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LESSON TWO: Addressing Housing Needs Standards | Lesson | Extensions | Resources Topic Addressing the Needs of a Distressed Society Age Group Grades 8-12 Introduction The film HOMELAND identifies many problems for the Lakota people including nutrition, health, alcoholism, gambling, lack of education and unemployment, but it focuses on housing. Is housing the bedrock for a society? If you were a congressman or a tribal leader deciding how to use funds in Shannon County, South Dakota, how would you prioritize them? Learning Objectives
The film HOMELAND identifies a housing problem of crisis proportions. It becomes clear through those interviewed that "cluster housing" is not successful, although the alternatives are few and far between. Standards This lesson addresses the following national standards, established by McREL. U.S. History Grades 7-8 Understands interaction between Native Americans and white society (e.g., the attitudes and policies of government officials, the U.S. Army, missionaries, and settlers toward Native Americans; the provisions and effects of the Dawes Severalty Act of 1887 on tribal identity, land ownership and assimilation; the legacy of the 19th century federal Indian policy; Native American responses to increased white settlement, mining activities, and railroad construction) Understands how different groups attempted to achieve their goals (e.g., the grievances of racial and ethnic minorities and their reference to the nation's charter documents to rectify past injustices, local community efforts to adapt facilities for the disabled) Grades 9-12 Understands influences on and perspectives of Native American life in the late 19th century (e.g., how the admission of new western states affected relations between the United States and Native American societies; leadership and values of Native American leaders; depiction of Native Americans and whites by 19th century artists) Understands the struggle for racial and gender equality and for the extension of civil liberties Understands major contemporary social issues and the groups involved (e.g., the current debate over affirmative action and to what degree affirmative action policies have reached their goals; the evolution of government support for the rights of the disabled; the emergence of the Gay Liberation Movement and civil rights of gay Americans; continuing debates over multiculturalism, bilingual education, and group identity and rights vs. individual rights and identity; successes and failures of the modern feminist movement) Civics Grades 6-8 Understands how politics enables people with differing ideas to reach binding agreements (e.g., presenting information and evidence, stating arguments, negotiating, compromising, voting) Understands major ideas about why government is necessary (e.g., people's lives, liberty, and property would be insecure without government; individuals by themselves cannot do many of the things they can do collectively such as create a highway system, provide armed forces for the security of the nation, or make and enforce laws) Understands competing ideas about the purposes government should serve (e.g., whether government should protect individual rights, promote the common good, provide economic security, mold the character of citizens, promote a particular religion) Knows major conflicts in American society that have arisen from diversity (e.g., North/South conflict; conflict about land, suffrage, and other rights of Native Americans; Catholic/Protestant conflicts in the nineteenth century; conflict about civil rights of minorities and women; present day ethnic conflict in urban settings) Knows ways in which conflicts about diversity can be resolved in a peaceful manner that respects individual rights and promotes the common good Knows conflicts that have arisen regarding fundamental values and principles (e.g., conflicts between liberty and equality, conflicts between individual rights and the common good, conflicts between majority rule and minority rights) Grades 9-12 Understands how politics enables a group of people with varying opinions and/or interests to reach collective decisions, influence decisions, and accomplish goals that they could not reach as individuals (e.g., managing the distribution of resources, allocating benefits and burdens, managing conflicts) Understands some of the major competing ideas about the purposes of politics and government (e.g., achieving a religious vision, glorifying the state, enhancing economic prosperity, providing for a nation's security), and knows examples of past and present governments that serve these purposes Understands how the purposes served by a government affect relationships between the individual and government and between government and society as a whole (e.g., the purpose of promoting a religious vision of what society should be like may require a government to restrict individual thought and actions, and place strict controls on the whole of the society) Knows examples of conflicts stemming from diversity, and understands how some conflicts have been managed and why some of them have not yet been successfully resolved Knows why constitutional values and principles must be adhered to when managing conflicts over diversity Understands issues that involve conflicts among fundamental values and principles such as the conflict between liberty and authority Behavioral Studies Grades 6-8 Understands that each culture has distinctive patterns of behavior that are usually practiced by most of the people who grow up in it Grades 9-12 Understands that cultural beliefs strongly influence the values and behavior of the people who grow up in the culture, often without their being fully aware of it, and that people have different responses to these influences Understands that the difficulty of moving from one social class to another varies greatly with time, place, and economic circumstances Understands that heredity, culture, and personal experience interact in shaping human behavior, and that the relative importance of these influences is not clear in most circumstances Understands that family, gender, ethnicity, nationality, institutional affiliations, socioeconomic status, and other group and cultural influences contribute to the shaping of a person's identity Lesson Two: Addressing Housing Needs Day 1 (40 min.): Discuss housing and land ownership issues as they relate to your students. Ask students to express their perceptions of different types of land use: leases, communes, reservations, private property. Explain that the nature of housing on the reservation is different for several reasons. Review the material on the HOMELAND website under The Reservation Today: Housing. http://www.itvs.org/lakota/today3.html While the government does not "own" the land, the tribe typically regulates it and individuals are not free to sell or even mortgage their land. Students surely have a notion of what "homeless" people look like. The film may change that view. Vocabulary mortgage cluster housing Day 2 (60 min.): Show the film HOMELAND, particularly the segments that relate to housing: Marian White Mouse's description of land ownership; the Little Boy family awaiting the arrival of their house; Thurman Horse discussing cluster housing. Depending on the age of the students, stop the film frequently to check for understanding, particularly when information is explained in text printed on the screen that may pass too quickly for students to read.
Have the students make a list of possible solutions, including those that they see being tried in the film. Finally, have students identify those solutions that are most likely to help this community. Ask groups to compare their lists. Extending the Lesson
HOMELAND Reservation Today Internet Maps of South Dakota An impressive bibliography Oglala Sioux Pine Ridge Profile The Little Big Horn tapestry with questions Oglala Lakota College Links: Timeline Reservation Controversies Related government and private organizations Habitat for Humanity Woihanble Yuwita Support the Kili Radio station, which broadcasts to an area larger than the state of Delaware in both English and Lakota. Mennonite assistance Bureau of Indian Affairs Pine Ridge Agency Walking Shield American Indian Society next lesson |
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