Lesson 4: Native American Resistance

In this lesson, students will build upon their knowledge of the mistreatment of Native Americans by studying how Native Americans resisted and rose against this treatment. Students will use the accounts of las Casas, from the previous lesson, as a basis to understand various skirmishes that took place between the Taíno and Columbus and other conquistadors. The Taíno were Native Americans who inhabited a Caribbean island that the Spanish called La Española, and which is today part of Haiti and the Dominican Republic. By considering the size of the island and the initial size of the Native American population, students will learn about the conflict from the perspective of various Taíno caciques, or chiefs.