Analyzing Native and European-American Perspectives on the Lewis and Clark Expedition

  • By Vikas Behl (Brightwood EC, Washington, D.C.)
  • Subject: Social Studies/English Language Arts
  • Grade Level: 5th Grade/Middle School
  • Length of Unit: Five class periods
  • Download the Curriculum: Day One, Day Two, Day Three, Day Four, and Day Five.

SUMMARY: The five 100-minute lessons presented here are to be folded into a unit on westward expansion, a unit which typically lasts four to six weeks. In the existing presentation of westward expansion, students learn about European-American movement west, and explore its impact on different groups—including the settlers themselves, and the communities they encountered. In this series of five lessons, the key line of inquiry for the week will be that of “perspective,” with the emphasis placed on the ways in which Native perspectives of the Lewis and Clark expedition and its legacy stand in variance with “official” histories—namely, those histories that articulate the perspectives held by key individuals acting on behalf of the expedition’s sponsor, the United States government.

 

DAY ONE

OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to explain the primary motivations for European-American interest in the West, situate it within European competition for power in North America, and be able to articulate a central perspective of the United States government towards western exploration in the late 1700’s.

FRIENDLIER OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to explain European-American interest in the West and be able to articulate a central perspective of the United States government towards Western exploration in the late 1700’s.

WARMUP: 7 minutes: Vocabulary: “Perspective”:

In the first seven minutes of the lesson, the teacher will introduce students to the word “perspective,” defined here as “a way of thinking about and understanding something (such as a particular issue or life in general).” In short, it may be presented to students as, simply, “point of view.” Emphasis should be put here in explaining to students how perspectives of the same event can vary, depending on the person and the angle from which an event is viewed. It should be impressed upon students that different people—with different motivations—can have perspectives that do not always align with one another.

This presentation can be facilitated by using one of many short, fun exercises on perspective that allow students to explore what it means to be or to put oneself in another’s shoes. One option may be to share the following cartoon by Robert Mankoff of The New Yorker to get students thinking about perspective, and the ways in which one’s position and experience can inform point of view; and just as that is true for individuals, it can similarly be true of nations, in the way they perceive themselves in relation to each other and the world.

INTRODUCTION: 15 minutes: Backgrounder on the Lewis & Clark expedition

I .The teacher will present students with a brief history of the origins of the Lewis and Clark expedition. A short video such as BrainPOP’s 4:55-minute long primer on Lewis and Clark—slightly imperfect but distinctly better than other short videos on the subject—may be helpful in introducing students to the principal characters (Jefferson, Lewis and Clark) who will define the European-American perspective of the expedition.

After the video, the teacher should ask several questions of students to establish basic facts and understanding of the expedition. Most importantly, the teacher should ask students, what can you infer about the men that formed the Corps of Discovery? (Sample answer: That they were soldiers embarking on a military expedition as members of the United States Army on behalf of its government.)

II. In addition to the video, the necessary background knowledge will be further illuminated to students with the presentation of several maps: one displaying the changing nature of European competition for power in North America; another of the United States before 1803; and finally two more illustrating the enlargement of the United States following the acquisition of the Louisiana Territory in 1803. Portraits of Jefferson, Lewis and Clark will be shown as well. (Note: See accompanying slide deck labeled “Day One PPT: Supplemental Material.”)

III. At this point, the teacher will present the following quote from James P. Ronda’s Introduction to the Bicentennial Edition of “Lewis & Clark among the Indians”:

“The idea for the Lewis and Clark expedition was born in the summer of 1802 when he [Jefferson] read Alexander Mackenzie’s Voyages from Montreal and realized that John Bull [England] might claim the West before Uncle Sam [the United States] made it over the mountains.”

The teacher should ask clarifying questions of students to establish understanding of Jefferson’s primary motivation in sending Lewis & Clark on their mission. Why was Jefferson interested in sending an army expedition on an exploration of the West? What was his primary concern? A think-pair-share would be appropriate at this moment to allow students to generate responses of their own to the quote from Ronda.

CLOSE READING: 20 minutes: United States interest in the West before Lewis & Clark

The teacher will follow up the discussion of the quote from Ronda with a close reading of an excerpt from a letter Jefferson wrote to French botanist Andrew Michaud nearly ten years earlier, on January 23, 1793, in which Jefferson provided Michaud instructions for a planned, but then aborted, expedition under the sponsorship of the American Philosophical Society, of which Jefferson was a member. (An interesting fact for students: A teenaged Meriwether Lewis applied for a position on this expedition, but was apparently turned down because of his age.) Together, the teacher will take students through a reading of the letter, the intention being to ascertain the purposes of this earlier expedition, and to later reflect on how it pertains to the purposes of the Lewis and Clark expedition a decade later.

(Sample Guiding Questions: What are the central objectives Jefferson has outlined for the expedition? Why are those objectives important? What is the significance of the information Jefferson is asking Michaud to bring back? Why was there a possibility of being stopped? Why did that matter? )

The teacher will provide the following text analysis questionnaire to students, and will model for students how a critical reading of the text can be used to generate high-quality responses to the prompts:

TEXT ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE

    • 1. Who wrote the text?
    • 2. Who is the author’s intended audience?
    • 3. a. What is the main idea/central argument of the text?
      • In your own words, explain what the author is trying to say. (Questions to ask the text: What is the author’s point? What does he/she want the audience to know?)
    • 3. b. How do you know?
      • Highlight two quotes from the text that support your understanding of the main idea.
    • 4. a. Why do you think the document was written?
      • In your own words, explain the author’s purpose. (Questions to ask the text: Why is the author writing this? Why does he/she think that the audience needs to know this?)
    • 4. b. How do you know?
      • Highlight at least one quote from the text to back your claim.

 

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Andrew Michaud (January 23, 1793)

“Sundry persons having subscribed certain sums of money for your encouragement to explore the country a[long] the Missouri, & thence Westwardly to the Pacific ocean…

They observe to you that the chief objects of your journey are to find the shortest & most convenient route of communication between the US. & the Pacific ocean…& to learn such particulars as can be obtained of the country through which it passes, it’s [sic] productions, inhabitants & other interesting circumstances.

From thence you will cross the Missisipi [sic] and pass by land to the nearest part of the Missouri above the Spanish settlements, that you may avoid the risk of being stopped.

You will then pursue as much of the largest streams of that river, as shall lead by the shortest way, and the lowest latitude to the Pacific ocean. When, pursuing these streams, you shall find yourself at the point from thence whence you may get by the shortest & most convenient route to some principal river of the Pacific ocean, you are to proceed to such river, & pursue it’s [sic] Course to the ocean.

You will, in the course of your journey, take notice of the country you pass through, it’s general face, soil, rivers, mountains, it’s [sic] productions animal, vegetable, & mineral so far as they be may be new to us & may also be useful or very curious; the latitudes of places or materials for calculating by such simple methods as your situation may admit you to practice. the names, numbers, & dwellings of the inhabitants, and such particularities as you can learn of their history, connection with each other, languages, manners, state of society & of the arts & commerce among them.”

