DOCUMENT-BASED QUESTION
This question is based on the accompanying documents (1-__). The question is
designed to test your ability to work with historical documents. Some of the
documents have been edited for the purposes of the question. As you analyze
the documents, take into account the source of each document and any point of
view that may be presented in the document.
Historical Context:
One of the key concepts of the early Republic was the
belief in Manifest Destiny, regardless of claims and
treaties, the American people surged westward in search
of wealth and land. Started in 1864, the Transcontinental
Railroad sped the process in record time. By the Census
of 1890, the frontier was declared nonexistent.
Task: Using information from the documents and your knowledge of United States
history, answer the questions that follow each document in Part A. Your answers to
the questions will help you write the Part B essay in which you will be asked to:
Insert Essential Question students are to answer.
The United States methodically destroyed the Indian
culture. Agree or disagree with this statement and
defend your answer using primary documents.
Part A
Short-Answer Questions
Directions: Analyze the documents and answer the short-answer questions that follow
each document in the space provided.
Document 1
Office of Indian Affairs. Rules for the Indian School Service. (Washington: Government Printing
Office, 1898). Online facsimile at: http://www.wisconsinhistory.org/turningpoints/search.asp?id=748;
Visited on: 9/17/2007
Insert 1-2 scaffolding questions for each source.
1. What expectations did the Indian school officials make of the parents of their
students?
Score
2. Did the United States have the right to take the parenting rights from the Indians?
Score
Document 2
1. What are the people in the left half of the picture doing? Can you identify any of the
nationalities?
Score
2 Read the caption and answer the way you would expect the authority figure in the
center of the picture to answer this.
Score
Document 3
http://www.legendsofamerica.com/we-buffalohunters.html
Let them kill, skin, and sell until the buffalo is
exterminated, as it is the only way to bring lasting peace
and allow civilization to advance."
- General Philip Sheridan
1
What group officially sanctioned the destruction of the buffalo?
Score
2 How would this order affect the Plains Indians?
Score
Document 4
Ten Bears, Comanche Chief,
Made an Eloquent Address At The Medicine Lodge Peace
Council
One of the most eloquent addresses ever made by an Indian was that
made by "Ten Bears", a Comanche, before the Commissioners at the
famous Medicine Lodge Peace Council in October, 1867. He said:
. "But there are things which you have said to me which I do not like.
They were not sweet like sugar but bitter like gourds. You said that
you wanted to put us upon reservation, to build our houses and make
us medicine lodges. I do not want them. I was born on the prairie
where the wind blew free and there was nothing to break the light of
the sun. I was born where there were no closures and where
everything drew a free breath. I want to die there and not within
walls. I know every stream and every wood between the Rio Grande
and the Arkansas. I have hunted and lived over the country. I lived
like my fathers before me, and like them, I lived happily.
"When I was at Washington the Great Father told me that all the
Comanches land was ours and that no one should hinder us in living
upon it. So, why do you ask us to leave the rivers and the sun and the
wind and live in houses? Do not ask us to give up the buffalo for the
sheep. The young men have heard talk of this, and it has made them
sad and angry. Do not speak of it more. I love to carry out the talk I
got from the Great Father. When I get goods and presents I and my
people feel glad, since it shows that he holds us in his eye.
"If the Texans had kept out of my country there might have been
peace. But that which you now say we must live on is too small. The
Texans have taken away the places where the grass grew the thickest
and the timber was the best. Had we kept that we might have done
the things you ask. But it is too late. The white man has the country
which we loved, and we only wish to wander on the prairie until we
die.
The Barber County Index, September 29, 1927.
1
What problems did Ten Bears see with the whites coming to his territory?
Score
2. What Ten Bears think about negotiating with “the Great Father”? Does he trust him?
Why?
Score
Document 5
Transcript of Treaty of Fort Laramie (1868)
ARTICLE XVI.
