Last updated: September 24, 2024
Lesson Plan
Fauna: Draft Animals, Buffalo, and Rattlesnakes
Buffalo herds supported the lives and cultures of people on the Plains.
NPS/D. Ocheltree
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Science,Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- Common Core Standards:
- 3.L.4, 3.L.4.a, 4.L.4, 4.L.4.a, 5.L.4, 5.L.4.a, 3.RI.1, 3.RI.2, 4.RI.1, 4.RI.2, 5.RI.1, 3.SL.1, 3.SL.1.d, 4.SL.1, 4.SL.1.d, 5.SL.1, 5.SL.1.d
- State Standards:
- 4th History 1.1.a. Draw inferences about Colorado history from primary sources such as journals... Life Science 2.1.a. Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior.
- Thinking Skills:
- Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts.
Essential Question
• Identify one pro and one con for choosing each of these three modes of transportation along the Santa Fe Trail: horse, mule, and ox.
• Other than being traded, how do livestock and draft animals contribute to successful operation of a trading post in the fur trade era?
Objective
Critically determine the best mode of transportation along the Santa Fe Trail during the fur trade era and relate the use of animal species as a factor in Westward expansion. Isolate early causes of buffalo population decline.
Background
Overview Background:
The southeastern Colorado trading post known as Bent’s Fort was established in 1833 along the Arkansas River bordering Mexico. As a major stop between Independence, MO and Santa Fe, NM, Bent’s Fort was a multicultural and international commerce hub on the Santa Fe Trail. Built on the homelands of the Cheyenne and Arapaho, deemed unorganized U.S. territory during this period, Bent's Fort traded primarily in buffalo robes procured by the Cheyenne and Arapaho people. Traders and merchants from dozens of other Native American nations and Mexico successfully supplied, traded, and exported items here until 1849.
The lessons in this unit are based on and include excerpts taken directly from Josiah Gregg’s 1844 published journal titled The Commerce of the Prairies. As a young man, Josiah first embarked with a caravan on the Santa Fe Trail in 1831. For the next nine years, he detailed the commerce, cultures, customs, ecology, and politics of the time. His insights detail firsthand experiences across the southern Great Plains during the fur trade era giving us a fuller picture of the lives and livelihoods for people at Bent's Fort.
The unit overview is as follows:
Lesson 1 – Geography of the Plains – Navigation Tools and Isolation
Lesson 2 – Riverways – Sustenance and Safety
Lesson 3 – Optical Illusions and Mirage
Lesson 4 – Climate, Drought and Seasons
Lesson 5 – Flora on the Plains – Grasses, Trees, and Agriculture
Lesson 6 – Fauna: Draft Animals, Buffalo and Rattlesnakes
Lesson 7 – Culture: Languages, Food, and Stereotyping
Lesson Background:
This lesson gives students an opportunity to think critically about how animal species like the horse, mule, ox and buffalo were utilized and how their specific characteristics contributed to successful trading during the fur trade era.
Prior knowledge of the fur trade era will help give this lesson context. See "Introduction to Bent's Old Fort PowerPoint" in lesson materials.
Preparation
Materials:
- Josiah Gregg Lesson 6 Fauna: Draft Animals, Buffalo, and Rattlesnakes narrative text
- Sketch of Relay Activity
- Student Activity Role Cards
- Photos of horse, mule, ox, buffalo, rattlesnake, and Great Plains landscape
- Josiah Gregg Lesson 6 Exit Ticket
Materials
Companion text and questions to Lesson 6.
Download Lesson 6 Fauna narrative text and questions
Layout of placement for students participating in staged relay as the beginning activity in Lesson 6 Fauna: Draft Animals, Buffalo, and Rattlesnakes.
Download Relay Activity Sketch
Role cards to give students participating in the staged relay beginning activity for Lesson 6 Fauna. See procedure and relay activity sketch.
Photos of species highlighted in Lesson 6 Fauna
Download Lesson 6 Fauna photos
An optional 37-slide introduction to Bent's Old Fort with notes to build prior knowledge of the fur trade era before teaching lesson 6.
Download Introduction to Bent's Old Fort PowerPoint
Lesson Hook/Preview
With no previous animal knowledge-building, ask students to select the animal they would choose to take along the Santa Fe Trail (horse, mule, or ox.) Tally responses and post them on the board.
Select 14 volunteers for the following staged relay: 1 horse, 1 mule, 1 ox, 6 grasses, 3 waters and 2 rattlesnakes.
Use the Relay Sketch to set up your space and placement of students. This set-up is meant to guarantee the correct animal (the ox) will win.
Procedure
Beginning Activity Procedure:
1. Secretly prepare 14 volunteers for their role with pre-made activity cards. The horse, mule, and ox will receive their “grasses and water” rations card. Situate the other students (grasses, water, rattlesnake) with their cards according to the Relay layout sketch.
- Relay objective: Each animal will attempt to receive the grass and water that is specifically designated for their species at each hurdle before they can move on to the next hurdle. They must also avoid the rattlesnake.
- How it works: The relay is rigged and observers will not be given this information before or during the race, but they will be prompted to consider why the winning animal won. The set-up and placement make it such that the horse is prevented from reaching the second hurdle, the mule is prevented from reaching the last hurdle, and the ox reaches the finish line.
3. As grazing animals approach their hurdles(forage stops), the "grasses" and "waters" may give away their card if it matches the animal's rations. The rattlesnake will be the default if nothing else listed on the horse, mule, or ox rations card is available. Encountering a rattlesnake or a unlisted grass species automatically ends that animal’s race.
