Student Activities
1. Research the Ghost Dance. Where did it originate? Who brought it to Sitting Bull’s people? How did it affect his people? How did it affect their relationship with their white neighbors? Why did the cavalry get involved? Is the Ghost Dance performed today? If so, is it open to casual observers? Are there existing photographs of the Ghost Dance? Recordings? Are Ghost Dance songs still sung? If so, where and when and why? Discuss the power of dance. Students may wish to write essays or papers on various aspects brought up during their research and discussion.
2. What other dances would Sitting Bull and his people have performed? Attend a pow wow, talk with dancers about the origin of the dances. Look at the Lakota words to the songs and then look at the translations. What was the purpose of each dance? Invite a Lakota speaker to talk to the class about Lakota song and dance.
3. Make a set of bones to play as rhythm instruments.
4. Perform "Tatanka Iyotake" using the bones as rhythm instruments. Use sign language for second verse.
5. Listen to and analyze the scored music for "Tatanka Iyotake." What do you like about it? Would you have written the music differently? The lyrics? Write your own song to portray Sitting Bull.
6. Create a chant to use as a "pulse" or spoken bass line during the chorus. Try "I am a hunter." What is the phrase in Lakota?
7. What is the relationship of music to society? Culture? Other arts? History?
8. Listen to recordings of Native American Music. How easy would it be to learn and perform the music?
9. Learn about the significance and sacredness of the drum. Who should and should not play the drum, according to traditional Lakota beliefs?
10. Write a play about Sitting Bull’s life. Where would it be set? Would the dialogue be in Lakota or English or a mix of both? Could the play be in pantomine? Could you use music? Rhythm instruments? Dance? Could you include all of his heroic deeds? On which parts of his life would you focus? What is the message? Who is the audience? Perform the play for your intended audience.
11. Study the pictorgraphs Sitting Bull made which tell about his war deeds. Draw or paint pictographs of important events in your life. Share your visual artwork with the rest of the class.
12. Research winter counts. Find several winter counts, compare the events recorded by various tribal historians. Select a class historian to record the most important class events of each month. At the end of the year, make copies for each student, share the memories and give students a feeling of closure.
13. Take a field trip to pictographs/petroglyphs and talk about how people from various cultures record their stories. Discuss the preservation of ancient art. Discuss modern graffiti.
14. Study contemporary Native American Art. Students may wish to research individual artists and share their findings with the rest of the class.
15. Which other tribes hunted buffalo on the Plains? Discuss "ownership" of land, boundaries, territories. How did Sitting Bull acquire hunting grounds?
16. Find or draw a map of Sitting Bull’s territory at the peak of his life. Compare that map to Standing Rock Reservation. Calculate the number of acres/square miles in each area.
17. Acquire a copy of the 1868 Treaty. Discuss land negotiations. Discuss Plains Warfare.
18. Why was the buffalo important to Sitting Bull’s people? What happened to the people when the buffalo were not as plentiful?
19. Compare tribal government with state government.
20. Define "sovereignty."
21. Analyze census reports over the course of the last 100 years. Create a chart which shows population growth in various parts of the High Plains.
22. Analyze census reports and create a chart of economical growth. Which areas of the Plains are the wealthiest? Which are the poorest? Discuss possible reasons.
23. Discuss the governmental processes for making treaties and laws.
24. Discuss contemporary issues. How do we relate to people from other cultures? What are the relationships between people of different skin colors? Different religious beliefs? Different political beliefs? Different economic backgrounds? Students may want to develop survey questions and conduct a survey of other students, then post the results of the survey.
25. Construct a time line of Sitting Bull’s life. (Bob Bernotas’ book Sitting Bull, Chief of the Sioux, has a good chronology.
26. Did you know there were TWO Sitting Bulls? Conduct research and present your findings.
27. Where is Sitting Bull buried? Conduct research on the controversy over his grave site and present your findings.
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