I want to do a semester on Native American history - any help out there?

[Wendi]

Next year (8th grade), I am going to start the year off with Brimwood Press's history materials. That will only take about 10 weeks or so. I would like to spend some time on Native American history. I feel that this topic has not been covered thoroughly enough so far, and since we live in Arizona, we have access to some amazing resources, as well. (We've already been to Pueblo Grande, and of course we see petroglyphs when we go hiking. We've been to the Phoenix Art Museum, but not yet to the Heard Museum.)

 

I found two amazing resources at my library recently which seem perfect for middle school - "First People: An Illustrated History of American Indians" and "Before Columbus: the Americas of 1491". There is also the PBS series "We Shall Remain"; we saw only two of the episodes when they aired; I'd like to have ds watch the rest, and there are some teaching materials available as well.

 

So I guess I am thinking of putting this course together myself. We can use "Before Columbus" as a spine, with "First People" as an excellent resource for more details, and "We Shall Remain" to cover Native American history from 1621 as well. I want ds to make a timeline, fill in some maps, etc. But I don't want to reinvent the wheel; is there a middle or high school curriculum on Native Americans?

 

Wendi

[2cents]

We read aloud 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee' by Dee Brown several years ago when Barnes & Noble had the online University. This book was in the reading list for a course on Native American history. It is an excellent book! Maybe you could find a study guide to go along with it.

[meet me in paris]

The first Hakim book in the History of US series is The First Americans. There's a teacher's guide for it on Amazon. The one I linked is meant for 8th grade... It only goes through the 1600's though.

[Carol in Cal.]

I am not sure whether these are two titles for the same book or two different books about the same person:

 

"Ishii, Last of His Tribe"

"Ishii In Two Worlds"

 

They are about a Native American in California, all of whose relatives and tribesmembers were killed or died, and who was found and cared for by anthropologist Kroeber in the San Francisco Bay Area during the late 1800's and early 1900's. Kroeber's wife wrote at least one and possibly both of these books.

 

CA had more tribes than the whole rest of the US combined. However, most of that tribal knowledge was lost. By the time of the Missions, a huge proportion (estimates range up to around 90%) of the CA Native Americans, at least those near the Pacific Coast, had died of diseases that were not serious for Europeans. There seems to have been less of the documented 'side by side' living in CA than in, say, the Midwest. So those bits of information that are credible and relatively late are precious and few.

[mcconnellboys]

Here are some:

 

 

More ancient groups:

 

You Wouldn’t Want to be an Aztec Sacrifice!

Anasazi, Fisher

Who Were the First North Americans? Usborne

Technology in the Time of the Maya

Growing up in Aztec Times, Marion Wood

The Aztecs, Peter Chrisp

Hands of the Maya, Villagers at Work and Play, Rachel Crandell

The Sad Night: the story of an Aztec victory and a Spanish loss, Sally Matthews

Lost Treasure of the Inca, Peter Lourie (good)

The Incas, Tim Wood

People of the Corn (Mayan), Mary-Joan Gerson

Prehistoric North America: The People, Robert Pickering

Hands of the Maya, Rachel Crandell

Angela Weaves a Dream, Michele Sola'

The Art of the North American Indian, Shirley Glubok

The Mound Builders, William E. Scheele

Talking Bones, William O. Steele

Cities in the Sand, Scott Warren

City of the Gods:Mexico's Ancient City of Teotihuacan, Caroline Arnold

Building an Igloo, Ulli Steltzer

Inuit, Bryan and Cherry Alexander

The Makah, Jeanne O. Eder (very interesting)

Art of the Far North, Carol Finley

Ten Kings, Milton Meltzer, re: Atahualpa

Eyewitness: Aztec, Inca, Maya

Cultures of the Past: The Incas, Hinds

The Aztecs, Woods

Inca Life, David Drew

Plains Indians, Swan-Jackson

Growing up in Aztec Times, Marion Wood

Nature Company Native Americans

The Wigwam and the Longhouse, Yue

 

 

Some Associated Legends:

 

Thirteen Moons on Turtle’s Back

Dancing Drum: A Cherokee Legend

Ka-Ha-Si and the Loon: An Eskimo Legend

Keepers of the Earth

Why there is no Arguing in Heaven

The Two Mountains: An Aztec Legend, Eric Kimmel

Dancing Drum: A Cherokee Legend, Terri Cohlene

Echoes of the Elders, by Chief Lelooska, ed. Christine Normandin

Spirit of the Cedar People, same author as above (both have stories told by Chief Lelooska on CD)

The Boy Who Lived with the Bears and Other Iroquois Stories, Joe Bruchac

Giving Thanks, Chief Jake Swamp

The Windigo’s Return, Douglas Wood

Pyramid of the Sun, Pyramid of the Moon, Leonard Fisher

Land of the Five Suns (Aztecs), Kay McManus

The Legend of Lord Eight Deer: An Epic of Ancient Mexico, Pohl

The Enchanted Caribou, Elizabeth Cleaver (I believe ds really liked this one, too)

The Dancing Fox: Arctic Folktales, John Bierhorst

Clamshell Boy: A Makah Legend, Terri Cohlene

Mesoamerican Myth, A. Ganeri

 

 

More into the Late Medieval and Early Modern periods:

 

Life of the Powhatan, Bobbie Kalman (all her books are great)

The MicMac, Ruth Whitehead (good)

Life in a Longhouse Village, Bobbie Kalman

The Choctaw Nation, Allison Lassieur

Sacajawea: Her True Story, Joyce Milton

Squanto: Friend of the Pilgrims, Clyde Bulla

The Iroquois, Petra Press

The Iroquois, Virginia Sneve

The Story of Comock the Eskimo, Robert Flaherty (VERY good)

Sequoyah and the Cherokee Alphabet, Cwiklik

War Clouds in the West: Indians and Cavalrymen, Albert Marrin

Plains Warrior: Chief Quanah Parker and the Comanches, Albert Marrin

Sitting Bull and His World, Albert Marrin

If You Lived With the Hopi, Sioux, etc.

