Elatsoe

One of the goals of Indigenous Futurism is to reimagine past, present, and future in a way that empowers Indigenous cultures.

How does Little Badger use Ellie’s battle against Allerton to convey pride in Lipan Apache culture and reimagine the culture’s real-world context in ways that empower the Indigenous? Consider these points in formulating your response:

• How does Little Badger use diction, imagery, detail, and figurative language to characterize Allerton as evil and link Willowbee to colonial culture?
• How do Ellie and her special abilities represent the values and traditions of Lipan Apache culture?
• Which of Ellie’s attributes and the resources that she relies on are part of the alternative reality Little Badger creates and would not exist in our own world?
• Which of Allerton’s attributes and resources would not exist in our own world?
• What is the larger significance of the battle between Ellie and Allerton? How does it represent a battle between two cultures?

Teaching Suggestion: Students may tend to focus too broadly in responding to the main prompt question, discussing Ellie’s pride in general instead of answering the specific—and more difficult—question about Little Badger’s strategies. It might be helpful to draw their attention to the prompt’s exact wording and highlight the narrow focus of the bulleted questions that follow the prompt.

Differentiation Suggestion: Students with executive function and attentional differences may benefit from using a graphic organizer that allows them to group their ideas into two categories: strategies that portray Lipan Apache strengths through Ellie, and strategies that demonize Allerton and Willowbee and link them to colonial culture. Then they can make some notes on their organizers about which parts of these portrayals can only exist in the alternate reality Little Badger is creating. If students are answering the prompt in written form, students who struggle with written expression might be allowed to simply turn in the graphic organizer in lieu of a complete written response.