How is History Recorded? The Lewis and Clark Journals and Lakota Winter Counts In this activity, you will read two primary documents from the early 1800s: a journal entry from the Lewis and Clark expedition and a Lakota Indian "winter count" calendar. Using an analysis worksheet, you will identify key ideas and details from the documents, while also examining the craft and structure of each document. You will draw upon both the content and form of the documents to make inferences about the respective cultures of Euro-Americans and Native Americans in the early 1800s.

Objectives  Students will understand that both the United States and Teton Sioux were powerful nations in the early 1800s.  Students will understand that trade encounters, with both Euro-Americans and other Indian tribes, were an important aspect of Plains Indian society.

Instructions 1.

Step 1. Please locate the John Ordway Describes Meeting the Teton Sioux document and the Analysis Worksheet. As a class, we will read the document and in groups, you will complete the Ordway columns of Part I and II of the worksheet.

2.

Step 2. Please locate the American Horse's Winter Count. You will read the document on your own, being sure to mark it up (interact with the reading). a.

Quick discussion questions: i. what were Lakota winter counts? ii. what was their connection to oral history? iii. who provided the descriptions of the images used in the winter count?

3.

Step 3. In groups, you are to complete the American Horse column of Part I and II of the worksheet.

4.

Step 4. In groups, complete Part III of the worksheet. a.

Let’s share and review key content points: i. the United States and Teton Sioux were both powerful nations at this time ii. trade was a regular part of life (and the main form of interaction between Euro-Americans and Plains Indians) iii. oral history was the primary way that the Lakota recorded and remembered their past iv. Euro-Americans relied more on comprehensive and highly detailed written reporting

5.

Step 5. Let’s deepen the discussion by posing the following questions: a.

Why does it matter how history is recorded? What difference does it make for us today?

b.

Which source is more accurate? More biased?

Journals of Lewis and Clark: John Ordway Describes Meeting the Teton Sioux

In 1804, President Thomas Jefferson hired Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the vast territory of the Louisiana Purchase, recently acquired from France. Lewis and Clark followed the path of the Missouri and Columbia Rivers through eleven present-day states to the Pacific Ocean. Both Lewis and Clark, along with several other members of the "Corps of Discovery," recorded their impressions of the expedition's often-perilous journey in detailed journal entries. These entries spanned from March 3, 1804 to September 26, 1806, and altogether totaled more than 140,000 words. The excerpt below, about their first encounter with the Teton Sioux (Lakota), is from army sergeant, John Ordway. Spelling and punctuation have been modernized to improve clarity.

September 25, 1804 A clear and pleasant morning. All things made ready to receive the band of the Sioux nation of Indians, called the Tribe of Tetons. About 10 a.m. they came flocking in from both sides of the river. When 30 or so [Sioux] men were selected, Capt Lewis & Capt Clark went out to speak and treat with them. Gave the 3 Chiefs 3 new medals & 1 American flag, some knives and other small articles of goods; and gave the head chief, the Black Buffalow, a red coat and a cocked hat and feather and also some tobacco. ... They did not appear to talk much until they had got the goods, and then they wanted more, and said we must stop with them or leave one of the pirogues with them, as that was what

pirogues: open boats Lewis and Clark used to carry large amounts of cargo squaws: an American Indian woman or wife

they expected. …Capt Clark used moderation with them told them that we must and would go on and would go. That we were not squaws, but warriors. The chief said he had warriors too, and if we were to go on they would follow us and kill [us]…. then Capt Clark told them that we were sent by their great father the president of the U. S. and that if they misused us that he or Capt Lewis could by writing to [the president] have them all destroyed as it were in a moment. Source: University of Nebraska, The Journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, September 25, 1804, http://lewisandclarkjournals.unl.edu/read/?_xmlsrc=1804-09-25.xml&_xslsrc=LCstyles.xsl#noten07092509

American Horse’s Winter Count American Horse (1840-1908) was an Oglala Lakota chief who participated in the Sioux Wars of the 1870s. He was also a “keeper,” responsible for maintaining his band’s “winter count,” which had been passed down from his grandfather, to his father, to him. By 1879, American Horse was living on the Pine Ridge Reservation in present day South Dakota. At the request of an U.S. army doctor stationed at the reservation, he copied a version of the winter count, covering the years 1775 to 1878, into a notebook. The doctor, William H. Corbusier, sent the notebook (along with notes he wrote and explanations from American Horse) to the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. The excerpt below shows American Horse’s winter count for the years 1804-15.    

