heritage, hostile, exacting a terrible toll, courage, stamina, strength, determined, muscles, power, will, heartbreak, and ever westward.

PBS WGBH Educational Foundation. (2020, February 26). Westward Expansion, 1790–1850. (Interactive Map), Retrieved from https://aptv.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/rttt12.soc.ush.westexp/westwardexpansion-17901850/

Description: The interactive map covers the following themes via a decade-by-decade “snapshot”:
o Territorial Expansion—States and territories, territorial claims, and disputed land
o Population Growth—Most populous cities
o Exploration and Migration—Trail routes
o Transportation and Trade—Canals, roads, and railroads
o Native Americans—Land cessions, expropriations, and tribal relocation (para. 3).

Schoenheide, Z. (2010, November 23). Far and Away land rush scene (Video file). Retrieved from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yxaJY8UZxn4

Description: 1992 film. Producer, Ron Howard. A young man leaves Ireland with his landlord’s daughter dream of owning land at the big give-away in Oklahoma ca. 1893. See archived photos of the event referenced below.

“Holding Down A Lot In Guthrie.” By C. P. Rich, ca. 1889 (Photograph).Retrieved from
https://www.archives.gov/files/research/american-west/images/136.jpg
American Archives and Records Administration (2019, October 16). American West photos. Retrieved from https://www.archives.gov/research/american-west#scramble

Appendix 4: Comparing Reality and Stereotypes

1. History Matters. (n.d.). “The White Man’s Burden”: Kipling’s hymn to U.S. imperialism. Retrieved from http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5478/

2. National Archives. (n.d.). Document analysis worksheets. Retrieved from
https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/worksheets [See Links: Select the Document Analysis Worksheet]

3. Burke Museum (n.d.). Tips for teaching about Native peoples. University of Washington. Retrieved from https://www.burkemuseum.org/education/learning-resources/tips-teaching-aboutnative-peoples

4. Ferris University Jim Crowe Museum. (n.d.). Stereotyping Native Americans. Retrieved from https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/native/homepage.htm

Directions:

1. Work in groups of 3-4.
2. Select the first reference, History Matters, and read it thoroughly. This resource briefly describes the Rudyard Kipling poem, “White Man’s Burden.” The actual poem is also included with this text.
3. Select the second reference, National Archives. Use the document analysis worksheet, and analyze only the poem. Consider group members’ perspectives and complete the document analysis worksheet together.
4. Select the third reference, Burke Museum from the University of Washington (State). Within your group, read and discuss the article, Tips for Teaching about Native Peoples.
5. Select the fourth reference, Ferris University Jim Crowe Museum. Within your group, read and discuss the article, Stereotyping Native Americans.
6. After discussing the article, complete the Comparison Chart below. You may enlarge the images, type or write inside the third column, or use extra paper for your responses.

Image Credits:

E Artist W. H. Childs’ portrayal of the public execution of 38 Dakota Indians at Mankato in 1862. They were Digital ID: (digital file from original print) pga 03790 http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.pnp/pga.03790 Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-pga-03790 (digital file from original print)
Repository: Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division Washington, D.C. 20540 USA.

Summary: Print shows the residents of Mankato, Minnesota, gathered to watch the execution of thirty-eight Dakota Indians, who stand on a scaffold with nooses around their necks, separated from the community by rows of soldiers. Local newspaper publisher John C. Wise commissioned this print to commemorate the twentieth anniversary of the event. After the American victory against the Dakota at the
Battle of Wood Lake during the Dakota War of 1862, over three hundred Indians were sentenced for execution, but President Lincoln, after reviewing their cases, commuted the majority of the sentences However, Lincoln ordered the mass hanging of 38 natives, which was the greatest mass hanging in history.

