Last updated: October 14, 2021
Lesson Plan
Chouteau Trade/Osage Nation 3rd & 4th Grade
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- State Standards:
- Missouri: #3a. Knowledge and continuity & change in the history of Missouri and the U.S. Concept B: Examine cultural interactions & conflicts among Native Americans, European Americans and African Americans from 1800 to 2000
Kansas:KCCRS RI. 5.3 Explain - Additional Standards:
- relationships between two or more individuals, events, ideas in historical text based on specific information.
Oklahoma: 4.3.1 Identify major American Indian groups & their ways of life in each region, economic activities, customs & viewpoints on land. - Thinking Skills:
- Remembering: Recalling or recognizing information ideas, and principles. Understanding: Understand the main idea of material heard, viewed, or read. Interpret or summarize the ideas in own words. Applying: Apply an abstract idea in a concrete situation to solve a problem or relate it to a prior experience. Analyzing: Break down a concept or idea into parts and show the relationships among the parts. Creating: Bring together parts (elements, compounds) of knowledge to form a whole and build relationships for NEW situations. Evaluating: Make informed judgements about the value of ideas or materials. Use standards and criteria to support opinions and views.
Essential Question
In trade, how do you establish the value of the items needed and wanted?
Objective
Students will be able to determine the ways in which the Chouteau Family and the people of the Osage were able to establish a powerful trading relationship.
Background
Read the synopsis of the Chouteau Family.
Preparation
Read the synopsis of the Chouteau Family.
Manuel De Lisa
Zebulon Pike
Catholic missionaries for the Osage - In 1820, Osage chiefs traveled from southeast Kansas to St. Louis to ask Bishop Louis DuBourg to visit their villages, promising that "he could pour waters on many heads." Through their experience with French traders, the Osage had come to trust Catholic priests; thus, as Protestant clergy began to petition the government for the right to establish missions on Osage lands, the chiefs turned to the "Chief of the Black Robes." By negotiating a relationship with the Roman Catholic Church, the Osage hoped to preserve their identity as "Children of the Middle Waters." The author examines the ensuing relationship between the Osage and the Jesuit priests.
Materials
Lesson Hook/Preview
Have students organize themselves by their birthday (month/day)from January to December. They are not able to speak to one another or write out their birth month/day. They must try and convey their message without having a common, convenient language. Give students approximately 4-5 minutes to attempt to line up correctly. Once students have satisfactorily arranged themselves in their birthday spots, check for their accuracy. Then have students respond to the following prompts:
1) How accurate was your line up?
2) What type of mistakes were made?
3) How did you feel not being understood?
4) What was the most exciting part?
5) What was the most frustrating part?
Use their responses as a class discussion and drive home the point that communication is the key to being able to get what you want and need from people.
Procedure
* Have students brainstorm ways in which you could gain trust and establish a relationship with peoplethat do not speak the same language as you.
* Examine their lists and then compare their ideas to what the Chouteau family did. (Chouteau Actions) [The Chouteau family learned the language of the Osage, were respectful of the Osage culture, supplied necessities that the Osage needed in exchange for furs at a fair price.]
* Divide the class in half: have half of the students create a wishlist as a member of the Chouteau Family and the other half of the class then complete one as a person of the Osage tribe.
* Have students trade their wish lists with students who had the opposite side of their lists: students must make trades that benefit both parties, but they can only keep 3 items total between the two lists.
* Bring students back together and ask them what were their challenges and successes of their trade.
Vocabulary
North American Fur Trade - The North American fur trade refers to the commercial trade in furs in North America. Various indigenous peoples of the Americas traded furs with other tribes during the pre-Columbian era. Europeans started their participation in the North American fur trade from the initial period of their colonization of the Americas onward, extending the trade's reach to Europe. European merchants from France, England and the Dutch Republic established trading posts and forts in various regions of North America to conduct the trade with local indigenous tribes. The trade reached the peak of its economic importance in the 19th century, by which time it relied upon elaborately developed trade networks.
Chouteau: Chouteau was the name of a highly successful, ethnically French fur-trading family based in Saint Louis, Missouri, which they helped found. Their ancestors Chouteau and Laclede initially settled in New Orleans.
Osage Nation: The Osage Nation is a Midwestern Native American tribe of the Great Plains. The tribe developed in the Ohio and Mississippi river valleys around 700 B.C. along with other groups of its language family.
Manuel De Lisa: was a Spanish citizen and later, became an America citizen who, while living on the western frontier, became a land owner, merchant, fur trader, United States Indian agent, and explorer.
Zebulon Pike: was an American brigadier general and explorer for whom Pike's Peak in Colorado was name.
Catholic Missionaries to the Osage: Soon after the settlements in North America were made, missionaries began to visit the Native Americans for the purpose of instructing them in the Christian religion and to persuade them to adopt the customs of civilization. The Catholic Church was especially active in this work.
Supports for Struggling Learners
Students struggling to depict their word can use prompts:
T- in trade can be two extended hands
R- a river
A - two sides (directional, with an arrow going across to joining the leaning portions of the A)
D- smiley face inside the letter d and an arrow pointing up because of the success that came from trade
E- tail of an animal that was traded
Enrichment Activities
Have students create an explanation of their pictoword in written form.