Not 'Indians,' Many Tribes: Native American Diversity

Introduction

There were literally hundreds of Native American tribes and there still are. All of those tribes have their own traditions and their own customs. Many had their own language. To say that a certain word, recipe, or custom is "Indian" is incorrect.

Source: Wisdom Keepers, Inc.

Learning Objectives

Lesson 2 First Primary Sources: Getting Started with Archival Documents

What can one learn from primary documents about the way of life of a Native American group? Students will discover there is much to be garnered from, for example, traditional recipes and stories.

Begin by asking students to brainstorm what they think of when they hear the term "Indian" or the term "Native American." Write the list on chart paper and save it for the end of the lesson.

(Note: Make sure students understand that when reviewing a primary document from an unknown source, there are bound to be parts of the document that will not be understood. Students should concentrate on what they can gather from the document, rather than focusing on things they can't understand, such as Native American words.)

If practical, divide the class in half and split each half into three groups, each assigned one document. Ask the students to be detectives, looking very carefully for clues about where their assigned Native American tribe might have lived and what the group's lifestyle may have been.

Present students with the following three Native American documents, which are provided here in text format for ease of use in the classroom:

• Abenaki (Mi'kmaq) Cinderella Story


• Hopi Emergence Tale excerpt


• Kwakiutl Recipe for Beached Whale (Winter Harbour, Canada)

• climate (e.g., the Abenaki story mentions a sled, implying snow)


• plant life (e.g., the Kwakiutl recipe mentions cedar bark)


• animal life (e.g., the Abenaki story mentions moose)


• relationships within the group (e.g., the Kwakiutl recipe emphasizes sharing and politeness)


• what the group considered important (e.g., the Hopi tale has a strong emphasis on corn)

Lesson 3 Students as Ecological Anthropologists

For this activity, retain the student groups formed in Lesson 2, if possible. Students will work together to solve the following problem: Five (use more or less if appropriate your group) documents from each of three Native tribes have been discovered, but unfortunately the documents have become mixed up. Which documents belong to which group? Students will use their knowledge of climate conditions where each Native group lived, plus what they learned about the groups' lifestyles in Lesson 2, to connect each of the new documents with the correct Native group.

(Note to the educator: These artifacts are from a variety of time periods up to the present, but each one embodies a long-standing tradition of the group dating back to the time of first contact with Europeans.)

Distribute any or all of the following primary source documents equally (but randomly) to each half of the class. Before distributing the documents, make sure that the name of the native group has been deleted or obscured. (All of the following documents are accessible through links from the EDSITEment-reviewed NativeWeb unless otherwise noted.)

Abenaki Documents

• Abenaki Moose Hunt


• Recipe for "Mushrat" (Muskrat) Stew


• Birch Bark Basket Photo


• Building a Wigwam (top half of page only)


• Drawing of Abenaki in Clothing of the 1700s

• Hopi Katsina Dolls (scroll down to find an image and text)


• Drawing of Hopi houses and crafts

• How to Catch a Sea Otter


• Kwakiutl canoes, Aleut Bay, British Columbia, September 5, 1909 (photo) (a link from the EDSITEment resource American Memory)


• Kwakiutl totem pole in front of house with painted thunderbird, Alert Bay, British Columbia, September 5, 1909 (photo) (a link from American Memory)


• Kwakiutl village on a hillside, Vancouver Island on Johnstone Strait, British Columbia, in engraving made 1792 (drawing) (a link from American Memory)


• The Story of Bookwus (includes a photo of a mask)


• The First Cat in the Northwest

Lesson 4 Coming to Conclusions

Now that students have looked at documents from the Abenaki, Hopi and Kwakiutl, they can make some comparisons between the three Native groups. In what ways are the Native groups similar to each other? How are they different? Are they more different or more similar? How different/similar are the environments in which they live(d)? Can some of the differences between the groups be explained by the environments in which they live(d)? Which differences between the groups cannot be explained by environment? Is it more useful to think of these three Native groups as one people (Native Americans) or as separate groups?

To assess student awareness of Native American diversity, make a new list of what students think of now when they hear the term "Indian" or the term "Native American." Write the list on chart paper. Compare it to the list created at the beginning of the lesson. If awareness of diversity has increased, the list should be quite different. Students may list more and different specific items (for example, if the students formerly said something like, "Indians hunt buffalo," they might now list whales, moose and/or muskrats) or they may include more generalizations (such as, "Native Americans live in many different kinds of houses") since one stereotypical view is no longer suitable.

To assess student learning about using an artifact to hypothesize about lifestyle, show an image of Plains tipis, available through a link from the EDSITEment resource American Memory. Ask students to hypothesize about the lifestyle of the Native Americans shown in the photograph. Think about the Kwakiutl homes, for example. They are quite different from the tipis shown in the photo. What differences in lifestyle might be reflected? Think about the Hopi dependence on corn. What difference in lifestyle is reflected by this photograph? It is impossible, on the basis of one photo, to correctly characterize a Native group. Instead, look for students to come up with many observations. When they make hypotheses, these should be supported by observations.

In this unit, the students have seen how one environmental factor, climate, affects lifestyle. Do the students hypothesize that environmental changes would have had a profound effect on Native Americans? To assess student learning about the relationship between environment and lifestyle, pose a hypothetical scenario to students and encourage discussion: If whales and fish became scarce, how might that change have affected the Kwakiutl? If a group like the Abenaki were forced to move to the Great Plains, how might that affect their lifestyle? Remind the class of the near extinction of the buffalo. How must that have affected any tribe dependent on them? See if students can move from conclusions to new hypotheses (for example: If the Abenaki moved to the Plains, they would no longer be able to hunt moose or fish. If they couldn't hunt moose, then they would need to find new sources for their clothing….) If you wish, present additional hypothetical scenarios to students about changes in environment/resources that may have affected Native groups, or ask students to devise their own hypothetical scenarios for discussion.

Lesson 5 "Invite All Your Friends, Relatives and Local Dignitaries"

To culminate the unit, students can create a classroom museum made up of downloaded items such as maps, photographs and images of artifacts. They can start with the artifacts used in this lesson, and expand through their own research. If desired, students can be assigned new Native groups to research. Many more artifacts can be located using the EDSITEment resources listed in this unit. American Memory and NativeWeb are searchable. The Internet Public Library has an index of tribes.

Students should create explanatory labels for every item on display. Each label should describe the item and make connections between it and the lifestyle and environment of the tribe. Labels might indicate the date of the artifact and the location of its origin. Students should be prepared to talk about each object on display. Displays should be organized, readable and accessible to visitors. Students should look for ways to enhance their presentations with readings from traditional stories, sound recordings, hand-outs and even authentic food samples from Native American recipes.

Students can open the exhibit to their families and other classes. Acting as docents, they explain the different areas of the exhibit and answer questions about the artifacts and the relationship of culture to environment. This will give students an ideal opportunity to showcase their understanding of the Native cultures they studied.

Extending the Lesson