keeper: Lakota male whose role was to preserve the oral history of his people by maintaining a winter count band: basic social unit, usually about 100 people Lakota: Plains Indians people, also known as the Teton Sioux (and sometimes referred to as Dakota); the Lakota are divided into seven tribes, including the Oglala, and now live mostly in North and South Dakota winter count: a yearly record using pictographs that is used to maintain a community’s history and provide a reference to remember their oral history

The events included in American Horse’s winter count indicate the frequent warfare between the Lakota and other Plains tribes. These conflicts, however, resulted in far less loss of life than did European or Euro-American wars at the same time. Indian warriors who lost their life in battle were individually honored and remembered in oral histories. Year 1804-5

American Horse’s Explanation (with Corbusier’s Notes in parentheses) An Indian woman, married to a white man, was unfaithful; she was killed by a man named Ponka (The symbol for Ponka indicates the name)

1805-6

The Dakotas had a council with the whites on the Missouri River, below the Cheyenne Agency, near the mouth of Bad Creek {Lewis and Clark Expedition?}. (They had many flags, which the Good-White-Man gave them with their guns, and they erected them on poles to show their friendly feelings. The curved line is to represent the council lodge, which they made by opening several tipis and uniting them at their sides to form a semicircle. The marks are for the people. American Horse's father was born this year.)

1806-7

Black-Rock, a Dakota, was killed by the Crows. (A rock is represented above his head. He was killed with a bow and arrow and was scalped)

Pictograph

1807-8

Broken-Leg was killed by the Pawnees. (His leg had been broken by a bullet in a previous fight with the Pawnees)

1808-9

Little-Beaver's trading house was burned down. (Many other counts mark this event between 1808 and 1810; some specify that the cabin or trading post exploded with gun powder.)

1809-10 Black-Rock was killed by the Crows. (His brother, whose name he had taken, was killed by the Crows three years before)

1810-11 Red-Shirt, a Dakota, was killed by the Crows. (Red Shirt, a Dakota, was killed by the Crows while looking for his ponies near Old Woman's Fork).

1811-12 They caught many wild horses south of the Platte River. (White Cow Killer calls it "Catching-wild-horses-winter")

1812-13 Big Waist's father was killed. (White Cow Killer calls this "Big-Belly's-father-killed winter").

1813-14 Many had the whooping cough. (The cough is represented by lines issuing from the man's mouth).

1814-15 Dakotas went to a Kiowa village for a peace council, but someone clubbed a Kiowa. (The Dakotas met with Kaiowas (about 6 miles from Scott's Bluff [Nebraska] near the mouth of Horse Creek) to treat for peace; but their intentions were frustrated by one of their number, who drove a hatchet into a Kiowa's head.)

Source: American Horse Winter Count, 1775-1878, 10-1/2'' x 7-1/2'' (27 x 19 cm); available at the Smithsonian Institution/National Anthropological Archives, Lakota Winter Counts: An Online Exhibit, http://wintercounts.si.edu/index.html.

HOW IS HISTORY RECORDED? ANALYSIS WORKSHEET LEWIS AND CLARK JOURNALS AND THE LAKOTA WINTER COUNTS

Part I: Key Ideas and Details Information from Ordway’s journal:

1. What gifts do Lewis and Clark offer to the Teton Sioux?

2. What is the response of the Teton chiefs to the gifts?

Information from American Horse’s Winter Count:

1. What groups of people do the Lakota interact with?

2. How did they interact? Were they friends or enemies?

Part II: Craft and Structure John Ordway Journal Entry

American Horse Winter Count

Who  who created the source?  who is the subject(s)?  who is the audience?

Purpose  why was this source created?

Date



dates/amount of time covered in this excerpt?

Structure  how does this source present information?

Check all that apply:

o o o o

visually chronologically with written words with spoken words (oral history)

Check all that apply:

o o o o

visually chronologically with written words with spoken words (oral history)

Part III: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas 1) What inferences can you draw about the author’s culture and society? Most people in this society could read and write Storytelling was the primary way important events were remembered Trade with other groups was a regular part of life Conflict with other groups was a regular part of life 2) List two similarities and two differences between these sources: Similarities

Differences

Ordway

American Horse