GROUP ACTIVITY: 58 minutes: United States interest in the West before Lewis & Clark

In this section, students will tackle four extracts of text from the late 1700s. Texts #1 through #3 are from an American perspective—namely, Jefferson’s; text #4 is the exception, being from a different (British) perspective that serves to confirm the fears of European encroachment that Jefferson outlines in the other three texts. The purpose of the activity is to underscore to students the economic incentives of Western exploration for the fledgling United States. It is also intended to communicate to students the urgency that Jefferson, in particular, assigned to exploration of the West, which will set the stage for his commission of Lewis and Clark to their expedition in 1803.

Copies of all four texts will be distributed to students, as well as four copies of the text analysis questionnaire. Students will be divided into heterogeneous groups of four, and students in each group will be randomly assigned a role of reader, facilitator, recorder and timekeeper. Each group will receive one whiteboard and one marker.

During the first 8 minutes, each group will tackle Text #1, their objective being to complete the text analysis questionnaire before 8 minutes have elapsed. The reader will read the text to their group; once the reading has concluded, the facilitator will then move students through the questions, answers to which all students will note down on their copy of the questionnaire; the timekeeper will keep the group on target as far as time; and the recorder will have the additional duty of writing a group-generated phrase capturing (1) the main idea and (2) the writer’s intention (framed in the infinitive, as in “to___________” on their group’s whiteboard.

At the 8-minute mark, the teacher will ask all students to stop, and the recorder in each group will hold up their group’s whiteboard. The teacher should scan the whiteboards and clarify any questions or misunderstandings before proceeding. This shouldn’t take more than 4 minutes.

The class should then proceed to Text #2, and for this text, the reader of Text #1 will become the facilitator; the facilitator of Text #1, the recorder; the recorder of Text #1, the timekeeper; and the timekeeper of Text #1, the reader. For Text #2, the class will also be given 8 minutes to read and record, before the teacher reviews the whiteboards and checks for understanding, spending no more than 4 minutes doing so.

The class should proceed to Text #3, and for this text, the reader of Text #2 will become the facilitator; the facilitator of Text #2, the recorder; the recorder of Text #2, the timekeeper; and the timekeeper of Text #2, the reader. For Text #3, the class will also be given 10 minutes (it is a bit longer than the first two texts) to read and record, before the teacher reviews the whiteboards and checks for understanding, spending no more than 5 minutes doing so.

Finally, the class should proceed to Text #4, and for this text, the reader of Text #3 will become the facilitator; and so on. For Text #4, the class will also be given 14 minutes (it is the longest of the texts) to read and record, before the teacher reviews the whiteboards and checks for understanding, spending no more than 5 minutes doing so.

TEXT #1: Excerpt of letter from Thomas Jefferson to George Rogers Clark (December 25, 1780)

“…we shall be at leizure [sic] to turn our whole force to the rescue of our eastern Country from subjugation, we shall divert through our own Country a branch of commerce which the European States have thought worthy of the most important struggles and sacrifices, and in the event of peace on terms which have been contemplated by some powers we shall form to the American union a barrier against the dangerous extension of the British Province of Canada and add to the Empire of liberty an extensive and fertile Country thereby converting dangerous Enemies into valuable friends.”

TEXT #2: Excerpt of letter from Thomas Jefferson to George Rogers Clark (December 4, 1783)

“I find they have subscribed a very large sum of money in England for exploring the country from the Missisipi [sic] to California. They pretend it is only to promote knolege [sic]. I am afraid they have thoughts of colonising into that quarter. Some of us have been talking here in a feeble way of making the attempt to search that country. But I doubt whether we have enough of that kind of spirit to raise the money. How would you like to lead such a party? Tho I am afraid our prospect is not worth asking the question.”

TEXT #3: Excerpt of letter from Thomas Jefferson to John Jay (August 14, 1785)

“You have doubtless seen in the papers that this court [in France] was sending two vessels into the South sea [in the Pacific], under the conduct of a Capt. Peyrouse. They give out that the object is merely for the improvement of our knowlege [sic] of the geography of that part of the globe. And certain it is that they carry men of eminence in different branches of science. Their loading however as detailed in conversations and some other circumstances appeared to me to indicate some other design: perhaps that of colonising on the Western coast of America, or perhaps only to establish one or more factories there for the fur trade. We may be little interested in either of these objects. But we are interested in another, that is, to know whether they are perfectly weaned from the desire of possessing continental colonies in America. Events might arise which would render it very desireable [sic] for Congress to be satisfied they have no such wish.”

TEXT #4: Excerpt from the journals of Alexander Mackenzie, British explorer, during a British expedition in 1793; published in 1801

“The distance between these waters is only known from the report of the Indians. If, however, this communication should prove inaccessible, the route I pursued, though longer, in consequence of the great angle it makes to the North, will answer every necessary purpose. But whatever course may be taken from the Atlantic, the Columbia is the line of communication from the Pacific Ocean, pointed out by nature, as it is the only navigable river in the whole extent of Vancouver’s minute survey of that coast: its banks also form the first level country in all the Southern extent of continental coast from Cook’s entry, and, consequently, the most Northern situation fit for colonization, and suitable to the residence of a civilized people. By opening this intercourse between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans, and forming regular establishments through the interior, and at both extremes, as well as along the coasts and islands, the entire command of the fur trade of North America might be obtained, from latitude 48. North to the pole, except that portion of it which the Russians have in the Pacific. To this may be added the fishing in both seas, and the markets of the four quarters of the globe. Such would be the field for commercial enterprise, and incalculable would be the produce of it, when supported by the operations of that credit and capital which Great Britain so pre-eminently possesses. Then would this country begin to be remunerated for the expences [sic] it has sustained in discovering and surveying the coast of the Pacific Ocean, which is at present left to American adventurers, who without regularity or capital, or the desire of conciliating future confidence, look altogether to the interest of the moment.”

HOMEWORK:

In the documents we looked at today, we can find evidence of Thomas Jefferson’s (and by extension, the U.S. government’s) long-standing interest in the American West. Why did he think exploration of the West was so important? What was he worried about? In answering the prompt, be sure to cite evidence from the texts to support your claim about a central perspective of the United States government towards Western exploration at the turn of the 18th century.

The following sentence frames may be useful for some students in formulating their response to the assignment: Thomas Jefferson, the third President of the United States, believed that exploration of the American West was of paramount importance for the then-young, still-emerging country. According to his letter to  __________(include name of Jefferson’s recipient here)___________ on________(insert date of letter here)________ , Jefferson wrote that exploration of the West is important because _______________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________.

He wrote, “______________(cite quote from Jefferson’s letter here) _____________________.” Additionally, according to his letter to  _____(include name of Jefferson’s recipient here)______ on________(insert date of letter here)________ , Jefferson was concerned that _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________.

He wrote, “______________(cite quote from Jefferson’s letter here) _____________________.”

This shows that __________(in your own words, explain the connection between Jefferson’s interest in the West and why he felt it was important for the United States)__________________.

Lesson Resources:

 

DAY TWO

OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to explain a primary motivation for the expedition undertaken by Lewis and Clark; articulate a central perspective of the expedition’s sponsor, the United States government; and compare and contrast it with a Native perspective on the lasting impact of the expedition and the legacy of U.S policy towards Native peoples.

WARMUP: 10 minutes: Making connections

As class begins, the following extracts from two letters, both by Thomas Jefferson but written ten years apart, will be presented to students, along with the following questions: What similarities do you notice between the two letters? What is the purpose of the mission according to Jefferson’s letter to Meriwether Lewis, and in light of what we read yesterday, why is that important? Students will be given 5 minutes to note down a response in their notebooks before the teacher calls on students to share their thoughts.

