The Adventurous Deeds of Deadwood Jones

About this Guide:
Educators’ Guide
The Adventurous Deeds
of Deadwood Jones
The following material is designed to enhance
your reading of THE ADVENTURES OF
DEADWOOD JONES. Please feel free to
adapt these activities to suit your needs and
interests.
About the Book:
THE ADVENTUROUS DEEDS OF
DEADWOOD JONES
by Helen Hemphill
Juvenile Fiction | Cowboys | Adventure|
Cattle Drives | Great Migration | Deadwood|
Front Street | Hardcover | Ages 10+
November 2008
ISBN: 1-59078-637-8
978-1-59078-637-6
Reviews
…”I cheered, I gasped, I cried for
fourteen year old Prometheus as he and
his cousin Omer join a cattle drive headed
to South Dakota.”
~BOOK MOOT May 2008
More reviews to come…
When Prometheus Jones wins a horse with a
raffle ticket he got from Pernie Boyd and
LaRue Dill, he knows things won’t go
smoothly. No way are those two rednecks
going to let a black man, even a freeman
from the day of his birth, keep that horse.
So as soon as things get ugly, he jumps on
the horse, pulls his cousin Omer up behind
him, and heads off. They hook up with a
cattle drive out of Texas heading for
Deadwood, South Dakota. Prometheus is a
fine hand with a horse and not so bad with a
gun, and both skills prove useful as the trip
north throws every twist and turn
imaginable at the young cowpokes.
The Adventures of Deadwood Jones revives
the famous “half-dime” novels about
“Deadwood Dick” written by Edward L.
Wheeler, which, in turn, were inspired by
the autobiography of the African American
cowboy Nat Love.
From the book-“We ain’t paying you any money,” LaRue says. “Didn’t
you hear me, slave boy?”
I ain’t their slave boy. I ain’t never been their
slave boy. I was born on the day Mr. Lincoln made
his Proclamation, and I’ve been free since my
first breath. Mr. Lincoln done won that war, and
Colonel Dill done lost half his land and most all his
gold money. But that don’t matter to me. The Dill
boys still owe me four bits.”
Educators’ Guide
The Adventurous
Deeds of
Deadwood Jones
Pre-reading Activities:
 Using resource books or the web, ask students
to track the various cattle trails of the 1880s
and map them. Then, based on the reading, ask
them what trail Beck likely used to go to
Deadwood.
 Show the book trailer from
helenhemphill.com and ask students what they
can figure out about the story prior to reading
the novel. Then, ask them what they know about
the genre of westerns. Make a list of their ideas
to reference later.
 Ask students to do research on African
Americans’ role in settling the west. Why did
African Americans go west after the Civil War?
What did they hope to find?
 THE ADVENTURES OF DEADWOD JONES
takes place in 1876. Ask students to research
events of that year and make a timeline in order
to understand the context of the story.
 Read the students the Green myth about
Prometheus. Why do you think the author named
her main character Prometheus? What traits
might we expect from him?
Questions for Comprehension:
Chapters 1-5:
What is the relationship between
Prometheus and Omer?
What does Prometheus gain by
breaking the Dill brothers’ horse?
Why did LaRue Dill say that Prometheus
stole the raffle ticket?
Why does Prometheus want to go west?
What does Boss Beck ask Prometheus to do
to prove his knowledge of horses?
What happens as Nack and Prometheus
practice crossing the Republican River?
Chapters 6-10
How are the Pawnee going to help the cattle
drive?
Why does Beck get angry at Omer?
What is the result of the stampede?
Why is Nack sent into Ogallala? Why does
he blame Prometheus?
Who does Prometheus meet in Ogallala?
Chapters 11-15
What is Prometheus’s plan for the Pawnee?
Why do the soldiers come looking for Rio?
What does Beck what to accomplish?
Who does Beck take on with the cattle
drive for protection?
Chapter 16-20
What happens at the North Platte River?
How does Nack try to make up with
Prometheus?
How does the cattle drive get past the
Sioux?
and the Sioux were enemies?
How would you describe Deadwood?
Why do you think the Pawnee liked
Prometheus?
Chapters 22-24
Who does Prometheus meet in Deadwood?
Why is he there?
Who wins the Championship of the West?
How?
Why is Prometheus arrested?
Who recants his story? Why?
What does Prometheus decide about the
notion of luck?
Why did the Ogallala townspeople assume
the Pawnee had murdered the Bosler
brothers’ foreman?
What impact did the gold rush have on
Dakota Territory?
Why was Deadwood a town without formal
laws and courts?
What role does luck play in the story?
Vocabulary
Questions for Discussion
Why was Levi less prejudice against
Prometheus than the Dill brothers?
Why were the men on the cattle drive less
prejudice against African Americans and
Hispanics than society in general?
Why was Beck so determined to deliver
the heard?
Why were the cowboys on the trail so
young generally?
Why was it so important to find water on
the trail?
Why were cowboy songs and poetry
important to the cattle drive?
Although both native American Indian
cultures, why do you suppose the Pawnee
beeves
bittersweet
cantankerous
casement
cattywompus
condolences
confidence
consumption
daft
erroneous
ferret
grudge
gumbo
gumption
gunnysack
hemp
hex
hobble
hoodwink
hubbub
livery
loll
obliged
obstinate
petition
prosperity
quirt
rascal
recite
remuda
salve
scoundrel
shackles
sharecropper
shriek
slouch
smirk
sorrel
stampede
tarp
tart
theory
vengeance
wheeze
whim
Further Reading
Cefrey, Holly. From Slave to Cowboy: The
Nat Love Story. New York: Rosen
Publishing Group, 2004.
Dary, David. Cowboy Culture A Saga of
Five Centuries. Lawrence, Kansas:
University of Kansas Press, 1981.
Domek, Tom. Rain Shadow, A Traveler’s
Guide to the Buffalo Gap National
Grassland. Pierre, South Dakota: South
Dakota Historical Society Press.
Katz, William Loren. Black West. New
York: Harlem Moon, 1971.
Love, Nat. The Life and Adventures of Nat
Love. Los Angeles: Wayside Press, 1907.
Parker, Watson. Deadwood The Golden
Years. Lincoln: University of Nebraska
Press, 1981.
Penn, Sarah. Nat Love, African American
Cowboy. New York: Rosen Publishing
Group, 2004.
Seidman, Laurence I. Once in the Saddle:
The Cowboy Frontier 1866-1896. New
York: Facts on File, Inc., 1991.
Internet Resources
Book trailer
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5jhw1iveKQ8
The Beadle and Adams Dime Novel
Digitalization Project
http://www.ulib.niu.edu/badndp/
Beadle and Adams first published
Deadwood Dick and other adventure novels
for boys.
Native American Language Index
http://www.native-languages.org/ pawnee.htm
Interesting material about the Pawnee
culture and language.
African American West, 1528-2000
http://www.uwtv.org/programs/
displayseries.aspx?&fID=1098&pID=497
This is a television series produced by the
University of Washington.
Part II covers the era of Western
Expansion.
Edward L. Wheeler
http://www.ulib.niu.edu/badndp/
wheeler_edward.html
Information on the real Mr. Wheeler,
author of the Deadwood Dick series.
National Museum of American Indians.
http://www.nmai.si.edu/
National Cowboys of Color Museum
http://www.cowboysofcolor.org/
Amon Carter Museum
http://www.cartermuseum.org/
Photos from the collection of Erwin L. Smith.