Elakha. Phtot courtesy of the Elakha Alliance.
Overview
Lesson 1: Introduction to Relationships between Humans and the Environment
Lesson 2: Keystone Species and the Food Web
Lesson 3: Native Americans, Science, and Salmon
Lesson 4: Native Americans and Science
Lesson 5: Dangers to Sea Otter and Responsibility of People
Extending the lessons/References
Lesson 3, Day 1
Suggested Strategies
Hopefully, a guest speaker can attend this day and talk to your class.
Alternatively, ASK CTGR OR ELAKAH ALLIANCE FOR ANY RECOMMENDATIONS ON AGE-APPROPRIATE VIDEO.
Lesson 3, Day 2 (or Day 1 if no guest speaker or video available)
Standards
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
EL.06.RE.05—Demonstrate listening comprehension of more complex text through class and/or small group interpretive discussions across the subject areas.
EL.06.RE.26—Draw conclusions about reasons for actions or beliefs based on an analysis of information in the text.
EL.06.WR.02—Discuss ideas for writing with classmates, teachers, and other writers, and develop drafts alone and collaboratively.
GEOGRAPHY
SS.05.GE.02.01—Use maps and charts to interpret geographic information.
CD Segments to Play.
Background
A Reservation is an area of land that the U.S. government created in exchange for homelands ceded (traded) by a Treaty. A Treaty is an agreement, like a promise, that the U.S. government made with the Native American Tribes throughout the country. The reason for the Treaties was so that American citizens could build houses and create towns and States which eventually led to the United States of America. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde originally had over 13.5 million acres of homelands from the south bank of the Columbia River all the way down to what is now the California/Oregon border and between the Coastal and Cascade Mountain Ranges (from peak to peak). In the 1850s, the United States forced 26 different Tribes and bands to move to the Grand Ronde Reservation; approximately 60,000 acres in size. There were several different treaties that were signed with the various tribes. The five major Tribes were the Kalapuya, Mollala, Umpqua, Chasta and Rogue River, though there were many other tribes. There really is no “Rogue River” Tribe, it is a name given to several tribes that lived around the Rogue River area. The various treaties promised different things; none of the promises were kept. When the tribes began arriving at the Grand Ronde Reservation, there were 3 different language families and 26 different dialects represented at the Reservation.
Communication was a problem, though there did exist a Chinook “trade” language that some tribal people knew and used when trading with the various tribes in the Pacific Northwest. This trade language became known as Chinook Wawa and became the one language that ended up being spoken by the people on the Grand Ronde Reservation.
Native American Tribes lived in areas of land, commonly referred to as homelands. They did not believe that they owned the lands, but that they were caretakers of the land. In addition, there were areas of land that the tribes would travel to hunt and gather their foods and medicines; these lands are referred to as usual and accustomed areas.
Suggested Strategies
In preparation for today’s lesson, go to the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde (CTGR) website at HYPERLINK “http://www.grandronde.org/culture/ikanum/”http://www.grandronde.org/culture/ikanum/ and print out the ceded lands map.
Activities
1. Discuss
Ask if anyone knows what an Indian Reservation is.
Ask: Each student represents a different language, imagine that you all had to come to one area and live together. How would you talk to each other?
2. Mapping exercise
Pass out the map of the ceded territory. Have them add this to their Sea Otter Portfolio. Talk to the class about the original homelands.
To help the students understand the concept of homelands, use a large city park as an example. It would be helpful if you could use a park in the area that your students are familiar with. The area of the park which holds the playground equipment is the area that the children normally play in (like the Tribes who lived in their homelands). But, the children might also go to a far corner of the park to play baseball, or go to a different part of the park to have a barbeque or take a hike. These areas of the park are like the usual and accustomed lands that the Tribes would go to for hunting, fishing, etc.
Now point out the Grand Ronde Reservation, which is the very small shaded area. This is the area of land that the Tribes had to move to when they signed the Treaty which ceded their homelands of over 13.5 million acres of land.
