Overview
Lesson 1: Introduction to Relationships between Humans and the Environment
Lesson 2: Forest Succession (Primary)
Lesson 3: Native Americans and Berries
Lesson 4: Native Americans and Science
Lesson 5: Dangers to Wild Berries; Responsibility of Peopl
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.06—Listen to, read, and understand a wide variety of informational and narrative text.
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.
CD Segments to Play
Background
Native blackberries are very small and they grow very low to the ground. The blackberries that people think of are large patches of blackberries that grow very high in big bushes. These blackberries are considered an exotic species. When these blackberries start growing, they grow over the native blackberries that grow very close to the ground; the non-native blackberries shade the smaller berries and drink all of the water and nutrients found in the ground. Non-native species are a very big danger to berries and to many other plants.
Suggested Strategies
In preparation for this lesson, you will need some small balls of string; one ball for each pair of students
Activities
1. Play a game
The Food Web Game
Tell the students to imagine these five groups are all that exist: mouse, bear, berry bush, birds, and caterpillar.
The bears eat the berries and mice.
The birds eat the berries and the caterpillars.
The caterpillar eats the leaves on the berry bush.
The mice eat the berries and the caterpillars.
The berry bush converts the sun’s energy into useable energy.
Make sure each group understands what they eat, you can have them write the name of what they are and attach it to their shirt so everyone can identify what they are. Each pair of students needs a small ball of string or yarn. Have the class stand in a circle with each pair of students standing together. Let one of the pair begin, they are looking for something that they can eat. One of the pair walks over and encircles their prey (only have them encircle one of the pair) with the string and return to their partner. Whomever they just encircled, the other of the pair needs to find something to eat, again walking with the string and encircling one of the pair and returning to their partner. This continues, getting trickier because of the multiple strings wrapped around the students. It is important to only have one of the pair wrapped in string and the other free to wrap their food. Very quickly there will be a very interconnected web. Have the students look at the interdependence of the various organisms.
Now, stop the class have the students wrap up their ball of string and begin again. But this time, once a thing is eaten it must sit down. Take all but one berry out of the group. Let the students find their food source. With only one berry, there will be several things left standing.
Generally there are 5 recognized trophic levels: primary producers (plants); herbivores; omnivores; carnivores; top carnivore (has no predator). The sun is the only energy source that exists. The primary producers (the plants) through photosynthesis convert the sun’s energy into a useable form. Each trophic level must eat more and more of its food source to get the necessary energy. The top carnivore (in this scenario, the bear) must eat much more of its food source to equal the amount of energy it requires to survive. Help the students to understand this concept. If there are students left standing (not eaten yet) ask them what is going to happen to them; they of course will starve to death. You can let them play this game a few times, alternating the number of students per group to see if there is ever a good outcome when the plant numbers decline.
Talk to the class about the Native American perspective on all things being related. Remind them of their belief that they must care for all living things and that all living things care for each other as well.
2. Listen
Re-listen to Sacred Landscape segment, Wisdom of the Elders Radio: Series 3, Program 6, Warm Springs.
3. Discuss
Ask: Does anyone know what Judy BlueHorse-Skelton was talking about when she mentioned the three sisters, corn, beans and squash?
To the native people back east, these 3 plants were planted together. In addition to the nutrients provided to the people, the 3 sisters helped each other to grow. Seeds were planted together in the same mounds and they worked together to help each other grow: the corn provided a stalk for the beans to grow around, the beans provided nutrients to the soil and the squash provided a natural insecticide. Unlike these 3 sisters, the raspberries, blackberries and huckleberries are not planted in a garden and they don’t grow together in the same way; however, to the people of the Pacific Northwest they are very much as important.
4. Share
Have everyone bring out their homework assignment.
Ask: What are some of the dangers to the berries?
Give each student a chance to share their homework with the class.
5. Discuss
Tie the students’ answers to these known threats, or pose questions to them to make them aware of these threats:
Clear cutting (logging an area of all of the trees). While a clearcut does take an area backwards to secondary succession and allows shrubs, like the berries, the ability to come back, non-native (exotic) species are easily able to overpopulate an area. Clearcutting also makes an area of land weak, things like rain and wind cause the soil to leave; this is called erosion. Clear cutting removes all of the different kinds of plants from an area by destroying the native environment.
Plants that don’t normally grow in an area are called exotic species or invasive species. These kinds of plants take over an area of land and don’t allow things like berries to grow. Blackberries are a good example of an exotic species if they live in your area.
Ask: Has anyone been blackberry picking? Where do you go?
People who go out and pick berries for big factories are called commercial harvesters. These people are paid by the pound for the berries, so the faster they can pick the berries, the more money they make. These people aren’t worried about leaving berries for the birds and other wildlife and they don’t worry about if the plant is able to grow again next year with more berries. All they are concerned about is getting as many berries as they can so they can make money to feed their families. The companies that buy the berries are only worried about having enough berries to sell to stores.
There are things called mechanical pickers. These are machines that go out and destroy the berry bushes. This is also part of the commercial harvesting. In some areas, there are laws that prevent the use of mechanical pickers because they know that mechanical pickers harm the berry bushes.
People often hike in areas where berry bushes grow; some people trample the bushes so they can’t grow next year.
Garbage and other pollution destroy the places where native berries grow.
Ask: Why is it important to save the native blackberries, raspberries and huckleberries? Write their answers on the board.
Ask: Is it important to save these berries for Native Americans? Write their answers on the board.
Depending upon their answers, Ask: Is it important for you to have Christmas? What if all the things that your family needs to celebrate Christmas were gone?
Remind the students about the special Huckleberry Feasts. Remind the students of the food web and the dependence that all things have on each other.
Ask: Whose job is it to make sure that blackberries, raspberries and huckleberries are able to grow. Whose job is it to make sure that in 100 years the berries are still here?
By the completion of this series, the students should be able to discuss the importance of berries to people; to the food web and the environment, as well as the cultural importance that these berries have to the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs.
EXTENDING THE LESSON/REFERENCES
Books
Cameron, Anne. Raven Goes Berrypicking. ISBN-10: 1550170368; ISBN-13: 9781550170368.
Carlisi, Alison. The Forest and the Fire. ISBN-10: 094123231X; ISBN-13: 978-0941232319
Huffmon, Betty and Teri Sloat (Illustrator). Berry Magic. ISBN-10: 0882405756; ISBN-13: 978-0882405759