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Andrew Michaud (January 23, 1793)

“They observe to you that the chief objects of your journey are to find the shortest & most convenient route of communication between the US. & the Pacific ocean…& to learn such particulars as can be obtained of the country through which it passes, it’s productions, inhabitants & other interesting circumstances.”

Letter from Thomas Jefferson to Meriwether Lewis (June 20, 1803)

“The object of your mission is to explore the Missouri river, & such principal stream of it, as, by it’s [sic] course & communication with the water of the Pacific ocean may offer the most direct & practicable water communication across this continent, for the purposes of commerce.”

INTRODUCTION: 20 minutes: The Lewis & Clark expedition and Native communities

With commercial imperatives firmly established as a central motivation to exploration of the American West, we now turn to the expedition — and to the people who were already inhabiting the lands that were of such economic concern to the United States. Two short video clips (each about three minutes, and both available on PBS) will be presented to students as a means of illustrating contrasting perspectives. The teacher may use a graphic organizer with two columns, the first titled “The First American Expedition” and the second, “Lewis & Clark among the Tribes.” Two rows underneath should be labelled as well; the top row “Keywords” and the bottom, “Key Points.” As students watch each video, they should pay attention to important keywords (giving particular attention to those that signal perspective) and the key points being made in each. They should note down their observations in the appropriate box.

“The First American Expedition” “Lewis & Clark among the Tribes”
Keywords
Key Points

 

I. The teacher will first play the opening three minutes and fifteen seconds of Ken Burns’ documentary on Lewis and Clark, “The First American Expedition.” The voiceover begins with excerpts from a letter Sergeant John Ordway wrote to his parents: “I am now on an expedition to the westward through the interior parts of North America with Captain Lewis and Captain Clark. We’re to ascend the Missouri River with a boat as far as it is navigable and then go by land to the western ocean if nothing prevents…. We expect to be gone 18 months or two years and if we make great discoveries, as we expect, the United States has promised to make us great rewards.” Burn’s narration continues: “They were beginning the most important expedition in American history. The United States first official exploration into unknown spaces and a glimpse into the future of their young nation. They would become the first United States citizens to experience the Great Plains, the immensity of its skies, the rich splendor of its wildlife, the harsh rigors of its winters. They would be the first American citizens to see the daunting peaks of the Rocky Mountains. The first to struggle over them, the first to cross the continental divide to where the rivers flow west. And after encountering cold, hunger, danger, and wonders beyond belief, they would become the first of their nation to reach the Pacific Ocean by land. It would be the greatest adventure of their lives.” The clip ends with words from Stephen Ambrose: “It’s a great story. It’s a human story. It’s a story of those who went first. They were first. They led the way. They opened the trail.”

II. The teacher will then play the first three minutes of Outdoor Idaho’s “Lewis & Clark Among the Tribes” also available on the PBS website, and notable for the contrasting emphasis it places on Native perspectives—and not allowing the experience of Lewis and Clark, valuable as it may be in its own right, to solely define the narrative. From the voiceover: “They called themselves the Corps of Discovery, as if they were going where no one had gone before. But the more they got away from the civilized eastern seaboard, the more civilizations they encountered. Fifty separate nations in all. There were many tribes, many languages, many dialects. This was not a wilderness, this was a home…To believe that Lewis and Clark discovered the West, you would have to forget about the two million people who discovered it first…. Now this is not to take anything away from the Lewis and Clark journals. Those journals are remarkable in what they tell us about the West…Still, it is only part of the story.”

III. After playing the second video clip, the teacher will ask students to share their observations, with particular attention paid to what the opening clip from the Burns’ documentary suggests about the land and the people who were already living there. What is implied about the land? Does it sound like anybody was there? Which keywords in the voiceover tell you that? (Sample answers: “discoveries;” “unknown spaces;” the numerous times Burns uses “first” to describe the experience of Lewis and Clark.) [Note: The teacher may need to replay the first clip to elicit this information from students.]

CLOSE READING: 15 minutes: Jefferson’s confidential letter to Congress (January 18, 1803)

The teacher will take students through a close reading of an excerpt from Jefferson’s confidential letter to Congress on January 18, 1803, in which he outlines the central aims of westward expansion with regard to the Native peoples that reside there.

(Sample Guiding Questions: What are the central measures Jefferson identifies for the U.S. government’s approach to Native peoples? Why are those objectives important? What is the U.S. government’s fundamental perspective on the land of Native peoples and their ways of life? What generally characterizes the attitude of  the U.S. government’s approach to Native peoples?)

As on Day One, the teacher will provide the following text analysis questionnaire to students, and will guide students through a critical reading of the text in order to produce high-quality responses to the prompts:

TEXT ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE

    • 1. Who wrote the text? 
    • 2. Who is the author’s intended audience?
    • 3. a. What is the main idea/central argument of the text?
      • In your own words, explain what the author is trying to say. (Questions to ask the text: What is the author’s point? What does he/she want the audience to know?)
    • 3. b. How do you know?
      • List two quotes from the text that support your understanding of the main idea.
    • 4. a. Why do you think the document was written?
      • In your own words, explain the author’s purpose. (Questions to ask the text: Why is the  author writing this? Why does he/she think that the audience needs to know this?
    • 4. b. How do you know?
      • List at least one quote from the text to back your claim.

Jefferson’s confidential letter to Congress (January 18, 1803)

“The Indian tribes residing within the limits of the United States, have, for a considerable time, been growing more and more uneasy at the constant diminution of the territory they occupy, although effected [sic] by their own voluntary sales: and the policy has long been gaining strength with them, of refusing absolutely all further sale, on any conditions; insomuch that, at this time, it hazards their friendship, and excites dangerous jealousies and perturbations in their minds to make any overture for the purchase of the smallest portions of their land. A very few tribes only are not yet obstinately in these dispositions. In order peaceably to counteract this policy of theirs, and to provide an extension of territory which the rapid increase of our numbers will call for, two measures are deemed expedient. First: to encourage them to abandon hunting, to apply to the raising stock, to agriculture and domestic manufacture, and thereby prove to themselves that less land and labor will maintain them in this, better than in their former mode of living. The extensive forests necessary in the hunting life, will then become useless, and they will see advantage in exchanging them for the means of improving their farms, and of increasing their domestic comforts. Secondly: to multiply trading houses among them, and place within their reach those things which will contribute more to their domestic comfort, than the possession of extensive, but uncultivated wilds. Experience and reflection will develop to them the wisdom of exchanging what they can spare and we want, for what we can spare and they want. In leading them to agriculture, to manufactures, and civilization; in bringing together their and our settlements, and in preparing them ultimately to participate in the benefits of our governments, I trust and believe we are acting for their greatest good.”

