My History Unit Resource Syllabus

American History
Your name: Kristen Vanderhelm
Date submitted: April 29th, 2014
Grade Level: 5th
Unit title: Indian Life in Early America
State Curriculum Identifier: U1 USHG ERA 1 BEGINNINGS TO 1620
State Curriculum Description:

U1.1 American Indian Life in the Americas

Describe the life of peoples living in North America before European
exploration.
5 U1.1.1 Use maps to locate peoples in the desert Southwest, the
Pacific Northwest, the nomadic nations of the Great Plains, and the woodland
peoples east of the Mississippi River (Eastern Woodland). (National
Geography Standard 1, p. 144)
5 U1.1.2 Compare how American Indians in the desert Southwest and
the Pacific Northwest adapted to or modified the environment. (National
Geography Standard 14, p. 171)
5 U1.1.3 Describe Eastern Woodland American Indian life with respect
to governmental and family structures, trade, and views on property
ownership and land use.

Enduring Understandings:
Students will demonstrate knowledge of life of early Indians.
Students will have knowledge on MesoAmerica and its importance in history
Students will make connections to the tools we use today and their origins in
early American life

Students will be able to identify where these areas are on a map of the
United States
Students will demonstrate high-level understanding of the subject by
comparing the life of early Indians to their lives today. Where do the
similarities and differences lie? What ideas have originated with Indian
beginnings in America?
Essential questions:
What impact did early Indian culture leave on America for the years to
follow?
Where did the justification lie in the Europeans referring to the Indians
as savage people, eventually leading to the invasion of America?
What social complexes, or social revolutions were the most important
in this time frame and how have they been comparable to the lives we live
today?

Background Reading and Reference Materials:

Out of Many
Faragher, J. M. (2004). Out of many: A history of the American people. Upper
Saddle River, N.J: Pearson/Prentice Hall.

"History of Precolonial North America." Essential Humanities. N.p., n.d. Web.

22 Apr. 2014.
http://www.essential-humanities.net/world-history/north-america/

Specialized works (biography, monographs):

Jennings, Francis. Invasion of America: Indians, Colonialism, and the Cant of
Conquest Williamsburg, Virginia: Institute of Early American History and
Culture. 1975
Visuals and Multimedia:

http://www.ballgame.org/sub_section.asp?section=3&sub_section=1
Models of this game are very beneficial, showing the dress of the
Indians at the time and the pastime of this sport played.
http://www.essential-humanities.net/world-history/north-america/#geography
Maps on this webpage show the Northern and Southern woodlands, as
well as where the hunting took place. Also shows the location of
MesoAmerica
http://asp6new.alexanderstreet.com.proxy2.cl.msu.edu/ibio/ibio.toc.sources.a
spx
Provides primary sources, such as architectural compilations of tools
used by Indians.

Outside preparation:
Mint Museum of Artlocated in Charlotte, NC
Has an exhibit on MesoAmerica and the MesoAmerican ballgame as I
stated earlier. Includes some of the clay models discussed in the video,
which have been found to be incredibly beneficial in our study of Indian
history.
Pedagogical aids:

A Critical Bibliography on North American Indians, for K-12

Anthropology Outreach Office- Smithsonian Institution
P. Ann Kaupp
http://anthropology.si.edu/outreach/Indbibl/

The Land and People Before Columbus

http://www.history.ctaponline.org/center/hsscm/index.cfm?Page_Key=1313

Briefing -- Lecture, Timeline, Characters:

