Anticipation Lesson for Reservation Blues

Anticipation Guide for Reservation Blues

What do you know about ​

→ Spokane Indian reservation → culture, alienation

→ legendary bluesman named Robert Johnson

→ author, Sherman Alexie → American identity

→ American magical realism

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​What is a reservation?

"In the United States there are three types of reserved federal lands:  military, public, and Indian.  A federal Indian reservation is an area of land reserved for a tribe or tribes under treaty or other agreement with the United States, executive order, or federal statute or administrative action as permanent tribal homelands, and where the federal government holds title to the land in trust on behalf of the tribe.

Some reservations are the remnants of a tribe’s original base.  Others were created by the government for the resettling of Indian people forcibly relocated from their homelands." (bia.gov)

• The reservation was created in 1881

• Spokane Tribe explored the area for at least 9,000 years before Euroamerican contact.

• present day eastern Washington state with ventures into northern Idaho and western Montana following the acquisition of the horse around 1730.

• https://spokanetribe.com/resources/dnr/preservation/history/​

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Use the above link to learn more later!

Spokane Indian reservation

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Multiple Choice

Which of the following is a definition of RESERVATION?

• created by the government to make a profit from exports

• created by the government for the resettling of Indian people forcibly relocated from their homelands.

• created by the tribal system to protect their ancestral lands

• created by the tribal system to encourage tourism

Multiple Choice

Where is the modern day Spokane Reservation located?

• Canada

• Utah

• California

• Washington state

​made using tule, a type of bulrush or reed, that grew in these areas.

tribes who used them: Spokane, Coeur d'Alene and Nez Perce Native Indians.​

Tulle Mat Lodge

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​men hollowed logs with controlled fire that softened the timber so they could carve and shape their canoe to have a flat bottom with straight sides

Dugout Canoes

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​in the region of the Spokane River in eastern Washington, historically being a people whose livelihood revolved around salmon fishing

Salmon Fishing

a soft leather slipper or shoe, strictly one without a separate heel, having the sole turned up on all sides and sewn to the upper in a simple gathered seam

Moccasins

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Multiple Choice

What type of lodging did Spokane/ Coeur d'Alene tribes reside in?

• TeePee

• Tulle Mat Lodge

• Long House

• Pueblo

Simultaneously, that which gives us commonality often also alienates other cultures. This is seen with indigenous populations.

Alienation of Indigenous

Consider other American literature and what are the common aspects that defines what it means to be American

Also note cultural appropriation​

American Identity

​American Identity & Alienation

Some text here about the topic of discussion

The character at the "crossroads" at the start of the book was based on an actual musician who "sold his soul to the devil"

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On the next slide you'll learn about Robert Johnson

Who was legendary bluesman named Robert Johnson?

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Multiple Choice

Where was Robert Johnson?

• At the crossroads

• At the crosswalk

• At the gas station

• In the ocean

Multiple Choice

What did Robert Johnson do?

• Played the ukulele so well the Devil was jealous

• Created the song names "Reservation Blues"

• Sold his soul to the devil to play the Blues

• Wrote the novel, Reservation Blues

Multiple Choice

What is a "crossroads"?

• a point at which a crucial decision must be made that will have far-reaching consequences.

• a place where you must turn right but you only want to turn left

• where music and literature meet

• a developed plan of guided journey toward the unknown

​author,

Sherman Alexie

​Sherman Alexie is a preeminent Native American poet, novelist, performer and filmmaker. He has garnered high praise for his poems and short stories of contemporary Native American reservation life, among them The Business of Fancydancing (1992), The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fist Fight in Heaven (1993), which won a PEN/Hemingway Award, and Smoke Signals (1998), a critically acclaimed movie based on one of Alexie’s short stories and for which he co-wrote the screenplay. --(Poetryfoundation.com)

Schmoop defines it like this: "Magic Realism is all about mixing things up: the fantastic with the mundane, the ordinary with the extraordinary, dream life with waking life, reality and unreality."

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​Some text here about the topic of discussion.

Magical Realism

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Multiple Select

Magic Realism is (mark all that apply)

• the fantastic mixed with the mundane,

• the ordinary mixed with the extraordinary

• dream life mixed with waking life,

• reality mixed with unreality

​Now...let's keept reading!