LESSON PLAN 4: PAIRING A PRIMARY & SECONDARY SOURCE
TIMES PAST PAGES 18-21
Lexile level: 1280L
Wounded
Knee
The bloodshed on the banks of South
Dakota’s Wounded Knee Creek 125 years
ago was a painful episode in American
history. Times Past explores the tragedy—
and its lasting legacy for Native Americans.
Additional Resources
upfrontmagazine.com
Before Reading
1
List Vocabulary: Share with students
the challenging general and domain-specific
vocabulary for this article. Encourage them to use
context to infer meanings as they read and to later
verify those inferences by consulting a dictionary.
If desired, distribute or project the Word Watch
activity to guide students through this process.
2
Print or project:
• Word Watch (infer word meanings)
• Article Quiz (p. 10 of this Teacher’s Guide)
• Analyze the Cartoon (p. 13 of this Teacher’s
Guide)
• One Tragedy, Two Accounts (primary source,
also on p. 12 of this Teacher’s Guide)
assimilation
atrocities
cemented
immunity
massacre
melee
Engage: Explain that a historian describes
Wounded Knee as an “untreated sore” for
Native Americans. Discuss what that might mean.
Analyze the Article
3
Read and Discuss: Ask students to read the Upfront article about the massacre at Wounded Knee. Review
why the article is a secondary source. (It was written in contemporary times by someone who didn’t personally
experience or witness the events.) Then pose the following critical-thinking questions:
u In the article, Nicholas Black Elk is quoted as saying
6 •
way to sustain their traditional way of life, including
that a “beautiful dream” died in the mud at
having land to call their own. The events leading up to
Wounded Knee. What do you think he meant?
Wounded Knee, including the breaking of treaties, the
(Answers will vary but should be supported with text
forcible relocation of Native Americans to reservations,
evidence and sound reasoning. Sample response: For
and the taking of even more land from those
decades prior to the massacre at Wounded Knee, Native
reservations, put that dream in peril. The conflict at
Americans had held on to the idea that they might find a
Wounded Knee killed it for good.)
UPFRONT • UPFRONTMAGAZINE.COM
O CTO B E R 1 2, 20 1 5 • UP F R O N T M AGA Z INE .CO M • PAG E 1 O F 2
u What significance did the Ghost Dance have for Native
u What are some of the problems affecting many rural
Americans in the late 1800s? Why was it seen as a
Indian reservations today? Do you think building
threat by U.S. officials? (The Ghost Dance movement
more casinos is the answer? Explain. (Problems include
prophesied that Indian ancestors would return to Earth to
poverty, job scarcity, and a lack of access to quality
reclaim land, giving Native Americans hope. Officials
education. Students will have differing opinions on
feared that it was increasing Native American resistance.)
whether casino revenue can help address these issues.)
4
Integrate the Primary Sources: Project or distribute the
PDF One Tragedy, Two Accounts (p. 12 of this Teacher’s Guide), which
features excerpts from two primary sources about Wounded Knee. Discuss what
makes them primary sources. (Both were written around the time of the tragedy
by people who had some connection to it.) Have students read them and answer
these questions (which appear on the PDF without answers). Discuss.
u How do Black Elk and President Benjamin Harrison each
u If Black Elk had read or heard about President
view the causes of the Wounded Knee conflict? (Black
Harrison’s report on Wounded Knee, how do you think
Elk describes an immediate cause—a gun going off as U.S.
he might have responded? Explain. (Answers will vary.
cavalrymen try to wrest it from a Native American. Harrison
Black Elk might have tried to make Harrison more fully
blames what he calls the “warlike and turbulent” nature
understand the “complaints” of the Sioux to which Harrison
of the Sioux. Harrison says that the “hostiles” had to be
refers. He might have explained why the Sioux were
brought “into subjection” to protect settlers.)
agitated in 1890—a time when more and more of their
land was disappearing. He also might have argued that the
u What details does each account focus on? How might
you explain the differences in focus? (Black Elk focuses
need to respect treaties with Native Americans outweighed
America’s need for more land in the “public domain.”)
on the loss of life, probably because the tragedy has deeply
affected him. Harrison focuses on the reasons the Sioux
u Based on these primary sources and the Upfront
were seen as a threat and the white settlers’ need for land,
article, why do you think Wounded Knee is so
perhaps to justify what happened at Wounded Knee.)
entrenched in Native American consciousness?
(Students’ answers will vary but should be supported with
u How would you describe the tone of each account?
evidence from the text. Wounded Knee is remembered
(The tone of Black Elk’s narrative might be described as
by Native Americans as a time when their people were
poignant, somber, or grave. The tone of Harrison’s report
massacred and when government policies that devastated
might be described as authoritative or matter-of-fact.)
Native Americans were cemented into place.)
Extend & Assess
5
Writing Prompt
In historical hindsight, could the
6
Classroom Debate
Has the U.S. government done
8
Paired Texts
Try pairing this article with the
tragedy at Wounded Knee have been
enough to commemorate what
novel The Absolutely True Diary of a
averted? Why or why not? And if so,
happened at Wounded Knee?
Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie.
how? Write a brief essay, supporting
your response with evidence from the
article and/or primary source texts.
7
Discuss why issues like poverty plague
Quiz & Cartoon
reservations like the one where Junior
Use the quiz and cartoon on
lives.
pages 10 and 13 of this Teacher’s Guide.
E R20
1 21 5
, 2•0
1 5 F•R O
UN
PT
FM
RO
NTM
A G A.CO
ZIN
O M • 27 O F 2
O CTOOBCETRO 1B2,
UP
AGA
Z INE
ME
•. CPAGE