Low, A. P. (Photographer). (1896). Inuit family at Fort Chimo, Quebec. Canadian Museum of History, CC BY-SA 4.0,https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=82004225

Mills, K. (Composer). (1907). Red Wing [Sheet music]. New York. F.A. Mills.
North Dakota Studies — State Historical Society of North Dakota (n.d.). Lesson 2: Making a living. Topic 3: bison hunting (Buffalo chart image). Retrieved from https://www.ndstudies.gov/gr8/content/unitii-time-transformation-1201-1860/lesson-2-making-living/topic-3-bison-hunting/section-1-introduction

Proctor and Gamble (1888, January 1). Ivory Soap advertisement. Retrieved from
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:1888_Ivory_Soap_Advertisement.jpg

Summary: Advertisement for Ivory soap in 1888, displaying a couple of native Americans and these verses. “We once were factious, fierce, and wild. To peaceful arts unreconciled; Our blankets smeared with grease and stains From buffalo meat and settlers’ veins. From moon to moon unwashed we went; But Ivory Soap came like a ray Of light across our darkened way. And now we’re civil, kind, and good, And keep the laws as people should. We wear our linen, lawn, and lace As well as folks with paler face. And now I take, where’er we go, This cake of Ivory Soap to show What civilized my squaw and me, And made us clean and fair to see.”

Unknown (Photographer). (Circa 1892). Bison skull pile [digital image]. Retrieved from Burton Historical Collection, Detroit Public Library. Derivative works of this file: Bison skull pile edit.jpg

Summary: 1892: bison skulls await industrial processing at Michigan Carbon Works in Rogueville (a suburb of Detroit). Bones were processed to be used for glue, fertilizer, dye/tint/ink, or were burned to create “bone char” which was an important component for sugar refining.

Unknown author (1868, January 1). Lakota American Indian leaders, Fort Laramie (photograph) www.truewestmagazine.com . Courtesy Edward Clown Family. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=74523219

Summary: Left to right: Spotted Tail, Dull Knife (Roaming Noise), Old Man Afraid Of His Horse, Lone Horn, Whistle Elk, Pipe On Head and Slow Bull. – They signed the Treaty of Fort Laramie (or Sioux Treaty of 1868) on their part. Source: truewestmagazine.com

Additional Images

Author (2007). Canada’s first people. Retrieved from https://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_groups/fp_inuit6.html

 February, N., Jilchristina, P., & Burchfield, G. (2019, January 16). Bison skulls to be used for fertilizer. 1870. Retrieved from https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/bison-skulls-pile-used-fertilizer-1870/

 Garrison, W. (n.d.). Lincoln ordered the greatest mass hanging in American history. (Archived newspaper article). Retrieved from
https://i.pinimg.com/originals/22/b1/13/22b113669cbd49065e6f53bc4a27b3ca.jpg/

 Ghandi, L. (2013, September 9). Are you ready for some controversy? The history of ‘Redskin’ code switch. National Public Radio (NPR). Retrieved from
https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2013/09/09/220654611/are-you-ready-for-somecontroversy-the-history-of-redskin/

 Image Credit: AP Creator: Anonymous

 The cover of the St. Louis Globe-Democrat Sunday supplement from January 1908 shows William

“Lone Star” Dietz, who in 1916 coached Washington State University to a Rose Bowl victory, in full Indian dress. Some credit Dietz with inspiring the name of the Redskins.

 Grabill, J. H. (1891). A pretty group at an Indian tent. [Photograph]. The Library of Congress. Retrieved from https://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/99613803/

 Hersher, B. (2016, April 24). Why you probably shouldn’t say ‘Eskimo’. National Public Radio (NPR). Retrieved from
https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2016/04/24/475129558/why-you-probablyshouldnt-say-eskimo/

 Hirschfelder, A. & Molin, P.F. (2018, February 22). I is for ignoble: Stereotyping Native Americans. (Photograph) Ferris State University Jim Crowe Museum. Retrieved from https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/native/homepage.htm

 Ivory Soap Collection, 1883-1998, undated; Archives Center, National Museum of American History. Gift of Procter & Gamble. Retrieved from
https://sova.si.edu/record/NMAH.AC.0791#using-the-collection