Straight from the Source Close Readings for Elementary Social Studies
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Straight from the Source Close Readings for Elementary Social Studies A Pilgrim’s Journal That Describes Wampanoag Trade and Subsistence (1622) Grade Level: 3 MA Standards: Identify the Wampanoag and their leaders at the time the Pilgrims arrived, and describe their way of life. Common Core Standards: Rl3.2, RI 3.8, W3.3 Image Source: Peabody Museum of Archaeology and Ethnology at Harvard University Abstract: Students read the first-person account of a journey into Wampanoag territory by Pilgrim settler Edward Winslow. In the passage students observe the abundant resources that Native people utilized from the marshes, coasts and forests of southern New England , the artifacts they created, and the forms of production in which they engaged. Students also consider cultural contact and exchange between Native Americans and English colonists in the seventeenth century. They map the journey and visit an online gallery of Wampanoag artifacts, gaining visual reinforcement for the written text. Writing prompts are provided for the Common Core text types, as well as an accompanying academic vocabulary list. Straight from the Source: Pilgrim's Journal Describing Wampanoag Life Rationale and Source Context: The Wampanoag people of southeastern Massachusetts were part of the larger family of Algonquian peoples of the Northeast. For millennia Wampanoags inhabited the woodland and coastal areas of southern New England, sustaining themselves by drawing upon the rich natural resources of the region. In the centuries preceding European contact, stable agriculture allowed these communities to flourish. Women worked in groups to cultivate communally-held lands; men augmented and diversified the food supply through hunting and fishing. Indian corn (maize) was their staple crop, supplemented by beans, squash and other vegetables. The economic and social life of indigenous people was complex but carefully balanced, involving networks of trade and reciprocity with kin and neighbors, seasonal adaptations and migrations, and the development of stabilizing political alliances. The arrival of Europeans disrupted these sustainable patterns and permanently altered indigenous ways of life in southern New England. Native Americans initially welcomed as trading partners the small parties of French, Dutch and English men that began to explore the eastern coastline in the early 1600s. Early European traders sought furs and fish, profitable commodities in European markets; later, competition for ever greater quantities of trade goods altered patterns of Indian subsistence and led to scarcity. The early explorers also spread deadly European diseases that decimated the lives and social structure of native New England communities. The English men and women who arrived beginning in the second decade of the seventeenth century posed a different type of threat. With their desire for land and their plans for permanent colonization, they threatened the foundations of indigenous societies in the eastern United States, societies already weakened by the devastation of epidemic disease. Within a few generations, this clash of intentions would lead to the violence of King Philip’s War, with drastic consequences for Wampanoag communities. This document, an excerpt from Edward Winslow’s “A Journey to Packanokik, the Habitation of the Great King Massasoit” published in 1622, belongs to the early era of cautious cooperation between English settlers and Wampanoag people in southern Massachusetts. (It is one piece of a longer account of Plymouth’s first years published as Mourt’s Relation). Winslow was a Pilgrim Separatist and a leading figure in the fledgling colony at Plymouth. In the early summer of 1621 Winslow and another Plymouth colonist were sent on a diplomatic mission to meet with Massasoit in his own base of influence, near modern-day Middleborough, Massachusetts. Massasoit was an influential leader, or sachem, who commanded the loyalty of many, though not all, Wampanoag people. On this journey the English men were accompanied by Tisquantum or Squanto, the English-speaking Wampanoag man, earlier sold into slavery by English traders, whose assistance had saved the Plymouth colony from mass starvation in the first winter. Winslow’s account of the journey culminates with a riveting description of the delegation’s successful discussion with Massasoit. Along the way, Winslow’s group interacts with numerous Wampanoag men and women involved in day-to-day activities, and it is these passages on which we focus here. These chance encounters, described in some detail by Winslow, tell historians much about the daily lives of Wampanoag Straight from the Source: Pilgrim's Journal Describing Wampanoag Life people. Winslow’s account also portrays settler and Native interactions during the early years of English colonization. Students can read this passage to identify the abundance of resources that Native people utilized from the marshes, coasts and forests, the artifacts they created, and the forms of production in which they