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Spiritual Life
Overview of Lessons:
This part of the unit will be broken
into four sections. The first three sections — Tools,
Weapons and Hunting; Song, Dance and Celebration; and Teachings,
Stories and Legends — are learning/research activities
and may be done simultaneously by grouping students, but
that
is not the suggested method. Due to the strength of the
stereotypes in our society and the respect called for by
the topic, perhaps direct teaching would be preferable.
The fourth part — A Family Day — is a reporting
section in which students actively participate and share
what they have learned. This sharing can be done in front
of other groups/classes or, better yet, with invited family
and friends.
The teacher is responsible for presenting the idea that
tools, weapons and hunting belong in the spiritual part
of any Native American culture study due to the people’s
respect for the earth, its inhabitants and the gifts given
by the Creator. The teacher must also make sure that students
understand the idioms presented on the report sheet so
that they can use them effectively.
Although generally Native Americans
don’t see their spiritual life as a religion, some comparisons
may have to be drawn
in order to correct previous misunderstandings about the
culture. Students may have personal knowledge of ceremonial
clerical clothing or traditional dances from weddings;
they may know about churches, hymns, synagogues, confessional
boxes, genuflecting, candle lighting, group responses in
religious readings, thanksgiving rituals, communion rites,
daily prayer, baptism, and rosaries. These ceremonies,
items and clothing articles, when used as comparisons,
can be helpful in conveying the sacredness of the information
and fighting the “sports team mascot” mentality.
Please be careful not to teach
this as an ancient mythology of illogical but instructive
tales and avoid using comparisons
that are mythological themselves — like Santa Claus — because
you are teaching a living culture, one which many people
today respect and believe.
Begin by watching and discussing Video 3, Spiritual Life.
Video Synopsis:
Native American Spiritual Life
Native American people of Ohio, like those throughout North America, had
many deeply held spiritual beliefs. It was and is common to have a belief
in a Creator, responsible for the creation of the world. Native American
Spiritual Life deals with some of these beliefs.
Objectives (for all four sections):
Social Studies Content Standards
Grade 3 Benchmark: People in Society
Indicator: Culture
1. Compare some of the cultural practices and products
of various groups of people who have lived in the local
community including:
a. Artistic expression
b. Religion
c. Language
d. Food
Grade 4 Benchmark: People in Society
1. Describe the cultural practices and products of various
groups who have settled in Ohio over time:
b. Historic Indians of Ohio
Grade 4 Benchmark: Obtaining Information
1. Obtain information about state issues from a variety
of print and electronic sources, and determine the relevance
of information to a research topic.
Tools, Weapons and Hunting
Goal of studying tools, weapons and hunting:
-
Students will gain understanding of the diversity of
abilities and activities of Native Americans by exploring
tools that made them possible.
-
Students will increase knowledge of how earth/Creator
provided necessities of life.
-
Students will begin to contrast Native American and
European American concepts of the use of land and animals.
Important: The teacher is responsible for presenting
the idea that tools, weapons and hunting belong in the spiritual
part of any Native American culture study due to the people’s
respect for the earth, its inhabitants, and the gifts given
by the Creator. The teacher must also make sure that students
understand the idioms presented on the report sheet so that
they can use them effectively.
Procedures to lead or assign in tools, weapons and hunting:
-
Find pictures of tools on the Internet or in books (drill,
bowl, punch, axe, hammer, nutting stone, water jar, bone
needle, hoe, scraper, and knife/spear/arrow blade should
all be investigated) and make copies or have classroom
artists do renditions.
-
Display pictures for teacher-directed discussion.
-
Have students draw a chart showing each tool, what material
it was made from, what its purposes were, and what necessities
each tool helped provide.
-
Find pictures of animals hunted by the people and print
the pictures or have classroom artists do renditions
and display pictures for teacher-directed discussion.
-
Make a chart showing each animal and how each part
of the animal was put to use for daily necessity or art.
-
Make a flow chart incorporating the two previous charts
that demonstrates visually how Native Americans were
connected very directly to the earth’s resources.
-
Make a second flow chart that
shows how modern people are very “disconnected” from
the earth’s resources — how
the materials and animals go through many different processes
before the end products come to us.
-
Lead a discussion of the differences toward a conclusion
that the direct working with the earth’s resources would
lead to a reverence that isn’t felt by someone more removed.
-
Enrichment:
For students in need of enrichment or for those with geological
interests, suggest an investigation into the rocks that were/are
available in various areas of the state and if that seemed
to make a difference in the tools.
