I. The Cherokee

• This unit is designed to introduce the students to several aspects of the Cherokee culture.  The students will explore the Cherokee beadwork, folklore, foods, medicinal plants, language and history.  This unit will incorporate several of the North Carolina Standard Course of Study competencies and goals.  This thematic unit is written to be spread out throughout the year.  The objectives are not sequential.  The activities and their objectives are chosen to best enhance the curriculum to teach the Cherokee Culture.  The unit is designed for a 5th grade class.
• This unit involves a lot of hands on activities for the students while exploring the Cherokee Culture, past and present.

II. Unit Objectives

 
Our school is unique in North Carolina.  We are a Federal Grant School located on the Qualla Boundary of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians (EBCI).  Close to 100% of our students are enrolled members of the EBCI.  The members of the community and the schools recognize the unique responsibility that we have to our students and the community to perpetuate the Cherokee Culture.  Because of this, we have created a mission for our school system that directs everything we do.  We follow the North Carolina Standard Course of Study, but we work to integrate the culture into the curriculum to teach the objectives of the NCSCS.  Because of the strong cultural and community ties, the students are personally invested in the learning, therefore, they learn and retain more of the objectives from the NCSCS.

Mission of the Cherokee Central Schools

I. Unit Objective

2.10 Identify strategies used by a speaker or writer to inform, entertain, or influence an audience.

 

II. Unit Objective

2.02 Interact with the text before, during, and after reading, listening, and viewing by:

• making predictions.
• formulating questions.
• supporting answers from textual information,
• previous experience, and/or other sources.
• drawing on personal, literary, and cultural understandings.
seeking additional information.

2.1 Use technology tools to collect, analyze, and display data. (SI)

 

IV. Unit Objective

1.01 Assess a variety of ecosystems (communities of organisms and their interaction with the environment).

 

III. Enabling Objectives

I. Unit Objective - English Language Arts

2.10 Identify strategies used by a speaker or writer to inform, entertain, or influence an audience.

• The students will listen to a legend told in Cherokee and list the elements that made the retelling a success and kept their interest.
• Students will read a Cherokee legend and list the elements that made the story interesting and entertaining.
• The students will, as a class, rewrite a legend in picture book format and prepare a retelling for a kindergarten class, keeping in mind the elements that make the stories entertaining.

 

• II. Unit Objective for Computer/Technology Skills

2.1 Use technology tools to collect, analyze, and display data. (SI)

• The students will use the Library of Congress web site and other Internet sites to locate information on medicinal herbs and plants of the Cherokee.
• The students will use the Library of Congress web site and other Internet sites to locate and save information on Cherokee history.
• The students will create two multimedia presentations on Cherokee medicinal herbs and plants and Cherokee history using Power point and Windows media player.

 

• III. Unit Objective - Literature
2.02 Interact with the text before, during, and after reading, listening, and viewing by:

• making predictions.
• formulating questions.
• supporting answers from textual information,
• previous experience, and/or other sources.
• drawing on personal, literary, and cultural understandings.
• seeking additional information.

• The students will select and read a text related specifically to the Cherokee removal of the 1860s or a text related to another Native American removal.
• The students will write daily in a reading response journal.
• The students will create a final product relating their interpretation of the book's importance.

 

IV. Unit Objective - Science

    1.01 Assess a variety of ecosystems (communities of organisms and their interaction with the environment).

• The students will identify and describe plants useful for survival.
• The students will plant a traditional Cherokee garden.
• The students will create a Power Point display using LOC and Internet resources about traditional Cherokee medicinal plants.

IV. Introduction

• Lesson 1 - Introduction of the Cherokee Culture

V. Development

Lesson 2 - Math


 

Lesson 3 - Reading and Math


 

Lesson 4 - Legends


 

Lesson 5 - Literature


 

Lesson 6 - Technology


 

Lesson 7 - Ecology


 

Lesson 8 - Literature  *** This link is to another web site.  To return to this web site, use the Back Button.


 

VI. Conclusion

• Lesson 9 - Conclusion

VII. Materials/Resources Available/Needed

Brains

Shelves

Classroom Library and Library of Cherokee Elementary School

 

