Last updated: September 18, 2019
Lesson Plan
Subsistence: Women’s Influence
- Grade Level:
- Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject:
- Literacy and Language Arts,Math,Science,Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- State Standards:
- Social Studies:
Fourth Grade
4.1.1,4.1.3
Eighth Grade
8.1.1 ,8.1.2
Language Arts: (writing)
Fourth Grade
W.1,W.2,W.3,W.5,W.6,W.7
Eighth Grade
W.1,W.2,W.3,W.4,W.5,W.6,W.7
Essential Question
How did women shape the lives and livelihoods of the tribes living at Knife River Indian Villages?
Objective
At the end of this lesson, students will:
Discuss women's roles in family life and food production
Produce, preserve and appreciate nutritious food through use of the drying techniques.
Background
This lesson is part of Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site Teacher's Guide for Grades K-8: Guide to the Earthlodge People. It was written by members of the Mandan Hidatsa Arikara Nation for educators.
In Subsistence: Women's Roles, the class will engage the text through use of the KWL model (Know/Want to Know/Learned). This graphic organizer can be used as a worksheet or displayed on a chalk board or whiteboard. Once students gain understanding of the background materials, they will learn through discussion and hands on activities including husking and drying corn to be used in making corn soup after a visit to Knife River Indian Villages National Historic Site.
Preparation
- Read the background information before working with students.
- KWL Chart (in materials)
- Fresh ears of corn for the food preservation activity
- Corn soup recipe for making corn soup (in materials)
Materials
Procedure
Pre-visit
Step1
Write the main topic (Subsistence: Women's Roles) at the top of the KWL grid. Ask students to contribute what they know or think they know about this topic and record their answers under the column K-what they know.
Step2
Record the student's questions as discussion continues under the W column - what they want to know.
Step3
Ask students to read the background information (specifically Women's Influence, Plant Watchers, Processing Foods, Food Storage, and Food Preparation) and to look for information that answers their questions.
Step4
Once students have completed the reading, focus their attention on the L- What We Have Learned column of the chart. Ask students to offer new information they discovered in the reading and record this information on the grid.
Step5
After the K-W-L grid is complete, create a concept map that brings together all the information under each category.
Step6
Formative Assessment
Revisit the topics with students asking them the following questions:
1. How did food affect trade with other groups? What was it that drew Europeans and nomadic tribes such great distances to trade with the people who lived at Knife River? The crops grown by the women.
2. The people who lived at Knife River Villages didn't have refrigeration like they do today at Fort Berthold. Discuss how food was preserved and prepared by the Hidatsa, Mandan and Arikara. Drying,storing in cache pits, smoking meats.
Step7
Divide students into groups of 4 or 5 and tell them that they are going to have a chance to practice food preparation much the way it was done by the Hidatsa, Mandan and Arikara.
Pass out ears of corn to be dried by each group of students. Students should shuck the corn and lay the kernels on screens in direct sunlight. If there is no sunlight, you may put the corn on a table and turn a fan on the corn for a few days.
Continue to move the corn so that all the kernels dry. You can test to see if the corn is dried by tasting a kernel. If it is hard and without moisture, it is ready for storage. You may cook it whenever you like.
Step8
Ask students to take out their journals and draw a sketch of a cache (sounds like "cash") pit as you would imagine it. Illustrate how you would store the corn, beans, squash, and sunflower seeds. Remember to save room for a ladder to use in the cache pit.
Tell the students that today they have learned about women's roles and responsibilities within the community and tomorrow they will be learning about men's roles.
Vocabulary
Nomadic, trade, economy, bison, cache pit, clay pots
Assessment Materials
Students will answer the questions during guided discussion.
Student drawings may be reviewed for any misconceptions. Focus should remain onthe concepts more than on style.
Students will make corn soup.
Additional Resources
The Hidatsa sustained the villages for extended periods due to the abundance and diversity of natural resources at the confluence of the Knife and Missouri Rivers. These resources provided tribal prosperity evidenced by the village layout, circulation, and defined uses of space within the village proper and support areas beyond where agricultural, burial, and other activities took place.
Women played a critical role in providing vegetables not only for subsistence, but also for inter-tribal trade early on and later trade with European and American traders. It was the agricultural practice that differentiated the Hidatsa, Mandan and Arikara from more nomadic tribes allowing the people to live at the site for hundreds of years.
On-Site
Compare your sketch of a cache pit to the replica at Knife River. How did yours differ?
Post-Visit
Follow the recipe in the kit to make corn soup and enjoy a nutritious snack.
Book: Buffalo Bird Woman's Garden
Book: Story of Corn
Contact Information
Email us about this lesson plan
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