After Johnny: From Permanent Indian Frontier to Wounded Knee

The story of the displacement of Native Americans by encroaching white settlers is as old as American history.  From Virginia and Massachusetts in the early 17^th century to the western plains in the 1890s, the pattern has been one of native inhabitants challenged by newcomers, followed by brief periods of compromise and settlement before the next onslaught of settlers, which puts the pattern in motion once again.  In the decades after the  Civil War, these encounters became more frequent and increasingly violent, leading to the almost total subjugation of the Western tribes by the end of the 19^th century.

This is a big topic and I won’t have a whole lot of time to cover it.  I was having trouble getting my arms around this topic, so I decided to see how ChatGPT (a free AI system) would approach this question.  Because I was spending Christmas with our son and his family in Georgia, our son was able to help me sign up for the system (it isn’t hard – it took literally one minute). I asked it to provide me with an outline of a 1-hour class focused on the Indian Wars of the late 19th century.  This is what it produced in just a few seconds.

Title: The Indian Wars of the Late 19th Century: Clash of Cultures and Manifest Destiny

1. Introduction (10 minutes)

   1. Brief overview of the historical context

   2. Westward Expansion and Manifest Destiny

   3. Cultural clashes between Native American tribes and settlers

2. Key Factors Leading to Conflict (15 minutes)

   1. Land dispossession

   2. Government policies and treaties

   3. Impact on Native American communities

   4. Economic factors

   5. Resource competition

   6. Impact of the Transcontinental Railroad

3. Major Engagements (20 minutes)

   1. Battle of Little Bighorn (1876)

      1. Background and context

      2. Key players: George Custer, Sitting Bull, Crazy Horse

      3. Outcome and significance

   2. Nez Perce War (1877)

      1. Chief Joseph and the flight to freedom

      2. Impact on Nez Perce culture

   3. Wounded Knee Massacre (1890)

      1. Events leading to the massacre

      2. Consequences for both sides

4. Impact on Native American Communities (10 minutes)

   1. Forced removal and displacement

   2. Loss of cultural identity and traditions

   3. Lasting effects on tribal communities

5. Perspectives and Voices (10 minutes)

   1. Native American perspectives

      1. Chief Joseph's surrender speech

      2. Oral histories and personal accounts

   2. Settler perspectives

      1. Government and military justifications

   3. Media portrayal of events

6. Legacy and Lessons (10 minutes)

   1. Contemporary relevance

   2. Recognition of historical injustices

   3. Efforts toward reconciliation and understanding

   4. Lessons learned

   5. Impact on U.S. policies toward Native Americans

   6. Importance of cultural sensitivity and cooperation

7. Q&A and Discussion (5 minutes)

   1. Inviting questions from students

   2. Encouraging open discussion on the topics covered

8. Conclusion (5 minutes)

   1. Recap of key points

   2. Emphasizing the importance of understanding historical context for informed perspectives

Overall, this is not a bad outline.  Some important things are left out, and other elements are included that I would probably omit.  It doesn’t provide any details or analytical framework, but it’s not a bad starting point as I shape this part of my upcoming class.  The best description I can provide of the system is that it’s like I did a Google search, investigated all of the possible links that the search produced, organized them into a coherent pattern, and then figured out how much time I would be able to devote to each part during a 1-hour class segment.  That would have taken me a while – maybe just an hour or so, but most likely longer.  This is what ChatGPT did in a few seconds.

I have read about teachers using ChatGPT to write lesson plans, and I can see how it would be useful.  I know that teachers fear that students will use this rather than do their own work, and I can see that problem.  All I know right now is that this was useful to me. I’ll probably use it again.