Indian Life and Adventure
Reading Comprehension Activity
Author: Ohiye S'a/Charles Alexander Eastman
Chapter X Passage: Ohiye S’a, whose English name was Charles Alexander Eastman, was a member of the Dakota tribe of Native Americans. A writer and doctor, he was the first to write about tribal life from the Native American viewpoint. In 1902 Eastman wrote “Indian Boyhood” which tells about the first fifteen years of his life. Students will read the passage and answer questions about the main idea and use context clues to understand some of the phrases.
Topic(s): History. Skill(s): Context Clues, Story Elements, Main / Central Idea. Genre(s): Biography / Autobiography
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Ohiye S’a, whose English name was Charles Alexander Eastman, was a member of the Dakota tribe of Native Americans. A writer and doctor, he was the first to write about tribal life from the Native American viewpoint. Born in Minnesota in 1858, Eastman wrote Indian Boyhood in 1902. It tells about the first fifteen years of his life. Below is a passage from Chapter X of Indian Boyhood.
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To me, as a boy, this wilderness was a paradise. It was a land of plenty. To be sure, we did not have any of the luxuries of civilization, but we had every convenience and opportunity and luxury of Nature. We had also the gift of enjoying our good fortune, whatever dangers might lurk about us; and the truth is that we lived in blessed ignorance of any life that was better than our own.
As soon as hunting in the woods began, the customs regulating it were established. The council teepee no longer existed. A hunting bonfire was kindled every morning at day-break, at which each brave must appear and report. The man who failed to do this before the party set out on the day’s hunt was harassed by ridicule.
As a rule, the hunters started before sunrise, and the brave who was announced throughout the camp as
the first one to return with a deer on his back, was a man to be envied.
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