In the passage, the Lakota elders express sadness over the younger generation's reliance on white settlers and their abandonment of traditional practices like hunting and making stone arrow points. They feel that this shift signifies a loss of important skills and a disconnection from their identity as hunters, which has defined their way of life for countless generations. The elders believe this change could lead to the erosion of their culture and independence, as living near the fort and depending on annuities simplifies life but detracts from the essence of what it means to be Lakota. I can relate to this when I chose to take a shortcut on a project instead of putting in the necessary effort to learn the skills I needed. While it was easier in the moment, I felt a lack of fulfillment and pride in my work, similar to how the Lakota elders might feel that their people's identity is at risk when they abandon their traditions for convenience.
READ the following excerpt from The Journey of Crazy Horse: A Lakota History and use it to respond to the questions that follow.
Memory is like riding a trail at night with a lighted torch, some of the old ones liked to say. The torch casts its light only so far, and beyond that is the darkness.
There were, among the Lakota, young people who couldn’t remember a time without white men. For some young men, making arrows meant looking for the white man’s barrel hoop iron to be chiseled into points, rather than finding the right kind of chert or flint —the stones that had been chipped and flaked into arrow heads for generations untold. Now, most of the young men did not have the skill to make stone arrow points. Likewise, after Grattan and his soldiers were so soundly defeated, the Lakota who lived near the fort —the Loafers—were already complaining that the Long Knives would take away their annuities permanently. Surely there was darkness of a kind, some of the old ones said sadly at hearing about the complaining. How is it that a people whose life path for countless generations has been hunting have forgotten how to hunt and make meat? Living in the shadow of the fort waiting for the annuity cattle was easier than finding and chasing buffalo. But that was not life in the opinion of those who shunned the easy influences of the whites and stayed away from the fort.
At the southern edges of Lakota territory near the rolling hills close to the Blue Water River, which flowed into the Shell, was a new death scaffold. Four poles supported a platform holding a hidewrapped body. From the platform hung the accoutrements of a warrior’s life, a painted shield and eagle feathers. This was the final earthly abode of Conquering Bear.
The passing of the old man left a hole in his family and uneasiness for the Sicangu Lakota—uneasiness born of the new hard times that came with the white man. Someone among the Long Knives at the fort, perhaps the one called Fleming or perhaps on the orders of the “great father” far to the east, had labeled Conquering Bear as the spokesman for the Sicangu. Respected as he was in his own camp and by many Sicangu, other leaders had bristled that the old man seemed to accept the white man’s authority in this matter. Others said the old man was simply doing what he would have done in a sensitive situation. Nonetheless, there was disagreement and uneasiness because some blamed him for the Grattan incident.
After the days of mourning, the Crazy Horse lodge and a few other Oglala lodges visiting among the Sicangu departed for the Powder River country. There, they rejoined the Hunkpatila encampment. Light Hair was happy to see Lone Bear and his new friend He Dog.
The playfulness of boyhood was gone now. The concerns of the three boys were now more and more tied to the issues facing their people. They stayed near the council lodge in the evenings hoping to catch as much as they could of the earnest conversations of the old men as they talked of recent events at Fort Laramie. News about the fort was never lacking. According to the latest messenger, the Long Knives were still staying near the fort. They had been so afraid that Grattan and the other dead had been left unburied for days, until the French trader Bordeaux was paid to gather them up for burial. Many of the old men laughed, amazed that the bluster and loudness exhibited by most whites seemed to be nothing more than fog before the persistent sun.
Use the passage above to answer the following question: Watch this VIDEO for instructions.
Prompt: In the passage, the Lakota elders feel sad that some young people have forgotten how to hunt and make stone arrow points, choosing instead to live near the fort and get goods from the white settlers. What reasons do the elders give for feeling this way, and what can you guess they believe will happen to the Lakota way of life because of this change? Compare this to a time in your own life when you or someone you know chose the "easy" way instead of the traditional or harder way. (Your answer should be in first person using pronouns such as “I” “me” and “my”.)
Remember to use the ACES format. Your answer should be at least four sentences long.
1 answer