Wednesday, June 29, 2016

The Revenant: Hugh Glass and the Mountain Men

One of the nice things about summer is a chance to get caught up on some reading. I was finally able to read the novel The Revenant: A Novel Of Revenge by Michael Punke. It truly is a great read. I am hopeful to watch the movie version The Revenant over my summer. I know I'm really behind on some of my movie viewing.

From reading the book I wanted to write a blog of some of the resources I've collected on Mountain Men as well as on the Hugh Glass story. I am hoping to incorporate several of these resources in my Westward Expansion Unit when students explore some of the groups that travel west. Traditionally in my class students explore the following groups as part of our exploration of Westward Expansion between 1800-1850: Mountain Men, Missionaries, Mormons, Pioneers, and Forty Niners.


Chronology of Publications of the Hugh Glass Story via Museum of the Mountain Men is a great detailed resource on what is actually known about Hugh Glass from printed resources in the 1800's.

Hugh Glass Fact v Fiction via the Museum of the Mountain Men gives a very detailed account of what the Revenant movie got correct and what it did not.

Who Was Hugh Glass via Slate also does a great job of balancing History v. Hollywood Hugh Glass story. 

Dan Snow's History Hit Podcast: The Revenant with Professor Jon T Coleman is a great interview to get more details about the life of Hugh Glass and his story. 

The Revenant Movie Trailer (On YouTube): Although the movie is too violent for me to show to my students, I think some elements of the movie trailer might help give students a visual of what life was like as well as some of the dangers associated with this occupation.  I hope it might help students form questions they have about Mountain Men as a launching point for students to conduct research to find out more about these intrepid explorers.



The Revenant A World Unseen Documentary (On YouTube): Looks at the making of this movie. There are lots of very interesting things about the problems they had shooting this movie due to weather and location.  


Other Mountain Men Resources: 

Fort Atkinson, NE  Photo by Lance Mosier
The Museum of the Mountain Men:







Movie Jeremiah Johnson Intro Scene: The 1972 movie Jeremiah Johnson was one of my father's favorite movies. I've shown this clip in the past to introduce to help student's discuss what lured Mountain Men to the West.


Mountain Men: Mountain Men Skills - YouTube Video via The History Chanel from their TV Series.  This particular clip looks at modern day Mountain Man skills that I think could help students discuss what is similar and different from the past.


Do You have any great resources that you have used to help students learn about Westward Expansion, The Mountain Men, or the story of Hugh Glass? I would love to hear about them in the comments section below. 



2 comments:

  1. This year, my eighth graders Skyped with the Buffalo Bill Center of the West to extend our learning about mountain men. Take a look at this link ==> https://education.microsoft.com/Story/VirtualFieldTrip?token=553b1

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