The third supporting question, “How did the creation of the Garrison Dam impact the people of the Three Affiliated Tribes?” helps students use primary sources to unwrap the context of the time and topic being examined. The Garrison Dam project not only reduced tribal lands by a significant amount, but created other problems as well. It made travel and communication across the reservation more challenging. Communities were also removed, relocated, and destroyed.
Complete the following task using the sources provided to build a context of the time period and topic being examined.
Formative Performance Task 3
Study source A. Write a brief summary that answers the following questions:
- What types of sources are they (letters, photos, maps, diaries, etc.)?
- What is going on in these sources? What kind of information do they contain?
- Who created each of these sources?
- Who was the intended audience for each source?
- Why were these sources created?
- When were the sources created?
- What do the sources tell us about how tribal sovereignty and treaties were impacted by the Garrison Diversion project?
- What complications were experienced by the MHA Nation as a result of this project? What happens to people when their home disappears? What would you do?
How do we know? What else can you find?
Featured Sources 3
For this section, students will also be required to find additional sources themselves. Using school and public library resources, and the internet, they will need to search for newspapers, periodicals, journals, books, interviews, photographs, and other primary and secondary sources to find evidence to support their arguments and claims.
Learn more about the Garrison Dam project and its impact on the MHA Nation: Read Michael L. Lawson's book, Damned Indians Revisited: The Continuing History of the Pick-Sloan Plan and the Missouri River Sioux, (Pierre, SD: State Historical Society of South Dakota, 2009).