engaged (roasting shellfish, grinding corn, baking corn meal into cakes, and making baskets are all examples). They might also consider the reciprocity of these cultural exchanges. The Plymouth travelers were reliant upon native people for food, water and shelter. Wampanoags likewise recognized the value in the resources that the English brought to these encounters (glass beads for ornamentation, and English firearms, for instance). Still, it is important not to over-read the cordiality of these interchanges. Wampanoag people in this era embraced a path of diplomacy and constructive engagement with the newcomers, but one wonders if the “joy” Winslow reads into their greeting may have been more imagined than real. English people, in turn, were capable of extending civility to their neighbors, but their guns were ready any time they felt threatened. And Winslow’s constant use of the descriptor “savages” reminds us that white people’s racialized hierarchy and profound belief in native inferiority undergirded all their actions. (The threat of English violence and the use of racist language are both apparent in the original text supplied for the teacher, but not in the grade-level adapted text.) Finally, this reading provides an opportunity to talk with students about the limitations of historical primary sources. There are no written records that describe these early interactions between English and Wampanoag people from a Wampanoag point-of-view. Historians must rely instead on the written accounts of English people describing the social, political and economic patterns of Wampanoag life and their apparent responses to English newcomers. How might the document have been different if it were written by those on the other side of this cultural exchange? Original Source: The Journal of the Pilgrims at Plymouth, in New England, in 1620; reprinted from the original volume. NY: John Wiley Publisher, 1848, pp. 67-74. Google E-book: http://books.google.com/books/about/The_journal_of_the_Pilgrims_at_Plymout h.html?id=xpM-AAAAYAAJ Text Complexity (Grade-Level Edited Text)* Lexile ATOS Degrees of Flesch-Kincaid Reading Power 750L NA 51 4.3 *Two versions of the source are presented here: the original text and a grade-level edited text. The readability measures listed here refer to the grade-level edited version of the text, not the original text. Straight from the Source: Pilgrim's Journal Describing Wampanoag Life Suggested Guidance for Teaching Close Reading of Text with Accompanying Materials Pre-Reading 1. Before reading the text, students will need basic familiarity with the early history of Massachusetts and the initial encounters between Wampanoag and English settlers. Any of the excellent picture books in our “additional resources” section could serve this purpose, or these books could supplement your school’s social studies textbook. 2. Establish students’ understanding of key social science vocabulary for this activity. Ask them to explain what natural resources are; brainstorm several examples as a group. Ask them what artifacts are; again, brainstorm examples. 3. Have students read the text independently and annotate for understanding. 1st Reading: 4. Focus on these questions for the first reading of the text: Key Ideas and a. Do you think the Plymouth settlers were familiar with the land Details they were traveling through? What words in the text helped you decide your answer? b. Make a list of natural resources that the author noticed Wampanoag people were using. Based on this list, what is one thing you can infer about the geography or environment where these Wampanoag people lived? c. The text mentions several artifacts that Wampanoag people made. (Artifacts are usable objects made by humans.) Identify two or three artifacts from the text. How or why was each one helpful or important to Wampanoag people? d. Based on paragraphs two and five, would you conclude that Wampanoag people were helpful to the English visitors they met this day? Point to the evidence that helped you decide your answer. 2nd Reading: 5. Focus on these questions for the second reading of the text: Craft and e. Writers today typically use adjectives or emotion words to Structure describe how people feel. But action words (verbs) can also help us know what a person feels. Find an action word in the text that hints at a feeling. What feeling do you think it shows? (For example, “they complained that the crows caused damage to their corn crop”; this action word shows that they felt frustrated.) 3rd Reading: 6. Focus on these questions for the third reading of the text: Integration of f. Why would Wampanoag people in the 1600s consider an English Knowledge and bead bracelet to be valuable? What makes an object valuable? Ideas Can you think of something that was valuable to you but not to somebody else? g. On the course of this journey, what kind of help did the English colonists need from the Wampanoags? What kind of help did the Wampanoags ask from the English? Whom do you think needed more help, and why did you reach that conclusion? Straight from the Source: Pilgrim's Journal Describing Wampanoag Life Post-Reading 7.