MTEL Communication and Literacy Skills (01) Practice Test

Communication and Literacy Skills (01) Practice Test: ReadingMULTIPLE-CHOICE QUESTIONSRead the passage below, written in the style of a magazine of ideas and opinion.Then answer the five questions that follow.A Native American Heritage1 By the beginning of the twentieth century,the Native Americans who lived in NewEngland were far fewer than had lived in theregion three centuries earlier. Many of thesepeople lived in small groups on portions oflands that their ancestors had long occupied.Though fewer in number, they honored theirtribal identities, cherished their ancestralhomelands, and wanted to keep what theyhad. To help insure their heritage, NativeAmericans eventually turned to the U.S. legalsystem.2 Leading the way were two Maine tribes,the Penobscots and the Passamaquoddies,whose history differed little from that of mostNative Americans of the region. Like othertribes, their populations had decreasedmarkedly over the centuries; so had theamount of land they controlled. After theAmerican Revolution, state governments hadimposed treaties that transferred much of theNative Americans' land to state and privateownership. With the loss of their land baseand its resources, tribal populations tended todisperse as individuals sought opportunitieselsewhere. In Maine, by the early twentiethcentury, the Penobscots and Passamaquoddiesheld only two small reservations.3 Thus matters stood for the next halfcentury.Then, in 1957, a federal programdesigned to encourage the assimilation ofNative American peoples threatened toterminate the Penobscot and Passamaquoddytribal governments. Tribal leaders resisted.With the help of other Native Americanactivists, they thwarted the attempt and in theprocess strengthened tribal authority. It was asmall victory, but one that encouraged them toseek other ways of asserting their rights.4 As the changing social and politicalclimate of the 1960s and 1970s promptedmany Native American groups to insist thatthe federal government live up to treatycommitments, Penobscot and Passamaquoddyleaders saw their opportunity. The tribes hadfought for the Americans in the Revolutionand in return had been promised protection oftheir hunting grounds by the ContinentalCongress. By the twentieth century, thosevast tracts had become extremely valuable.So the two tribes decided to sue the federalgovernment for the return of about two-thirdsof the state of Maine.5 The land, they claimed, had been takenillegally, first by Massachusetts (of whichMaine formed a part until 1820) and then byMaine. They based their case on the IndianTrade and Intercourse Act of 1790. That law,which made the federal government a trusteefor Native American property, declared that notransfers of Indian land were valid unlessapproved by Congress. Since the tribes coulddemonstrate that state treaties involving morethan 1,200,000 acres of land taken from themhad never been submitted to Congress, theyhad a strong case. Much to the surprise andchagrin of many observers, the suit provedsuccessful. In 1980, the Maine IndianSettlement Act awarded the tribes a substantialmonetary settlement that enabled them to buyland, develop tribal businesses, and provideemployment for tribal members.7