4. Once the ox has won the race, divide the observing students into small groups to generate reasons why the horse and mule lost. After one minute, race participants will join groups to add to the conversation. (No more than 3 more minutes discussion time.)
Lesson Procedure:
1. Prompt students to consider these costs: $20 for a horse, $15 for a mule, $11 for an ox. Ask students what other animal "specs" besides cost might be important in choosing the right animal. (These will be read later in Gregg's excerpt, but would likely have been discussed by groups after the beginning activity).
2. Refer back to tallied animal choices. Call on small groups to share their reaction to the ox winning. Discuss and record various reasoning for the animals’ performances.
3. Pass out Josiah Gregg’s narrative “Fauna: Draft Animals, Buffalo, and Rattlesnakes” section. Direct students to read the passages and look for the reason why the ox won and discuss answers to the following questions:
a. The Comanche were well-known for their large horse populations, horse-training,
and horse-riding skills. Consider how buffalo hunting usually takes place on
horseback and within Native American homelands during this era. Do you think
buffalo populations would have declined as quickly without the horse? Why or why
not?
b. Josiah Gregg claims that "whites" are not the main contributor to the buffalo population
decline. Do you think Gregg’s opinion about the cause of dwindling buffalo herds would
change over the next decades (the 1850’s and 1860’s)?Why or why not?
c. Suppose you belonged to a Plains Indian tribe; do you think you would you have
supported buffalo hunting strictly for the buffalo robe trade? Why or why not?
4. After reading and answering questions, guide students as a whole group to understand the following:
a. The ox was the cheapest, easiest to feed, and most reliable animal over river
crossings.
b. The horse was essential to Native American tribes as transportation, the
hunting of buffalo, and tribal nation defense. Understanding the near
extinction of buffalo herds to follow, the use of dependable, trained horses
for buffalo harvest becomes a factor.
6. Pass out Exit Ticket.
Vocabulary
render - make
exertion - effort
fording - crossing
inducement - bribe
perilous - dangerous
cavil - objection
vermillion - a bright red pigment made from cinnabar
Assessment Materials
Josiah Gregg Lesson 6 Fauna Exit TicketExit ticket with Lesson 6's essential questions.
1. Identify one pro and one con for choosing these three modes of transportation along the Santa Fe Trail: horse, mule, and ox.
2. Other than being traded, how do livestock and draft animals contribute to the successful operation of a trading post during the fur trade era?
Exit ticket based on Josiah Gregg Unit Lesson 6 Fauna essential questions.
Rubric/Answer Key
Josiah Gregg Lesson 6 Fauna Exit TicketAnswers to Josiah Gregg Lesson 6 Fauna Exit Ticket Answer Key. Accept all reasonable responses.
1. Identify one pro and one con for choosing these three modes of transportation along the Santa Fe Trail: horse, mule, and ox.
Horse - pro=fastest, con=low endurance and require special diet
Mule - pro=cheaper than horses with more endurance, con=unsafe when crossing water and semi-varied diet
Ox - pro=cheapest, strongest, low maintenance diet, and most reliable in various conditions, con=slow
2. Other than being traded, how do livestock and draft animals contribute to the successful operation of a trading post during the fur trade era?
Without livestock and draft animals, supplies could not be moved and traded over the entire distance of the Santa Fe Trail. They supplied the strength and speed to lift loads in amounts that humans could not manage. Because of this, more could be traded and more money made. Horses provided the speed necessary to carry out urgent transportation for hunting or defense. Oxen served as both reliable draft animals and if circumstances required it, food.
Supports for Struggling Learners
Pre-read and define vocabulary. Pair students or read aloud the narrative text.
Enrichment Activities
Social Emotional Learning extension: Discuss the following questions:
1. What concerns would you have had as a traveler on the southern Great Plains when trusting your life and future to the health, strength, and disposition of an animal?
2. What fears might you have had either as a Plains Indian or a trader upon watching the decline of the buffalo and how would you have responded?
Science and culture extension:
Research specific practical and cultural uses of buffalo anatomy in Plains tribal cultures.
Science extension: Consider the ecological consequences of a buffalo robe trading post like Bent's Fort and describe how harvesting buffalo influences other species including livestock, draft animals, and other prairie keystone plant and animal species.
Language extension: Imagine a conversation between a horse, mule, and ox over which one is the best animal. Turn the conversation into a story.
Math extension: Assign a reasonable rate of speed to the horse, mule, and ox. Calculate and compare the amount of time it takes each of them to complete the Santa Fe Trail route if the animals average that speed.
Additional Resources
Digital copy of Josiah Gregg's two volume publication.
Commerce Of The Prairies (1849) Josiah Gregg : Victorian Vault : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive
Santa Fe National Historic Trail (U.S. National Park Service) (nps.gov)
Related Lessons or Education Materials
As a young man, Josiah Gregg embarked with a caravan on the Santa Fe Trail in 1831. For the next nine years, he kept a journal detailing the commerce, cultures, customs, ecology, and politics of the time making eight trips along this trading route. His journal titled The Commerce of the Prairies was published in 1844. All lessons in this unit are based on and include excerpts directly from this text. The unit overview is as follows:
Lesson 1 – Geography of the Plains – Navigation Tools and Isolation
Lesson 2 – Riverways – Sustenance and Safety
Lesson 3 – Optical Illusions and Mirage
Lesson 4 – Climate, Drought and Seasons
Lesson 5 – Flora on the Plains – Grasses, Trees, and Agriculture
Lesson 6 – Fauna: Draft Animals, Buffalo and Rattlesnakes
Lesson 7 – Culture: Languages, Food, and Stereotyping