Preface
If you’re not sure how to go about the poetry reading for this lesson, check out the Purdue OWL link about poetry in course materials, left column.
Read
Louise Erdrich, The Birchbark House
Audio available from: audible
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, Hiawatha at: http://www.theotherpages.org/poems/hiawatha.html#notes
Hiawatha audio (https://librivox.org/the-song-of-hiawatha-by-henry-wadsworth-longfellow/)
Read at least “Longfellow’s Introduction” and “Hiawatha’s Childhood”. Please do not read another version–use this one.
Questions for the discussion board:
What surprised you about each of these works?
What do these two books have in common, and what are the big differences? Consider, please, the portrayal of Ojibwa Indians, the relationships among families, characterization, description of scenery.
Why does the poetry of Hiawatha sound and feel so odd to us? You might try comparing the sound of a Shakespeare poem to a line or so of Longfellow-why is this kind of poetry so strange, and so easy to parody?
These are the same native tribes, portrayed over a century apart—what values do these stories have in common? How are these portrayals of Indians different?
Locate the criteria for the following book awards, which Birchbark won.What did the judges see that won each award for this book?
National Book Award –
http://www.nationalbook.org/nba_process.html#.UaX3Qr7D91s
National Cowboy Hall of Fame Western Heritage Award
(https://nationalcowboymuseum.org/event/western-heritage-awards/)
The Western Heritage Awards honors individuals who have made significant contributions to Western heritage through creative works in literature, music, television and film that share the great stories of the American West.
Jane Addams Children’s Book Award –
http://www.janeaddamschildrensbookaward.org/
Response
Please respond to at least one colleague in the class with a substantial response that shows your agreement/disagreement/questions about their answers to the questions for the lesson.
Research
Please evaluate these websites for inclusion in our textbook:
Henry Wadsworth Longfellow(http://www.hwlongfellow.org/)
Louise Erdrich (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWI32GHB4so)
Native American Myths (http://americanfolklore.net/folklore/native-american-myths/)
Birch Bark Canoe (http://www.nativetech.org/brchbark/brchbark.htm)
Birchbark Books (http://birchbarkbooks.com/) This is Louise Erdrich’s own bookstore, which she operates when she’s not writing.
Extra for Experts
The Birchbark House has been compared to Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder because both stories take place in Wisconsin, at about the same time in Wisconsin’s history. Read Little House (NOT Little House on the Prairie, though there’s some opportunity for comparison there, too) and talk about how the native child’s experience is different from the white settler’s child.
You must demonstrate through your answer that you’ve actually readLittle House, not just read about it.