Lesson Plan - The Girl Who Gave Voice to Her People

About the Article

Learning Objective

Students will read about and discuss the life of a Paiute advocate and analyze her words in a primary source.

Curriculum Connections

• Native Americans, including the Northern Paiute/Numa

• Reservations

• Manifest Destiny

• Mexican-American War

• California, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington

• Advocacy

Key Skills

Social Studies:

• Understand human stories across time

• Study cultures, individual development, and identity

• Explore how individuals and institutions interact

English Language Arts:

• Identify central ideas and key details

• Analyze causes and effects

• Write to inform

Key CCSS Standards

RH.6-8.1, RH.6-8.2, RH.6-8.4, RH.6-8.7, RH.6-8.9, WHST.6-8.2, WHST.6-8.9, RI.6-8.1, RI.6-8.2, RI.6-8.4, RI.6-8.7, RI.6-8.9, W.6-8.2, W.6-8.9, SL.6-8.1

1. Preparing to Read

Analyze Images and Make Predictions

Ask students to respond to this prompt: Look at the illustration at the beginning of the article. What do you notice about it? What do you wonder? Based on the illustration, what do you think the article will be about? You might have students write responses or record them using a video platform like Flipgrid.

Preview Vocabulary

Use the Skill Builder Words to Know to preteach the domain-specific terms reservation, Indigenous, epidemic, famine, interpreter, advocate, prospector, Congress, and Capitol. Have students refer to the Skill Builder as they read.

2. Reading and Discussing

Read the Article

Read the article aloud or have students read it independently. As students read, direct them to mark challenges the Numa faced with a C or highlight them.

Answer Close-Reading Questions

Have students write their responses or use the Close-Reading Questions to guide a discussion.

• How does the author begin the article? Why might he have chosen to start it that way? (Author’s Craft)
Joseph Bruchac begins the article with a description of how young Thocmetony had to be buried in sand up to her neck to hide from white men. The scene helps readers understand the “utter terror” that Northern Paiute people faced and introduces the main conflict between Native groups and white settlers.

• What does it mean that Sarah Winnemucca was “an essential witness to her time”? (Central Ideas)
Winnemucca was the first Indigenous woman to write a book in English. Her words recorded events that her people experienced and helped others understand their point of view. Even today, people can read what she wrote to learn about the lives of the Numa.

• How did the arrival of white newcomers affect the Numa? (Cause and Effect)
White newcomers killed many Paiute people and “seemed to view them as hardly human.” The settlers claimed Native lands and pushed Indigenous people onto reservations. White people cut down trees and overhunted animals. Between 1859 and 1865, more than half of the Numa died from famine, epidemics, and violence. Many of the remaining Numa were forced to move to Oregon in the 1870s and then to Washington Territory in 1879.

• How did Winnemucca advocate for her people? (Key Details)
Winnemucca advocated for her people by writing a letter to an official in 1870 that explained how settlers and reservation agents had mistreated them. It was printed in newspapers and a national magazine. Later, she appealed directly to white Americans in a series of lectures in California and insisted that her people should be allowed to live on their own land. Winnemucca also met with officials in Washington, D.C., gave lectures throughout the Northeast, and testified before Congress in 1884.

• How did Winnemucca live “between two worlds”? (Text Evidence)
Winnemucca lived between the worlds of the Numa and the white settlers. When she was 13, her grandfather sent her to live with a white family, and she took the name Sarah. She had a talent for learning languages and was one of the few Paiute people who could communicate in English. At Fort McDermitt, she earned fair treatment for her people and began working as an interpreter. As an Army scout and messenger, she could move between reservations. After nothing came of an official’s promises to help the Numa at Yakama, her own people started to doubt her, leaving her feeling like she didn’t truly belong to either world, Native or white.

• How does the map “The U.S. West, 1879” support the article? (Text Feature)
The map shows how much land the U.S. acquired from Mexico in 1848 after the Mexican-American War. It shows the states and territories in 1879 as well as the locations of the Pyramid Lake, Malheur, and Yakama reservations. The map helps readers understand how far the Numa were forced from their lands and the devastating journey they had to take through the snow to the Yakama Reservation.

• Reread the last paragraph. What would you write on a plaque with Winnemucca’s statue to explain her legacy? (Informative Writing)
Sample response: Sarah Winnemucca was born with the name Thocmetony around 1844. As her people were forced from Pyramid Lake, Nevada, to reservations in Oregon and Washington, she spoke out about the cruel mistreatment they faced. Winnemucca was the first Indigenous woman to write a book in English, and she gave hundreds of lectures, crying out to white audiences for justice. She never stopped fighting for the Numa.

3. Skill Building

Analyze a Primary Source

Use the Skill Builder Primary Source: “I Am Crying Out to You for Justice” to have students read and analyze what Sarah Winnemucca said in her lectures in 1879. Guide them to answer the questions.

Analyze a Map

Assign Map Reading: The U.S. West, 1879 to have students answer 10 questions about a more detailed version of the map that appears on page 29.

Assess Comprehension

Assign the 10-question Know the News quiz, available in PDF and interactive forms. You can also use Quiz Wizard to assess comprehension of this article and three others from the issue.

Printable Lesson Plan

Lesson Plan
Lesson: The Girl Who Gave Voice to Her People

A step-by-step guide to teaching this article in your classroom

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Interactive Slide Deck

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Slide Deck - The Girl Who Gave Voice to Her People

Share an interactive version of this lesson with your students.

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