5TH Grade – Social Studies
INDIAN EDUCATION FOR ALL Treaties
Overview: This powerpoint discusses facts about some Montana treaties. Map exercises are included. Then the students experience a “hands on” treaty negotiation involving a space that they consider their own. Duration: (5 to 6—45 min periods)
Goals: Meet Montana Standards/Essential Understandings
Social Studies Content Standards
Content Standard 1 – Students access, synthesize, and evaluate information to communicate and apply social studies knowledge to real world situations. Content Standard 2 – Students analyze how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance to understand the operation of government and to demonstrate civic responsibility. Content Standard 3 – Students apply geographic knowledge and skills (e.g., location, place, human/environment interactions, movement, and regions). Content Standard 4 – Students demonstrate an understanding of the effects of time, continuity, and change on historical and future perspectives and relationships. Content Standard 6 – Students demonstrate an understanding of the impact of human interaction and cultural diversity on societies.
IEFA Essential Understandings
Essential Understanding 4 – Reservations are lands that have been reserved by the tribes for their own use through treaties, statutes, and executive orders and were not “given” to them. The principle that land should be acquired from the Indians only through their consent with treaties involved three assumptions:
1. Both parties to treaties were sovereign powers. 2. Indian tribes had some form of transferable title to the land. 3. Acquisition of Indian lands was solely a government matter not to be left to individual colonists. 5TH Grade – Social Studies
Essential Understanding 6 – History is most often related through the subjective experience of the teller. With the inclusion of more and varied voices, histories are being rediscovered and revised. History told from an Indian perspective frequently conflicts with the stories mainstream historians tell.
Essential Understanding 7 – Under the American legal system, Indian tribes have sovereign powers, separate and independent from the federal and state governments. However, the extent and breadth of tribal sovereignty is not the same for each tribe.
Background Information
The United States government has a dismal record of honoring treaties it signed with Indian tribes. In meeting the Essential Understandings that were written by OPI, this lesson gives students a very basic introduction to the Indian perspective, which has not been traditionally fully presented in history textbooks.
Different facets of the treaty issue, which these slides address, are:
Indian Removal Act of 1830, an early example of government federal policy Basic explanation of treaties The treaties negotiated under Governor Stevens, the first territorial governor of Washington Territory, which affected Montana tribes. An interview with a tribal person from Washington about the Indian view of the Medicine Creek Treaty. Outcome of negotiations is dependent on relative power of treaty parties.
Other skills, which are introduced or reinforced in this PowerPoint, are:
Geography skills: Montana’s rivers in relation to the Continental Divide. Geography skills: Comparison of contemporary map with historical map
Introduction to the native perspective is accomplished through presenting the following information:
The Circle is Sacred to the Indian. Through breaking of treaties, the Circle has been broken. The students must design a space that is as sacred to them as the Circle is to the Indian. 5TH Grade – Social Studies
The students must negotiate with another to defend their sacred space. After the negotiations process is concluded, students will understand from the discussion that treaties negotiated between the early American colonies and eastern tribes were very different from treaties negotiated between the U.S. Government and western tribes. The Indians lost much bargaining power in the intervening years.
Materials or Resources Needed
th 5 Grade Kit Student IEFA folders for note taking, homework assignments, etc. Internet access / interactive whiteboard Google Earth downloaded and installed on teacher station Photocopies of 1857 Stevens map – one per student Blue markers – one per student “Sacred Space” activity worksheet photocopies for students (homework assignment). Sacred Space negotiations worksheets for students. o Siblings Group - A o Siblings Group - B o Sons and Daughters - Group C o Parents - Group D o Treaty settlements handout.
Activities and Procedures
The PowerPoint Slide presentation will present the lesson. Have students take notes as desired.
Present all the background slides on treaties.
Lead students through the mapping activity, which will follow all the slides of the treaties.
Use Google Earth on the interactive whiteboard to “fly to” Montana’s rivers. From each river visited, always “fly back to” Butte, Montana, before visiting the next river, so that Butte will be the point of departure. That way, students can see the location of the river with respect to Butte’s location. Have students do the mapping exercise. Use reflection questions to probe student understanding of purpose of activity. 5TH Grade – Social Studies
Students will participate in a negotiation exercise in which they have to defend their property against another person, who may have more, less, or equal power to them.
Ensure through class discussion that students understand that sibling-sibling negotiations are very different from sibling-parent negotiations. The tribes experienced the same kinds of difficulty in their treaty negotiations.
Introduction of Lesson
Follow PowerPoint slide show.
Suggested Teaching Script
Follow PowerPoint slide show.
Wrap Up
Follow PowerPoint slide show.
Extension Activities
None for this PowerPoint lesson
Additional Resources (Web Sites, Audio CDs, DVDs, literature, Art Activities, etc.)