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Folklife Resources for EducatorsMaterials Related to Indians of North AmericaThere are 40 titles in this list.
The A:shiwi (Zuni) People: A Study in Environment, Adaptation, and Agricultural Practices Teaching poster for grades 6-8 that examines the reciprocal relationships between the land and the A:shiwi people, also known as the Zuni, including how they have adapted to the semi-arid climate of New Mexico through a centuries-old farming technique known as "waffle gardens." Lesson plan includes background on how Native peoples have used observation and experimentation to develop science-based agricultural practices and also how A:shiwi waffle gardening reflects the traditional values of their culture. Poster meets national curriculum standards for Social Studies. (10 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: Alaska Native Dance Curriculum resources for exploring similarities in the midst of diversity by introducing students to native dances performed by Alaskan cultural groups. Accompanying videos document a variety of dance forms performed by five native groups, with background about the characteristics of the dances and the cultural contexts and restrictions governing their performance. Curriculum ideas can be used in the classroom for teaching social studies, music, fine arts, geography, and physical education.
Sponsoring Organization: American Indian Perspectives on Thanksgiving Teaching poster, designed for educators and students in grades 4-8, examines the deeper meaning of the Thanksgiving holiday for American Indians through the themes of environment, community, encounters, and innovation. Appropriate for use at any time of the year, the poster includes information on teaching about American Indians and ideas for classroom activities. (10 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Choctaw Dances Curriculum resources for exploring three types of Choctaw dances—social, animal, and war—that serve to bind Mississippi Chocktaw communities, honor the natural environment, and express cultural solidarity. An accompanying video illustrates some current traditional activities that connect the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians with their past, including dance, the use of traditional instruments, and participation in games such as stickball. Curriculum ideas can be used in the classroom for teaching social studies, dance, music, geography, and physical education.
Sponsoring Organization: Cultural Protocols in Everyday Life Middle and high school classroom activities and web-based resources for the study of the cultural protocols or preferred behaviors that everyone uses in their lives. Using the themes of cross-cultural communication and cultural change, curriculum ideas incorporate examples of celebration and cultural forms of conduct from native groups in Massachusetts and Hawaii that can be used in the classroom to discuss these issues in a wider context. Includes links to photographs, video clips, and documents drawn from several museum collections. Curriculum materials conform to National Standards for Geography and can be used for teaching Social Studies, Language Arts, and History.
Sponsoring Organization: Culturally-Based Curriculum Resources Culturally responsive curriculum resources for the study of Alaska native knowledge systems and ways of learning. Database includes units, lesson plans, activities, and background material for use in the K-12 classroom, geared primarily for use in the curriculum fields of math and science. The materials are created within a culturally aligned curriculum framework reflecting indigenous knowledge systems, and incorporate oral tradition, learned skills, traditional practice, folk medicine, and native ecological perspectives which make them valuable for application in social science and humanities curricula.
Sponsoring Organization: Dakotah Storyteller: Mary Louise Defender Wilson K-12 curriculum ideas for studying the life and artistry of 1999 NEA National Heritage Fellow Mary Louise Defender Wilson, storyteller and performer of songs, dances, and legends of the Dakotah (Sioux) and Hidatsa people. These materials can be used in the curriculum areas of language arts, geography, social studies, history, visual arts, and science. Includes audio recording of Wilson telling the Dakotah story “The Woman Who Turned Herself to Stone,” a transcript of an interview with her, background on Native American storytelling and language, and additional resources.
Sponsoring Organization: European and Native American Mapping Activity Activity for grades 6-8 to help students distinguish and describe the differences and similarities between European and Native American mapping concepts and methods after studying and drawing in both styles to represent the same location. Activity addresses the Illinois State Board of Education Standards and Goals for Geography and History. (5 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Explore Culture Online Online educational activities, podcasts, videos, exhibitions, oral histories, databases, bibliographies, and multimedia resources created for the Arizona State Museum about their exhibits, collections, and programs related to the material culture of Southwest Native Americans. Includes cultural and archaeological topics such as masks, pottery, textiles, painting, and weaving from Northern Mexico, New Mexico, and Arizona. Can be used in the classroom.
