Did Trade Make Life Better for Indigenous People?
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NORTHERN MICHIGAN INQUIRY HUB 3rd Grade Inquiry Did Trade Make Life Better For Indigenous People? Supporting Questions 1. Why did Indigenous People want to trade? 2. Why did the Europeans want to trade? 3. How did trade lead to conflict? Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution: NonCommercial-Share Alike 4.0 Intl. License NORTHERN MICHIGAN INQUIRY HUB 3rd Grade Inquiry Compelling Question Michigan Content 3-H3.0.4 Draw upon traditional stories of American Indians who lived in Michigan in Expectations: order to make generalizations about their beliefs. 3-H3.0.5 Use informational text and visual data to compare how American Indians and settlers in the early history of Michi- gan adapted to, used, and modified their environment. 3-H3.0.6 Use a variety of sources to describe interactions that occurred between American Indians and the first European explorers and settlers in Michigan. 3-H3.0.7 Use a variety of primary and secondary sources to construct a historical narrative about daily life in the early settlements of Michigan. 3-H3.0.8 Use case studies or stories to describe how the ideas or actions of individuals affected the history of Michigan. Staging the Pose the question: What is trade? Watch the following video to introduce the trading dynamics between Compelling the Native Americans and the Europeans. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OhC4H-x4xH0 Question: Go back to the question, What is trade? and define with students. Pose the overall question: Did trade make life better for the Native Americans? and gather students’ current thoughts on the topic. Supporting Question 1 Supporting Question 2 Supporting Question 3 Why did Indigenous Why did the Europeans How did trade lead to People want to trade? want to trade? conflict? Formative Performance Formative Performance Formative Performance Task Task Task Create an infographic or Create a comparison infographic Caption the picture from explaining why the Europeans wanted poster explaining why the to trade and what their motivation the Supporting Question Native Americans wanted to was. Use this to compare and contrast 1 Sources and explain why trade and what they traded with the graphics made for the Native you captioned it that way. for. American point of view. Featured Sources Featured Sources Featured Sources Pete-Na-Wan reading Early Trade article Arrival of Whites reading Historical Painting Fur Trade Article Europeans Battle for Trade Fur Trade Mitten Article French and Indian War Fur Trade Artifacts Fur Trade Article Fur Trade Readings Summative Argument: Did trade make life better for the Indigenous People? Construct an ar- Performance Task gument (e.g., detailed outline, poster, essay) that addresses the compelling question using specific claims and relevant evidence from contemporary sources while ac- knowledging competing views. Taking Informed -Use Flipgrid responses and/or post-it notes to ask questions of other students’ work Action and further the thinking of others in the class. Use this to further the debate in class. -Create a defense for the opposing side and share it out with the class through an opposite debate, video, or written response. 2 NORTHERN MICHIGAN INQUIRY HUB Supporting Question 1 - Featured Source A Pete-Na-Wan, a chief, had a girl six years old who had consumption. She came every day for a long time to see grandmother, who would prepare little delicacies for her. Even after she could not sit up, the Indian would bring her in his arms and let her stay thee as long as she liked. I have often heard her speak of their great affection for this child, and how tender and gentle they were with her. Failing to come for several days, she decided one Sunday afternoon to go over to the village. Grandmother said, I told "father" I was afraid Pete-Na-Wan's girl was worse, and we had better go over and see. When we reached the place we found them way off by themselves with the girl in a sort of hammock. He came to us, saying: "Pappoose plenty sick, going to Great Spirit." The squaw sat there crying bitterly. The next morning just at daybreak, I heard someone come in and sit down by the fire. I said: "Hughes, I guess Pete-Na-Wan's girl is dead. I think he is out there." Sure enough, there he sat; would not speak, but marked on the floor, with a stick he had, the shape of a coffin; finally said: "Fix 'em pappoose like Che-mo- ko-man's pappoose." So father went out and nailed together a rough box, and the Indian took it under his arm and disappeared." (5-6) http://www.umich.edu/~bhlumrec/programs_centers/artsofcitizenshipprogram/www.artsofcitizenship.umich. edu/sos/topics/native/early.html#reminiscences