BAAITS 4th Annual Two-Spirit Powwow
Gender and Sexuality
Social Movements
Settler Colonialism
The Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS) organization aims to support Two-Spirit people and call attention to their presence in Indigenous communities, past and present. By organizing cultural and political events, BAAITS demonstrates the roles of Two-Spirit people who had been revered prior to colonization by white and European cultures. This flyer announced the fourth annual powwow, held in San Francisco on February 7, 2015, to honor the artistic and cultural expressions of Two-Spirit people.
Bay Area American Indian Two-Spirits (BAAITS), BAAITS 4th Annual Powwow, 2015, Poster Collection, GLBT Historical Society, https://www.glbthistory.org/poster-collection.
Contemporary US (1976 to the present)
How is History Recorded? The Lewis and Clark Journals and Lakota Winter Counts
Expansion and Imperialism
Settler Colonialism
In this activity, students read two primary documents from the early 1800s: a journal entry from the Lewis and Clark expedition and a Lakota Indian "winter count" calendar. Using an analysis worksheet, students identify key ideas and details from the documents, while also examining the craft and structure of each document. They draw upon both the content and form of the documents to make inferences about the respective cultures of Euro-Americans and Native Americans in the early 1800s.
American Social History Project/Center for Media & Learning
American Social History Project/Center for Media & Learning, 2013.
2013
2053
Revolution and New Nation (1751-1815)
American Horse's Winter Count
American Horse (1840-1908) was an Oglala Lakota chief who participated in the Sioux Wars of the 1870s. He was also a "keeper," responsible for maintaining his band's "winter count," which had been passed down from his grandfather, to his father, to him. By 1879, American Horse was living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in present day South Dakota. At the request of a U.S. army doctor stationed at the reservation, he copied a version of the winter count, covering the years 1775 to 1878, into a notebook. The doctor, William H. Corbusier, sent the notebook (along with notes he wrote and explanations from American Horse) to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The excerpt below shows American Horse's winter count for the years 1804-15.
American Horse
American Horse Winter Count, 1775-1878, 10-1/2'' x 7-1/2'' (27 x 19 cm); available at the Smithsonian Institution/National Anthropological Archives, <em>Lakota Winter Counts: An Online Exhibit</em>, <a href="http://wintercounts.si.edu/index.html">http://wintercounts.si.edu/index.html</a>.
1804 - 1815
2053, 2054, 2056
Revolution and New Nation (1751-1815)
Analysis Worksheet: How is History Recorded?
This worksheet helps students compare two historical documents, a journal entry from the Lewis and Clark expedition and excerpts from a Lakota Winter Count. The sections of the worksheet align to major sections of the Common Core reading standards: Key Ideas and Details; Craft and Structure; and Integration of Knowledge and Ideas.
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, 2013.
2013
2052, 2055, 2056
What were Winter Counts?
This background essay, adapted from a Smithsonian Institution online exhibit, provides information about the Winter Count calendars kept by many Lakota Indian bands.
Smithsonian Institution
Smithsonian Institution/National Anthropological Archives, "What were Winter Counts?," <em>Lakota Winter Counts Online Exhibit</em>, http://wintercounts.si.edu; additional information is available in <em>Lakota Winter Counts: The Teacher's Guide</em> (Washington, DC) which is available as a free PDF download under the Learning Resources section of the website.
2005
John Ordway Describes Meeting the Teton Sioux
Expansion and Imperialism
In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson hired Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the vast territory of the Louisiana Purchase, recently acquired from France. Lewis and Clark followed the path of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers through eleven present-day states to the Pacific Ocean. Both Lewis and Clark, along with several other members of the "Corps of Discovery," recorded their impressions of the expedition's often-perilous journey in detailed journal entries. These entries spanned from March 3, 1804 to September 26, 1806, and altogether totaled more than 140,000 words. The excerpt below, about their first encounter with the Teton Sioux (Lakota), is from U.S. army sergeant John Ordway. Spelling and punctuation have been modernized to improve clarity.
John Ordway
University of Nebraska, <em>The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition</em>, September 25, 1804, http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/read/?_xmlsrc=1804-09-25.xml&_xslsrc=LCstyles.xsl#noten07092509
1804
702, 2054, 2056
Revolution and New Nation (1751-1815)
Waiting for the Reduction of the Army
Labor Activism
A massive labor strike in 1877 shook the very foundations of American politics and society. Starting with a spontaneous railroad strike in West Virginia, the “Great Uprising” spread rapidly across the country. In many cities, entire working populations went out on strike. When state and federal troops fired on workers in several cities, the official violence galvanized workers across the country and those who sympathized with them. As this 1878 cartoon from the <em>New York Daily Graphic</em> indicates, in the aftermath of the strike, the press increasingly grouped together Indians, trade unionists, immigrants, and tramps as symbols of disorder and opposition to the nation’s progress.
Philip G. Cusachs
Philip G. Cusachs, "Waiting for the Reduction of the Army," <em>New York Daily
Graphic</em>, June 14, 1878.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1878
English
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)
"As it was in the old days"
Edward Curtis was a professional photographer of the American West. In 1906, the wealthy banker and art collector J.P. Morgan hired Curtis to produce a multi-volume series on Native Americans that would include essays, sound recordings, and 1500 photographs. The goal of the series was not simply to photograph Indians, but to document "one of the great races of mankind" before their way of life disappeared for good.
Edward S. Curtis
"As it was in the old days (The North American Indian; v. 19)," photograph, from Library of Congress, American Memory, http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.award/iencurt.cp19001
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1927 (Circa)
English
Modern America (1914-1929)
Chiricahua Apache Prisoners, Including Geronimo
The U.S. Army and the Apache tribe (who called themselves N’ne, meaning “the peopleâ€) engaged in armed conflict in the U.S. Southwest from 1851 through 1886. On September 4, 1886, the famed Apache leader Geronimo (or Goyahkla) surrendered to U.S. Army forces on September 4, 1886 at Skeleton Canyon, Arizona. This photo shows Geronimo and his followers, including women and children, being sent to a U.S. Army fort to be held as prisoners of war.
U.S. Department of Defense
"Chiricahua Apache Prisoners, Including Geronimo, 1886," photograph, from National Archives and Record Administration, Photographs and other Graphic Materials from the Department of Defense.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1886
English
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)
Background Essay on Iron Horses and American Indians
Expansion and Imperialism
Environment
Settler Colonialism
This essay discusses the impact of the transcontinental railroad on Native American life. It focuses on the role of buffalo hunters in the federal government's policy of Indian removal. This essay, and the related <a href="../../../items/show/1752">Iron Horse vs. the Buffalo activity</a>, can be used as a companion to the <em><a href="http://ashp.cuny.edu/ashp-documentaries/eighteen-seventy-seven/">1877: The Grand Army of Starvation, </a></em>documentary.
American Social History Project/Center for Media & Learning
American Social History Project/Center for Media & Learning, 2005.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
2005
ASHP
1752, 1540, 1541
English
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)