Pädagogische Hochschule Freiburg
Institut für Fremdsprachen
Abteilung Englisch
WS 2003/04

STORYLINE
Indians

Class 3 or 4

by

Katrin Morlock 
Katja Krenický

INDIANS – A STORYLINE PROJECT for Primary
English, Grade 3 or 4

CONTENTS

1. Background Information about the Topic ...  2
1.1. Native Americans  ...  2
1.2. Three Major Native American Cultures ...  2
1.2.1. The Prairie and Plains Indians  ...  2
1.2.2. The Forest Indians  ...  3
1.2.3. The Pueblo-Indians ...  4
1.3. Common Features of Native American Cultures ...  4
1.3.1. A Creative and Imaginative Way of Living ...  4
1.3.2. Manitou, Beliefs and Ceremonies  ...  4
1.3.3. Smoking as a Ritual  ...  5
1.3.4. Medicine Men  ...  5
1.3.5. Indian Names ...  5
1.3.6. The Role of Women ...  6

2. Didactic Considerations ...  7
2.1. Relation to the Curriculum  ...  7
2.2. Relation to the Children’s Lives ...  9
2.3. Learning Objectives ...  9
2.3.1. Intercultural Competence ...  9
2.3.2. Content Objectives/ Regional Studies  ...  9
2.3.3. Language Objectives ...  10
2.3.4. Language Learning Strategies ...  11
2.3.5. Social Competence  ...  11

3. Methodical Design – Teacher’s Notes  ...  12
3.1. EPISODE 1: Indian Tribes & Indian Homes  ...  12
3.2. EPISODE 2: The Characters  ...  16
3.3. EPISODE 3: The Thunderstorm  ...  20
3.4. EPISODE 4: The Trade and a Message from Manitou ...  24
3.5. EPISODE 5: A Festival for Manitou  ...  27

4. BIBLIOGRAPHY (Topic Indians)  ...  29

5. Topic Plan  ...  31

6. APPENDIX ...  40

1. Background Information about the Topic ¹

1.1. Native Americans

The content of the following Storyline project conceived around the topic Indians respectively Native Americans² is aimed to introduce children into Native American culture. In the context of regional studies the children are acquainted with various interesting aspects of Indian lives, of their habits and living conditions. Although in primary English a detailed discussion and reflection on the dramatic historical and contemporary Native American problems (the conflict with the ‘White Man’, the life in reservations, the danger of ‘cultural extinction’ etc.) is hardly possible, the occupation with more ‘positive’ aspects of the topic may provide a more realistic image of Native American culture than offered by commercial media thus making a first decisive step to counter the arising of rigid, prejudiced, stereotype-based attitudes that even a majority of adults have today.

The widespread stereotypical image of ‘Indians’ in movies (e.g. Winnetou), books or comics is an exaggerated portrayal of the so called Prairie and Plains Indians. However, there were other cultures and over 500 different tribes living together on the huge continent. The focus of this project is on three major Indian cultures: The Prairie and Plains Indians, the Forest Indians, and the Pueblo Indians.

1.2. Three Major Native American Cultures

1.2.1. The Prairie and Plains Indians

The Prairie and Plains Indian tribes, for example the Apache, Cheyenne, Blackfoot, Sioux, Comanche, Pawnee or the Kiowa, lived in the half-dry grassland in the heart of North America, an area called the Prairie and the Plains. As homes they had ‘tents’ made of wooden sticks and bison hides - the tepees. Quickly to be put up and taken down, tepees were a very suitable way of housing for the Prairie Indians, who regularly had to follow the bison herds.

For bison hunting the Prairie and Plains Indians either crept to the animals disguised as wolves or chased them on horses brought to North America by the Spanish in the 16th century. Bison served as the main source for almost everything: food, clothes, weapons, and things for the household. The Prairie Indians made more than 80 products out of dead bison: They used the leather for tepees, belts, clothes, bags music instruments and other accessories. The fur served as blankets, and the horns as jewellery, cups or spoons. They made bones to knives, arrow-heads, sewing needles and scrapers. Bison hair were plaited to baskets and belts, or they decorated clubs and tepees. The stomach was used as a bucket, the rough side of the bison tongue as a hairbrush, and the tail to wave away the flies. Even the dung was collected and dried to serve as fuel for the fire.

Bison are often falsely denoted as (American) buffaloes. Although a very slight similarity may be admitted, buffaloes differ from bison in appearance, species and location³. In combination with the respective pictures, this distinction may be noteworthy for the children as well, if they are, for instance, used to the term buffalo in connection with Indians thus being irritated by the term bison, and/ or if the children are interested in it.

Apart from bison, the Prairie Indians haunted also deer, grew corn and beans along the rivers and gathered several plants and fruits.

The Prairie Indians are further well-known for their grand feather head decorations made of eagle feathers, and their costumes.

1.2.2. The Forest Indians

The Forest Indians were located in the northeast (around the Great Lakes) and southeast of the continent. The most well-known tribes are the Cherokee, Mahican (Mohikaner), Seminole, Huron and the Irokesen⁴, who are famous for their hairstyle. Before the arrival of the Europeans the east was covered with forest representing an environment for diverse ways of living. On contrary to the Prairie and Plains Indians they were settled and lived in so-called longhouses (up to 25 meters long!) made of wood and bark. In one longhouse 5 to 20 families could live.

Wood was not the only benefit of the forest. The Forest Indians could also hunt deer, rabbits and bears, they caught fish, gathered herbs, mushrooms and different berries, and grew corn, pumpkins and beans. Around the Great Lakes the women reaped water rice.

[....]

1 Details for the background information about Native Americans was mainly drawn from Seiler, 2002.

2 The use of either or both terms depends on the children’s understanding. Indians has a closer relation to the German expression and the children’s experiences, but is, on the other hand, coupled to several stereotypes and prejudices.

3 Compare Brockhaus (1986), p. 315 and 398.

4 We nowhere could find the English counterpart of the tribe’s name.