Second Grade Unit Three: Respectful Teaching About the Creek and Cherokee

1. Second Grade Unit Three: Respectful Teaching About the Creek and Cherokee Sarah Blascovich Brown Teacher on Assignment

2. Establishing Our Prior Knowledge ? • What do we know about Georgia’s first people? • Describe their culture as it was when Oglethorpe & other English settlers arrived in Georgia. • How do Native Americans maintain their culture & heritage today?

3. Creek Community Life • Confederation – “tribal towns” were individual units within it • Covered entirety of Southeastern US at time of contact • Removed in 1830s via “treaty” to lands in present-day Oklahoma • Today’s membership – 60,000

4. Where the Creek lived in Georgia • You see that manydifferent treaties and cessions tookthe land of the Creek over time. • The very first cession, right alongthe Savannah Riverwas to whom?

5. Cherokee Community Life New Echota • Division oflabor betweenmen & women • Active trading culture • Settled, farming communities • Removed to Oklahoma in 1838 – the Trail of Tears Cherokee Courthouse - Oklahoma

6. Where the Cherokee Lived in Georgia ~map from Carl Vinson Institute, UGA Cherokee holdings in 1830

7. Whose name is this? • Sequoyah was born in Tennessee, and lived throughout the Southeast • He visited fellow Cherokees in Georgia (where the Cherokee capital of New Echota was located) • He was a fervent believer in preserving Cherokee culture and traditions • He worked to establish a system of writing known as a syllabary {New Georgia Encyclopedia}

8. Resources: • The New Georgia Encyclopedia (Creek): http://www.newgeorgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-579&hl=y • The New Georgia Encyclopedia (Cherokee removal):http://www.newgeorgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-2722&hl=y • The New Georgia Encyclopedia (Sequoyah):http://www.newgeorgiaencyclopedia.org/nge/Article.jsp?id=h-618&sug=y • The Cherokee Nation (Oklahoma):http://www.cherokee.org • The Creek (Muscogee) Nation:http://www.themuscogeecreeknation.com

9. Resources: • Oyate (Books, Reviews, Other Publications): http://www.oyate.org • American Indians in Children’s Literature:http://www.americanindiansinchildrensliterature.blogspot.com • National Museum of the American Indian:http://www.nmai.si.edu/ • Ocmulgee National Monument (Macon):http://www.nps.gov/ocmu/ • New Echota State Historic Site (Calhoun):http://www.gastateparks.org/info/echota/

10. Resources: • Oyate (Do and Do nots): http://www.oyate.org/catalog/poster_to_do_not.html • Ten Cultural Respect Guidelines:http://www.native-languages.org/ymca.htm • Cherokee Heritage Center (click on Learn):http://www.cherokeeheritage.org/ • Georgia Tribe of Eastern Cherokee (state-recognized):http://georgiatribeofeasterncherokee.com/ • Perdido Bay Tribe/Lower Muscogee Creeks:http://www.perdidobaytribe.org/Classroom%20Creek%20History.html

11. Cherokee Resources: The Cherokee Little People, First Fire, The Ice Man, all written by Marijo Moore. These stories are appropriate for retelling to children, and are traditional Cherokee works. ItseSelu: Cherokee Harvest Festival, by Daniel Pennington (member of the Cherokee nation), tells not only about the festival, but also about traditional Cherokee life before contact with Europeans. The Trail of Tears, by Joseph Bruchac (member of the Abenaki nation), discusses the removal of the Cherokee in an historically accurate and respectful way.

12. Creek Resources: The Good Luck Cat, written by Joy Harjo, who is a member of the Muscogee Nation, is full of wonderful inspiring poetry. Jingle Dancer, by Cynthia Leitich Smith, discusses one girl’s desire to dance in a modern Muscogee celebration. Her website includes teacher resources for this book: http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/CLS/cyn_books/_teachers_guide.html The Great Ball Game, another by Joseph Bruchac, is a traditional Muscogee story.

13. Teaching Unit Three: • Individuals, Groups, & Institutions: • Contributions of Sequoyah to Cherokee culture • Show that Creek & Cherokee had institutions (cultural, governmental, etc., even before Europeans came to Georgia) • Location • Review ways that geography impacts lifestyle • Discuss differences in Creek & Cherokee lifestyles based on geography of their particular areas (general ideas) • Production, Distribution, and Consumption • Ways that Creek & Cherokee obtained things they could not make or find locally • Barter/trade vs. currency

14. Teaching Unit Three: • Scarcity • Identify resources that were scarce to the Creek and Cherokee • Discuss how scarcity of land affected both groups of people, as well as the European influence on this idea • Time, Change, and Continuity • Compare ways that European/American cultures have changed over time to ways that the Creek and Cherokee cultures have changed over time • Compare students’ lives to Sequoyah’s