Date: Fri 04-Dec-1998

Publication: Bee

Author: MICHEL

Quick Words:

schools-Native-Americans

Full Text:

A Cultural Tour Through Native America

(with photos)

BY MICHELE HOGAN

Live moss grows on the two foot square board with a band of clay figures,

members of the Blackfoot tribe of Plains Indians, who are busy setting up

camp. Women, one with a tiny infant in a cradle board on her back, are

carrying sticks and buffalo hides for the teepees they are starting to set up.

Children are playing on the pegged buffalo hides to help stretch them, and the

chief is standing, overseeing the work.

This is one of about 120 models of native tribes that fill the lobby, artroom,

media center and classrooms throughout the fifth grade area at Sandy Hook

School. Starting with students in Beverley Bjorklund and Eric Myhill's

classes, each of the fifth graders was responsible for researching one tribe

in depth, then presenting the information in several ways.

Each child created a three dimensional model of their village. They each wrote

a report detailing the traditions, history, food and survival of their tribe.

Then, to really think like a Native American, they were challenged to come up

with a legend that would fit the world-view of the cultural group they

studied. Children wrote legends on how the snake lost its legs, and how the

bird gained its flight, to name a few.

Detailed research on each tribe brought children to recognize similarities

between tribes in each geographic region. All the plains tribes lived in

teepees and hunted buffalo, while all the woodland tribes lived in bark

longhouses. The tribes of the southwest with their pueblos were different from

the Inuit with their igloos.

Pulling students studying tribes in each region together, groups of four or

five students planned a performance to best express their newfound knowledge

of their tribes.

Some groups did a newscast, detailing the weather, clothing, sports and life

in their region. Others performed a pow-wow, or gave the class a quiz-show on

their region. One presentation on the southwestern region detailed the

conflict over land and the suffering members of their tribes experienced when

they were forced to move.

With each presentation covering a different topic, in a different way, the

interest level among students, visiting parents and teachers remained high

throughout the morning, last Wednesday.

After the presentations, a group of relieved and happy parents, teachers and

students enjoyed a pot-latch meal including dishes representing traditional

foods of the people they had learned about.