Lesson Plan Table of Contents
The Mandan Buffalo Dance Lesson Plan
Content Introduction
The Mandan and the Sioux depended so heavily on certain animals that they would starve without them. In the Southwest, the Hopi and Zuni depended as heavily on annual rainfall for their survival. In each of these cases, the tribes created interpretive dances to encourage the arrival of something that was so important to their survival that they would die without it. In this lesson, students will learn how several Native American tribes constructed their dances and dedications, and how people have used dance, poetry, music, art, or other expressions to make a dedication to a physical or conceptual thing. Students will make their own dedications and perform or display them to each other.
Click on the following links to view some related Catlin paintings found in the collection of the Smithsonian American Art Museum:
Part I: The Buffalo
Guided Practice
As a class, brainstorm a list of things we depend upon for survival both mentally and physically. (Some suggestions: wheat, water, forests, oxygen, telephones, love, acceptance, friendship, knowledge, exercise.)
Discuss the importance of buffalo to Plains Indians. Ask the students the following questions and then answer their questions:
- What does the word "buffalo" signify?
buffalo n. 1: large shaggy-haired brown bison of North American plains [syn: American bison, American buffalo, Bison bison] 2: a city on Lake Erie in western New York (near Niagara Falls) [syn: Buffalo] 3: meat from an American bison 4: any of several Old World animals resembling oxen including, e.g., water buffalo; Cape buffalo [syn: Old World buffalo] v : intimidate or overawe
Source: WordNet ® 1.6, © 1997 Princeton University.
Word History: The buffalo is so closely associated with the Wild West that one might assume that its name comes from a Native American word, as is the case with the words moose and skunk. The buffalo referred to by the Greek and Latin words was of course not the American one but an Old World mammal, such as the water buffalo of southern Asia. Applied to the North American mammal, buffalo is a misnomer, bison being the preferred term. As far as everyday usage is concerned, however, buffalo, first recorded for the American mammal in 1635, is older than bison, first recorded in 1774.
Source: The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition. Copyright © 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
- What does it signify for Native Americans?
Read the Sioux legend of the White Buffalo aloud to the class. You can find the legend online at PBS:
"The Legend of the White Buffalo Calf Woman"
http://www.pbs.org/itvs/homeland/lakota3.html
- How did American Indians use the animal signified by the word "buffalo"?
See http://www.bluecloud.org/11.html for a list. Also, see the "buffalo" subheading in the article "The Lakota Ways" on the PBS site: http://www.pbs.org/itvs/homeland/lakota.html.
- Many Plains Indians tribes depended on the annual migration of the buffalo for their food supply. They thought of the buffalo as essential to their physical and spiritual livelihood. Because the buffalo were so important to sustaining the Indians, the Indians dedicated many dances, stories, songs, and other artistic expressions to the buffalo to ensure their return. What are some examples in your culture of an artistic expression made to something that the artist depends on for survival? In cultures other than your own?
Be ready with examples from your culture to get the students rolling: you can play a specific love song, read a poem, show pictures of a sculpture or painting, or find another artistic expression that allegorizes an important concept.
Independent Practice
Take the students to the computer lab and ask them to work with the Catlin Web site to find answers to the following questions:
- Who is George Catlin?
- What does he say about Native American dances? (Using the keyword "dance," search Catlinís Letters and Notes on the site.) Write down a quote in which Catlin talks about why Native Americans dance.
After they have finished with the Catlin Web site, instruct them to go to the Buffalo Billís Historical Center Web site and watch the movie "Buffalo and the People" on the Plains Indian Museum Gallery page (http://www.bbhc.org/pim/galleries.cfm) with the following questions in mind:
- Describe a typical buffalo headdress.
- Find three quotes from Native Americans describing the Plains Indians' relationship to the buffalo.
- Who wore the buffalo bonnets and why?
Part II: The Buffalo Dance
Guided Practice
Read the following excerpts from Richard Murrayís commentary in the "Western Landscape" campfire story on the Catlin Web site.
- "Catlin emphasizes that the threat of starvation motivates the Mandans to perform the Buffalo Dance, which holds great social and religious significance. Its purpose is to call upon the Great Spirit to summon buffalo. The dance never fails because the Mandans repeat the motions and music until the herd comes."
- "The bear dance is given several days in succession, previous to a bear hunt. For this dance, one of the chief medicine-men places over his body the entire skin of a bear and looks through the skin hanging over his face. Others wear similar masks. They all closely imitate the animal=s movements, some representing its running and others the peculiar attitude and hanging of the paws, when it is sitting up on its hind feet, and looking out for the approach of an enemy."
Independent Practice
Students should divide into groups of three. Each group should research the following assignments (these may be done out of order) for three Indian cultures, one of which must be a Plains Indian tribe (NOT the Mandan). The students should research on the Web in class or after school, being cautious to use only trustworthy sites, especially government, educational, or organization sites.
