Overview
Lesson 1: Stories as History and Tradition
Lesson 2: Historical Landscape
Lesson 3: The Treaties and the Reservation Experience
Lesson 4: Historical Figures and their Impact
Lesson 5: Stories of Today
Extending the lesson/References
Standards
ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS
EL.CM.RE.02—Listen to, read, and understand a wide variety of informational and narrative text.
EL.CM.RE.04—Demonstrate listening comprehension of more complex text through class and/or small group interpretive discussions across the subject areas.
EL.CM.RE.35—Extend ideas presented in primary or secondary sources through original analysis, evaluation, and elaboration.
EL.CM.SL.05—Analyze the occasion and the interests of the audience, and choose effective verbal techniques and language.
EL.CM.WR.21—Write biographical or autobiographical narratives or short stories.
CD Segments to Play
Background
Long before the coming of the Europeans, as many as 15,000 Kalapuya people once lived in the area now known as the Willamette Valley and Upper Umpqua Valley. Their neighbors on the Oregon coast—the Coos, Lower Umpqua, Siuslaw, Coquille, Tututin-dine, Alsea, Tillamook and many others—also numbered in the thousands. Each tribal group was rich in the traditions of storytelling and history and each also had their great leaders who were well respected.
When the first sailing ships came into the Columbia River before 1700, diseases came also. With the subsequent exploration by trappers, traders and pioneers, more sickness came to villages in western Oregon. Soon, the population was decimated by disease.
By the mid-1800s, tribes were shattered and vulnerable to the offers of treaties. Beginning in 1856, western Oregon tribes were literally rounded up and taken to reservations at Grand Ronde and Siletz. While on the reservations, the Indian way of life was forbidden, with tribal members forced to learn English and to abandon traditional lifestyles.
The impact of this change took its toll. Basketry and arts were nearly forgotten and in their place, the people learned farming, blacksmithing, and other European methods. Unfortunately, storytelling was an art that was discouraged and consequently, nearly vanished.
Of the thousands of traditional stories once told in western Oregon lodges, only handfuls remain. Most stories today are told in English because that is how they were remembered for generations after the reservation experience.
Suggested Strategies
Activities
1. Listen
Play Wisdom of the Elders Radio Series 3, Program 7, Track 3.
2. Discuss
After hearing about the people’s reservation experiences, ask the class:
Why weren’t more stories told when the people were on the reservation?
Did the stories change?
How did telling the stories in English change the stories?
Did the people start to tell “new” stories?
3. Writing exercise
(Part 1) If you were taken to a reservation, what would be the most important thing to remember to tell your children about life before the reservation? (For example, how to hunt deer, how to fish, how to tan a hide.) Select some of the responses and discuss.
(Part 2) Each student will write a story about one of their personal experiences (For example, “How I caught the biggest fish in the Willamette” or “The time the biggest deer got away.”)
4. Discuss
Could this be exactly “true” or was it embellished?
How would this story become “traditional” and passed down to other generations…or could it?
What similar family stories are there in your family? Select a few students to relate their stories.
Ask the class: Do you believe they are true?
5. Interview
For a homework assignment, have each student “interview” a member of their family to find out about the family history. Share the results during Lesson 5.
Suggested questions:
What country did the family come from?
If they immigrated to America, approximately what year was it?
Where did the family first settle?
Who is the oldest person in the family?