COMPARE/CONTRAST ACTIVITY: 55 minutes: Contrasting views of U.S policy towards Native peoples

For this activity, students will be given a graphic organizer, divided into two columns, one labeled, “Jefferson’s Perspective on the U.S Government’s Approach to Native Peoples” and the second, “A Native Person’s Perspective of the U.S Government’s Approach to Native Peoples.” Two rows will be present: one labelled “Keywords Defining Their Perspective,” and the second “Policy Aims and Outcomes of the U.S. Government.” Students will be presented with two texts: For the U.S. government’s perspective, students will be provided with an excerpt from Thomas Jefferson’s private letter on February 27, 1803 to William Henry Harrison, then governor of the Indiana Territory, on the aims of the U.S. government with regard to Native peoples. For a Native perspective on U.S. government policy, students will be provided with excerpts from Roberta Conner’s 2007 essay, “Our People Have Always Been Here.” Sample guided questions the teacher may use to push student thinking are included in the graphic organizer (see below). Students will pair up, and one student will be assigned the role of reader and the other listener. During the first 5 minutes, one student in each pair will read both excerpts from Jefferson’s letters to the other, and then together, the pair will take 15 minutes to complete the column on the U.S government’s perspective. At roughly the 20-minute mark, the teacher will bring everyone together, and call on students (volunteers and at random) to share their responses for about 7.5 minutes and ensure student responses are complete and accurate. At the 25-minute mark, the other student in the pair will assume the reader role, and read excerpts from Roberta Conner’s piece to their partner. The students will then spend 15 minutes completing the second column on the Native perspective. For the remaining 7.5 minutes, the teacher will bring everyone together, and call on students (volunteers and at random) to share their responses on the second column and note the differences between the two columns.

Jefferson’s Perspective on the U.S Government’s Approach to Native Peoples A Native Perspective on the U.S Government’s Approach to Native Peoples
Keywords and Phrases Defining Their Perspective (For Teacher’s Use: Sample Guiding Questions: What keywords and phrases give clues to the attitudes Jefferson has towards Native peoples, their land and ways of life? What descriptors do you notice?) (For Teacher’s Use: Sample Guiding Questions: What keywords and phrases give clues to the attitude Native people [here voiced by one Native person, Roberta Conner] have towards U.S. government policy and its actions on Native lands? What descriptors do you notice?)
Policy Aims and Outcomes of the U.S. Government (For Teacher’s Use: Sample Guiding Questions: What changes did Jefferson wish to implement on Native lands? What changes did he wish to see in the ways of life of Native peoples?) (For Teacher’s Use: Sample Guiding Questions: What effects did the expedition and U.S. government policy have on the lands and lives of Native communities?)

Text #1: Jefferson’s Perspective

Excerpt from President Jefferson’s private letter to William Henry Harrison (February 27, 1803)

“…but this letter being unofficial, & private, I may with safety give you a more extensive view of our policy respecting the Indians, that you may the better comprehend the parts dealt out to you in detail through the official channel, and observing the system of which they make a part, conduct yourself in unison with it in cases where you are obliged to act without instruction. Our system is to live in perpetual peace with the Indians, to cultivate an affectionate attachment from them, by every thing [sic] just & liberal which we can do for them within the bounds of reason, and by giving them effectual protection against wrongs from our own people. the decrease of game rendering their subsistence by hunting insufficient, we wish to draw them to agriculture, to spinning & weaving. the latter branches they take up with great readiness, because they fall to the women, who gain by quitting the labours of the field for those which are exercised within doors. when they withdraw themselves to the culture of a small piece of land, they will percieve [sic] how useless to them are their extensive forests, and will be willing to pare them off from time to time in exchange for necessaries for their farms & families. to promote this disposition to exchange lands which they have to spare & we want, for necessaries, which we have to spare & they want, we shall push our trading houses, and be glad to see the good & influential individuals among them run in debt, because we observe that when these debts get beyond what the individuals can pay, they become willing to lop th[em off] by a cession of lands. at our trading houses too we mean to sell so low as merely to repay us cost and charges so as neither to lessen or enlarge our capital. This is what private traders cannot do, for they must gain; they will consequently retire from the competition, & we shall thus get clear of this pest without giving offence or umbrage to the Indians. in this way our settlements will gradually circumscribe & approach the Indians, & they will in time either incorporate with us as citizens of the US. or remove beyond the Missisipi [sic]. The former is certainly the termination of their history most happy for themselves. but in the whole course of this, it is essential to cultivate their love. as to their fear, we presume that our strength & their weakness is now so visible that they must see we have only to shut our hand to crush them, & that all our liberalities to them proceed from motives of pure humanity only. should any tribe be fool-hardy enough to take up the hatchet at any time, the seizing the whole country of that tribe & driving them across the Missisipi [sic], as the only condition of peace, would be an example to others, and a furtherance of our final consolidation.”

Text #2: A Native Perspective

Excerpt from Roberta Conner’s essay, “Our People Have Always Been Here” (2007)

“To hear tribal history requires listening to many connected stories—all interrelated, just as all things in creation are connected. Looking back at our tribes’ recent past, the arrival of Lewis and Clark and company is part of the same story as that of subsequent arrivals—other explorers, then trappers and traders, then emigrants—which led to the Treaty of 1855 and the tribes’ move to the reservation. These are not events unique unto themselves. They are connected to ancient times and modern times because they shape the stories of our people, who are still here, and the stories of our lands on which we still live. Lewis and Clark are also connected to subsequent incursions by the Founding Fathers’ visions of a continental nation and the consistency of methods used to obtain lands and to justify the taking of them from native peoples, reaching back to the 1400s.

If each person’s life is a story, then the lives of Lewis and Clark and the Indians who received them are not only the story of the time of the expedition. In one lifetime much would change. Men who were little boys at the time of the expedition’s arrival would, forty-nine years and seven months later, be asked to cede their homeland to Lewis and Clark’s “great chief,” albeit the man in the presidential chair had changed. One tribal leader would argue in 1855 that they had been good to Lewis and Clark but that they had been blind. In Clark’s next career as superintendent of Indian Affairs for the Missouri Territory, he would use the relationship he made with some tribes during the expedition in order to move them to what is now Oklahoma. Each story unfolds to the next story. They are not isolated…. This tunnel vision results from seeing the expedition as a lone event, one moment in time, rather than the larger act of premeditated expansionism that was embedded in the historical context. Our typical visitor considers the popular notion of exploration as the goal for the great journey and nothing more. It is more; it is the first incursion and the beginning of the invasion in the Columbia River Plateau. It is the advent of dispossession for our tribes. It is the intentional extension of the European form of colonization into the Pacific Northwest. It is the fulfillment of the prophecy that our tribal lives would change and that we would need to endure great difficulty to survive. And survive we have. Against all odds, our people are still in their homeland, and like many other tribes, working to rebuild their nations—like the phoenix from the ashes. We want to tell the whole story right up to today, and we want our fellow Americans to hear it.”

HOMEWORK:

Using the graphic organizer we completed in the Compare/Contrast Activity, describe the different perspectives held by Thomas Jefferson and Roberta Conner. What is Jefferson’s perspective on the U.S. government’s approach to Native communities, their land and their ways of life? How does Conner view the impact of the policies Jefferson set in motion? How does she feel about them? Be sure to cite at least two pieces of evidence from the texts in your response.

 (The following sentence frames may be useful for some students in formulating their response to the assignment: Thomas Jefferson and Roberta Conner have ____________ perspectives on the United States’s approach to Native communities. According to his letter to  _____(include name of Jefferson’s recipient here)_______on________(insert date of letter here)________ , Jefferson believed______________________________________________________________________ _____________________________________________________________________________. He wrote, “_________(cite quote from Jefferson’s letter here) __________________________.” _________(Use a sentence connecter of your choice here to express contrast)________, Roberta Conner believes that______________________________________________________________. In her 2007 essay, “Our People Have Always Been Here,” Conner wrote, “_________(cite quote from Conner’s essay here)_________________________________________________________.”) __________________________________________________________________(In this sentence, make a connection between Jefferson and Conner’s contrasting perspectives) ________________  ______________________________________________________________________________.

