MONTANA 1948

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MONTANA 1948

• ISSUES IN THE TEXT

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SETTING AND CONTEXT

• Bentrock, Montana, USA
• Cold, impoverished, barren environment
• Sioux Indian tribe live in nearby settlement
• The text reveals events that occurred over the
  summer of 1948
• Note it is based on a situation after WW2
• Wild west context

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THEMES

• Honesty and integrity
• Professionalism
• Family pride
• Discrimination of Indians
• Power and privilege
• Medical ethics

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MAIN CHARACTERS

• David, his parents Wes and Gail
• Uncle Frank and wife Gloria
• Deputy sheriff, Len McAuley wife Daisy
• Marie Little Soldier, the Haydens servant
• Julian and Enid, Davids grandparents
• Ronnie Tall Bear, Maries boyfriend
• Ollie Young Bear wife Doris(Strickland)

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MAIN EVENTS

• Marie becomes ill with pneumonia
• She is fearful of Frank and refuses his services
  as a doctor
• Gail talks to Marie, discovers that the Indian
  girls accuse Frank of molesting them
• She suddenly dies
• Wes investigates the allegations, after David
  tells him he saw Franks truck the day Marie died
• Wes locks his brother up in his basement
• His father demands he releases his brother
• Next day Julian sends over his men to release
  Frank, but fail
• Frank commits suicide in the basement
• The family cover up the death
• Wes and his family leave town

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OUTCOMES

• Justice? Did Franks death resolve the
  victimisation of the Indians?
• Truth? Did Wes uphold the truth?
• Regrets
• Peace in Bentrock?
• Loss of childhood innocence

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contrasts

• Whites
• Wealth
• Power
• Honesty
• Life
• Control
• Loyalty
• Summer-heat

• Indians
• Poverty
• Oppression
• Deceit
• Death
• Submissive
• Betrayal
• Winter-chill

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SIOUX INDIANSAbout 6,800 Assiniboine and
Sioux live on the Fort Peck Reservation with
another approximately 3,900 tribal members living
off the reservation. LOCATION The Fort Peck
Reservation is in northeastern Montana, 40 miles
west of the North Dakota border, and 50 miles
south of the Canadian border, with the Missouri
River defining its southern perimeter. It
includes more than two million acres of land.
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Baptist                                           
                                                  
           

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Indians

• TIME LINE OF IMPORTANT EVENTS IN AMERICAN HISTORY
• INDIANS
• 1492 Columbus discovered America
• 1840s on white settlers on wagon trains took up
  farming on prairies
• 1850s 70,000 Indians died in California from
  diseases brought in from whites
• 1850 total Indian population did not exceed
  250,000
• Between 1872-1874 white settlers killed 3,500,000
  buffalo
• By 1900 0nly 39 buffalo survived in the wild
• Indian Wars of 1860s and 1870s
• 1864 Cheyenne massacre almost 300 Indians
  killed by Colonel Chivington. The Indians were
  camped at Sand Creek Colorado waiting to discuss
  peace with the local whites
• 1876 Custers last stand US cavalry attempted to
  defeat large numbers of Sioux and Cheyenne in the
  Big Horn area of North Dakota. Custer attempted
  to overwhelm an Indian party. He and 200 men were
  killed.
• 1877 the Sioux were forced to surrender
• 1890 The tribes were defeated. A white settler
  shot Chief Sitting Bull, one of the great Indian
  leaders. At Wounded Knee, South Dakota, a whole
  tribe of Sioux were exterminated. This was the
  end of the Indian killings
• Indians became American citizens in 1924
• Over 50,000 Indians participated in WW2
• 1960s civil rights movement
• 1972 Indians occupied BIA headquarters in
  Washington DC
• 1973 Indians occupied Wounded Knee
• 19801.3 million Indians, and increasing

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