Breaking Down Misconceptions about Easter Woodland Indians

Documents related to this lesson plan are available for download. Please click on the links below to download respective documents:

1) Nobody's Homeland 2) No real Nations 3) No Momentous Wars 4) No Great Art 5) No Valuabale Knowledge 6) No Important Intellectual Skills 7) Didn't Value Learning 8) No Religion before White Man 9) Wampum Worthless Beads 10) Just Hunters, Not Farmers 11) Fur Trade No Lasting Impact 12) Only a Handful of Indians Left 13) All-powerful Rulers 14) Gender-assigned Tasks 15) Always Plenty to Eat 16) Always Powerless 17) Not Want to Live with Indians

Grade Levels
Middle School and High School

Lesson Abstract
In these series of classroom activities, you will find 21 of the most ingrained misconceptions about Eastern Woodland Indians that we have encountered in schools throughout Western Pennsylvania, along with specific strategies on how to break down these misconceptions in the classroom. After each misconception is discussed, teachers are provided with critical thinking activities to engage students in understanding these misconceptions through an examination of images, documents and material culture objects. Students will  simulate an Iroquois Council meeting, compare and contrast the U.S. Constitution with the Iroquois Constitution, use maps to teach Native linguistic and cultural diversity, play history detective, analyze historical art to break down misconceptions about gender roles, discover Native contributions to modern medicine, compose and deliver an Indian speech, make Native artifacts, role-play an 18th century journalist, write a biographical sketch of a woman chief, develop native menus, use primary sources, complete a math project to understand the vast size of Woodland Indian cornfields,  creating word games to understand the cross-cultural impact of the fur trade, writing historical fiction, and playing a "Facts in Five" game to find examples of Indian sterotypes in modern American culture.


Teachers
Robert and Kathleen Millward - Indiana University of Pennsylvania, Indiana, PA


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