- Identify a thing (conceptual or physical) that your group could not live without if you were stranded on a desert island.
- Choose a culture in which an artist represents this concept. It may be your own culture.
- Look up a definition for the word "culture" and explain why you think the group of people you have chosen fit that definition.
- Find a story, joke, legend, or other example of oral history that documents this thing in the culture you have chosen.
- Find a poem, narrative, essay, or other written example that documents this thing in the culture you have chosen.
- Find a sculpture, painting, or other artwork that expresses the essence of this thing.
- Find a song or dance that expresses this thing.
- Advanced students should identify the tropes used in each expression (i.e., metaphor, apostrophe, synecdoche, allegory, personification) and explain why the trope fits.
Wrap-Up Activity
Look at Catlinís painting Dying Buffalo, Shot with an Arrow by printing it out and distributing it throughout the class or projecting it on a color transparency or on the computer.
- How does Catlin depict the buffalo?
- How is this different from the ways we have seen Plains Indian tribes interpret the buffalo?
- Why do you think they are different?
Extended Activity
Take a field trip to a powwow to see tribal dances in action. There are many powwows all across the country. Surf the Web to find one in your area.
Vocabulary
powwow.
Standards
National Center for History in the Schools—Historical Thinking (5–12):
- Standard 2: Historical Comprehension
E. Students should be able to read historical narratives imaginatively, taking into account what the narrative reveals of the humanity of the individuals and groups involved—their probable values, outlook, motives, hopes, fears, strengths, and weaknesses.
F. Students should be able to appreciate historical perspectives—(a) describing the past on its own terms, through the eyes and experiences of those who were there, as revealed through their literature, diaries, letters, debates, arts, artifacts, and the like; (b) considering the historical context in which the event unfolded—the values, outlook, options, and contingencies of that time and place; and (c) avoiding "present-mindedness," judging the past solely in terms of present-day norms and values.
I. Students should be able to draw upon visual, literary, and musical sources including: (a) photographs, paintings, cartoons, and architectural drawings; (b) novels, poetry, and plays; and (c) folk, popular and classical music, to clarify, illustrate, or elaborate upon information presented in the historical narrative.
- Standard 3: Historical Analysis and Interpretation
A. Students should be able to compare and contrast differing sets of ideas, values, personalities, behaviors, and institutions by identifying likenesses and differences.
B. Students should be able to consider multiple perspectives of various peoples in the past by demonstrating their differing motives, beliefs, interests, hopes, and fears.
D. Students should be able to draw comparisons across eras and regions in order to define enduring issues as well as large-scale or long-term developments that transcend regional and temporal boundaries.
G. Students should be able to challenge arguments of historical inevitability by formulating examples of historical contingency, of how different choices could have led to different consequences.
- Standard 4: Historical Research Capabilities
B. Students should be able to obtain historical data from a variety of sources, including: library and museum collections, historic sites, historical photos, journals, diaries, eyewitness accounts, newspapers, and the like; documentary films, oral testimony from living witnesses, censuses, tax records, city directories, statistical compilations, and economic indicators.
National Standards for Arts Education—Visual Arts:
- Standard 1 (5-8): Understanding and applying media, techniques, and processes
A. Students select media, techniques, and processes; analyze what makes them effective or not effective in communicating ideas; and reflect upon the effectiveness of their choices.
B. Students intentionally take advantage of the qualities and characteristics of art media, techniques, and processes to enhance communication of their experiences and ideas.
- Standard 4 (5-8): Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures
A. Students know and compare the characteristics of artworks in various eras and cultures.
- Standard 6 (5-8): Making connections between visual arts and other disciplines
A. Students compare the characteristics of works in two or more art forms that share similar subject matter, historical periods, or cultural context.
- Standard 1 (9-12): Understanding and applying media, techniques, and processes
A. Students apply media, techniques, and processes with sufficient skill, confidence, and sensitivity that their intentions are carried out in their artworks.
B. Students conceive and create works of visual art that demonstrate an understanding of how the communication of their ideas relates to the media, techniques, and processes they use.
- Standard 3 (9-12): Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas
A. Students reflect on how artworks differ visually, spatially, temporally, and functionally, and describe how these are related to history and culture.
B. Students apply subjects, symbols, and ideas in their artworks and use the skills gained to solve problems in daily life.
- Standard 4 (9-12): Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures
A. Students differentiate among a variety of historical and cultural contexts in terms of characteristics and purposes of works of art.
B. Students describe the function and explore the meaning of specific art objects within varied cultures, times, and places.
C. Students analyze relationships of works of art to one another in terms of history, aesthetics, and culture, justifying conclusions made in the analysis and using such conclusions to inform their own art making.
