Tracks

Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

In what ways might government land fees, government-enforced assimilation through institutions such as schools, industrial development such as the logging industry, and religion such as Christianity serve as tools of genocide concerning Indigenous people?

Teaching Suggestion: It might help students to display a three-column chart and label the columns as follows: Indigenous Way of Life, US Government (entries should be taken from the question), and Effects on Indigenous Way of Life. Students can then suggest entries for the first and third columns. If needed, allow students to conduct brief research on Indigenous history ahead of the discussion.

• The History and Culture of the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa provides historical information for students who need to become more familiar with the Chippewa.
• “Turtle Mountain History” is addressed in this 4.5-minute news segment that features an interview with Turtle Mountain Chippewa elders about their tribe’s history.

Short Activity

Using a web diagram, write a title for a family story told and retold at family gatherings. Then, visit with or reach out to family members individually, asking them to tell you the story. In the radiating circles of your web diagram, record each family member’s first name and the story’s details that differ from those told in other versions. Consider the reasons behind these differences. Does each family member have an agenda or goal regarding how the story is remembered? Share your diagram and discuss your ideas in a small group setting.

Teaching Suggestion: Before conducting interviews, suggest that students write the family story from their perspective. Then, they can compare and contrast other versions with their own. In connected discussion, guide students to consider how multiple views of the same story lead to a shared understanding of truth.

• “Functions of Family Storytelling” is a scholarly article that explains how family stories create a “shared theory” regarding the meaning of a family’s existence.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students who benefit from auditory learning strategies may choose to create audio recordings of each family member’s storytelling.

Personal Connection Prompt

This prompt can be used for in-class discussion, exploratory free-writing, or reflection homework before reading the novel.

Discuss your last illness. What were the symptoms and the duration of the disease? Did you miss school or work? Did you visit a doctor? How did you get sick, and did you spread the illness? What treatments did you use? Were they effective?

Teaching Suggestion: It might be helpful to introduce the topic of communicable diseases like smallpox and tuberculosis in connection with this prompt and generate additional discussion or direct instruction on how the disease spreads and how it was eradicated. Students may discuss this disease’s effect on a population, particularly one without modern medical care.

• “What is Smallpox?” describes the history, transmission, symptoms, and treatment of the disease.
• “About Tuberculosis” describes the disease’s spread, symptoms, and prevention.