Pookie's Coloring Page - pookie8x10-1.jpg
Before we could teach students, we must educate coloring teachers. So often, teaching units and resource materials are laced with generic views of Indian people. Even coloring page such illustrations are labeled, "Woodland," the message is still very clear, the view that kids get is usually pages standard stereotypical view of Indians in fringed buckskin coloring page poorly conceived trade clothing and shown in front of a little of generic wigwam or even just a tipi. This type of publication does nothing coloring pages convey realistic information to the student. It continues to teach them that it is alright to believe that all Indians were basically alike and that there is no need to make clear distinctions between specific time periods or specific tribal cultures. That notion is like saying all Americans are alike or all "caucasian" people are alike as if there is no difference between a child growing up in the Bronx and a child growing up in the mountains of Virginia. There are cultural differences, dialectic differences and even value differences. Teaching about American Indians is no different. Each region has its cultural affiliations and those should be made clear to the coloring One of the targets with this teacher resource book is to untangle the web of mixed up and artificial ideas along with the generic profiles so standard in American education today and define these people in a clear way by time period, culture and even as every people for the purpose of better understanding by students. The author wants teachers to be able to help students known a Miami or Shawnee tribal member of the 19th century from a Mississippian living in a very different society 400 years earlier.
Teachers, educators and historians, here is a book that'll help you teach young individuals about the real Native Americans that lived in the Wabash Valley. This special teacher resource guides you from one time period to the next with line illustrations that able to double as coloring book pages for the very young. Each illustration is clearly defined and detailed with an explanation of the time period, the activity depicted and in many cases the materials that are used in the clothing of the individuals.
In 1826, Charles Trowbridge was hired by the US government to interview tribal elders from the Miami, Shawnee and other Wabash Nations in order to obtain details on how they viewed their occupation and ownership of the land. Trowbridge went beyond the outline of his assignment and gathered intimate details of cultural attributes from specific points of view. Trowbridge interviewed Chief Jean Baptiste Richardville and LaGros of the Miami and it is from this information that the next section of the book has its source. The first version was called, "Meear Meear Traditions," Edited by Vernon Kinetz and part of the Ethnohistorical Archives of the Ohio Valley-Great Lakes Collection at the Glen Black Laboratory, Indiana University at Bloomington, Indiana. In order to make it user friendly for 4th graders, the author further edited the original and gave it a make over with clear language and definition of terms. The author also chose to create a question and answer format for the vast amount of material to be covered in this chapter to further stimulate a young person's inquisitive mind. Cultural ideas covered include: When Miami and related groups came to be in the Wabash Valley; Where the Miami lived before the Iroquois Wars; What Miami villages were located in the Wabash; Miami political organization; Miami social organization; Warfare among the Miami; Gender roles and Marriage; Miami beliefs; Birth of Children; Vision Quest; Feasts; Adoption; and Dances.
Natives Along the Wabash
There are also challenging activities requiring adult supervision included in the book such as how to build a real wigwam. This activity requires cutting poles, digging holes, climbing a ladder and working cooperatively with fellow students and adult supervisors. The idea is to learn the basics of simple wigwam construction and get a feel of what it was like to actually have to build your home from what the environment offers in your location. There are illustrations that help guide the builders and well defined set of instructions based on not only real historical evidence but based on years of first hand experience by the author doing this for classrooms and living history events around the country. This activity serves as an introduction to a more thorough outline of wigwams and longhouses of the historical period. Students can read about the details of the wigwam from placing a fire pit in the center to smoke control devices, bedding, twine storage bags, and more. The text sections continue with a detailed account of life in a summer house including types of bark used for covering, room dividers, even the order in which families ate and where food was stored.
In order for students to remember what they read, a useful tool is often a set of deliberate questions that encourage the students to do research while they read. The next section is just such a tool and offers a set of 18 questions that often require students to look very deep inside the text of the book to find the answers. Sample questions include, "What ceremony did young Miami people go through before becoming adults?"; "Explain the meaning of the Thunderbird and Underwater Panther."; "What kinds of clothing did Mississippian Indian people wear at Angel Mounds?" and finally, "What purpose was the brain of the animal used by the Miami, Piankeshaw and other Native woodland people?" These are just a few of the brain activating questions that students will find stimulating in this publication.
Games played by Native people were very important and have been used extensively as a teaching tool in hands on classroom programs for years. There is a detailed and well illustrated section on how to make a double ball with adult supervision and how to play the game. Another important item used by Native people is a leather pouch. Included in this publication is a detailed description and illustrations of how to make a small leather pouch.
Everyone loves to eat and so this book would not be complete without a small section on food with an accompanying activity. Finally, there is a summary question and answer section with illustrations just to see what students learned from this publication. There is a section in the back of the book with additional resources including books, web sites and places to go to get more information.
There is an extensive section showing Native Americans in the Wabash Region through time from 300 BC to 2005 that has been cautiously illustrated by Steve Tucker, President of Piankeshaw Trails. Steve, himself was an art teacher for many years and has been guided by the author's meticulous research in how each time period is to be shown. The details in clothing and background are very much in keeping with the author's goal of bringing a very authentic publication into the hands of educators for use as a tool in the classroom. These pages could also serve as a coloring book for the very young. Teachers can feel free to copy them and pass them out to students. This section also picks specific cultures and shows how each would have looked and activities they may have been involved in during a specific time period. There are definition of words such as pow wow that are introduced as well as tribal names and events that are introduced with both text and illustrations.
One of the first critical thinking activities is offered through a view into a longhouse. Students are asked to peer into the living area of a 1755 woodland structure typical of that time period in the Wabash Region and find things of the 21st century that are clearly out of place. Then once they have achieved that, students are asked to think of things that Native people of that era may have used instead even though there may not be a direct replacement but to try and come as close as possible. An example is given to get them started. This is great for a test question or quiz in the classroom.
There is also an extensive chapter that summarizes the biographies of noted individuals from the Miami, Piankeshaw, Shawnee, Delaware (Lenape), Wea and Potawatomi living in and around the region of the Wabash. There are beautiful line illustrations of many of these individuals while others identified in the text will have their faces forever remain obscure to the students of history.
This publication called, "Natives Along the Wabash, a Teacher Resource Book" is divided into sections starting with how this book meets or exceeds Indiana Department of Education's Academic Standards for the 4th grade Social Studies unit on Native American studies. Next, the book outlines the basis for its existence which is a professional hands on Woodland Indian Educational Program that was created for classrooms and has been used successfully for decades by teachers in Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, and Michigan. It briefly goes into the expansion of this program by the educational director into early areas of culture and new areas of the eastern US starting in the fall of 2008. The book clearly covers the timeline used by academia to establish cultural modifies through time by Native inhabitants of the region. This will help teachers establish which American Indians lived in the most distant past and those that came to be identified as living in the Wabash valley at later times and often how these changes occurred.