 

Lesson Resources:

 

DAY THREE

OBJECTIVE: Students will examine several Native perspectives of the Lewis and Clark expedition and its legacy, and be able to paraphrase the arguments advanced by those writers.

WARMUP: 10 minute: Making connections

As class begins, the teacher will present students with the following text extracts, one from Jefferson’s private letter to William Harrison (February 27, 1803) and the second from Andrew Jackson’s Second Annual Message to Congress (December 6, 1830).  Students will be asked to consider the following prompt in their reading: What historical connections might exist between these two texts, each written by a sitting U.S. president less than 30 years apart? Students will be given 5 minutes to note down their thoughts before the teacher has several of them popcorn-share their responses. (Possible follow-up question to push student thinking: What possible assumptions are the two presidents making of Native peoples, and any right they might have to their land or their ways of life?)

Excerpt of a private letter from President Jefferson to William H. Harrison (February 1803)

“[I]n this way our settlements will gradually circumscribe & approach the Indians, & they will in time either incorporate with us as citizens of the US. or remove beyond the Missisipi.”

Excerpt of President Andrew Jackson’s Second Annual Message to Congress (December 1830)

“It gives me pleasure to announce to Congress that the benevolent policy of the Government, steadily pursued for nearly thirty years, in relation to the removal of the Indians beyond the white settlements is approaching to a happy consummation…. The consequences of a speedy removal will be important to the United States, to individual States, and to the Indians themselves…and perhaps cause them gradually, under the protection of the Government and through the influence of good counsels, to cast off their savage habits and become an interesting, civilized, and Christian community.” 

INTRODUCTION: 30 minutes: Native perspectives: Responses to Lewis and Clark

I. As a hook to student engagement, the teacher will introduce the following page taken from a graphic novel of the Lewis and Clark Expedition by Jessica Gunderson (Capstone Press, 2006), and a detail of a page from another graphic novel of the expedition — this one by Nick Bertozzi (Macmillan, 2011.)

Ask students to take particular note of the panel in the lower right-hand corner, where Lewis tells Jefferson, “I’ll keep a journal of what I see.” Ask students, whose perspective will the entries in those journals represent? What part of the story will they tell? Is that the whole story?   

In short, it should be emphasized that the journals of Lewis and Clark will be in their words, from their perspective, refracted through their experience—it will be their story.

But what about Native voices? What have Native peoples had to say about Lewis and Clark, and the legacy of their expedition? Will their accounts jibe with the words recorded by Lewis and Clark, or for that matter, the words written by Thomas Jefferson? What about their perspectives?

II. As a reminder to students of the ways in which different perspectives can be held of the same event, the teacher may want to present once more the cartoon suggested for inclusion at the beginning of the week during the discussion of the word “perspective.”

III. The teacher should here emphasize that Native histories by Native peoples — their histories — were conventionally passed down from generation to generation primarily in the oral tradition — as well as by other means that varied by region, including, for example, the wampum belts of the Iroquois in the American Northeast and the winter counts of the Lakota in the Great Plains.

A short video that can quickly illustrate to students the historic primacy of oral storytelling in Native communities is a 3:02 minute clip from the PBS Series, American Masters. In the clip, the writer N. Scott Momaday explains: “Indians are storytellers. You know those stories were passed on by word of mouth only and so they were always just one generation from being gone…Everything started out with the oral tradition. It is a part of language that makes the most of responsible telling, careful listening and memory.” Adds the poet Simon Ortiz: “Well, the oral tradition was also about knowledge, real knowledge, within our hearts and minds, and what we did and the way we lived…This is what culture is. The old people’s knowledge is your knowledge. Your knowledge is what the older people took care of. Therefore, now you have that responsibility.”

While Lewis and Clark kept journals, the teacher may add, contemporaneous histories of Native peoples are not available in the same form (that is, in journals of the encounter), but those narratives, and the observations and wisdoms embedded within them, have been transmitted from generation to generation; and that we are going to be looking at the narratives of the expedition and its legacy that Native persons have committed to writing in our time—though obviously informed by the insights that have been passed down in their respective communities.

IV. The teacher will next present the words of photographer Mary Annette Pember of the National Association of Tribal Historic Preservation Officers, writing in the summer of 2003, as the bicentennial commemoration of Lewis and Clark commenced:

The Indian culture, history, geography and stories of the land west of the Mississippi are rich and diverse. What a terrible loss to all Americans that these stories are told mostly from the perspective of a small group of ethnocentric white men who focus on commercial success. It’s as though only one thread in a beautifully complex tapestry has been pulled out and displayed to represent an entire work of art…. For us, the bicentennial commemoration celebrates discovery by conquest and it sticks in our craws.

The teacher should ask students to think about the meaning of Pember’s comments, and share their thoughts on the implications it has for our understanding of the Lewis and Clark expedition.

V. The teacher will use two selections from Alvin Josephy’s book, Lewis and Clark through Indian Eyes: Nine Indian Writers on the Legacy of the Expedition (2006), to provide students with Native perspectives of the Lewis and Clark expedition and its legacy. To prepare students for the work they will be doing with those selections, the teacher will read a part of the introduction to the class so students may approach those texts with a crucial understanding of why they were written.

The expedition was truly a remarkable historical episode, and the Journalsremain a crucial document in American historiography, certainly the most important in the history of the American West. Both the journey and its leaders’ narrative, The Journals of Lewis and Clark, justify the enormous amount of attention from writers and historians over the intervening two centuries. In all that time, though, a significant gap existed, which has never been adequately filled. The voice of the Indians themselves has not often been heard. The Indian role in the entire venture, from Jefferson’s original instructions to Lewis and Clark to the incalculable importance of native peoples to the success of the journey to historical developments in the decades following, has been fully described and interpreted, but almost exclusively from a white point of view…. The essays that follow are written by nine Indian contributors—writers, historians, and tribal executives—who were presented with a new Lewis and Clark mission, now two hundred years later, in response to this question: What impact, good or bad, immediate or long-range, did the Indians experience from the Lewis and Clark expedition?

GROUP ACTIVITY: 50 minutes: Two Selections from Josephy’s Lewis and Clark through Indian Eyes: Nine Indian writes on the Legacy of the Expedition (2006)

As seen on Days One and Two, students will use the text analysis questionnaire in their approach to the excerpts from Josephy:

TEXT ANALYSIS QUESTIONNAIRE

  • 1. Who wrote the text?
  • 2. Who is the author’s intended audience?
  • 3. a. What is the main idea/central argument of the text?
    • In your own words, explain what the author is trying to say. (Questions to ask the text: What is the author’s point? What does he/she want the audience to know?)
  • 3. b. How do you know?
    • List two quotes from the text that support your understanding of the main idea.
  • 4. a. Why do you think the document was written?
    • In your own words, explain the author’s purpose. (Questions to ask the text: Why is the author writing this? Why does he/she think that the audience needs to know this?
  • 4. b. How do you know?
    • List at least one quote from the text to back your claim.

