South Carolina ETV

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Columbia, SC 29201-4761
Phone: 803-737-3545

Can You Make It? Using Natural Resources to Survive (Grade 7)

Master Teacher

Judy Olson-Robinson

Time Allotment

Two 45-minute class periods

Overview

The Tsalagi (Cherokee Indians) settled in the foothills of Georgia, North and South Carolina, and Tennessee. Living near rivers and lakes, they depended on the natural resources around them for their basic needs. The Cherokee made clothing, tools, weapons, and homes from the materials in the forests. Tools were made for farming and food storage. Weapons were used for hunting and wars.

After examining Web sites and video clips, students will be able to identify and describe the natural resources used to make the tools and weapons which best suited the needs of the Cher-okee Indians. Students will be able to explain the process of making a basket and an arrowhead. A hands-on demonstration of hunting small game will culminate the lesson. This lesson can be used in a Native American unit, specifically focusing on the Cherokee Indians, past to present.

Subject Matter

World Geography

Learning Objectives

Students will be able to:

create a list of natural resources gathered and explain how they will be used to make tools and weapons
collect information regarding the steps to make one tool and one weapon
explain the process of making one tool and one weapon used by the Cherokee Indians
identify the materials used for making dyes and the colors they produce.
define the vocabulary words: flint, quartz, sinew, shaft, thistle, and stability
demonstrate how to use a blowgun to hunt small game

South Carolina Standards

These Standards can be found online at Office of Curriculum Standards.

III. People, Places, and Environments: Geography

Standard 7.3:

The learner will demonstrate an understanding of world culture regions. The student should be able to . . .

7.3.6: Explain how humans adapt to the physical environment of each world region and how the physical environment limits and defines human activity.

7.3.7: Explain how people interact with their physical environment to create distinctive regions.

Media Components

Video

Native American Series, Lesson 4: Indians of the Southeast gives an explanation of how Native Americans migrated to North and South America. It specifically focuses on the Cherokee Nation and how they adapted to the surroundings of the Southeast, using the natural resources around them to create their communities, make tools for farming, and weapons for hunting.

Web Sites

Eastern Woodland Indians provides a narrative of the Woodland Indians focusing on the Cherokee Indians and the tools and weapons they used.

Cherokee offers a short paragraph about blowguns used by the Cherokee Indians.

Tools and Weapons provides a short narrative about the tools used by the Cherokee Indians.

Major Aboriginal Projectile Point Types offers pictures of different types of arrowheads as used by Native Americans. These pictures are enlarged and can be compared to those shown in the video.

Flaked Stone Tool Technology offers detailed information and graphics pertaining to the formation and life of the flake stone tools.

Native Tech: Native American Technology and Art offers several interactive games pertaining to Native American customs.

Materials

Per student:

Native American Brainstorming Sheet
straws
pencil and paper

Per group (4 students):

Rabbit Target
Squirrel Target
paper spit balls (5 projectiles for each student)

Prep for Teachers

Prior to teaching the lesson, preview the videotape and cue the video to the sections of the clip being used for the lesson. Familiarize yourself with the video and the cues needed for the section used in the lesson.

Bookmark the Web sites on the computers used by the students.

Prepare the hands on element of the lesson by purchasing or collecting enough straws for each student and copy enough targets so each group will have a rabbit and a squirrel.

Cut out the rabbit and squirrel targets (Activity Sheets 2A and 2B), gluing the targets to poster board or tag board. Cut out as many of the stands (2C) as needed for the targets and glue the stand on heavy cardboard. Cut the line on the targets and cut the line on the stands, insert the slots on the targets into the slots on the stands. You should have targets that stand on their own.

When using media, provide students with a Focus for Media Interaction, a specific task to complete and/or information to identify during or after viewing of video segments, Web sites, or other multimedia elements.

Introductory Activity

Step 1: If a wooded area surrounds the school, walk students through the woods gathering items they might find useful when making tools and weapons. If a wooded area is not available, have students brainstorm lists of items they think will be needed to make tools and weapons that may be found in the forest.

Step 2: Distribute the Activity Sheet 1: Native American Brainstorming Activity to each of your students. Ask students to list the items they have collected and explain how they would use the items to make a tool or weapon. Students should be as specific as possible with their answers.

Step 3: After two or three minutes, ask students to share the items listed on their papers. Ask one student to write the answers on the board. Discuss the list written on the board, as a class, and come to a consensus as to the durability and uses of the tool or weapon.

(Students may respond with sticks, branches, rocks, etc. They may say that they would sharpen the rocks with harder rocks. Students may also tell you that they would tie the rocks to the sticks with string. Guide students to understand which items need to be pliable to bend easily, such as river cane, to make blow-guns, and rocks that are not porous or made of sandstone for arrowheads. Also remind students that they will have to find another way to attach their arrowheads to the sticks because string is not available. The tools can be used for digging furrows for gardening and catching fish and small game to eat.)

Learning Activity

Step 1: Ask students to log on to one or all of the following Web sites:

Tools and WeaponsWeb site

Cherokee Web site

Eastern Woodland Indians Web site

Explain that these Web sites give a short narrative about the tools and weapons used by the Cherokee Indians. Provide your students with a Focus for Media Interaction, asking them to scroll down to find the information pertaining to the types of tools and weapons used by the Indians. Students should record as many tools and weapons as they can find in the narratives. Allow students to complete the activity and check for comprehension.

(Answers: Tools used by the Cherokee Indians include tomahawks for chopping down trees, sticks for making holes to plant seeds, hoes for gardening, pottery and baskets for storing food, and nets for fishing. Weapons include bows and arrows for hunting large animals and war, and blowguns for hunting small animals.)

