Use these questions or activities to help gauge students’ familiarity with and spark their interest in the context of the work, giving them an entry point into the text itself.

Short Answer

Some traumas affect entire societies. What are 3-5 examples of societal groups that have experienced generational trauma? Briefly discuss the effects on these populations.

Teaching Suggestion: Student responses may include the persecution over the centuries of the Jewish people, including the Holocaust of the 20th century; or Black Americans, whose centuries of enslavement has had long-lasting consequences. Other possible ideas include the Irish, who suffered famines in the late 19th century; the Tutsi group in Rwanda, many of whom were massacred in a 1994 genocide; or members of the LGBTQ+ community, who often experience discrimination.

• This article from Bennett College discusses the ways in which members of the Black community are affected by generational trauma.
• This feature from the American Psychological Association discusses with historical examples the ways in which trauma affects future generations.

Short Activity

Indigenous people like the Osage lived on the plains of North America for centuries before contact with the first European settlers in the late 17th century. Using reputable and scholarly resources, investigate which Indigenous communities lived on the plains, what their lives were like, and the ways in which their way of life was eradicated or greatly changed over time.