Native American Historical Inquiry
Essential Question: How can an examination of multiple sources and perspectives lead to a more enlightened understanding of history AND contemporary social, cultural and political realities?
Project Reflection
The point of this project was to learn how to examine multiple sources and perspectives to have a better understanding of history and learn how to apply it to modern day times. We did by learning about Native American history and the influence Europeans had in America. We first started off by reading chapter 1 and 7 of Howard Zinn’s book A People’s History of the United States in which we learned more about the gruesome methods Columbus used when discovering America along with the Trail of Tears and many different methods the Europeans/ Newly-Claimed-Americans used to take over America. After reading those two chapters we watched a documentary called Reel Injun which was about how Native Americans are represented in the movies and how that has affected how people see Native Americans. Next, we read a few short stories in The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist-Fight in Heaven by Sherman Alexie, the short stories were in a Native American’s point of view and talked about struggles and the life of Native Americans in a society overrun by white people. The next bit of reading we did was two essays written by Native American students at Dartmouth and their struggles with finding their identity. Our last activity we did was analyze three different sources about The Battle of Little Big Horn. We read a textbook version of what happened at the battle along with two primary sources, one was a report by leader in the army, and the other was an interview of a Sioux women. All three readings had different perspectives of what really happened at the battle and it was up to us to figure out what really happened based on what we read. Finally, we had a seminar to discuss the whole project and try to answer the essential question.
Throughout this project I have learned many things. One of the biggest lessons I learned is that there are multiple sides to every story and some storytellers are willing to omit facts to make the situation look better. To avoid fully believing a story that may be wrong it is important to read multiple sources from multiple perspectives. By doing this I was surprised to learn about all the horrid things the Europeans had done to the Native Americans when trying to conquer America. At the same time I was also relieved to learn the truth, to have this veil of ignorance taken off of my eyes so that I can finally see what has happened in the past.
The seminar was a way to wrap up this project and to give us a chance to fully understand what we had studied by discussing it with our peers who might have given a different insight. For the seminar we talked about all the readings that we had done for this project, and talked about different aspects that we deemed important. In one of the seminar groups a discussion came up about how America would be different if the Europeans had learned how to compromise and live in harmony with the Native Americans. Somebody brought up this point about how it’s in human nature to become better than the rest and a war of any kind would be inevitable simply because humans have the desire to prove that they are better and they can get whatever they want. I completely agree with this. There have been wars throughout the existence of mankind, the Romans conquering the Greeks, Hitler wanting to rule Germany and exterminate the Jewish, etc. and the thought that harmony and peace will actually last is just a dream that will not come true in the near future.
By examining multiple sources of a single event and for every event we can better determine what actually happened. Through learning the truths of the past we can better understand the present and why it is the way it is. We can understand that stories are told which may or may not be true and only by viewing multiple sources we can determine the truth and how it affects present society.
Throughout this project I have learned many things. One of the biggest lessons I learned is that there are multiple sides to every story and some storytellers are willing to omit facts to make the situation look better. To avoid fully believing a story that may be wrong it is important to read multiple sources from multiple perspectives. By doing this I was surprised to learn about all the horrid things the Europeans had done to the Native Americans when trying to conquer America. At the same time I was also relieved to learn the truth, to have this veil of ignorance taken off of my eyes so that I can finally see what has happened in the past.
The seminar was a way to wrap up this project and to give us a chance to fully understand what we had studied by discussing it with our peers who might have given a different insight. For the seminar we talked about all the readings that we had done for this project, and talked about different aspects that we deemed important. In one of the seminar groups a discussion came up about how America would be different if the Europeans had learned how to compromise and live in harmony with the Native Americans. Somebody brought up this point about how it’s in human nature to become better than the rest and a war of any kind would be inevitable simply because humans have the desire to prove that they are better and they can get whatever they want. I completely agree with this. There have been wars throughout the existence of mankind, the Romans conquering the Greeks, Hitler wanting to rule Germany and exterminate the Jewish, etc. and the thought that harmony and peace will actually last is just a dream that will not come true in the near future.
By examining multiple sources of a single event and for every event we can better determine what actually happened. Through learning the truths of the past we can better understand the present and why it is the way it is. We can understand that stories are told which may or may not be true and only by viewing multiple sources we can determine the truth and how it affects present society.