Workshops
Write a diary entry:
Much of the impressions we have about the American frontier are in the diaries people left behind.  Imagine yourself as being either a “Buffalo soldier” (serving in the Indian wars and moving Indians off their land for the U.S. government) or an “Apache” (being forced to relocate on a reservation and/or fighting as one of Geronimo’s Apache warriors) and write a diary entry that captures that group’s story during the Indian Campaigns. In your entry, describe what daily life was like for your group on the American frontier. Be sure to include both the positive and negative aspects of your groups’ legacy on the frontier. Explain why you think it is important to have your side of the story told.
October 3, 1870:
I am a Buffalo soldier serving in the Indian wars in New Mexico. My job is to move the Apache Indians off their lands. As a freed black, I am very lucky to have a job. I get paid $16 a month but I don’t like what I’m doing. It is not fair to the Indians who have worked these lands forever. I am happy to be free but I still have to work under a white authority. Just as I was forced to leave my homeland, I am doing the same to these Indians.
Marisol Sanchez |
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