The United States hereby agrees and stipulates that the country north
of the North Platte river and east of the summits of the Big Horn
mountains shall be held and considered to be unceded. Indian
territory, and also stipulates and agrees that no white person or
persons shall be permitted to settle upon or occupy any portion of the
same; or without the consent of the Indians, first had and obtained, to
pass through the same; and it is further agreed by the United States,
that within ninety days after the conclusion of peace with all the
bands of the Sioux nation, the military posts now established in the
territory in this article named shall be abandoned, and that the road
leading to them and by them to the settlements in the Territory of
Montana shall be closed.
http://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=true&doc=42&pa
ge=transcript
1 What would happen to the Sioux territory according to the treaty?
Score
2 How well do you think the United States honored this treaty?
Score
Document 6
http://www.pbs.org/weta/thewest/resources/archives/eight/dawes.htm
The Dawes Act
February 8, 1887
(U. S. Statutes at Large, Vol. XXIV, p. 388 ff.)
[Congressman Henry Dawes, author of the act, once expressed his faith in the civilizing
power of private property with the claim that to be civilized was to "wear civilized
clothes...cultivate the ground, live in houses, ride in Studebaker wagons, send children to
school, drink whiskey [and] own property."]
An act to provide for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reservations,
and to extend the protection of the laws of the United States and the Territories over the
Indians, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted, That in all cases where any tribe or band of Indians has been, or shall hereafter
be, located upon any reservation created for their use, either by treaty stipulation or by virtue
of an act of Congress or executive order setting apart the same for their use, the President of
the United States be, and he hereby is, authorized, whenever in his opinion any reservation or
any part thereof of such Indians is advantageous for agricultural and grazing purposes to
cause said reservation, or any part thereof, to be surveyed, or resurveyed if necessary, and to
allot the lands in said reservations in severalty to any Indian located thereon in quantities as
follows:
To each head of a family, one-quarter of a section;
To each single person over eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section;
To each orphan child under eighteen years of age, one-eighth of a section; and,
To each other single person under eighteen years now living, or who may be born prior to the
date of the order of the President directing an allotment of the lands embraced in any
reservation, one-sixteenth of a section; . . .
SEC. 6..And every Indian born within the territorial limits of the United States to whom
allotments shall have been made under the provisions of this act, or under any law or treaty,
and every Indian born within the territorial limits of the United States who has voluntarily
taken up, within said limits, his residence separate and apart from any tribe of Indians therein,
and has adopted the habits of civilized life, is hereby declared to be a citizen of the United
States, and is entitled to all the rights, privileges, and immunities of such citizens, whether
said Indian has been or not, by birth or otherwise, a member of any tribe of Indians within the
territorial limits of the United States
1
What is the purpose of the Dawes act?
Score
2 How does this act affect the Native Americans identity?
Score
Document 7
Miniconjou Chief Big Foot lies dead in the snow. He was among the first to die on December 29, 1890 at Wounded
Knee.
http://www.lastoftheindependents.com/wounded.htm
1. What happened at Wounded Knee?
2. How did help solidify the efforts of the Dawes Act?
Score
Score
Part B
Essay
Directions: Write a well-organized essay that includes an introduction, several
paragraphs, and a conclusion. Use evidence from at least __6_ documents in the
body of the essay. Support your response with relevant facts, examples, and details.
Include additional outside information.
Historical Context:
One of the key concepts of the early Republic was the
belief in Manifest Destiny, regardless of claims and
treaties, the American people surged westward in search
of wealth and land. Started in 1864, the Transcontinental
Railroad sped the process in record time. By the Census
of 1890, the frontier was declared nonexistent.
Task: Using information from the documents and your knowledge of United States
history, answer the questions that follow each document in Part A. Your answers to
the questions will help you write the Part B essay in which you will be asked to:
Insert Essential Question students are to answer.
The United States methodically destroyed the Indian
culture. Agree or disagree with this statement and
defend your answer using primary documents.
Guidelines:
In your essay, be sure to:
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



Address all aspects of the Task by accurately analyzing and interpreting
at least _6__ documents.
Incorporate information from the documents in the body of the essay.
Incorporate relevant outside information.
Support the theme with relevant facts, examples, and details.
Use a clear plan of organization.
Introduce the theme by establishing a framework that is beyond a simple
restatement of the Task or Historical Context, and conclude with a
summarization of the theme.
Michael Wilson
Cy Woods High School
U.S. History