3. Discuss
Ask: Why would the Tribes trade 13.5 million acres of land for a 60,000 acre Reservation?
4. Writing exercise
For a homework assignment, have the students write a paragraph about why they think the tribes signed these treaties.
Lesson 3, Day 3
Background
The United States wanted the lands for themselves. Many Native Americans died from fighting with the military and with the settlers. They were also starving to death because as the settlers arrived and began making homes and towns, the traditional gathering areas to get food were being destroyed and the wildlife and fish were being overhunted and their habitat (place they lived) ruined for the new houses and towns and farms. The tribal leaders were trying to make the best decisions to save their people, so while they didn’t want to sign the Treaties, they had no choice but to do so.
Back in the late 1800s, if you were a Native American, it was assumed that you lived on a Reservation, and if you didn’t, you were not treated very well by the new settlers. The tribal leaders and headmen of the various Tribes on the Reservation would often accept these non-treaty people as one of their own. As a result, the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde has a mixture of many, many tribes.
For these coastal tribal members, the sea otter was an extremely important part of their culture. Even for the non-coastal tribes, sea otter pelts were something that they traded for. Different tribes have different beliefs. For some tribes, only their headmen (like a Chief) or their medicine people (like a doctor) were able to wear sea otter. So, in addition to making beautiful and warm robes that would keep them dry from the rain, by wearing the sea otter robes, the headmen and medicine people were easily recognizable as very important people.
Sea otters were also very important as a trade item. Tribes throughout Oregon and Washington traded a lot with each other. Different tribes had different items available that other tribes didn’t have. For instance, salmon was a trade item for tribes that didn’t live near rivers where salmon migrated. Sea otters were traded, camas (a plant food) was traded, acorns, obsidian, etc. The list goes on and on.
Generally speaking, tribal groups lived in very distinct geographic areas, and their culture was based upon the natural resources within their own area, and their body of Traditional Ecological Knowledge was based upon their own geographic area. Imagine being forced to leave your homelands in southern Oregon to end up on the Grand Ronde Reservation. A land that had a very different climate, different plant species, different wild game and a land that was so far from their sacred areas and ceremonial sites that they could not transfer their knowledge to this new land. Many tribal people got sick and died because the climate change was so dramatic, and their Indian doctors didn’t know where to find the medicines (plants) to help the sick people.
The tribes were able to survive and over time they began developing a new body of Traditional Ecological Knowledge that was based upon the Reservation and its surroundings.
In the 1950s, the United States government began “terminating” Native American Tribes. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde were one of the tribes terminated. Termination meant that the federal government no longer recognized the Tribes as Indians. At termination the promises that the treaties made were no longer honored, though the homelands were not returned. In 1984, the United States government recognized the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde again as a tribe.
Tribes are called sovereign nations. A sovereign nation is similar to an entirely separate country. The United States of America has a constitution. Within the constitution are requirements for people to be citizens. People born in the United States are citizens, and sometimes people from other countries are allowed to become citizens. The United States makes laws that govern all of the 50 states, and within the constitution of the United States are rules that allow the 50 states to make their own laws as long as they don’t conflict with the federal laws. Sovereign nations, like the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde also have their own Constitution. They have rules for who can be tribal members (citizens) and they have the right to make their own laws on their Reservation. Like the 50 states, the laws that the Tribes’ make cannot conflict with federal laws. The Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde have created many different offices to help them govern their tribal members and their Reservation. One of their offices is the Natural Resource Department. The people who work in this office also work with state and federal agencies in managing the natural and cultural resources off of the Reservation.
Suggested Strategies
Activities
1. Share
Have the class share their answers with the class. Add this to their Sea Otter Portfolio.
2. Mapping exercise
Looking at the map, the ceded homelands were not coastal lands; however, there were many smaller tribes such as the Clatsop and Tillamook Tribes which though they did not sign official treaties forcing them to the Grand Ronde Reservation, they had close ties with the Reservation.