[celticmom]

If you have access to it, I remember a book in a childcraft set that was about Native Americans that I enjoyed as a child. My mother still has the book so I can look up information on it. I will probably use this book at least somewhat with my DD. I remember there was information on the different lifestyles and cultures in different areas of the country. On the other hand, I need to look at it again since it is old enogh that I believe the title is Indians and not the more recent Native Americans.

[MelissaMom]

:bigear: I live in NM and while we studied Native Americans when we did WP AS1 several years back, I'll be interested to see responses. That's an amazing list already!

[buddhabelly]

Wounded Knee: An Indian History of the American West, by Dee Brown (Henry Holt).

Surviving Columbus: The Story of the Pueblo People, 1995 (PBS Video).

A People's History of the United States, by Howard Zinn (HarperCollins).

Morning Girl, by Michael Dorris (Hyperion).

Sparrow Hawk, by Meridel Le Seur (Holy Cow! Press)

The People Shall Continue, by Simon Ortiz (Children's Book Press)

Encounter, by Jane Yolen (Harcourt Brace)

Keepers of the Earth: Native American Stories and Environmental Activities for Children (Fulcrum)

Rethinking Columbus: The Next 500 Years (Rethinking Schools);

Thunder Rolling in the Mountains, by Scott O'Dell and Elizabeth Hall (Houghton Mifflin).

Kahtahah, A Tlingit Girl (Alaska Northwest Books)

Acoma: People of the White Rock (Schiffer Publishing)

Canyon de Chelly, Its People and Rock Art (University of Arizona Press)America A.D. 1000: The Land and the Legends (National Geographic)

 

FICTION:

Ekoomiak, Normee "Arctic Memories" (1988);

Louise Edrich (Ojibwe): The Birchbark House (1999), The Game of Silence (2005), The Porcupine Year (2008);

Gaikesheyongai, Sally "The Seven Fires: An Ojibway Prophecy (1994);

Tim Tingle, "Walking the Choctaw Road: Stories from Red People Memory" (2003)

Nichols, Richard, "A Story to Tell: Traditions of a Tlingit Community"(1998);

Yazzie, Evangeline Parsons (Diné), Dzáni Yázhi Naazbaa’/Little Woman Warrior Who Came Home: A Story of the Navajo Long Walk (2005);

Zitkala-Sa/Gertrude Bonnin (Yankton), American Indian Stories. (1921), 2003 reprinted;

King, Thomas (Cherokee), A Coyote Columbus Story (1992);

Grace, Catherine O’Neill, and Marge Bruchac (Abenaki), "1621: A New Look at Thanksgiving" (2001);

Wallis, Velma (Gwich’in), Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival (1993);

Spooner, Michael, "Last Child." (2005);

Virginia Driving Hawk Sneve (Lakota), " When Thunders Spoke" (1974).

Madeleine L'Engle, "A Wind in the Door," "A Swiftly Tilting Planet," "Many Waters," "An Acceptable Time."

Fred Gipson, "Old Yeller" (HarperTrophy);

Lois Lowry, "Number the Stars" (Yearling):

Robert Louis Stevenson, "Kidnapped" and "Treasure Island" (Puffin);

Louisa May Alcott, "Little Women" (Puffin Classics);

Lois Lenski, "Strawberry Girl" (HarperCollins).

 

I know the last things on the list aren't particuarly Native American, but I was too tired to edit my literature list! I highlighted those resources that have proved particularly cool or amazing.

 

Have fun! Oh, this is for about 5th-6th grade.

 

Julie

[Wendi]

Thanks, everyone! Anyone else have anything to add?

 

Oh, and I found that Suzanne Strauss Art has two volumes on Native Americans. They look good, as well.

 

Wendi

[woolybear]

You might want to check out 500 nations which is a series on DVD or video. I found parts of it intense for my boys who were a lot younger than 8th grade at the time. But I think for you it would probably work well.

 

Woolybear

[Pippen]

Voyage Long and Strange: Rediscovering the New World by Tony Horwitz has some chapters that may be interesting to your study. I just saw it's out on paperback with a different title.

[Punchie]

For some other fiction books, you could look at some of the ones written by Scott O'Dell - Island of the Blue Dolphins, Sing Down the Moon, and Zia.

 

An adult book that is fairly interesting is 1491 by Charles C Mann. It offers a different version of what the Americas were like pre-Columbus (it focues more on the large population theory as opposed to the small population theory).

[Wendi]

For some other fiction books, you could look at some of the ones written by Scott O'Dell - Island of the Blue Dolphins, Sing Down the Moon, and Zia.

 

An adult book that is fairly interesting is 1491 by Charles C Mann. It offers a different version of what the Americas were like pre-Columbus (it focues more on the large population theory as opposed to the small population theory).

 

I loved Island of the Blue Dolphins when I was young! Thanks for reminding me.

 

Before Columbus is the "youth" version of 1491.

 

Wendi

[oceandaughter]

http://www.oyate.org/