Video
Buffalo Soldiers and Dominant Narratives Lesson
Transcript
Bobbie Roshone: Hello, I'm Bobbie Roshone, and I am a park ranger for the Niobrara National Scenic River, a unit of the National Park Service. The Niobrara National Scenic River protects 76 miles of the Niobrara River Valley. The Niobrara National Scenic River was established as a national scenic river under the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act. Less than 1% of rivers become wild and scenic, they had to be pretty special. The Niobrara has several outstandingly remarkable values that aid in its establishment as a scenic river. Niobrara River is home to amazing geological formations and over 200 waterfalls. It's also the meeting place of East and West, meaning animals and plants commingle here, unlike anywhere else in the United States. The river is free flowing there are no operational dams that block the flow on the water.
We are also home to world class mammal fossils. Some were found here before they were found anywhere else in the world. Plus, this area has some remarkable historical and cultural stories. One of those stories is the story of the Buffalo Soldiers. In the lesson you're about to hear, you will learn more about the experiences of Black Americans in the US military from the 1880s through the early 1900s. You will also learn more about the treatment they received from the civilian communities in the areas that they were stationed. And I will be telling you the story about the Buffalo Soldiers at Fort Niobrara Valentine, Nebraska and what happened after they were reassigned. Charlotte will be talking about dominant narratives. We created this lesson in partnership with the Nebraska Writing Project. Enjoy.
Hello and welcome to the Niobrara National Scenic River. My name is Bobbie Roshone and I'm a park ranger for the National Park Service. I'm currently at the Fort Niobrara National Wildlife Refuge. But before it was a wildlife refuge, it was a military fort. In fact, the last remaining building from the fort days is that red hay barn over my shoulder. Fort Niobrara was established in 1879 as a peacekeeping fort between the Lakota nation on the Rosebud Reservation and settlers in Cherry County. They also started to stop cattle and horse wrestling. The fort officially opened in 1880, and for the 27 years it was in operation it was fairly peaceful here. Soldiers at Fort Niobrara primarily ran drills, played baseball and support other area forts like Fort Robinson. Fort Niobrara hosted several different battalions over the years including the Buffalo Soldiers.
Buffalo Soldiers was originally coined to describe the members of the 10th Cavalry Regiment, but is also used to describe the all black regiments of the 9th Calvary, the 24th and 25th infantry. Use of the 9th Calvary were stationed here throughout the years. The 25th infantry would also be stationed here prior to being reassigned to Fort Brown near Brownsville, Texas. The soldiers put most of their days practicing military maneuvers, but they did have time off and other experiences while stationed at Fort Niobrara. Baseball was a huge delight to the soldiers and the civilian community. In fact, baseball games against neighboring towns drew massive crowds to help create a sense of community between the civilians and the soldiers. The soldiers also had an impact on the entertainment in Valentine. The band would play for major dances for the soldiers but also dance and visit with townsfolk.
Unlike other areas, black soldiers were treated fairly well by the neighboring community in the City of Valentine. Valentine actually welcomed the black soldiers. However, there are a few factors to consider upon reviewing the city papers of that time. Several things contributed to their acceptance in Valentine. During that time period at Valentine, people [were] [03:19] fearful of conflict with the Lakota people on the Rosebud Reservation. The Buffalo Soldiers purpose was to prevent and deal with conflict if it arose, so there was a common goal of keeping the peace. The Buffalo Soldiers knew their freedom was precious and made sure they behaved as gentlemen. This excerpt from the Valentine Republican shows that a more gentlemanly or better behaved lot of men never garrisoned at Fort Niobrara. And they have thus far proven themselves to be. And may it be said to their credit, they show a disposition to create less disturbance and noise than did many white soldiers who have been stationed here. They are evidently from the best class of their race, and so long as they conduct themselves in a commendable way set out, they will have the confidence and goodwill of our people as a whole.
Well, at this post, all evidence suggests they were genuinely accepted. Not only were the Buffalo Soldiers helping to keep the peace with the Lakota, they were also contributing to the local economy. Another aspect to consider was the establishment of black homesteaders in Nebraska, including the founding of an all black community called DeWitty in 1907. That was later renamed Audacious. The Buffalo Soldiers experienced a [welcome] [04:33] community here in Valentine and in Fort Niobrara. However, this was not the case in all places where they served their country. They learned how easily freedom could be taken away. The 25th infantry was reassigned to Brownsville, Texas in August of 1906, where whether or not they were guilty they were charged in a shooting incident in the community. This resulted in President Theodore Roosevelt dishonorably discharging the entire first battalion consisting of a 167 soldiers for conspiracy of silence. In 1972, 66 years later, that discharge was reversed due to a renewed military investigation that exonerated the black troops. The Buffalo Soldiers had an impact on the Valentine area, and the Valentine area had an impact on the Buffalo Soldiers. Thank you.