• Alderman, Pat. Nancy Ward Cherokee Chieftainess Dragging CAnoe Cherokee-Chickamauga War Chief.  The Overmountain Press: Johnson City, TN  1978.
• Armstrong, Nancy M. Illustrated by Paulette Livers Lambert. Navajo Long Walk. Scholastic: New York, 1994.
• Banks, Sara H. Illustrated by Birgitta Saflund. Remember My Name. Scholastic: New York, 1993.
• Blevins, Wade. ... And Then the Feather Fell. Ozark Publishing, Inc.:Redfield, Arkansas 1994.
• Blevins, Wade. Ganseti and the Legend of the Little People. Ozark Publishing, Inc.:Redfield, Arkansas 1994.
• Chiltoskey, Mary Ulmer. Cherokee Words with Pictures. Copyright - Mary Chiltoskey: Cherokee, NC  1972.    Catolog Number 72-76716.tam Doubleday Dell Books for Young Readers: New York, 1998.
• Cornelissen, Cornelia. Soft Rain A Story of the Cherokee Trail of Tears. Ban
• Duncan, Barbara Ed. Living Stories of the Cherokee. UNC Press: Chapel Hill, NC 1998.
• Haley, Gail E. Two Bad Boys A Very Old Cherokee Tale. Dutton Children's Books: New York 1996.
• Hamel, Paul B and Mary U. Chiltoskey. Cherokee Plants Their Uses - a 400 Year History. Paul Hamel and Mary Chiltoskey: Cherokee, NC 1975. LOC Catalog Number 75-27776
• Hamilton, Anna Blanche.  Illustrated by Cherokee Elementary Students. Rabbit Goes Duck Hunting Cherokee Indian Legend.  Department of interior Bureau of Indian Affairs Branch of Education. No Pub date.
• Hoobler, Dorothy and Thomas.  Illustrated by S.S. Burruls. The Trail on Which They Wept The Story of a Cherokee Girl. Silver Burdett Press, INC.: Morristown, NJ  1992.
• Garrett, JT and Michael Garrett. Medicine of the Cherokee The Way of Right Relationship. Bear and Company Publishers: Santa Fe, NM  1996.
• Gwaltney, Frances, Ed.. Corn Recipes from the Indians. Cherokee Publications: Cherokee, NC  1988.
• Kennedy, Paul E. American Wild Flowers Coloring Book. Dover Publications, INC: New York 1971.
• Lewis, Dr. T.M.N and Madeline Kneberg. "Oconaluftee Indian Village" An Interpretation of a Cherokee Community of 1750. Cherokee Historical Association, INC: Cherokee, NC 1954.
• Pennington, Daniel. Translated by Robert Busheyhead. Cherokee - English ABC Coloring Book. Cherokee Publications: Cherokee, NC  1994.
• Ree, Marcelina. Illustrator: William Taylor. Seven Clans of the Cherokee Society. Cherokee Publications: Cherokee, NC  1983.
• Rossman, Douglass A. Illustrator: Nancy-Lou Patterson. Where Legends Live - A Pictorial Guide to Cherokee Mythic Places. Cherokee Publications: Cherokee, NC 1988.
• Sharpe, Ed. Illustrator: Shirley Simmons. Cherokee Fun and Learn Book. Cherokee Publications: Cherokee, NC  28719.
• Stewart, Elisabeth J. On the Long Trail Home. Scholastic: New York, 1994.
• Ulmer, Mary and Samuel E. Beck. Cherokee Cooklore. Mary and Goingback Chiltoskie, pub.: Cherokee, NC 1951.
• Underwood, Tom B. Illustrated by Amanda Crowe. Cherokee Legends and the Trail of Tears. Cherokee Publications: Cherokee, NC  1956.
• Underwood, Tom B. The Magic Lake "A Mystical Healing Lake of the Cherokee". Cherokee Publications:     Cherokee, NC 1982.
• Underwood, Tom B. Illustrated by J. Anchutin. The Story of The Cherokee People. Cherokee Publications: Cherokee, NC  1961.

 

Curriculum Library at Hunter (info) - Books listed on linked page

 

Video Resources (info) (TV/Cable, videotape, videodisc, online digital video):

 

• "500 Nations Stories of the North American Indian Experience".  Microsoft Corporation,  1995.
• "Cherokee Artist: The Basket Weaver Volume I"  Qualla Arts and Crafts Mutual.  Produced by Significance Communications: Cherokee, NC  1994.
• "Cherokee Indians of North America Video Collection" Schlessinger Video Productions: Bala Cynwyd, PA  1993.
• "More than Bows and Arrows" 13th Regional Corp./Camera One:  1992.
• "Tragedy and Triumph The Story of the Eastern Band of the Cherokee".  Produced for Cherokee Tribal Travel and Promotion by Taylored Video Services: Charlotte,  NC.
• "The Story of Light A Traditional Cherokee Story."  Lucerne Media: Morris Plains, NJ.

Drives

Web sites

United Keetoowah Band
History of the Cherokee
Official Website of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians
Cherokee Indians
The Cherokee Trail of Tears
Unto These Hills Outdoor Drama
Cherokee Indians by Maciej Swulinski
Cherokee Indians - Websites
Western Band of Cherokee Indians
Elizabeth Abbott's Integrated Technolgy and Cherokee Cluture Unit
Studyworld - Indian Removal Act
UPENN  - Copy of Indian Removal Act
Junaluska
Tsali
Cherokee Historical Association
 

MetaLibrary catalogs (info): web sites pre-sorted by educational topics

Tsalagi Literature
Education World - Search for Cherokee
Federal Resources for Educational Excellence

VIII. Equipment Needed

Tasks:
• Palm Pilots - stored in classroom storage facility
• Screen projector - stored in classroom storage facility
• Internet Access.
• Classroom computers.
• Digital camera - stored in the classroom storage facility
• Digital video camera - stored in the classroom storage facility
• Portable Computer Lab - Stored in the School Library

IX. Evaluation

• I will consider this unit of value in my classroom if my students have gained a greater awareness and appreciation for their own culture.  This, I know, will be hard to evaluate and judge.  I want to see my students excited about learning their own history and seeing the value of preserving their culture.
• I will grade the Power Point presentations with a rubric that has the goals and expectations clearly stated that the students will have access to before and during their work.
• This unit would be more affective if more guest speakers could be brought in that are more familiar with the culture.

X. Time Period

• These lessons are designed to be integrated into the various subjects that are toaught daily in the Elementary curriculum.  As such, the lessons will not be taught in succession or in a designated time.  The lessons will be taught as the specific objectives are introduced to the students and only then.
• The literature circles should take no more than 6 days of instruction.
• The lesson on creating Power Point presentations on the specific use of plants in the Cherokee culture can be taught in a week or more, depending on the access to the Internet and computers.