“An Indian’s View of
Indian Affairs”
By: Chief Joseph
English I Literature
East Clarendon High School
C. Edge
Writer’s Purpose, p. 452
• Writer’s purpose – the writer’s motivation
or reason for writing a particular text
• Four purposes:
– Exposition
– Description
– Narration
– Persuasion
Expository Writing
• Exposition – writing that informs or
explains
• Example: an essay that explains how to
make a peanut butter sandwich OR an
essay that informs the audience of the
new procedures for getting a driver’s
license.
Narrative Writing
• Narration – writing that tells about a
sequence of events (story plot line)
• Example: An essay that tells about your
experiences on vacation in Myrtle Beach.
Descriptive Writing
• Description – writing that creates a mood
using images that appeal to our five
senses: sight, smell, touch, taste, and
hearing
• Example: an essay that describes the
sensory details surrounding your latest
birthday party.
Persuasive Writing
• Persuasion – writing that tries to make the
reader think or feel a certain way about
something
• Example: an essay that tries to convince
your audience that your favorite band
should be their favorite band.
Identify the main purpose.
• Most essays will have more than one
purpose—i.e. they will persuade by giving
new information, or they may describe the
setting as they narrate the story.
• A text will; however, have a main purpose
that outweighs all the rest.
• What is the main purpose of “An Indian’s
View of Indian Affairs”?
Appealing to the Head and the
Heart, p. 446
• Persuasive techniques:
– Logical appeals – using reason, facts,
statistics, and examples to persuade
– Emotional appeals – using words, phrases,
and anecdotes that appeal strongly to the
audiences’ feelings—their fears, hopes, even
prejudices—to persuade
KWL Chart
• Make a KWL chart.
• K – write what you already know about
“Indian affairs”
• W – write what you want to know
• L – write what you have learned after
reading the selection
K
W
L
Language Link Worksheet
• Denotation – the dictionary definition of words
• Connotation – the emotional overtones of words
– Example:
• The U.S. government sent Chief Joseph to a reservation.
• The U.S. government exiled Chief Joseph to a reservation.
– The word exiled suggests that he was forcibly removed from his
home against his will. The connotations of exiled add an
element of suffering to his situation.
• Loaded words – emotionally packed words that
have strong connotations—either positive or
negative—that arouse powerful feelings
– Especially common in advertising and politics, where
they are designed to replace reason with emotion.
Recognizing Persuasive
Techniques, p. 447
• Why does Chief Joseph repeat the phrase
“Good words will not”?
• Possibly to make his audience feel his
anger at the empty promises he has
heard; to emphasize the ironic contrast
between what is said by the whites and
the suffering they have inflicted upon his
people.
Logical and Emotional Appeals, p.
448
• What logical appeals does Chief Joseph
use here to argue for the tribe’s freedom?
• He compares placing his people on a
reservation to tethering a horse to a
stake—neither will prosper in captivity. He
asks whites where they get their authority
to restrict his people’s freedom.
Connotations, p. 448
• What associations are suggested by the
words outlaw and animals?
– Both words suggest traits of fierceness and
uncontrollability.
• What point is Chief Joseph making with
these words?
– White society thinks of Native Americans as
being uncivilized and treats them as less than
human.
• Chief Joseph believes the best hope for peace is
treating all people alike.
• Chief Joseph wants freedom for his people?
• Chief Joseph discusses many concerns such as:
his children, his land, and the health of his
people.
• According to Chief Joseph, “good words” are
unable to pay for his horses and cattle.
• Chief Joseph speaks of the government
breaking promises to provide homes where the
American Indians can live in peace.
Persuasion
• Chief Joseph refers to the deaths of his people
in order to plead for a solution to the problem so
that peace can be realized.
• Chief Joseph supports his argument with facts
such as: the government has broken promises to
his people, the government representatives
have talked to him about the plight of his people,
and his people were once free to go wherever
they wished.
p. 450, Question #1
• Were you persuaded by Chief Joseph?
Tell how you responded to his speech.
• Most students will say the speech
persuaded them to feel sorry or angry
about the treatment of Chief Joseph’s
people Others may remain unpersuaded
perhaps because of the lack of statistical
information.
p. 450, Question #2
• Does Chief Joseph use logical or emotional
appeals or both to persuade his audience?
Find some examples. What does he want to
persuade his audience to do?
• Chief Joseph uses both logical and emotional
appeals. Logical appeals: he asks whites to
recognize Native Americans as people and to
treat them equally under the law. Emotional
appeals: he describes how his people are “shot
down like animals” and expresses a desire to
hear “no more groans of wounded men and
women.” He wants to persuade his audience to
treat Native Americans as equals.
p. 450, Question #3
• Who is “The Man from Washington” in the
Connections poem on page 449, and who is
the speaker? Compare this speaker’s message
with Chief Joseph’s.
• The man is probably an official from the Bureau
of Indian Affairs and the speaker a disillusioned
Native American. Students may say that the
speaker, unlike Chief Joseph, seems to have no
hope that his people will ever achieve equal
rights.
p. 450, Question #4
• Are actions always more important than
“good words”? Support your opinion with
examples from history or from your own
experience.
• Student may say that words without action
mean little, citing such examples as empty
campaign promises to improve the school.
p. 450, Question #5
• Fill in the L column in the KWL chart you
made for the Quickwrite. If you have any
unanswered questions, do some research
and share your findings with the class.
Main Ideas and Supporting Ideas,
p. 450
Main Idea:
____________________
Main Idea:
____________________
Supporting Ideas
Supporting Ideas
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