Copies of the two excerpted texts from Josephy will be distributed to students, as well as two copies of the text analysis questionnaire. Students should be assigned a partner, and for the first text, one partner will be the reader and recorder, and the other partner, the facilitator and timekeeper. Each pair will receive one whiteboard and one marker.

During the first 15 minutes, each group will tackle Text #1, their objective being to complete the text analysis questionnaire before the 17 minutes are up. The reader will read the text to their partner; once the reading has concluded, the facilitator will then move the pair through the questions, answers to which both students will note down on their copy of the questionnaire; the timekeeper will keep the pair on target as far as time; and the recorder will have the additional duty of writing a phrase capturing (1) the main idea and (2) the writer’s intention (framed in the infinitive, as in “to___________” on their group’s whiteboard.

At the 17-minute mark, the teacher will ask all students to stop, and the recorder in each group will hold up their group’s whiteboard. The teacher should scan the whiteboards and clarify any questions or misunderstandings before proceeding. This should take about 10 minutes.

The class should then proceed to Text #2, and for this text, the students will switch roles: the reader and recorder of Text #1 will become the facilitator and timekeeper of Text #2; and the facilitator and timekeeper of Text #1 will assume the roles of reader and recorder.

For Text #2, the class will also be given 15 minutes to read and record, before the teacher reviews the whiteboards, checks for understanding and discusses student responses to the text. This, too, should take approximately 10 minutes.

TEXT #1: Excerpt from “Who’s Your Daddy” by Mark N. Trahant

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Mark N. Trahant is a member of Idaho’s Shoshone-Bannock Tribe. He is also editor of the editorial page for the Seattle-Post Intelligencer…[and] one of the nation’s most experienced Indian working journalists and newspaper executives.

So many different travelers: warriors, explorers, trappers, pioneers, and settlers, all a part of a family’s journey in the American West. Each traveler tells a story along the route, stories that are sometimes in competition with one another. They say, “Winners write history.” And I suppose that’s true because it’s the winners’ versions that outline the drafts that follow. These are the master narratives, told as part of a nation’s mythology.

But eventually other stories surface, too. These alternative histories serve as reminders that the journey continues, that there’s a generational legacy that’s passed along in several directions….

There’s another contradiction in the Lewis and Clark narrative that directly challenges the stories I understand to be true. In Stephen Ambrose’s Undaunted Courage, we are told of two “firsts” that began with the 1804 death of Sergeant Charles Floyd. “On August 20, Floyd died, most likely from peritonitis resulting from an infected appendix that had perforated or ruptured. Sergeant Floyd was the first U.S. soldier to die west of the Mississippi,” Ambrose wrote. “Two days and forty-one miles later, the captains ordered an election for Floyd’s replacement. Private Patrick Gass got nineteen votes, while Privates William Bratton and George Gibson split the remainder. This was the first election ever held west of the Mississippi.”

These two firsts pose an epistemological challenge: How do we know what we know? How do we measure what’s known about the Corps of Discovery journey versus everything that unfolded during the same era with far less fanfare? Someone else could easily have been the first—what if some soldier boy just wandered off and died?

The second issue troubles me far more because it raises questions about the very legitimacy of democracy. A historical marker along U.S. 20 near the Nebraska Bluffs marks August 22, 1804, as the place and date of “the first election held west of the Mississippi.” This is the narrative of the colonialist. The Corps did something noble, unique, enlightened, progressive, and of course, democratic. But what if democracy was already present, just in a different form? 

Democracy scholar Robert Maynard Hutchins once defined it this way: “Every member of the community must have a part in his government. The real test of democracy is the extent to which everybody in society is involved in effective political discussion.” By that definition many, if not most, or even all, American Indian nations, tribes, and bands were democratic from the beginning of time.

The Shoshone band that met the Corps of Discovery already had a democratic system in place. The methods of leadership suited the people and the band’s collective ambition. Again, Lewis gives us a hint in his journal that he saw a glimmer of this notion. After again mentioning the Shoshones’ “extreme poverty,” Lewis writes, “Each individual is his own sovereign master and acts from the dictates of his own mind; the authority, of the cheif [sic] nothin’ more than mere admonition supported by the influence which the propriety of his own exemplary conduct may have acquired him in the minds of the individuals who compose the band….”

The very foundation of the Shoshone democratic tradition was not the representative model used by the Americans. It was based on a different way of thinking. But the differences between the two approaches were ignored in the first draft of the American master narrative. Instead the story becomes flatter, a simpler form; it becomes the overreaching “our way is democratic, yours is not….” 

The Lewis and Clark narrative made evident that its writers did not comprehend either the indigenous belief system or the democracy that was already present. The journals suggest the authors’ own intellectual poverty because their interpretation missed the gems of a fine and handsome system already in place.

This initial distortion worsens with every telling. Every layer of the story covers the original truth even more. In later versions, the Americans would argue for democracy, while really seeking a dictator. They wanted a top boss, someone who could speak (and sign treaties) for every band of Shoshones. The government never found that warped version of the story, that kind of boss with every power delegated to him by his people.

This confusing narrative explains why there’s continued tension about tribal leadership even today: the same American government that could not comprehend a native democracy went about promoting their own brand of “self-determination” or local democracy to Indian people across the country, setting up a conflict with the homegrown variety.

TEXT #2: Excerpt from “What We See” by Debra Magpie Earling

ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Debra Magpie Earling, a member of the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Montana, is one of the most accomplished new writers to come out of the American Northwest…. [Her] Salish ancestors warmly welcomed Lewis and Clark in September of 1805. However, as she writes in her essay, “In 1872, just sixty-seven years after Lewis and Clark had arrived in the valley, everything the Bitterroot Salish had held dear would be taken from them.” 

My mother has told me that the people have always held prophecies. The Bitterroot Salish knew when the white man would come. They knew his arrival would bring hardships the people have never known. The Salish knew their lands would be stolen, that the people would starve, the valley would flood with settlers. The strangeness of the arrival of Lewis and Clark could not erase the certain knowledge of the people’s knowing. Though there is no record I can point to, no physical evidence I can submit as argument that a prophecy existed, I know from the stories that my people foretold the coming of the white man…

On a cold day in early September of 1805, Lewis and Clark did arrive in Flathead country. They were welcomed by the Salish and were offered white robes to rest upon and to take with them on their journey. Their visit was not remarkable, nothing monumental happened, but in many ways the exchange would prove significant. They left the Bitterroot friendship robes on the ground, perhaps the only things that the white people did not take from the original inhabitants of the Bitterroot Valley.

