Native Americans of Colorado
Using Colorado resources to Understand the Lives of Native American Women and Children of the West

Photographs are an invaluable tool for understanding both history and culture. By carefully observing the objects in a photo, the people and the surrounding environment, one can have a true window into the everyday lives of those who lived long ago.

Colorado Standards partially addressed

• Reading and Writing Standard One: Students read and understand a variety of materials.
• Reading and Writing Standard Two: Students write and speak for a variety of purposes and audiences.
• Reading and Writing Standard Five: Students read to locate, select, and make use of relevant information from a variety of media, reference, and technological sources.
• History Standard 2.2: Students know how to interpret and evaluate primary and secondary sources of historical information.

Tools

• Internet/computer access for the students (students should access the websites listed on the photographs handout, below) OR the teacher may just print off the photographs from the handout and have the students analyze
  them without a computer.
• Photographs
  
• Photo Analysis Charts 1-3
  
• Native American Vocabulary Chart
  
• Notebook paper and pencil
  
• Dictionaries optional

Time
Lesson One: 1-2 days
Lesson Two: 1-2 days
Lesson Three: 1-2 days

Teacher Background Readings
Cultural respect guidelines <http://www.nativechild.com/article.html>
Teaching Kids the Wonderful Diversity of American Indians <temporarily off-line>
American Indian resource directory <http://www.indians.org/Resource/FedTribes99/Region3/region3.html>

Anticipatory Lesson One

1. Have each student individually analyze the photos of Native Americans using the Photo Analysis Charts.
   
   
2. Have the students discuss their perceptions of the following, using information from their charts:

• What do you think Native American homes/dwellings were like and why.
  
• What do you think a Native American child's life was like and why.
  
• What do you think a Native American woman's life was like and why.
  

Anticipatory Lesson Two

1. Pass out the Native American Vocabulary Chart containing these words:

   primary, extended, functional, nomadic, migratory, seasonal, integrally, erected, dismantled, compartmentalized, proficient, artifact, enactment, ritual. bountiful

   OR

   cultivated, extended family, cradleboards, migratory, travois, pottery, ancient, squaw, pueblo, spirituality, tribe

2. Using the Native American Vocabulary Chart, have each student fill out the section what do you think the word means?
   
   
3. Have the students briefly articulate what they think each word means to the class and their reasoning behind their guess..
   
   
4. Break students up into groups of three and have them access the Denver Public Library Western History/Genealogy Department gallery exhibit titled Native American Women <http://photoswest.org/exhib/gallery4/leadin.htm>
   (Teachers could also just make hard copies of the website and rotate the pictures throughout the groups.)
   
   
5. Each student group should try to find as many of the vocabulary words as possible and try to figure out what each word means by analyzing the context and by looking at the photographs.
   
   
6. Using the Native American Vocabulary Chart, each student should fill out the section text/photo analysis with their own ideas about what each word means.
   
   
7. When each group has formulated ideas about what each word means, have a class discussion in which the possible meanings of the words are discussed.
   
   
8. If needed: have each group look up the definition of a portion of the words using a dictionary, record the information on their vocabulary chart and then report their findings back to the whole class. Teachers could also supply a list of definitions for the words.
   
   
9. Discuss with the class what each vocabulary word reveals about the Native Americans, their dwellings and the lives of women and children.

Lesson Three

1. Have each student access the following sites to gather additional information about women's lives, children's lives and the dwellings of Native Americans:

• Native American Women Gallery Exhibit <http://photoswest.org/exhib/gallery4/leadin.htm> (the Denver Public Library Western History/Genealogy Department)
• Doing History/Keeping the Past Colorado Indians Themes <http://hewit.unco.edu/dohist/indians/themes.htm> (Hewit Institute, University of Northern Colorado, Colorado Historical Society)
  
• Native American Website for Children <http://www.nhusd.k12.ca.us/ALVE/NativeAmerhome.html/nativeopeningpage.html> (Alvarado Elementary School)
  
• Heritage Colorado Database <http://www.cdpheritage.org/> (Colorado Digitization Program). Go to Search/People/American Indian Tribes
  
• Native American dwellings <http://www.kstrom.net/isk/maps/houses/housingmap.html>(Paula Giese)
  

2. Using the Photo Analysis Charts 1-3, Native American Vocabulary Chart and additional information gathered about women's lives, children's lives and the dwellings of Native Americans,
each student will create a written product:

• Using the found poetry method: <http://memory.loc.gov/learn/community/am_newsletter/article.php?id=40&catname=teaching%20ideas>
  Each student will write a poem about life as a Native American child, describing his/her life, mother and home, using information gleaned from the websites and the vocabulary words and descriptor words from the Photo Analysis Charts 1-3 and the Native American Vocabulary Chart.

OR

• Writing a first person narrative:
  Each student will write an essay (4th graders a paragraph-8th graders a five paragraph essay) about Native Americans, from the perspective of an Indian child, using information gleaned from the websites and the vocabulary words and descriptor words from the Photo Analysis Charts 1-3 and the Native American Vocabulary Chart.
  Three areas should be discussed in the narrative: the life of an Indian child, the responsibilities and workload of Indian mothers and women, and their dwellings.
  

  Students should access the website:
  Doing History/Keeping the Past Colorado Indians Themes <http://hewit.unco.edu/dohist/indians/themes.htm>
  to read the In Their Own Words section and gain an understanding of how a first person narrative is written.

Additional sites for more in-depth research

http://inkido.indiana.edu/w310work/romac/plains.html
Plains Indian culture/food, art, dress

http://www.germantown.k12.il.us/indians/plains.html
Plains Indian facts

http://library.thinkquest.org/J0110072/reports4/plains2.htm
Plains Indian Culture Think Quest

http://americanhistory.si.edu/hohr/buffalo/origin_frmset.html
Origin of the Plains Indian/buffalo culture

http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award97/codhtml/hawphome.html
Denver Public Library's complete collection

http://www.indians.org/welker/apache.htm
Apache stories

http://www.native-languages.org/index.htm
Indian languages

http://www.geocities.com/cheyenne_language/index.htm
Cheyenne language

http://www.nps.gov/fola/indians.htm
National Parks-Plains Indian history

-Eliza Hamrick, Overland High School