Sponsoring Organization: Folklife in the Classroom Activities, lesson plans, and background about Montana folk arts and artists. Activities include the topics of "Cowboy Music & Poetry," "Documenting Traditions," "Indian Rawhide Drum Making," and "Quilting Traditions." Site also includes lesson plans, activities, and posters related to individual Montana traditional artists. The artists represent Blackfeet Indian beadwork, knifemaking, wood artistry, and traditional rawhide work from the White Clay People (Gros Ventre) tradition. Each lesson plan is in a 5 p. PDF format. Lesson plans are correlated to Montana Standards for Arts.
Sponsoring Organization: Food and Culture, Past and Present in Choctaw Culture Curriculum resources for grades 4-12 that explore the effects of colonization, cultural interaction, and change on the local foodways of the Mississippi Choctaw culture. Topics covered include how food choices are influenced by the geography and ecosystems of a cultural group’s homeland, how cultural celebrations and ceremonies are related to available food resources, and how a group’s ways of obtaining food has changed since European contact. Curriculum suggestions and activities conform to National Standards for English Language Arts, Geography, and History.
Sponsoring Organization: Haudenosaunee Guide for Educators Teaching guide that provides background and activities on the Haudenosaunee, a confederation of six Native American nations commonly known as the Iroquois Confederacy. The nations include the Mohawk, the Oneida, the Onondaga, the Cayuga, the Seneca, and the Tuscarora. The Teaching Guide was created by staff from the Museum of the American Indian in collaboration with Haudenosaunee scholars and community members. It includes background information about the history, traditions, cultural life, arts, and patterns of social and civic interaction of the Haudenosaunee peoples, with suggestions for classroom discussion questions and activities, such as the making of cornhusk dolls. (24 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Iñupiaq Whale Hunt Curriculum resources for grades 5-8 that explore the role of the whale hunt among the Inupiat people along the Chukchi Sea of northern Alaska. Topics covered include how the whale hunt nourishes the Inupiaq people and sustains and builds community. An accompanying video with discussion questions illustrates Inupiaq subsistence hunting and fishing and demonstrates how whaling fulfills many of the nutritional, economic, social and cultural needs of Inupiaq life. Curriculum suggestions can be applied to the areas of social studies, history, language arts, and geography.
Sponsoring Organization: Iowa Folklife -- Volume II Online curriculum resource guide for K-12 students and educators that explores the traditional music, foods, dance, rituals and crafts of Iowa's diverse cultures. A companion resource to "Iowa Folklife: Our People, Communities, and Traditions," it includes content pages, audio samples, suggested readings, lesson plans and other online resources. Lesson plans and accompanying materials focus on the blues, Gospel, Latino music, Old Time music, Polka, First Nations Peoples, Vietnamese Tet, and cultural traditions from Laotians, Danes, Bosnians, and Asian Indians who have settled in Iowa.
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: Journeys and Transformations: British Columbia Landscapes Teacher's guide that presents background, teaching ideas, and activities about the physical environments of British Columbia, including its mountains, forests, waters, grasslands, and cities. For each environment, sub-topics focus on the geography, natural history, First Peoples lives, and historical development of British Columbia. Materials include artifacts and historical accounts of indigenous inhabitants. Focusing on the theme of transformation, this interactive site provides curriculum background on the interactions of the physical landscape, native and newcomer populations, and culture.
Sponsoring Organization: King County and Western Washington Cultural Geography, Communities, Their History and Traditions Ten-week curriculum unit of forty lesson plans (85 p. PDF), with accompanying essays on cultural background and traditional art forms, plus a searchable database of Washington state traditional artists. Designed for use by 7th and 8th grade Social Studies teachers for the Washington State Culture and History curriculum. Curriculum unit focuses on the traditional art forms of Cantonese Opera, Kathak Dance, Hmong Basketry, and Oud Music of the Arabic World. Cultural background essays describe communities of Puget Salish, Chinese Americans, Asian Indians, Laotian Americans, and Arab Americans living in Washington state.