Chief Charlo and his people were eventually removed from their beloved homeland because the settlers Charlo would help and befriend wished to possess not only the land that they squatted on, but Charlo’s land too. The white settlers acted on their greed. in 1872, just sixty-seven years after Lewis and Clark had arrived in the valley, everything the Bitterroot Salish held dear would be taken from them…

I have always been perturbed by the idea that Lewis and Clark had passed a great legacy on to all people. The University of Montana continues to employ the slogan “The Discovery Continues,” refusing to see the irony of those words. Some years ago, I was asked to participate in a float trip down the Missouri River to experience the journey Lewis and Clark had made. At first, the idea seemed ridiculous: me drifting down the river, the lone Indian lifting my hand to point at the sights that Lewis and Clark had seen, an ignorant Sacajewea with no sense of direction… 

Though I know very little about Lewis and Clark even now, I didn’t know anything about Lewis and Clark then, not anything I could discuss with others anyway. I had vague images of two white men paddling a river, tromping through dusty woods, scared by and scaring the Indians they encountered. In my mind Sacajewea was a traitor, the woman who launched the parade of settlers who would come to claim our land. Lewis and Clark were a thousand road signs to me. Here, they said, and over there too, we discovered you…

The last day of our journey, Susan I began to talk about Lewis and Clark. We spoke mostly about Meriwether Lewis. I was struck by the irony of his name and the circumstances of his life and death. I was not fascinated with his life as much as I was interested in the mystery of his death, whether he had murdered or took his own life. I remembered his reflections on his thirty-first year: “I reflected that I had done very little, very little indeed, to further the happiness of the human race, or to advance information for succeeding generations,” he wrote. I thought about Lewis, the long journey through the wilderness, the beauty and terror of his trip. He could not have passed over this land and not have wondered about what true effect he would have on the people whose lives he was disturbing. He must have realized, in quiet hours along, that the path he had forged would later bring death and destruction to the Indians who had welcomed him into their villages. Then again, we reasoned, perhaps he didn’t care. I wondered if he was cursed by the Indians, shot with thin medicine arrows that would conjure bad dreams, prophecies that would awaken in him when he returned home. His journey of discovery did “advance information” but not for the Indians. As the original captain of the Corps, he was the spearhead of Manifest Destiny [the 19th-century doctrine or belief that the expansion of the US throughout the American continents was both justified and inevitable].

 

EXIT SLIP (10 min):

Consider Trahant and Earling’s perspectives on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Pick one writer and provide a brief response of three sentences to the following question: How does the writer’s perspective differ from the perspective assumed by the narrative of Lewis and Clark? Cite one piece of evidence from the text of the writer whose perspective you are considering.

(The following sentence frames may be useful for some students in formulating their response to the assignment: ________________(Insert the full name of the writer you chose here) _________ _________’s perspective differs from the prevailing perspective assumed by the Lewis and Clark story. (Trahant/Ealing) argues that __________________(here summarize a central argument made by the writer as evidence of their contrasting perspective)____________________. In (his/her) essay, __________(insert the name of their essay here) __________, (Trahant/Ealing) writes, “__________________(cite quote from the writer’s essay here)___________________.”)

HOMEWORK:

In preparation for the writing workshop of the next two days in which students will assemble a written argument on contrasting perspectives using the texts they have read this week, students may want to read this third text, a selection taken from an essay Vine Deloria wrote for the text edited by Josephy. Students may choose to complete a text analysis questionnaire for this text.

TEXT #3: Excerpt of “Frenchmen, Bears, and Sandbars” by Vine Deloria, Jr.

Exaggeration of the importance of the expedition of Lewis and Clark is a typical American response to mythology. We prefer our fantasies in opposition to the facts of life. It was a routine venture now revered because we desperately need to have a heroic past, since that pleasure is denied to us in the present….

Since traditionally historians have understood the journey as the first effort by civilized men to pierce the unknown West, we often tend to clothe the accounts of Lewis and Clark in more heroic terms than they seem to have deserved. Much good history falls by the wayside when we stress the heroics and neglect the context of their journey in our understanding….

The foremost requirement in maintaining a society is that of mutual respect among its members. Lewis and Clark, from their comments in the journals, had little respect for the Indians or their institutions. They tended to see Indians as scheming to do them evil, and a sense of impending danger colors many of their recorded comments. Yet other people visiting the tribes were not nearly as blind to what they were seeing. Sometime after the expedition, another American, Henry Marie Brackenridge, visited the Arikara villages, and his comments are worth noting: “we here see an independent nation with all the interests and anxieties of the largest; how little would its history differ from that of one of the Grecian states! A war, a treaty, deputations sent and received, warlike excursions, national mourning or rejoicing, and a thousand other particulars, which constitute the chronicle of the most celebrated people….”

Having speculated on the Frenchmen, bears, and sandbars, we must ask, within that context, how the Indians responded to the Lewis and Clark expedition. Certainly non-Indians were not a surprise to them, although they did not see very many at one time, so that the expedition was understood as simply another group, albeit without women and children. Many upriver tribes held this attitude so that chiefs who had visited St. Louis and told about the infinite number of white men were often ridiculed and sometimes killed for lying. That they could guess the immediate meaning of the presence of these explorers is debatable. Instead, they worked them into their daily lives as if they belonged to the web of life already present….

Consequently, while Lewis and Clark believed that history was being made, and certainly American history was being made, the Indians felt that their lives would continue as usual. I doubt if any winter counts, the Indian calendars recording the most memorable event of the year, even recorded the arrival of the expedition or their prolonged stay during the winter. It would have taken greater prophetic powers than the Indians possessed or keen contemplation of the consequences of the expedition for the tribes to understand what the exploration would mean. There was no reason to suppose that the game would be hunted to extinction or that they would suffer epidemics and barbaric treatment by others following in the wake of the expedition. These strangers sought only to learn as much as they could about the land, its animals and resources. Why then had they come, and what explained the intensity with which they scoured the land, seeking its secrets? That these thoughts did not cross their minds is one of the great tragedies of the Indian story because later adventurers took the hospitality they offered as a sign of weakness, with deadly consequences to the Indians.

Lesson Resources:

 

DAY FOUR

OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to generate a detailed outline of an essay that compares and contrasts Native perspectives of the Lewis and Clark expedition and its legacy with perspectives held by key individuals acting on behalf of the expedition’s sponsor, the United States government

WARMUP: 10 minutes: Perspectives

As class begins, the teacher will present students with the following text extracts, the first from The Salish People and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (2019) and the second from The Course of Empire (1952).  Students will be asked to consider the following prompt in their reading: Consider the following two quotations. What implications do they have for explaining historical events in America, including the Lewis and Clark expedition? Students will be given six minutes to note down their thoughts before the teacher calls on students to share their thoughts. (Possible follow-up question to push student thinking: What can make the telling of a historical event more complete? What can render a description of a historical event incomplete?

“When our elders speak, they do not disrespect Lewis and Clark. But they doraise basic points that differ from the wholly positive view of the expedition… We know this will be a difficult message for some readers to hear. It cannot besquared with a blind celebration of Lewis and Clark…. Many people are interested in a more realistic assessment of American history, even if it is a less comfortable Assessment. To reach that point, we must begin by listening to the voices thathave until now been left out.”  — Excerpt from The Salish People and the Lewis and Clark Expedition (2019) by the Salish-Pend d’Oreille Culture Committee and Elders Cultural Advisory Council, Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes

“A dismaying amount of our [American] history has been written without regard to the Indians…also, I believe, there is some inherent tendency to write Americanhistory as if it were a function of white culture only.” — American historian Bernard DeVoto in The Course of Empire (1952)

WRITER’S WORKSHOP: 15 minutes: Generating a Thesis Statement

Over the next two days, the teacher will lead students through a writer’s workshop, the object being for each student to create a four-paragraph (at a minimum) essay that answers the following prompt:

Compare and contrast Native perspectives of the Lewis and Clark expedition and its legacy with perspectives held by key individuals acting on behalf of the expedition’s sponsor, the United States government.