B(Advanced). Students analyze common characteristics of visual arts evident across time and among cultural/ethnic groups to formulate analyses, evaluations, and interpretations of meaning.
- Standard 5 (9-12): Reflecting upon and assessing the characteristics and merits of their work and the work of others
A. Students identify intentions of those creating artworks, explore the implications of various purposes, and justify their analyses of purposes in particular works.
B. Students describe meanings of artworks by analyzing how specific works are created and how they relate to historical and cultural contexts.
C. Students reflect analytically on various interpretations as a means for understanding and evaluating works of visual art.
A (Advanced). Students correlate responses to works of visual art with various techniques for communicating meanings, ideas, attitudes, views, and intentions.
National Standards for Arts Education—Dance:
- Standard 1 (5-8): Identifying and demonstrating movement elements and skills in performing dance
E. Students identify and clearly demonstrate a range of dynamics / movement qualities.
F. Students demonstrate increasing kinesthetic awareness, concentration, and focus in performing movement skills.
G. Students demonstrate accurate memorization and reproduction of movement sequences.
- Standard 2 (5-8): Understanding choreographic principles, processes, and structures
C. Students successfully demonstrate the structures or forms of AB, ABA, canon, call and response, and narrative.
D. Students demonstrate the ability to work cooperatively in a small group during the choreographic process.
E. Students demonstrate the following partner skills in a visually interesting way: creating contrasting and complementary shapes, taking and supporting weight.
- Standard 3 (5-8): Understanding dance as a way to create and communicate meaning
D. Students create a dance that successfully communicates a topic of personal significance.
- Standard 2 (9-12): Understanding choreographic principles, processes, and structures
A. Students use improvisation to generate movement for choreography.
- Standard 3 (9-12): Understanding dance as a way to create and communicate meaning
B. Students demonstrate understanding of how personal experience influences the interpretation of a dance.
C. Students create a dance that effectively communicates a contemporary social theme.
National Standards for Arts Education—Music:
- Standard 7 (5-8): Evaluating music and music performances
A. Students develop criteria for evaluating the quality and effectiveness of music performances and compositions and apply the criteria in their personal listening and performing.
National Council of Teachers of English:
- Standard 1: Students read a wide range of print and nonprint texts to build an understanding of texts, of themselves, and of the cultures of the United States and the world; to acquire new information; to respond to the needs and demands of society and the workplace; and for personal fulfillment. Among these texts are fiction and nonfiction, classic and contemporary works.
- Standard 2: Students read a wide range of literature from many periods in many genres to build an understanding of the many dimensions (e.g., philosophical, ethical, aesthetic) of human experience.
- Standard 3: Students apply a wide range of strategies to comprehend, interpret, evaluate, and appreciate texts. They draw on their prior experience, their interactions with other readers and writers, their knowledge of word meaning and of other texts, their word identification strategies, and their understanding of textual features (e.g., sound-letter correspondence, sentence structure, context, graphics).
- Standard 6: Students apply knowledge of language structure, language conventions (e.g., spelling and punctuation), media techniques, figurative language, and genre to create, critique, and discuss print and nonprint texts.
- Standard 8: Students use a variety of technological and information resources (e.g., libraries, databases, computer networks, video) to gather and synthesize information and to create and communicate knowledge.
- Standard 9: Students develop an understanding of and respect for diversity in language use, patterns, and dialects across cultures, ethnic groups, geographic regions, and social roles.
- Standard 11: Students participate as knowledgeable, reflective, creative, and critical members of a variety of literacy communities.
- Standard 12: Students use spoken, written, and visual language to accomplish their own purposes (e.g., for learning, enjoyment, persuasion, and the exchange of information).
National Geography Standards:
- Places and Regions: The identities and lives of individuals and peoples are rooted in particular places and the human constructs called regions. The geographically informed person knows and understands:
4. The physical and human characteristics of places.
6. How culture and experience influence people's perceptions of places and regions.
- Human Systems: People are central to geography in that human activities help shape Earth's surface, human settlements and structures are part of Earth's surface, and humans compete for control of Earth's surface. The geographically informed person knows and understands:
9. The characteristics, distribution, and migration of human populations on Earth's surface.
10. The characteristics, distribution, and complexity of Earth's cultural mosaics.
12. The processes, patterns, and functions of human settlement.
13. How the forces of cooperation and conflict among people influence the division and control of Earth's surface.
- Environment and Society: The physical environment is modified by human activities, largely as a consequence of the ways in which human societies value and use Earth's natural resources, and human activities are also influenced by Earth's physical features and processes. The geographically informed person knows and understands:
14. How human activities modify the physical environment.
15. How physical systems affect human systems.
16. The changes that occur in the meaning, use, distribution, and importance of resources.
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