Wandering Stars — Prologue Reading Questions & Historical Context Activity

Reading questions and activity for learning more about the Sand Creek Massacre.

Indigenous Voices • Carlisle Indian Schools • Sand Creek Massacre

Help students deeply understand the opening of Tommy Orange’s Wandering Stars with this close-reading and historical-context activity designed for the Prologue (pages ix–xi). This resource guides students through Orange’s language, imagery, and allusions while helping them build foundational knowledge of the Carlisle Indian Industrial Schools, Residential Schools, and the Sand Creek Massacre referenced in the text.

This lesson supports comprehension, cultural understanding, and historical awareness — without requiring a full multi-day unit.

Students will:

Closely read the prologue and answer structured, scaffolded questions that support comprehension and interpretation.
Learn key background information about Carlisle, forced assimilation policies, and the history connected to the novel.
Use the Sand Creek Massacre Source Comparison Chart to evaluate how different sources document the same event — and what that reveals about historical record-keeping.
Reflect on how historical events shape the novel’s themes and emotional grounding.

This resource works beautifully as:

✅ Helps students unpack the dense, powerful language of the prologue
🧭 Builds essential historical understanding without overwhelming them
🔍 Teaches source evaluation and perspective analysis
🌎 Provides accurate cultural and historical grounding for reading Indigenous texts
📦 Includes both PDF and editable Google Docs formats
🕒 Ideal for 1–2 class periods, depending on discussion depth