Step 2: Insert Native American Series, Lesson

4: "Indians of the Southeast" into your VCR. Provide your students with a Focus for Media Interaction, asking them to identify four tools used by the Cherokee Indians. Ask students to record information on how baskets were made. Students should also identify the four dye colors used and the plants they come from.

START the video when the narrator says, "The earliest Indians of the Southeast. . . . " The

picture on the screen will be of an Indian walking through the woods with a bow and arrow in his hand. PAUSE the video as the narrator says, "European explorers enjoyed. . . . " The picture

on the screen will be a European standing in front of an Indian making a canoe. (This portion of the clip will take approximately two minutes, but you may want to replay it again so that students will get as much information as needed to check for comprehension.)

Check for comprehension. (Answers may be stated differently, but should include: The tools used by the Cherokee Indians are fishing nets, hoes for gardening, pottery and baskets to store food. Baskets were made from wood splints that came from river cane, bark, honeysuckle, oak and ash trees, and hemp. The wood splints were woven into baskets. The Indians boiled yellow root to make a yellow dye, bloodroot to make an orange dye, butternut bark to make a black dye, and walnut bark to make a brown dye.)

Step 3: Ask students to log on to the Native Tech: Native American Technology and Art Web site (http://www.nativetech.org/games/index.php). Explain that this Web site includes several interactive activities related to Native Americans. Students should click on the Matching Game: Natural Dyes and Porcupine Quills. Provide your students with a Focus for Media Interaction, asking them to play the game and write down the information about the plants black walnut and bloodroot. Allow students to complete the activity and check for comprehension.

(Answers: The black walnut is a beautiful wood that is used in making furniture. These trees grow all over North America and the dye of the walnuts is used to stain baskets. The bloodroot is a perennial plant and has an underground stem that produces a solitary white flower. It is noted for its "bleeding" orange-red rhizome. Bloodroot is also called Indian Paint.)

Step 4: Insert Native American Series, Lesson

4: "Indians of the Southeast" into your VCR. Provide your students with a Focus for Media Interaction, asking them to identify the two weapons mentioned in the video. Ask students to record information about the making of arrowheads and how they were attached to arrows. Students should define the words related to making arrows and darts: flint, quartz, sinew, shaft, thistle, and stability.

START the video when the narrator says,

"The Indians also used these same natural resources. . . . " The picture on the screen will be of two Indians paddling a canoe on the lake. STOP the video when the narrator says, "Think of all the resources you've just seen." The picture on the screen will be an Indian beating on a tree. (This clip will take approximately three minutes to watch. Again, you may have to replay this clip for students to collect the information needed.)

Check for comprehension. (Answers may be stated differently, but should include: The two weapons mentioned in the clip are the bow and arrow, used for hunting large animals and war, and the blowgun, used for hunting small animals. Arrowheads are made of flint or quartz. They are shaped by chipping away the edges of the rock with a larger piece of flint or quartz. The arrowheads are sharpened and finished by using the antler of a deer. They are then attached to the shaft of the arrow or dart with sinew. Flint is a hard form of quartz. Quartz is a natural mineral found in the mountains. Sinew is the tendon of an animal that attaches the muscle to the bone. A shaft is a thin branch used as an arrow or dart with the bow and blowgun. Thistle is the feathery part of a prickly plant. Stability means to have strength and firmness.)

Step 5: Ask students to log on to the Flaked Stone Tool Technology Web site and then the Major Aboriginal Projectile Point Types Web site. Explain that these Web sites include information and pictures pertaining to various types of arrowheads. Provide your students with a Focus for Media Interaction, asking them to collect information comparing and contrasting two different types of arrowheads. Allow stu-dents to complete the activity and check for comprehension.

(Answers may vary depending on the arrowheads chosen. Answers may include, but are not limited to: Flake Stone has fissures, flake scares, and ridges. It is usually made from quartzite that is formed through metamorphoses. It is uneven and rough and may be buff, white, green, gray, or red in color. The shape of the arrowhead was triangular. Flint is made from quartz, but is smooth and even. It has a dull luster and is dense, formed by sedimentary rock. The color may be black, opaque, brown and green. The arrowhead was made with side notches and attached to the shaft of the arrow or dart.)

Culminating Activity

Step 1: Introduce this activity as a competition between hunters from each tribe. The hunter that hits the most targets will win the competition and be the best hunter for his/her tribe.

Step 2: Divide your class into groups of four students. Give each group a tribe name. Give each student/hunter a straw. Each group should have two targets, one rabbit and one squirrel. Each student/hunter will be given five paper balls to blow through the blowgun and hit the target. (Note to Teacher: Students should not be allowed to make their own paper balls.)

Step 3: Set up the targets five feet away. Have students take turns shooting the targets with the paper balls through the blowgun. Let the students keep score to see who will be the main hunter for the community.

Step 4: As an assessment of the project, ask students to write a short story about how they made their blowgun and how well they did on the hunting expedition. Students should be encouraged to include information gathered from the video clip and the Web sites in their essays. Cross-Curricular Extensions

Language Arts: Write a descriptive essay on how to make a basket, a piece of pottery, a blowgun or a bow and arrow.

Write a diary as a young brave or maiden telling about growing vegetables in the garden for the summer and other chores where tools are used.

Science: Experiment with the blowguns, determining the velocity and force of each hunter's turn at the target. Relate the data from the experiment to Newton's Laws. (Note to Teacher: Remember the distance traveled depends on the length of the blowgun and the force of the breath to blow the projectile through the gun.)

Mathematics: Measure the distance each projectile traveled. Graph the distances traveled.

Attach two straws together making the blowgun longer and record the same information by performing the activity a second time.

Home Economics: Write a recipe using the food brought back to the village by the hunters.

Make a cookbook using the food grown, gathered and hunted by the villagers.

Art: Cut strips of construction paper of various colors and weave a basket.