Students will do this using the texts they have encountered over the last three days, here divided into those that describe perspectives held by the U.S. government and those that detail Native perspectives on the Lewis and Clark expedition. Students will use the various text analysis questionnaires they have completed in response to those texts over the last three days to assist them in their writing.

A timer will be set for ten minutes, and during that time, students will generate an explanatory thesis statement: one that highlights the fundamental differences between the perspectives of the U.S. government and those voiced by the Native writers they have read. Though students will be writing their own essays, students should be paired with a writing partner, one with whom they will share their work for evaluation during the course of writing the essay. (Students requiring additional assistance may sit in a group with the teacher.)

At the 10-minute mark, students should share the thesis statement they have written with their writing partner, who will use the following checklist to evaluate the sentence.

EXPLANATORY THESIS STATEMENT CHECKLIST

  • Does the thesis statement address the prompt?
  • Does the thesis statement mention perspectives of both the U.S. government and those of Native writers?
  • Does the thesis statement draw a general contrast between those perspectives?
  • Is the thesis statement a complete sentence with correct grammar, spelling and punctuation?

Once approved by the peer, the student may raise their hand if further assistance is needed, and the teacher will take a look at the thesis statement and offer any suggestions for improvement. If peer-approved, the student may move on to the second stage: Outlining.

WRITER’S WORKSHOP: 75 minutes: Outlining the Body Paragraphs

For the writing of this compare-and-contrast essay, students will use a block structure to explicitly draw out the comparison between the duelling perspectives. The first paragraph will be the introduction, and the last will be the conclusion. The paragraphs comprising the body will be divided between the differing perspectives: at a minimum, one paragraph in the body of the essay dedicated to perspectives of the U.S. government, and, at a minimum, one paragraph of the body of the essay devoted to Native perspectives. Using the text analysis questionnaires students have already completed for each of the texts, in addition to having the texts themselves, students will outline the body paragraphs of their essay. The work in identifying supporting details, including key evidence in the form of quotations drawn from the texts, to describe the perspectives of the U.S. government on the one hand, and Native perspectives on the other, will already have been completed in the text analysis questionnaires. Students will use the text analysis questionnaires, as well as the texts themselves, to select the most compelling details to best articulate their understanding of the perspectives of each, and provide textual evidence to back up their claims.

A timer will be set, and students will be given 36.5 minutes to outline the first section of the body detailing perspectives of the U.S. government. In their outline, students should describe in their own words, at a minimum, three ideas central to an understanding of the perspective of the U.S government, and identify, at a minimum, three corresponding quotations from the texts to support their claims.

At the 25-minute mark, students will be asked to share their outline for this part of the body with their writing partner who will determine if the three ideas the writer has chosen are (1) relevant to the U.S. government’s perspective and (2) if those three ideas are supported by the quotations the student has selected from the texts.

Once approved by the peer, the student may raise their hand if further assistance is needed, and the teacher will take a look at the outline and offer any suggestions for improvement. If peer-approved, the student may move on to outlining the second section of the body detailing Native perspectives.

Similarly, a timer will be set and students will be given 36.5 minutes to outline this second section of the body of the essy. In their outline, students should describe in their own words, at a minimum, three ideas central to an understanding of Native perspectives, and identify, at a minimum, three corresponding quotations from the texts to support their claims.

At the 25-minute mark, students will be asked to share their outline for the second paragraph with their writing partner who will determine if the three ideas the writer has chosen are (1) relevant to Native perspectives and (2) if those three ideas are supported by the quotations the student has selected from the texts.

Once approved by the peer, the student may raise their hand if further assistance is needed, and the teacher will take a look at the outline for the section and offer any suggestions for improvement.

HOMEWORK:

Some students may wish to outline additional paragraphs to further their thinking and should be encouraged to do so at home. For homework, students should be asked to brainstorm ideas for their “hook”—how they intend to draw readers’ interest in their introduction. This should be a question, a fact/statistic, a quotation or an example that will set the stage for the announcement of the writer’s thesis at the end of the paragraph. All outlines need to be completed before the next class session in order that students may be able to proceed to drafting their essay when class meets again.

 

DAY FIVE

OBJECTIVE: Students will be able to generate a draft of an essay that compares and contrasts Native perspectives of the Lewis and Clark expedition and its legacy with perspectives held by key individuals acting on behalf of the expedition’s sponsor, the United States government

WRITER’S WORKSHOP: 6 minutes: “Hook”

As class begins, the teacher will ask students to popcorn-share the “hooks”—how they plan to draw the interest of readers in their introduction. As students share their ideas, particular attention should be paid to different ways of engaging readers, and the variety of tools at the writer’s disposal to successfully grab and hold the attention of the reader—whether with a question, a fact/statistic, a quotation or an example.

WRITER’S WORKSHOP: 20 minutes: Writing the Introduction

Students will be given fifteen minutes to write their introduction, complete with hook and thesis.

At the 15-minute mark, students should share their introduction with their writing partner, who will read it against the following criteria: Is the introduction a well-developed paragraph with correct grammar, spelling and punctuation? If it is not, the writing partner should offer suggestions for how his or her partners may strengthen their writing—this could be in terms of style or mechanics. Once approved by the peer, the student may move on to writing the body paragraphs comprising the U.S. government’s perspective. If further assistance is needed, the student may raise their hand and the teacher will take a look at the introduction and offer any suggestions for improvement.

WRITER’S WORKSHOP: 27 minutes: Writing the Body: Part I

Students will be given twenty minutes to write the first section of the body paragraph(s) describing the perspective of the U.S. government. At the 20-minute mark, students should share their paragraph(s) with their writing partner, who will check if the paragraph(s) are well-developed with correct grammar, spelling and punctuation. If it is not, the writing partner should offer suggestions for how his or her partners may strengthen their writing—this could be in terms of style or mechanics. Once approved by the peer, the student may move on to writing the body paragraphs comprising Native  perspectives. If further assistance is needed, the student may raise their hand and the teacher will take a look at the introduction and offer any suggestions for improvement.

WRITER’S WORKSHOP: 27 minutes: Writing the Body: Part II

Students will be given twenty minutes to write the second section of the body paragraph(s) describing Native perspectives. At the 20-minute mark, students should share their paragraph(s) with their writing partner, who will check if the paragraph(s) are well-developed with correct grammar, spelling and punctuation. If it is not, the writing partner should offer suggestions for how his or her partners may strengthen their writing—this could be in terms of style or mechanics. Once approved by the peer, the student may move on to writing the body paragraphs comprising Native  perspectives. If further assistance is needed, the student may raise their hand and the teacher will take a look at the introduction and offer any suggestions for improvement.

WRITER’S WORKSHOP: 20 minutes: Writing the Conclusion

Students will be given fifteen minutes to write their conclusion. At the 15-minute mark, students should share their conclusion with their writing partner, who will read it against the following criteria: Is the conclusion a well-developed paragraph with correct grammar, spelling and punctuation? If it is not, the writing partner should offer suggestions for how his or her partners may strengthen their writing—this could be in terms of style or mechanics. If further assistance is needed, the student may raise their hand and the teacher will take a look at the introduction and offer any suggestions for improvement.

At the end of class, all drafts should be collected by the teacher for editing. The following week, students should be returned their drafts with feedback along with corrections and recommendations for improvement. Once returned to students, the essays should be revised by students as homework, and upon completion, be turned in for grading.