When it comes to studying this era in history, perhaps the most

difficult thing is that we face when we study this area of the curriculum is
that it is the earliest history of America that we are aware of. It is not as
easy as finding a biography written by someone in this time and reading it,
because civilization as we know it today did not exist at this time. This was
the absolute beginning of America, from the very start of occupying a livable
land.
So where was the beginning stage of America as we know it? Well, to
answer this question, we must first turn to scientific findings. Our last ice
age took place from somewhere between 70,000 to 10,000 years ago.
Before this ice age, scientific evidence has shown that our water levels were
as much as 300 feet lower than what they are now. Why does this matter to
our historical studying? Because these glaciers that once existed created
something called a pan America highway which essentially was a way for
migrators to cross from Asia to America. These are where our first settlers
came from! This land, which is now a body of water named the Bering
Straits, was named Beringia. Once these Asian migrators made their way to
America, we had the start of an American civilization as we know it.
Once America was established as a livable land, the migrators kept
pouring in. Following shortly after these first settlers was the Athapascan
people, who settled in the Northwest part of the continent. America was
discovered so quickly because it was noted as a livable land. BY that, I mean
the glaciers melted and created a land very suitable for growing crops and
farming foods to survive on. These Athapascan individuals are important
because they established the foundation of the way many of us live today, in
regards to hunting and farming.
These first settlers utilized their land by creating their own tools to do
things such as hunt and cook. However, there was not just steel lying
around for these people to utilize, they would instead use the resources of
their own land, which began with rocks. They would carve these rocks into
hunting items similar to a spear. When the object was sharpened to a point,
these Indians would instead refer to the object as a clovis. This group would
then use the clovis to hunt both large and small animals for food for
themselves, as well as for larger groups. These spears would also be
attached to a stick to be used for fishing.
This farming was a major event that caused a turning point not only in
early Indian history, but in history as we know it. What we should

understand about Indian culture is that they only had the resources which
they discovered themselves. They were not able to simply find a factory
that produced hunting materials, or some machine that would sharpen their
tools for them. They used what the land provided to them, and worked from
there. Once these tools such as the clovis was discovered and used
regularly, the Indians would hunt, and aim for the largest animals to feed
their people the most efficiently. Bison was a big commodity because it was
a large animal that provided plenty of meat to their people. In return, this
began to draw together communities of people based on where the best
farming was. In return, this led to not just a farming revolution, but a social
revolution as well.
These social groups began to emerge and develop because of
convenience. It was easiest for groups to come together to survive when
they had strong, in a sense, taking care of their weak. Men would go out and
hunt during the day while the women would care for their families. There
was definitely a division of labor here as the men and women had very clear
cut, separate responsibilities. As these groups began to emerge, power also
began to lie within certain individuals as a hierarchy of power naturally
arose. This was where the term tribe originated, and many began to form.
These tribes would form based on many things, such as ethnicity, language
being spoken, and the territory in which certain people resided. Chiefs
would also arise as a position of absolute power is typically necessary as we
know it within any society. These are the earliest origins of many groups we
know today. We know a few very popular groups that fall within this
category, the Aztecs, Incans, and Mayans, though the actual study of these
groups in depth falls within later means of history curriculum.
MesoAmerica is the region that lied between Central Mexico to Central
America. It is important in these terms because it was the first place as we
know it where these first urban civilizations arose. MesoAmerica was the
first place to develop things such as trade systems between different areas,
as well as ways of shipping items. It was also the place where social
complexes first arose. One really interesting thing about MesoAmerica was
a ball game they would play. This game is comparable to modern day
lacrosse, but moreso it is important to study because of the artifacts we
have from this game. It began as a means for people to gather and
socialize, and really share a common interest in something. This may have
been the first means of being social with one another, in areas different from
labor or sex.