Song, Dance and Celebration
Goal of song, dance and celebration:
-
Students will see/hear some of the traditional Native
American songs and dances performed by the Ohio Native
Americans.
-
Students will understand these songs and dances were
a way to perform thanks, to socialize and to tell about
heroics.
-
Students will read/analyze the words to a song and compare
their conclusions to what they learned in Tools, Weapons
and Hunting.
Important: The teacher is responsible for presenting
the idea that song, dance and celebration belong in the spiritual
part of any Native American culture study due to the people’s
respect for the earth, its inhabitants, and the gifts given
by the Creator. The teacher must also make sure that students
understand the idioms presented on the report sheet so that
they can use them effectively.
Procedures to lead or assign in song, dance and celebration:
-
Again, watch the introductory video, especially if it
has been a while since the classroom saw it.
-
Brainstorm with class a list
of reasons why we sing, make music, or dance today.
Include the following: to
worship (hymn), to comfort (lullaby), to teach (School
House Rock), to celebrate (“Pomp and Circumstance”
or “Happy
Birthday” or wedding receptions), to honor/remember
specific individuals or happenings (songs popular after
terrorist attack of 9/11), to act out popular stories
and teach lessons (“Lion King” or any opera
or Broadway show), and to enjoy (pop music and dancing).
-
Watch Internet/video of Native American dances. Include,
if possible, traditional dances like the Bread Dance
or the Green Corn Dance. Actual video of dance performed
in their time periods can be downloaded at http://memory.loc.gov.
-
Read several sets of song lyrics and their translations
and then try to place the songs and dances into categories
like those listed above. Remind students of their conclusions
from the comparative flow charts. Would these words support
or deny those conclusions?
-
Teach/discuss/assign research on the drum. Include children’s
slapsticks. Discuss the drum’s actual meaning as compared
with its Hollywood representation.
-
Find pictures of other instruments used by Native American
people and display. Discuss the materials used to make
these instruments.
-
Teaching, Stories and Legends
Goal of teaching, stories and legends:
-
Students will learn some of the traditional Native American
stories told by the Ohio people.
-
Students will understand that these stories were told
as a way to teach about nature and morality.
-
Students will experiment with pictographs that support
an oral tradition.
Important: The teacher is responsible for presenting
the idea that teaching, stories and legends belong in the
spiritual part of any Native American culture study due to
the People’s respect for the earth, its inhabitants, and
the gifts given by the Creator. The teacher must also make
sure that students understand the idioms presented on the
report sheet so that they can use it effectively.
Activities to lead or assign in teaching, stories and
legends:
-
Discuss how television programs
like “Dora the
Explorer” or “The Magic School Bus” are
used to explain facts to young children who
cannot yet read for themselves. Ask students
to offer facts they’ve
learned from stories. Explain that the stories
are fun, but they also have lessons about the
world and about
how to behave in it. Teach that Native American
people used the same technique to pass on their
information
about the world and how to behave in it.
-
Read the following stories together:
a. How the Chipmunk Got its Stripe (poking fun hurts)
b. Hunting the Great Bear (seasonal changes and stars)
c. Turtle’s Race With Bear (name calling/cleverness)
d. The Great Flood (creation and behavior story)
-
After reading stories above, decide whether their purposes
were entertainment, explanation of nature, or teaching
proper behavior.
-
Use a “winter count hide” with
groups of students — one for each story covered above.
Have those
students make their own pictographs to help
them retell their assigned legend and draw those onto
a piece of
brown paper torn to resemble a hide. Share
hides with class.
-
Students in need of enrichment could explore how some
current stories are incorrect and perpetuate wrong thinking.
Have them investigate and share examples from Hollywood,
television and Disney.
-
Goal of a family day:
Students will share/review/conclude the information they
have learned about Native American spirituality.
Procedures for assignments in a family day:
-
Students may be placed into groups
that will practice sharing information learned during
the Spiritual
Life unit. Groups should include students who
will explain the flow charts and the conclusions drawn,
students who will use their “individual
thinking” worksheets to teach what was learned
about songs and dance, and students who will retell,
using their hides and pictographs, some of the stories
covered earlier.
-
Plan a family day to teach/share information learned.
This could include some traditional foods.
-
Give parents an “individual
thinking” worksheet and tell them students
filled several out during the unit. Ask parents present
to fill one out also. If time, have all students and
adults share results.
-
Have students evaluate whether they were able to teach
the correct ideas during their family day.
-
The family day activity could be held at the end of
the entire unit so that results learned from the other
sections could be included.
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Copyright©2008,
Northeastern Educational Television of Ohio, Inc. All rights
reserved. |
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