Lakota Culture Native American Lesson Plans That Really Work

By Jennifer Allen


Whenever you are trying to get students to really understand the way these people live and learn, it is important to make sure that they understand what an oral tradition is. Simply knowing the definition, though, does not always tell you enough to make sure that you really understand what a culture that relies on an oral tradition looks and operates like. This is an essential part of anyone's Lakota culture native American lesson plans.

When Europeans were first starting to settle all across North America, a place where there were many native people already living, they didn't consider the way that they did things to be civilized. For that reason, in the cases where they didn't simply try to eradicate these indigenous people, they tried to assimilate them. This is a nice way of saying that they tried to force these people to live and do things in the same way that they did over in Europe, which in effect was a process of erasing these people's way of life completely.

A great thing to keep in mind is that although these people have endured more than their fair share of setbacks, they have a way of life that has managed to survive a long time. It is still thriving to this day, in fact. Just knowing this can really show you how well an oral tradition works.

If you are going to be having classes during the winter, it would be good to focus those times on how these people did, in fact, tell most of their stories during these cold periods. This is because there wasn't much work that could be done outside. Everyone would be gathered around a fire for warmth, which is a great opportunity to tell your tales.

There is definitely a lot of repetitiveness when it comes to these types of stories. The reason why the same stories are repeated so often is so that all the details can sink in. This might be applicable to your teaching methods.

Some records were kept in the form of pictures, and it was very common for these to show what happened that year so that the people have an alternate way of reviewing these events and maybe looking at them in a more visual way, which can be very helpful in some cases when you're trying to visualize certain facts and figures. Many of these pictures, unfortunately, were destroyed by Europeans. This is an example of why oral traditions can be good to have.

The history of these people goes as far back as the people themselves. They have not lost anything that they've had in their oral traditions since the very beginning. That's why it's great to hear what these stories tell.

One great tale is that the first people to come to this world came too early. They were tricked into doing so, and this was their demise. They were transformed into the animals we now today call buffalo.




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