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Lesson Plans
| Topic |
| Abenakis Before Contact: Different Worlds Meet |
| Focus Question |
|
X
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Boundaries |
X
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Technology and Science |
|
X
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Natural Environment and People |
|
Nongovernmental Groups |
|
X
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Cultures, Races and Ethnic Groups |
X
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Material Wants and Needs |
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X
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Politics |
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Self-Expression |
| Era |
|
X
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Beginnings to 1623 |
Different Worlds Meet |
|
X
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1623-1763 |
Colonization and Settlement |
| |
1763-1820s |
Revolution and the New Nation |
| |
1801-1861 |
Expansion and Reform |
| |
1850-1877 |
Civil War and Reconstruction |
| |
1870-1900 |
Development of the Industrial United States |
| |
1890-1930 |
Emergence of Modern America |
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1929-1945 |
Great Depression and World War II |
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1945-early 1970s |
Postwar United States |
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1968-present |
Contemporary United States |
| Social Studies Standards |
| Economics 7, 8; Geography 10, 11, 13, 15; History 16, 17, 18 |
| Grade Level |
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X
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Elementary |
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High School |
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Middle/High School |
| |
Middle |
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Elementary/Middle |
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All |
| What Students Learn |
| Students learn how Native Americans - specifically, Abenaki - lived
before contact with Europeans. Also, they learn how Europeans changed Native American life. During the course of
the lesson, students learn the meanings of the words artifact and treaty. |
| Procedures |
The lesson consists of six parts.
1. Teach students what an artifact is. The sheet "Activity: What Is an Artifact?" (in A Teacher's
Resource Guide at the Concord [Mass.] Museum) details a useful exercise in which students are led to understand
the nature of artifacts after examining a penny as if they were archeologists coming upon an artifact from an "unknown"
culture.
2. Have students examine pictures or facsimiles of dugout canoes, birchbark canoes, wigwams, mortars and
pestles, arrowheads, and clamshells, for example, to conclude how the artifacts were used and how they were important to
Abenaki life. (Many reproductions are available from the New Hampshire Historical Society's Tuck Library.)
3. Play audiocassettes or read aloud some Abenaki legends, and let students retell the story as a writing activity.
Discuss legends as an important element of Abenaki life. (A number of books and audiocassettes are available from
the New Hampshire Historical Society's museum store; the story "How Gluscabi Created Companions" is also
available in New Hampshire Through Many Eyes: An Activity Book (4-5), available through the museum store.)
4. Using knowledge of Abenaki daily life acquired from previous activities, discuss how the people lived and what
their children probably did on a daily basis. Have students work in groups to write and draw about day-to-day life.
Suggested activities include reading "Hunters and Gatherers" and following up with the activity "Circle
of Life" (New Hampshire Through Many Eyes, 2-3) and reading Joseph Bruchac's Thirteen Moons on a
Turtle's Back: A Native American Year of Moons.
5. Read the "The Wheelwright Deed" (Charles H. Bell's The Wheelwright Deed of 1629: Was It Spurious?,
143-148) to students and discuss its implications. Show students the marks made by Passaconaway and other sagamores.
Have students locate the land described in the deed on a current map of New Hampshire. Discuss how the deed refers
to a large, rather vaguely defined area. Also, read "Words and Deeds" and involve students in the activity
"Make Your Mark" (New Hampshire Through Many Eyes, 7).
6. Discuss how Europeans changed the lives of the native people. Native Americans wanted European tools after seeing
them. Why? How did such tools change the Indians' lives? How else did contact with Europeans change the lives of
the Indians? Have students read "Necessary and Then Some" and work on the activity "Let's Go to
New England" in New Hampshire Through Many Eyes (8-9). |
Bibliography
Most entries listed below, as well as other teacher resources, are available through the New Hampshire Historical
Society's Tuck Library and its
museum store. |
Bell, Charles H. The Wheelwright Deed of 1629: Was It Spurious?
Cambridge: John Wilson and Son, 1876.
Bruchac, Joseph. Thirteen Moons on a Turtle's Back: A Native American Year of Moons. New York: Philomel
Books, 1992.
Calloway, Colin G. The Abenaki. New York: Chelsea House Publishers, 1989.
Fradin, Dennis B. The New Hampshire Colony. Chicago: Children's Press, 1988.
Russell, Howard S. Indian New England Before the Mayflower. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1980.
New Hampshire Historical Society. New Hampshire Through Many Eyes. Concord: New Hampshire Historical Society,
1995.
Teacher's Resource Guide, A. Concord: Concord Museum, 1988.
Weinstein-Farson, Laurie. The Wampanoag (Indians of North America). New York: Chelsea House Publishers,
1989.
Wilbur, C. Keith. The New England Indians. Chester: Globe Pequot Press, 1978. |
| Assessment Tools and Techniques |
| Use observation and standard rubrics for evaluating discussion
and written work. |
| Credit |
| This is an adaptation of a lesson created by Linda D. Erlich, a
participant in the New Hampshire Historical Society's 1998 Summer Institute for Teachers. |
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