What, where, and when questions can be answered by finding facts through research. How and why questions lead to greater learning about reasons, motivations, and outcomes behind the facts. They encourage a deeper understanding of why what happened in the past is important today. Try these questions to start conversations.
- Why are immigrants pushed away from their home country and pulled to a new country? How are economics, conflict, language and culture involved?
- How does the treatment of immigrants in Cincinnati in 1856 compare with the treatment of immigrants today? What can be learned from this?
- Carolina and her family eat traditional German food. What foods do you eat or activities do you do that are ones your parents and grandparents enjoyed? Why do you think those foods or activities are still important?
- What chores did Carolina and Fritz have? How do you contribute to your family?
- Roles of women and men have changed over time. Why did survivors of the U.S.- Dakota War in 1862 remarry so quickly? How have roles changed in times of war? How are roles different today?
- Some institutions and services are necessary to build a community. For example, why did New Ulm citizens establish saw mills and flour mills, Turner Hall, a school and a newspaper? How do institutions and services allow a town to thrive and grow and become a community?
- Why did the settlers and the Dakota people think about land differently? Why was land so important to both? Why is land still being fought over in wars today?
- Conflict is a normal part of life. What are reasons people go to war? How does war dehumanize the people involved? How can differences be resolved before they escalate to violence? How can people learn to embrace the things they have in common rather than allow the differences to divide them?
- Memories and emotions can still be strong for the descendants of people who experienced great trauma, which is then passed on through later generations. In 2024, a federal law that banished the Dakota people from Minnesota is still on the books, but no longer enforced. People have not forgotten the suffering and injustices of the conflict. What else can be done to help people recover and find reconciliation and healing?
- What does “home” mean to you? Where do you feel you belong? Why?