Last updated: November 10, 2021
Lesson Plan
Travel or Trade?
- Grade Level:
- Upper Elementary: Third Grade through Fifth Grade
- Subject:
- Social Studies
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
- State Standards:
- OH Geography Grade 3. 4,5,7
OH History Grade 4. 3
OH Geography Grade 4.9,12
OH Geography Grade 5.4,8
OH Geography Grade 6.3 - 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.
Essential Question
How far would you go for something you wanted?
What would it take for you to travel all the way to distant places by canoe or foot?
Objective
1. Illustrate the span of the Hopewell influence by placing objects associated with these people on a map
2. Locate various points on a map and become familiar with a map key and compass rose.
3. Graph the mileage of five raw materials from their point of origin to Mound City Group.
Background
Imagine traveling outside of your home territory for the first time ever. You paddle a canoe down the Scioto River, connect with the Ohio, and before you know it, you’re entering lands that look completely foreign. Mountains replace the rolling hills you’re used to, and you begin to see strange animals – larger-than-life moose, mountain goats perched precariously on the sides of rocky outcrops, and grizzly bears more enormous and terrifying than you could imagine. You reach your destination and depart your canoe, walking through unusual landscapes that seem to be alive; there are bubbling geysers, colorful pools that smell of putrid sulfur, and snowcapped mountains as far as the eye can see. Finally, you arrive at the very place you’ve traveled nearly 2,000 miles to reach: a mountainside covered in glassy, black rock. Obsidian Cliff.
This may sound like something out of an adventure novel, but it’s likely what the Hopewell experienced as they traipsed the countryside to obtain materials like obsidian. Obsidian, known to many of our younger visitors by its appearance in the game Minecraft, is a spectacular material formed from the lava of volcanoes as it quickly cools once it reaches the earth’s surface. It is this material that drew the Hopewell to what is now Yellowstone National Park. But what did they do with the rock once they retraced their 1,800 mile long journey home with it? Archeologists find the material underneath mounds shaped into large blades and knives, too large for practical uses.
You might be thinking, why in the world would archaeologists assume these people went looking for obsidian? Wouldn’t it have gotten here through trade? It’s a fair assumption, but not readily supported by the evidence. If the obsidian made its way here by trade, there should be bits of it all across the countryside between Chillicothe and Wyoming, but there isn’t. In fact, there’s more obsidian at Hopewell Mound Group (over 10,000 pieces!) than anywhere else in the Hopewell world. This material clearly had unimaginable power to it, and was not meant for trivial, everyday use. Perhaps the distance traveled to get the material was part of its allure?
The evidence for travel is replicated in other exotic materials found beneath the mounds in Ohio’s earthworks. Their travels brought them as far east as the Atlantic coast, as far west as the Rocky Mountains, as far north as southern Canada, and as far south as Florida. The materials were then brought back to Ohioan craftsman, who then created wondrous works of art. These pieces were placed in shrines and eventually buried in the mounds of Mound City Group, Hopewell Mound Group, Seip Earthworks and many other earthwork locations around south-central Ohio. People of this ancient American Indian culture traveled by boat or by foot, taking them months to years to make a trip we could easily make in hours to days.
In these activities, students will examine how people from the Hopewell culture obtained these exotic raw materials. Did they travel, trade or both 2,000 years ago?
Preparation
This lesson plan is the basic outline of interactive activities our rangers provide to schools during field trips to the Mound City Group visitor center, in the classroom or online virtually via our distance learning programs. Teachers are encouraged to reach out to our education team to provide this activity and it's materials during any of our park programs. Contact our education team for more information.
If you would like paper maps of the national park system to conduct this activity in your classroom, please contact the education team for copies to be mailed to you.
Please refer to our web page of the exotic materials map. Students can utilize the map and research articles for their assignments within this lesson.
Materials
Use this worksheet to summarize mileage information for each of the raw materials used by the Hopewell Culture.
Procedure
- Use a map of the national park system, or our exotic material web page. Explain to students that the Hopewell not only built mounds, but they also created beautiful artwork. Artifacts discovered under the mounds at Mound City by archeologists were made from materials not from Ohio. You are going to determine how people from the Hopewell culture obtained these exotic raw materials. Did they travel, trade or both 2,000 years ago?
-
Have the class determine the directions of North, South, East, and West by finding the compass rose on the map and labeling its directions. You may wish to lead a discussion of what landforms are on the map.
Point out the mileage conversion on the map. Students will use this to calculate the distance between materials and Hopewell Culture National Historical Park, Chillicothe, Ohio. -
Use the artifact map to discuss each type of material and associated artifacts. Students can use cooperative learning skills by working in groups. Assign a material per student group to investigate, locate on the map and determine how the material was brought to the earthworks in Ohio.
-
Students should collect notes about their raw material including the mileage between the source of the material and it’s location at the earthworks at Hopewell Culture National Historical Park.
Vocabulary
-
absolute location - the location of a point on the Earth’s surface which can be expressed by a grid reference (e.g., latitude and longitude)
-
Copper – soft, easily shaped reddish-brown metal. The people of the Hopewell culture obtained most of their copper from the Lake Superior region of Michigan.
-
Mica – a group of minerals that crystallize in thin, flexible, translucent layers. Mica appears in the three major varieties of rock: igneous, sedimentary, and metamorphic. The mica found at earthwork locations in Ohio was transported by the people of the Hopewell culture from the Blue Ridge Mountains.
-
Obisidian - is a naturally occurring volcanic glass formed when lava extruded from a volcano cools rapidly with minimal crystal growth. It is an igneous rock. Obisidian was used by the people of the Hopewell culture to make large blades and knives.
-
Pipestone - a hard claystone. The scientific name for pipestone is catlanite. There are many locations
-
Relative location – the location of a place in relation to other places (e.g., northwest, downtream)
-
Shells – hard coverings of some aquatic animals. Both marine (ocean, saltwater) and freshwater shells were obtained and utilized by the people of the Hopewell culture for spiritual, artistic, utilitarian and dietary uses.
-
Silver – a soft, white, lustrous transition metal.
Assessment Materials
How Far to Yellowstone?1. Review with students about the raw materials the Hopewell used in making their tools and arts. If possible, show the students some of the raw materials.
2. Have students determine approximate mileage to these places using their map resources. Use the provided "mileage worksheet" to guide the student's notes.
3. Have students create poster displays of their findings including facts about their raw materials and the mileage to the location of the raw material source.
4. Give each student group time to present their findings. Lead a class discussion repeating the question asked at the introduction of the activity: Did the people of the Hopewell culture trade, travel or both to obtain their exotic raw materials?
5. Follow-up the discussion by using our Junior Ranger online activity pages.
Enrichment Activities
1. Schedule a park ranger from Hopewell Culture National Historical Park to present this activity. For more information call 740-774-1125.
2. Have students write biographies of a traveler during that time.
3. Have students list ways the Hopewell could have traveled to get to these places.
Additional Resources
Visit our online Junior Ranger activities and complete the interactive puzzles to learn more about the places the raw materials used by the people of the Hopewell culture.