Tuesday, September 10, 2013

September 10, 2013: Reading/Writing Asssignment

I can contrast the use of power between the United States and the Native American in the mid 19th century.

To be able to do this I must understand

  • How to make inferences about uses of power
  • How to annotate a text for examples of power
  • How to analyze textual evidence

I will show this in a graphic organizer by analyzing quotes that show different uses of power between the U.S. and native Americans. 


In the mid-to-late 1800’s, the United States began expanding their territory westward.  As they did, they encountered many different Native American tribes.  More often than not, the United States would take the land that the Native Americans were settled on and force them to move to reservations, which were small portions of land that the United States reserved for the Native Americans.  This forced relocation was often met with conflict. 

“Chief Ouray”
Excerpt from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee – Dee Brown
P. 367-368

                The Utes were Rocky Mountain Indians, and for a generation they had watched the invading white men move into their Colorado country like endless swarms of grasshoppers.  They had seen the white men drive their old enemies, the Cheyennes, from the Colorado plains.  Some Ute warriors had joined the Rope Thrower, Kit Carson, in the white men’s war against the Navahos.  In those times the Utes believed the white men were their allies1, and they enjoyed visiting Denver to exchange buffalo hides for gaudy trade goods in the stores.  But each year these strange men from the East became more numerous, invading the Utes’ mountains to dig for yellow and white metal.
                In 1863 the governor of the Colorado Territory (John Evans) and other officials came to Conejos in the San Juan Mountains to meet with Ouray the Arrow and nine chiefs of the Utes.  A treaty2 was signed there, giving the white men all the Colorado land east of the mountaintops (the Continental Divide), leaving the Utes all the land west of the divide.  In exchange for ten thousand dollars’ worth of goods and ten thousand dollars’ worth of provisions3 to be distributed annually for ten years, the Utes agreed to relinquish4 mineral rights to all parts of their territory and they promised not to cause conflict with any citizen of the United States who might come into their mountains to dig. 
                Five years later, the white men of Colorado decided they had let the Utes keep too much land.  Through political pressures they persuaded the Indian Bureau that the Utes were a constant nuisance5 – wandering everywhere, visiting towns and mining camps, and stealing livestock from settlers.  They said they wanted the Utes placed on a reservation6 with well-defined lines, but what they truly wanted was more Ute land.  Early in 1868 with a great deal of fanfare, the Indian Bureau invited Ouray, Nicaagat (Jack), and eight other chiefs to Washington.  Rope Thrower Carson accompanied them as trusted friend and adviser.  In Washington they were given rooms in a fine hotel, served excellent meals, and given an abundance of tobacco, candy and medals.
                When the time came for treaty making, the officials insisted that one of the visiting chiefs must accept responsibility for all seven tribes represented.  Ouray the Arrow was the unanimous7 choice for chief of all the Utes.  He was half-Apache, half-Uncompahgre Ute, a handsome, round-faced, sharp-eyed Indian who could speak English and Spanish as fluently as the two Indian tongues he knew.  When the land-hungry politicians tried to put him on the defensive, Ouray was sophisticated enough to present the Utes’ case to newspaper reporters.  “The agreement an Indian makes to a United States treaty,” he said, “is like the agreement a buffalo makes with his hunters when pierced with arrows.  All he can do is lie down and give in.”
                The officials could not fool Ouray with their bright-tinted maps and insincere words about boundary lines.  Instead of accepting a small corner of western Colorado, he held out for sixteen million acres of western slope forests and meadows, considerably less territory than his people had claimed before, but considerably more than the Colorado politicians wanted them to have. 

1.       Allies:  partners, friends, united
2.       Treaty:  an agreement between two groups
3.       Provisions:  essential supplies, especially food or other necessities
4.       Relinquish:  to let go of something, to give up something
5.       Nuisance:  something offensive, annoying, or obnoxious to someone else
6.       Reservation:  a piece of land set aside for Native Americans.
7.       Unanimous:  in complete agreement

       Crazy Horse was a war leader for the Oglala Lakota tribe.  He led a surprise attack on the United States army in retaliation of their attempts at taking their land and changing their way of life.  He was killed at Camp Robinson while attempting to resist imprisonment. 

“Crazy Horse”
Excerpt from Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee – Dee Brown
P. 289-290

                For a long time Crazy Horse had been waiting for a chance to test himself in battle with the Bluecoats1.  In all the years since the Fetterman fight at Fort Phil Kearny, he had studied the soldiers and their ways of fighting.  Each time he went into the Black Hills to seek visions, he had asked Wakantanka2 to give him secret powers so that he would know how to lead the Oglalas to victory if the white men ever came again to make war upon his people.  Since the time of his youth, Crazy Horse had known that the world men lived in was only a shadow of the real world.  To get into the real world, he had to dream, and when he was in the real world everything seemed to float or dance.  In this real world his horse danced as if it were wild or crazy, and this was why he called himself Crazy Horse.  He had learned that if he dreamed himself into the real world before going into a fight, he could endure anything.
                On this day, June 17, 1876, Crazy Horse dreamed himself into the real world, and he showed the Sioux how to do many things they had never done before while fighting the white man’s soldiers.  When Crook sent his pony soldiers in mounted charges, instead of rushing forward into the fire of their carbines3, the Sioux faded off to their flanks4 and struck weak places in their lines.  Crazy Horse kept his warriors mounted and always moving from one place to another.  By the time the sun was in the top of the sky he had the soldiers all mixed up in three separate fights.  The Bluecoats were accustomed to forming skirmish5 lines and strong fronts, and when Crazy Horse prevented them from fighting like that they were thrown into confusion.  By making many darting charges on their swift ponies, the Sioux kept the soldiers apart and always on the defensive.  When the Bluecoats’ fire grew too hot, the Sioux would draw away, tantalize6 a few soldiers into pursuit, and then turn on them with a fury.
               
1.        Bluecoats:  an early name for United States army soldiers.
2.        Wakantanka:  known by the Sioux Indians as “The Great Spirit.”
3.        Carbines:  the rifle used by the United States Cavalry in the 1800’s.
4.        Flanks:  the extreme left or right side of an army.
5.        Skirmish:  a fight in a war, any conflict or encounter.
6.        Tantalize:  to tempt or provoke, to tease by showing something desired but out of reach.  

       CHIEF OURAY
QUOTES FROM THE TEXT
MY ANALYSIS






















THE UNITED STATES
QUOTES FROM THE TEXT
MY ANALYSIS





















CHIEF CRAZY HORSE
QUOTES FROM THE TEXT
MY ANALYSIS


























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