Perhaps one of the most perfect in a sense places that we know this
original social structure to exist, was in the very early and also commonly
unknown city of Cahokia. Cahokia existed in what is now St. Louis, and was
one of the earliest settlements of Indian population. Cahokia was one of the
first places where a group of individuals co-existed within a unified places,
using their own resources and not seeking outside power or possessions.
These residents were mainly farmers, and not necessarily hunters. However,
they did eat meat. Instead of going out and hunting for food, they would
instead attach pens to their houses, and populate these pens within animals
such as turkeys and deer. They would use these animals for both their skin
in making clothing, and also the meat to eat. These places also did have
wealth and power, with priests and chiefs being at the top of the power
hierarchy, often represented by living atop of hills. I enjoy studying and
relaying this information about Cahokia because to me it represents a
perfect society, and how we could all strive to live in peace and harmony.
Only using the resources which we reside upon, not fishing for more through
means of war or violence. It was an important piece of history, and one I
personally feel should be studied and reflected more in our search for a
perfect society.
The Eastern woodlands was an important area to study in terms of
what was discovered by the peoples living there. These people had a similar
set of ideals as the civilization of Cahokia, wanting to only grow a few local
crops to support the families living within it. This group also discovered the
idea of pottery, in which individuals could use their hands as tools to create a
device to eat or drink or even store things within. Today we think of pottery
as more of a hobby, but for this ancient civilization, this became a means of
being a more civilized group and not so much savage animals. There was
another major invention within this group, and that was the creation of the
bow and arrow.
This leads me to my next major turning point in Indian history, that
being the rise of war and violence. The original need for this violence was
because the Indian farmers felt the need to overpower their surrounding
neighbors. This became easy once deadly weapons were being made and
discovered as means to harm and scare others. These first deadly weapons
were introduced by the Eastern woodlands; this again was the bow and
arrow. There were also many violent outbreaks when the area got too
crowded to handle. I wonder, however, if these violent outbreaks were
caused by the fact that there was no neutral language being spoken by
these groups of Indians. Because this was such an early point in history, we

are unsure of the social mannerisms that took place and how individuals
would communicate with each other. We can compare it on a very farfetched and mediocre example of ourselves being annoyed with our
neighbors because their things are constantly in your yard. You get angry,
likely to the point to say something to him. However, these groups had
enormous sized groups residing in these areas, unable to communicate with
each other. They were also in the earliest stages of human life as we know
it, and likely did not know how to rationally communicate with each other.
Could we even call them savages?
This brings me to the next area, and possibly most controversial, to
discuss within this topic. Were the Indian folks savages? An early European
viewpoint would say absolutely. One viewpoint we have from our Out of
Many textbook told a story about coming upon a group of Indians and
witnessed some absolute savage behavior. He recalled the women
displaying their breasts, and the men fighting each other to the death. Once
these men were killed, their remains were hung up and even eaten
afterward. It is tricky to confirm or deny these claims as we are studying a
time period so far in the past that there is little hard evidence to prove these
points. These points were also discussed very thoroughly in Francis Jennings
Invasion of America.
Moving forward in history is when things become a bit hypocritical.
Early Europeans believed Indians to be savage and often rejected their ideas
or viewpoints, which is also why the eventual conquest took place. However,
the Indians did offer many excellent ideas, tools, and now medicines that
made a major change in history as we know it. The Indians would use
medicinal herbs and some ancient remedies to help with sickness or disease.
This was rejected from Europeans as silly hocus-pocus, that is until the
Europeans themselves were in trouble. Though these medicines were
proven to help their own people, the Europeans would reject these ideas to
hold their own, sometimes arrogant, opinions strong. However, in Jennings
novel we learned that more than two hundred drugs that have a place in
The Pharmacopeia of the United States of America originated in Indian
tribes.
How many of us have ever thought that the first settlers in American
were the European colonizers? Or even that Christopher Columbus
discovered America. This, is absolutely not true. Indians occupied America
far before it was ever colonized by the Europeans. We dont have a lot of
primary sources or absolute evidence for these people simply because it was

the beginning of civilization as we know it. We did not know film or camera.
However, does this mean we write off the first Indians as savage beasts that
only deserve to be written off as nothing? Absolutely not. I worry that within
elementary schools, we study Columbus as the provider of America as we
know it. Yes, Columbus is crucial in our history and pertinent to study and
now. However, the underlying idea and theme of this lesson is that the
Indian folks were the start of this history, and it is important to study them
as well.