Sunday, April 4, 2010

Sacajawea


Sacajawea
by Elaine Raphael and Don Bolognese
[Historical Fiction]
**Note: this picture does not display the actual book that I read. I could not find a picture of the version that I used.**

Sacajawea is awakened by her brother, Cameahwait with a new pony. She excitedly jumps on the pony to see how fast it can go, and her brother joins her on his pony. Sacajawea and her brother are part of the Shoshoni Indian tribe. Sacajawea's father is the Chief of the tribe. In the winter the Shoshoni people lived on a high plateau, but in the spring they left to hunt for buffalo because meat became scarce. When they finally found a herd of buffalo, the Chief sent all of the men to hunt for them. Cameahwait had to leave, telling Sacajawea that he would bring her back many buffalo. While the men were gone, the camp got raided. Sacajawea was kidnapped by a raider, and never saw her parents again. She became a slave to the Minnetaree raider who she was kidnapped by. After three years, she was sold to a French-Canadian fur traider who lived with the Minnetaree. When Sacajawea was thirteen, she became married to Toussaint Charbonneau. In 1804, captains Lewis and Clark were going on an exploration and needed someone who could talk to the Shoshoni people, so they hired Sacajawea and her husband. Sacajawea was very happy, and they set off to the land of the Shoshoni people with their baby in hand. After a long journey, Sacajawea saw her people and sang their greeting song with pride. Sacajawea was overjoyed when she saw her brother, who she thought she would never see again. After just a few days, they had to part. She folded her hands across her chest and looked at her brother, which was the sign of love. Sacajawea rode off with much courage and optimism, determined to see the ocean.

This story would be great to use along with a social studies lesson. The class would do a read-aloud of the book, and have a short dicussion afterwards to summarize the book. Students would then get in groups, and each group would have a copy of the book. Each group will go through the book and pick out events, people, places, etc. that they think are an important topic of history that could be further researched, such as: Sacajawea, Shoshoni Indians, Minnetaree Raiders, Lewis and Clark, etc. The class would come together and compile a class-wide list, and each group will pick a different topic to research. They will then make powerpoint presentations on their topic and present it to the class.

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