Charlotte Kupsh: My name is Charlotte Kupsh, and I'm a PhD student and a teacher in writing at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln. So today I'm going to be talking to you about a concept called the Dominant Narratives. And we're going to be discussing how dominant narratives can impact how we understand historical events and people like the Buffalo Soldiers that you just heard about. And I'll also lead you through some writing exercises that are designed to help you ask critical questions about dominant narratives in your own life. So first, let's talk about dominant narratives. Our Park Ranger Bobbie just talked about Buffalo Soldiers who were stationed at Fort Niobrara serving in the US military. However, many people may not know about the Buffalo Soldiers until they experience their stories. And they might even be surprised to learn that there were black soldiers serving in the US military. And this might be because the view that they've learned about American history only involves white soldiers. So when they think of the US military or US history, they tend to just think of white people, so they might be surprised to learn about the Buffalo Soldiers.
When we look at history, we are often only seeing one perspective. And this perspective usually represents the view of the people who have the most power in society. So this is called the dominant narrative or the lens through which we see the world. A dominant narrative is a story that's commonly told about history, events, places or even people. The tricky thing about dominant narratives is that we often don't realize that they're just one story. So we think of them as common sense, or common knowledge, or we even just think of them as facts. A dominant narrative might reflect people's preconceived biases, or assumptions about the world, including what they assume about other groups of people, or how they think the world works. So for example, Bobbie mentioned that the Buffalo Soldiers in the 25th infantry got along quite well, with the other people living in Valentine, Nebraska, they got along well with their community when they were stationed at Fort Niobrara. But Bobbie also mentioned that black soldiers were not always treated so well. So the Buffalo Soldiers did not always get along with the communities that they were in. The communities they were in did not always appreciate them.
So one way to understand why the Buffalo Soldiers were not always treated very well is to think about the dominant narratives that white people might have held at that time. So at that time, many white people viewed black people. And in fact, most people who were not white, through a lens that positioned people of color as inferior. We can say that these people believed just one story, or one dominant narrative, about people of color, and by extension, about the Buffalo Soldiers, so they believed a negative story. However, by reading the accounts and the stories from Buffalo Soldiers themselves, we can learn a different story about history and view the world through a different lens.
So here's another example from my own life. I live in Nebraska now, but I have not always lived here. When I moved here from Wisconsin two years ago, I believed the dominant narratives that I have been told about Nebraska, namely, that there's nothing to do here, it's all flat, no one lives there. So when I moved here, I quickly realized that this wasn't the case at all. And since I've been in Nebraska, I've loved learning about all the things that there are to do in Nebraska and all the people who live here. So I've loved hiking at Toadstool Geologic Park, which is this picture here. Camping by the Niobrara River, watching the cranes migrate in Kearney, and enjoying life right here where I live in Lincoln. And so the dominant narrative I'd heard about there being nothing in Nebraska, of course, wasn't true at all. But that dominant narrative can have real life consequences, even when it isn't true. So this is a more lighthearted example. But it can have serious consequences because if I thought that there was nothing in Nebraska, and no one lived in Nebraska, how might that impact [about] [09:12] how I felt about topics like conserving the water resources in the Ogallala Aquifer, allocating COVID-19 vaccines, or allocating federal money for local projects here. So dominant narratives can have serious real life consequences.
So whenever we encounter a dominant narrative, there's often a counter narrative. So counter narrative is another way of looking at the world that usually disrupts, disputes, or corrects the dominant narrative. And that counter narrative is important because it helps us see history from another point of view and think about whose stories might be left out. So as you look across American history, you might think, whose stories are not being told here. So say if the way I normally think of US military history involves mostly white soldiers, the counter narrative of the Buffalo Soldiers can help me understand that a dominant narrative is shaping my view of history, and give me a fuller picture of history. So thinking about dominant narratives and counter narratives is also important for events that are happening today. So like my example, about what I thought of Nebraska before I moved here, looking for counter narratives can help us think about our own biases and how they impact other people.