Sponsoring Organization: The Kwakwaka'wakw: A Study of a North Pacific Coast People and the Potlatch Teaching poster for grades 6-8 with accompanying lesson plans and activities that explore cultural traditions and values of the Kwakwaka'wakw people of British Columbia, Canada that express concepts of wealth and the importance of cultural continuity. Curriculum materials focus on this North Pacific Coast People's potlatch practice, its history, the values inherent in it, and the important role it plays in establishing and maintaining family connections to the past, to ancestors, and to the spirits of all living things. Poster meets national curriculum standards for Social Studies. (9 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Lakota Winter Counts - The Teachers' Guide Teacher's guide to an online exhibit of Lakota "winter counts" for students in grades K-10. Lakota winter counts are pictographic calendars reflecting the history of a community, made by keeping track of the passage of years. Studying these creative historiographical tools offers a unique representation of the history of the Lakota Sioux people during the 18th and 19th centuries. The teacher's guide includes background information, lesson plans, resource lists, and primary sources from the Smithsonian's collections, plus instructions on navigating the online exhibit. Meets national curriculum standards for Social Studies. (33 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Lewis & Clark - The National Bicentennial Exhibition Teaching Units and Lesson Plans Curriculum materials for grades 4-12 with a virtual exhibit of the "Lewis & Clark: The National Bicentennial Exhibition" that explores the cultural landscape the explorers encountered in the early 19th century. The teaching units with lesson plans and suggested activities cover the topics of: Preparing for the Trip; Politics & Diplomacy; Women; Mapping; Animals; Language; Warriors/Soldiers; Trade & Property; and Plants, each comparing and contrasting Lewis and Clark's experiences with what those of the Native Americans they met might have been. The lessons are geared to upper elementary, middle school, and high school levels, are inquiry-based, and use primary source materials, artifacts, and Indian interviews featured in the online exhibition. Also includes video clips, maps, and a variety of documents. Units are linked to Missouri State Standards and National Council for the Social Studies and National Science Teachers Association standards.
Sponsoring Organization: A Life in Beads: The Stories a Plains Dress Can Tell Teaching poster for grades 4-6 with accompanying lesson plans and activities that explore the traditional art of dressmaking and dress decoration among women of Native American tribes from the Great Plains region. Through the stories and art of contemporary women from the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes in Montana, students will learn about materials used in the past and today, as well as the cultural values and meanings behind dress decoration. Meets national curriculum standards for Social Studies. (10 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Living Traditions: Museums Honour the North American Indigenous Games Activities and background for 8th grade students related to traditional North American indigenous games, such as lacrosse, Eastern Woodland games, archery, longball, paddling and canoe racing traditions, and the tag game known as wolf (or hunter) and moose (or caribou). The site also includes information about the North American Indigenous Games, a multi-sport event involving indigenous athletes.
Sponsoring Organization: Lone Dog's Winter Count: Keeping History Alive Teaching poster developed for 4th through 8th grades to explore the oral culture and history-keeping techniques of the Nakota people who made the Lone Dog Winter Count. Originally, languages of the Northern Great Plains Indians were not written, but spoken. Using oral tradition, Native communities developed creative tools to help them remember their complex histories. A "winter count" was one way that Nakota storytellers recorded their histories and kept track of the passage of years. Poster includes lesson plan on the Native American practice of making winter counts and activities for creating pictograph calendars as mnemonic devices. Meets national curriculum standards for Social Studies. (10 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Native American Dolls Teaching guide for K-12 education with lesson plan and activities on diverse traditions of Native American dolls and dollmaking. Native doll makers describe how their work keeps old traditions alive and helps in developing new traditions. Includes examples of Navajo, Inupiat, Ojibwe, Seneca, and Seminole dolls exhibited in the National Museum of the American Indian and transcripts of interviews with their makers. The lesson is useful for teaching about cultural differences where students are encouraged to compare and contrast Native dolls with those from their own background. It meets national curriculum standards for History and Geography. Lesson plan originally published in the fall 2004 issue of "Smithsonian In Your Classroom." (28 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: Native American Lesson Plan: Someone's in the Kitchen Lesson plan for introducing students to Native American foodways, including information on how to measure ingredients and prepare traditional foods, as well as background on the role of food in Native American culture. Can be used with ESL students. Addresses the Illinois State Board of Education Goals and Standards for Math, Language Arts, and Social Science.
