Native Americans in Maryland, 1634 Preview Lesson #1: Diversity among Native Americans Objective: • Students will learn about the various Native American groups that lived in the United States prior to contact with Europeans. They will learn how the Native Americans’ environment impacted their way of life and how this differed between regions. • Students will learn about the true story of Thanksgiving and the Native Americans who participated in the event.
Grade Level: 3-5
Voluntary State Curriculum Correlation: Grade 3: 2.A.1 Locate and describe places using geographic tools. 2.A.2 Explain the similarities and differences of communities using geographic characteristics. Grade 4: 2.A.1.c Compare and describe elements of culture including shelter, recreation, education, oral traditions, art, music and language in Native American Societies. 3.B.1.c Explain how geographic characteristics affect how people live and work, and the population distribution of a place or region. 5.A.1.2 Describe Native American societies indigenous to Maryland. Grade 5: 2.A.1.c 3.D.1.a 3.B.1.c
Describe the impact of location on the Native American way of life. Compare ways Native American societies used the natural environment for food, clothing and shelter. Explain how geographic characteristics affect how people live and work, and the population distribution of a place or region.
Estimated Time: One 45 minute class period
Advance Preparation: • Photocopy for each student a map of the United States that shows state boundaries and major geographic features, if possible, and create an overhead. • Photocopy for each student “Native American Cultures” Worksheet and create an overhead. • Photocopy “Native American Tribe Information Sheets” if desired. Vocabulary: According to the National Museum of the American Indian, it is acceptable to use “Native Americans,” “American Indians,” or “Native peoples.” Although some tribes may prefer one term over the others, none of these terms is generally considered offensive. Whenever possible, it is always best to refer to a specific tribe.
Motivation: 1. Tell students that during the Native Americans in Maryland, 1634 presentation, they will learn about the Indians who were living in Maryland when the colonists first arrived in 1634. They will also learn how the Maryland Indians used the things they found in nature to survive. 2. Ask students to name some stereotypes associated with Native Americans, and list the responses on the blackboard. Possibilities include: living in tipis, wearing large feathered headdresses, making war whoops, hunting buffalo, etc. 3. Explain to students that the Maryland Indians were among many different groups of Native Americans who were living in North America before the colonists arrived. Each of these Indian tribes had its own unique traditions, housing, food sources, language, and living patterns, based largely on the geography and natural resources of the land on which they lived. The stereotypical American Indian that many people imagine most closely resembles the Plains Indians.
Procedure: 1. Explain to students that they will have an opportunity to learn a bit more about one Native American culture, and then each group will report on their tribe’s characteristics to the rest of the class. By doing so, students can get an idea of the amazing diversity of Indian cultures. 2. Divide the class into 6 groups. Assign each group one of the following tribes: Piscataway, Wampanoag, Choctaw, Lakota, Navajo, or Chinook. Distribute a copy of the “Native American Cultures” worksheet and a copy of the United States map to each group or student. Direct the students to use library resources or the internet to complete the worksheet for their tribe. Younger students can use the attached “Native American
Tribe Information Sheets.” On the map, students should also color in the area of the United States inhabited by their tribe. 3. Ask a representative from each group to share the characteristics of their tribe with the class, and fill in the “Native American Cultures” worksheet on the overhead. Then plot the locations of the tribes on the map. 4. Wrap up the lesson by reiterating to the students that there were several different types of Indians living in the New World when the colonists first arrived in Maryland. Remind students that it is inaccurate to group all American Indians together and make generalizations about them. Each tribe had its own unique culture and ways of life. Tell the class that they will be learning much more about Maryland’s Native Americans during their upcoming classroom presentation by the Maryland Historical Society.
Post-Program Suggestions: After participating in the Native Americans in Maryland, 1634 Classroom Presentation, have the students complete one of the following activities: • Have each student plant a Native American garden with the three sisters, corn, beans, and squash in a small pot. • Teach the students how to make a Native American pinch pot. Have students make a diorama of an Indian village, using John White’s watercolors. You can find the watercolors at: http://www.virtualjamestown.org/images/white_debry_html/jamestown.html.
NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURES Tribe
Piscataway
Wampanoag
Choctaw
Lakota
Navajo
Chinook
Location
Geography/ Climate
Language
Housing
Food
NATIVE AMERICAN CULTURES ANSWER KEY Tribe
Location
Geography/ Climate
Language
Housing
Food
Piscataway
Along the lower Potomac in Southern Maryland and Washington, D.C.
Wooded; near many waterways; mild winters and hot summers
Algonquian
Wichott – rectangular, dome of saplings covered with mats of woven reeds
Maize (corn), beans, squash, nuts, berries, crabapples, deer, turkey, waterfowl, fish, squirrels
Wampanoag
Northern Rhode Island and Southeast coast of Massachusetts
Thin soil; forests; near the sea; moderate summers and cold winters
Massachusett, a dialect of Algonquian
Weeto – bark covered wigwam
Maize (corn), berries, nuts, boiled fish, whales, deer, waterfowl
Choctaw
Originally Mississippi and parts of Alabama and Louisiana; today mostly in Oklahoma
Fertile soil; many rivers; long warm summers; regular rainfall
Choctaw-Chickasaw, an Algonquian language
Circular thatch lodges made from frames of saplings covered with mats of palmetto leaves
Maize (corn), squash, berries, bear, turkey, deer, trout, shrimp
Lakota
Northern Great Plains – North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana and Wyoming
Grasslands; very dry; violent thunderstorms and blizzards; few trees; few rivers
Sioux
Tipi – cone-shaped framework of wooden poles covered with buffalo skins
Buffalo, deer, elk, roots, berries, and vegetables traded from other tribes
Navajo
Northeast Arizona, Southeast Utah, and Northwest New Mexico
Very rocky; very dry; many canyons; few rivers
Navajo, an Athabascan language
Hogan – coneshaped frame of wood covered with packed earth
Maize (corn), beans, squash, wheat, oats, fry bread, prarie dogs
Fish (smelt, sturgeon, Large, multi-family Mountains; near the Northern shore of the king salmon), sea rectangular cedar Columbia River along sea; much rain; great Chinook, a Penutian mammals, frames covered with forests of tall trees; the border between Chinook language cranberries, wild sharply sloped cedar moderate Washington State celery, deer, elk bark roofs temperatures and Oregon Source: Gale Encyclopedia of North American Tribes, Sharon Malinowski and Anna Sheets, eds., with Jeffrey Lehman and Melissa Walsh Doig, Detroit, 1998.
NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBE INFORMATION SHEET:
THE PISCATAWAY
When Lord Baltimore’s colonists arrived in Maryland in 1634, they met the Piscataway people. The Piscataway lived along the creeks and bays between the Potomac River and the Chesapeake Bay in the area that is now Washington, D.C. and Southern Maryland. It was a very wooded area crisscrossed by many rivers and creeks, with a generally mild climate. The Piscataway spoke Algonquian and had close ties to the Nanticoke people on the Eastern Shore. Their houses were called wichotts. They were rectangular and were usually about twenty feet long, although some could be up to sixty feet long. They were made by bending saplings, or young trees, to create a frame that was then covered with mats of woven reeds and grasses. There was a hole in the top to let in light and let out smoke. The Piscataway were known as good farmers, and they grew maize (corn), beans, and squash to eat. The women also gathered berries, nuts, crabapples, plums, and other fruits, and the men fished and hunted for deer, turkeys, squirrels, waterfowl.
NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBE INFORMATION SHEET:
THE WAMPANOAG
The American Indians who participated in the First Thanksgiving were members of the Wampanoag tribe. They lived in the area that is now northern Rhode Island and along the Atlantic Ocean in southeastern Massachusetts. This area was very near the sea, had a lot of trees, thin soil, moderate summers and cold winters. The language the Wampanoag spoke was a version of Algonquian known as Massachusetts, which is where the state gets its name. The Wampanoag lived in bark-covered wigwams called weetos. Before the Europeans arrived in North America, the Wampanoag did not live close to each other in villages but were spread out throughout the area and tended to move from place to place according to the seasons. After the Europeans arrived, however, the Native Americans tended to gather on hilltops to live for extra security. The Wampanoag people lived on a diet that included maize (corn), boiled fish, whale meat, waterfowl, deer, berries and nuts.
NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBE INFORMATION SHEET:
THE CHOCTAW
The Choctaw were a very peaceful people who lived in the southeastern portions of the present-day United States. They originally lived in what is now Mississippi and portions of Alabama and Louisiana, which was an area with fertile soil, many rivers, long, warm summers, and regular rainfall. In the 1830s, however, the United States government forced them to move to Oklahoma. Their language was called Choctaw-Chickasaw, which was from the Algonquian language family. They lived in circular lodges, or huts, made by covering wooden frames with palmetto leaves. They had one door that faced south and an opening in the roof to let out smoke, and they were big enough for many people. The Choctaw ate maize (corn), berries, bear, turkey, deer, trout, shrimp, and squash.
NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBE INFORMATION SHEET:
THE LAKOTA
The Lakota were once the most powerful tribe in North America. Some of the most famous American Indian leaders, such as Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse, were Lakota. The Lakota people lived on the northern Great Plains in the area that is now North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Montana, and Wyoming. This area includes areas of grassy prairies and low hills, as well as the Black Hills, which are a range of low mountains. The entire area receives little rain and often receives strong thunderstorms and blizzards.
The Lakota spoke Sioux, and lived in tipis,
which were easy to put up, take down, and carry with them as they traveled around the Great Plains in search of buffalo. The tipis were made by setting up a framework of wooden poles in a cone about twelve to sixteen feet in diameter and then covering the frame with eight to twelve buffalo skins stitched together. The Lakota’s main source of food was buffalo, but they also ate deer, elk, roots, and berries. They also traded for other foods with tribes who farmed.
NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBE INFORMATION SHEET:
THE NAVAJO
The Navajo people are part of a group of tribes known as the Apache. They lived in present-day northeast Arizona, southeast Utah, and northwest New Mexico, a very dry and rocky area with many canyons and few rivers. The Navajo language, which is still spoken widely, is part of the Athabascan language family. Originally, the Navajo lived in hogans, cone-shaped houses made from wooden frames. Since the mid-1800s, many Navajo live in six-sided log cabins with beehive-shaped roofs covered with packed earth. Traditionally, a married man and woman lived near the wife’s mother’s home. The Navajo ate corn, beans, squash, wheat and oats, in addition to prairie dogs and fry bread, plate-sized disks of wheat bread fried in hot fat. Also, they herded sheep and goats.
NATIVE AMERICAN TRIBE INFORMATION SHEET:
THE CHINOOK
The Chinook people were one of the most powerful tribes in northwestern North America until their numbers began to decrease due to diseases brought by white settlers in the 1800s. They lived near the Pacific Ocean on the northern shore of the Columbia River along what is now the border between Washington State and Oregon. This area is known for its mountains, great forests of tall trees, and very frequent rainfall. The Chinook were known as very successful traders, trapping and trading fur from animals such as sea otters. Their language was called Chinook, which is part of the Penutian language family. They lived in very large, rectangular houses that housed up to ten families. The houses were made from cedar planks with steeply sloped roofs covered with cedar bark. There was a open area in the center of the house with a fire for all of the families to use. This central area was surrounded by smaller rooms where the families slept. The Chinook got much of their food from the sea using dugout canoes. They ate fish, including smelt, sturgeon, and king salmon, which they considered sacred, and sea mammals. In addition, they ate cranberries, crab apples, wild celery, cattails, skunk cabbage, deer and elk.