So now we're going to do an activity that will help us think about dominant narratives and counter narratives that we're encountering in our own lives. So you'll explore what you know about these narratives through writing. And we're going to use a process where we use writing to really explore and ask questions. So some writing teachers might call this writing as inquiry or writing to inquire. And so we're going to ask questions and try to see things from different perspectives. So the first thing you're going to do is choose a dominant narrative to explore. Now, remember dominant narratives, often we don't realize that they're narratives because we just think that they're facts. So they can be hard to find because they're so deeply ingrained into our minds. It can be helpful to think about a specific event or a topic and then work from there to find the dominant narrative. So to help you decide, I've gathered a few recent news stories from Nebraska, to get you thinking. So you don't necessarily have to pick one of these, these are just some ideas. Up in the left, I have the Black Lives Matter protests that happened across Nebraska in May and June of 2020. In the upper right, I have the Keystone XL pipeline an oil pipeline that was planned to transport oil through Nebraska. And then in the lower right, I have an article about an animal rights group protesting Costco, food -- grocery store, because Costco has a poultry farm in Nebraska and the animal rights activists felt that the poultry were not treated correctly there.
So you can also choose your own topic, you might think about an event in history, or about in current times that you learned about in school. If you're in a classroom, perhaps your instructor might have a list of suggested topics based on what you've been learning in class. Or you might also use the story of the Buffalo Soldiers that you just learned. So you might think about the dominant narratives there. So you're going to choose a topic, and then you're going to take some time, you'll pause the video and make three lists. So the first list, you want to think of at least three things that you'd include, if you were going to tell the story of this topic or event. It doesn't need to be overly lengthy, just three things that seemed important to include in the story. The second list will include at least three places where you might learn elements of the story of this topic. So you might think about learning at school, you might think about learning from the newspaper, from social media, from the [nightly] [12:51] news, things like that. And then the third list will be as many people you -- as you can think of who are involved in the story or event. So if to go back to my earlier example of there being nothing in Nebraska, if I'm thinking about that sort of event or topic. I would definitely think about people who live in Nebraska, I would think about people who don't live in Nebraska. But I might also think of people who own businesses here, or tourists, or lawmakers. So I would include all of those sorts of people in that list. So take some time, work on these three lists, pause this video for at least six minutes.
All right, welcome back, hopefully, you've had time to write your three lists about the topic or event that you've chosen. And next, we're going to do some of that writing to inquire. So look over the three lists that you've made. Think about the story that you would tell about this event or topic. Think about the places that information comes from, and then look at those people who are involved in the story. And I want you to pick one person who maybe, you don't know as much about their perspective. You don't know as much about their story. Maybe you haven't heard so much from them. Maybe there's somebody who had took a little bit longer to come up with them as somebody who was involved in this topic. And so I want you to circle that person's name on that list.
Then you're going to free write, which is just another way to say write freely about what you might be able to learn from the story of the person that you circled if they were talking to you about your topic or event. So importantly, this free writing, you're not trying to make an argument, you're not trying to just convince somebody of your opinion. You're not even trying to really arrive at any answers. You're writing to ask questions and just explore what you don't yet know. So it’s okay, if this is a little messy. It's okay, if you don't arrive at any grand conclusions. You don't need to find a big counter narrative that you can have breaking news with. You're just going to ask questions and explore what you know and don't know. So you might think about, for your person, what questions you might ask them about the topic or event that you chose. What don't you know about this event? What would you want to know? What kind of information could the person you've circled might be able to tell you? And what do you think their experience might have been like? So pause this video for at least 10 minutes and give yourself some time to free write.
All right, welcome back. So hopefully you've had time to free write and ask some questions. Remember, the idea here is writing to inquire. So writing to ask questions, understand what you don't know. It's okay, if it's messy this is just the first step into exploring counter narratives. So, I hope that what you'll be able to do is take this idea of finding counter narratives and looking for counter narratives with you into other aspects of your education and your life. So remember to ask questions, think about whose stories are not included in a topic. And watch for times when there seems to be only one story about an event, topic, place or group. Keeping in mind that sometimes these stories or dominant narratives may be presented as just one side, or not it's just one side, but just common sense or common knowledge about a particular event. But really, it is just one side, and you're looking for other people's perspectives. So I hope these are tools and practices that you can take with you in other areas of your life. The next time you learn about a historical event or an event in the news or even the next time you visit a national park.
[Video Ends] [0:16:29]
Description
Buffalo Soldiers and Dominant Narratives
35 minutes classroom time
Students will hear the untold story of the Black American Solders, Buffalo Soldiers, who lived and worked at Fort Niobrara on the Niobrara River and then examine the dominant and counter narratives of the soldiers along with dominant narratives in their own lives by writing for inquiry and critical analysis of current events.
Duration
16 minutes, 29 seconds
Credit
NPS and Nebraska Writing Project, Funded by the National Writing Project
Date Created
03/01/2021
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