Sponsoring Organization: A Native Place Teaching Guide for grades 4-8 that celebrates the establishment of the Museum of the American Indian on the National Mall in Washington, DC and the cultures and achievements of American Indian peoples. Included in this guide are three lesson plans with activities: "A Place of Pride," "A Welcoming Spirit," and "The Peoples' Knowledge." Curriculum materials focus on issues of Native history, museums, cultural representation, worldview, beliefs, philosophy, and material culture. They also encourage an understanding of, and respect for the strength, richness, and diversity of Native cultures. The Teaching Guide meets national curriculum standards for Language Arts, U.S. History, Social Studies, Geography, Science Literacy, and Fine Arts/Visual Arts. (5 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: Native Words, Native Warriors Interactive curriculum website for grades 6-12 that explores the lives and experiences of American Indian Code Talkers, the servicemen who used their traditional tribal languages to transmit secret messages for the US military during World War I and World War II. Includes lesson plans, correlated to National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies and National Standards for History, captioned photographs, maps and documents, discussion questions, activities, and audio recordings of spoken word and Native American music.
Sponsoring Organization: Natural Dyes from Plants Lesson Lesson plan for grade levels 4-12 to learn about how fabric dyes were made from natural substances such as onion skins, walnuts, bark, and flowers by Native Americans and early European settlers. Includes guidelines for preparing natural dyes and dyeing fibers or fabrics. Additional background information is provided to help students understand how dyeing traditions express aspects of culture that may change when different peoples come into contact with each other. Addresses Illinois State Board of Education Goals and Standards for History, Social Science, and the Visual Arts. (10 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: Oral Traditions Curriculum resources for the study of Tlingit oral traditions for grades 5-8. The materials focus on the interconnections of story and dance in the Tlingit culture of Southeastern Alaska and include a video that features Tlingit oral tradition. Topics covered include how oral tradition tells us who we are, where we came from, and how it serves to communicate important cultural values. It also focuses on how the Tlingit people use art, song, dance, and storytelling to express their identity. Curriculum suggestions conform to National Standards for English Language Arts.
Sponsoring Organization: Performing Asveq (The Walrus Hunt) Curriculum resources for grades 5-8 focused on how young people of Inupiaq and Yupick heritage express their cultural identity through song and dance. Topics covered focus on performing arts that provide a direct way to participate in one’s cultural community, to preserve culture for future generations, and to express joy in being a part of a culture. An accompanying video illustrates a song and dance describing a walrus hunt developed by students from an Anchorage high school. Curriculum suggestions conform to National Standards for English Language Arts and can be used in the classroom to teach social studies, music, and performing arts.
Sponsoring Organization: Plum Stone Dice Game Activity geared to students in grades 4-8 in which they learn some background about the Native American plum stone dice game and also the rules for playing it. Addresses the Illinois State Board of Education Goals and Standards. (3 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: Seminole Doll Making Lesson plans, photographs, and audio interviews with Seminole doll maker Mary B. Billie and her daughter, Claudia C. John, about the history and practice of Seminole doll making. Correlated to Florida State Standards, the lesson plans were created for a Visual Arts curriculum for grades 6-8. The primary source materials in this educational unit belong to the State Library and Archives of Florida's Florida Folklife Collection, available on the Florida Memory Web site.
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: Teacher's Guide for Nevada Folk Arts Roster Folk arts education guide created to accompany the Nevada Folk Arts Roster program and to provide an overview of the traditional arts and folklife of ethnic communities in Nevada. Includes lesson plans for the general study of folklife and also lessons on Mexican, African, Asian, Western and Eastern European, Hawaiian, and Native American cultures in Nevada, plus information on individual traditional artists working in the state. Accompanying worksheets and activities provide guidance in doing fieldwork. Lessons are designed for 4th and 7th grade students, but may be adapted for other age groups or skill levels. Correlated to Nevada Standards for Education for the areas of History, Social Studies, Geography, Library, Music, Physical Education, Visual Arts, and English Language Arts. (46 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Teaching Lewis & Clark: Tribal Cultures & Homelands - Elementary/Middle School Lesson plan with activities for grades 3-8 that explore the cultural aspects of the native peoples who Lewis and Clark met along the Columbia River in the early 19th century. Special focus is placed on foodways and how Native Americans in the region used the various physical environments they had access to for fish, game, and roots and berries. A seasonal round template can be downloaded for students as an activity. The materials are correlated to Washington State Benchmarks for Economics, Geography, and History.