Supporting Question 1 - Featured Source B 3 NORTHERN MICHIGAN INQUIRY HUB Supporting Question 1 - Featured Source C The Mi t t en A Publication of Michigan History magazine OCTOBER 2004 The Great Lakes Patrick Reed n the 1600s the French explored the Great with trade goods. At the same time, the Native Lakes looking for a shortcut across North Americans took the pelts to Mackinac. America. They never found the mythical At Mackinac, fur traders and the Native Northwest Passage. Instead, they found an Americans haggled over the value of the pelts. abundance of fur-bearing animals whose Once a deal was completed, pelts were exchanged Ipelts were made into hats popular in Europe. for trade goods. “Made beaver” was the term used The Great Lakes fur trade was a barter to describe the value of furs. A made beaver was system between Europeans and Native Americans. equal to one prime beaver pelt. A gun might be The Europeans offered blankets, worth 14 made beaver guns, hatchets, knives, needles, Grand Portage or a blanket worth Voyageur liquor, and metal cooking pots. National Montreal 7 made beaver. After Park The Native Americans offered pelts. Straits of the exchange, the Mackinac All types of pelts were pelts were shipped to exchanged, but the most popular Europe to be made was the beaver. A beaver pelt, when into hats. properly treated, makes strong and The fur trade attractive felt cloth. Beaver hats were so popular became so important that France and Great that the animal had been hunted into extinction Britain fought wars over the control of North in Europe. America. After the Americans won independence The earliest Great Lakes fur traders came to from Great Britain, the two nations struggled over Native American villages with trade goods. As the the North American fur trade. fur trade pushed farther into the interior of North In 1808, German immigrant John Jacob Astor America, permanent trading posts were built. One founded the American Fur Company. By the early of the biggest fur-trading posts was at the Straits 1820s, Astor’s company dominated the Great of Mackinac. Lakes fur trade. The company, whose headquarters In the late fall and early winter, Native were on Mackinac Island, employed hundreds of Americans trapped the animals. In the spring, fur workers. In 1834, Astor sold the company and it traders left Montreal and headed west to Mackinac moved to St. Louis, Missouri. 4 NORTHERN MICHIGAN INQUIRY HUB oyageurs were the backbone of When necessary, voyageurs portaged the Great Lakes fur trade. the packs of pelts and canoes. Each Voyageurs (a French word mean- voyageur carried at least two 90-pound V ing travelers) were responsible packs of furs. To avoid mosquitoes and black for getting the pelts from the trading posts flies they usually moved at a trot. According to Montreal. Voyageurs were usually to one observer, the voyageurs moved along under five feet, six inches tall. They the portages “at a pace which made the weighed less than 150 pounds. But unburdened travelers pant for breath.” they were strong, which was At night, the voyageurs pulled their important since they spent most canoes ashore and prepared the day’s of their day paddling a canoe. second meal. Voyageurs ate A voyageur’s workday lots of pemmican, which is a lasted up to eighteen hours. mixture of meat, grease and When canoeing, they pad- berries that has great nutri- dled 40 to 60 strokes a tional value. Sometimes there minute. They often used the was time for rubbaboo, a thick larger Montreal canoes, which porridge made from pemmi- were up to 40 feet long and can, water and seasoned with carried a crew of 8 to 10 men. maple sugar. After eating To help them get they sat around the fire, Patrick Reed Patrick through the mono- smoked their pipe, and tony of a long hard “pulled the long bow” (brag- day, voyageurs sang songs while they ging or telling exaggerated stories). paddled. They also were allowed breaks The next morning it was back to VOYAGEUR the to smoke their pipes. paddling. ith his sharp teeth and powerful jaws, a beaver can chew through the base of a small tree in a few minutes. A beaver’s webbed feet and a powerful tail also make him an excellent swimmer. W A beaver uses the small trees he has cut to build a dam in a small river or stream. When the dam is complete the water backs up and creates a pond. In the middle of the pond the beaver builds his home, called a lodge. A lodge is a pile of brush and mud shaped like a flattened cone. The inside is hollow and the beaver enters his home from underwater. Beavers do not hibernate. They are herbivores (plant eaters) that store food Carolyn Damstra for the winter. Beavers mate in January or February and baby beavers (called kits) are born in the spring.