Sponsoring Organization: Teaching Folklife: Educational Materials for Students and Teachers This educational resource contains lesson plans designed to introduce teachers and students to a basic understanding of traditional culture in Tennessee. It is most useful for students in the 4th through 7th grades. The guide includes five lesson plans: I) Introduction to Traditional Culture; II) Storytelling and Oral History; III) Folk Arts and Crafts; IV) Traditional Music; and V) Foodways. The resource includes a glossary of folklife terms and readings brought together from a wide variety of sources on the topic of Tennessee traditional arts. Materials in the guide can be used in the classroom for teaching Language Arts, Music, Visual Arts, Social Studies, and Math.(179 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Other Organizations: To Honor and Comfort: Native Quilting Traditions Study guide developed by the National Museum of the American Indian to accompany a 1997 exhibition of the same name. It can also be used as an independent resource for educators. Includes four lesson plans that correspond to the exhibition sections: Origins, Honoring, Design, and Community. Curriculum focuses on quilters from eight Native American communities and has accompanying study questions, handouts, and activities. (36 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Turtle and Pretty Crane - Teacher's Guide Teacher's guide for "Turtle and Pretty Crane," a documentary featuring Mandan and Hidatsa storyteller and flute player Keith Bear from the Forth Berthold Indian Reservation of northwestern North Dakota. The story told in the video is described by Keith Bear as an American Indian version of “Romeo and Juliet.” The video and lesson plans provide an opportunity for students to explore issues relating to music and culture, the analysis of legends, and the artistry of a Native American performer. The video is approximately 9 minutes long and is available on the website. Lesson plans in the teacher's guide (17 p. PDF) have benchmarks and standards for grades 9-12 for Language Arts, Social Studies, and Music.
Sponsoring Organization: We Have a Story to Tell: Native Peoples of the Chesapeake Region Teacher guide for use with students in grades 9-12 that provides information and primary resource materials related to key periods and events in the history of the Algonquian communities of the Chesapeake Bay Region, especially the Powhatan, Nanticoke, and Piscataway peoples. Curriculum materials cover the period from the 1600s to the present and focus on how colonial settlement and the establishment of the United States have affected Chesapeake Bay Native Americans. With lesson plans, small group projects, and activities, the guide also introduces contemporary issues that are critical for these communities' survival, such as civil rights and the importance of legal recognition. Meets national curriculum standards for U.S. History and Social Studies. (28 p. PDF)
Sponsoring Organization: Weaving with Seed Beads on a Bead Loom Activity geared to grades 5-7 to demonstrate how Native Americans and others wove beads on a loom to create long, narrow bands for hair and bracelets in order to produce a patterned beaded bands using geometric patterns. Includes discussion of how color, shape, and value in Native American beading has changed over the years due partially to the influence of other cultures. Addresses the Illinois State Board of Education Goals and Standards for the Visual Arts and Social Science.
Sponsoring Organization: The Woman Who Turned Herself to Stone - Teacher's Guide Teacher's guide for "The Woman Who Turned Herself to Stone," a documentary featuring Dakotah and Hidatsa storyteller Mary Louise Defender Wilson from the Standing Rock Indian Reservation in south-central North Dakota. The story told in the video describes a young girl who loved nature so much that she found a way to remain in the midst of it forever. Materials in the guide offer an opportunity for students to explore issues such as the significance of language in culture and storytelling, the cultural expectations of adolescence, and the interactions between the physical environment and human activity. The video is approximately 6 minutes long and is available on the website. Lesson plans in the teacher's guide (22 p. PDF) have benchmarks and standards for grades 4-8 for Language Arts and Social Studies.
Sponsoring Organization: The World at the Fair: Experiences of the 1893 Columbian Exposition Curriculum materials with lesson plans and activities that introduce secondary school students to a variety of historical and anthropological issues related to the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago. The site includes primary source materials such as maps, photos, posters and articles from the late 19th century that allow students to analyze questions related to the event, including how different cultural groups and nations were exhibited and displayed on the fairgrounds and how this affected American attitudes towards immigration at the time. It also has three lesson plan modules for students: 1) Globalization Lesson Plan - China at the Fair; 2) Technology Lesson Plan - Electricity at the Fair; and 3) Anthropology Lesson Plan - Anthropological Exhibits at the Fair and the Midway. The curriculum materials address national standards for History and Educational Technology.
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