Last updated: September 15, 2023
Lesson Plan
What's In A Name?
- Grade Level:
- Middle School: Sixth Grade through Eighth Grade
- Subject:
- Science
- Lesson Duration:
- 60 Minutes
Essential Question
What is the importance of language and knowing native plant names?
Objective
Students will be able to:
• Use prefix, suffix and word root definitions to decipher the meaning of the scientific name.
• Use a field guide (or wildflower App.) to discover plant family characteristics.
• Research common, scientific (genus and species), Blackfeet, Kootenai, Salish-Pend d’Oreille names for a few plants occurring in Glacier NP.
Background
This lesson is one part of Work House: A Glacier National Park Science and Indian Education Program. It can be completed as a stand alone lesson or as part of the greater Work House course.
The full Work House Program is available on Glacier National Park's website.
Background information as well as the full lesson plan can be found as a PDF here.
Practice using the Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms to show students how to decipher scientific name meanings. Contact the local Tribal Cultural Committees for suggestions for speakers and see the list of additional resources for on-line websites that provide language connections. Each Tribe may have several words that indicate the same plant at different times of the year or when used for different purposes. Ideally, local dialect and proper pronunciations should be provided by elders and language enthusiasts in your area.
Be prepared to discuss the importance of language and of knowing native plant names and place names, to understanding culture and for nurturing sense of place. Robin Wall Kimmerer, writes in Gathering Moss; A Natural and Cultural History of Mosses,
The sanitized suburban life has succeeded in separating us from the plants that sustain us. Their roles are camouflaged under layers of marketing and technology. You can’t hear the rustle of corn leaves in a box of Froot Loops. Most people have lost the ability to read the role of a medicine plant from the landscape and read instead the “directions for use” on a tamper-proof bottle of Echinacea. Who would recognize those purple blossoms in this disguise? We don’t even know their names anymore. The average person knows the name of less than a dozen plants and this includes such categories as “Christmas Tree.” Losing their names is a step in losing respect. Knowing their names is the first step in regaining our connection” (101-102).
Below is the information in the St. Mary Visitor Center Exhibits from the Tribes about place names in Glacier National Park.
Salish and Pend d’Oreille
The ancient spiritual and material importance of the area to the tribes is reflected in its many Salish-language place names, a number of which are still known. The Flathead River, including its various forks and branches, is of such seminal importance that it is known simply as Ntx̣wétkw - The River.
• The Belly River is Olín Sew̓ɫkws in Salish - literally, “Waters of the Digestive Tract,” referring to bison.
• Chief Mountain. The mountain has always been known to the Salish as Chief of the Sharp-edged Mountains, when translated to English.
Kootenai
A place is usually named for a significant event that happened there or for a person or family that lived in the area. This means that a river or stream may not have the same name its whole length from glacier to ocean. • Ya·kiⱡ Haqwiⱡnamki means the place where they dance in Kootenai and is the site of important winter dances. It is also the site for Apgar Campground. • Sina ʾA·kⱡam̓ ʾA·kuq̓nuk (Avalanche Lake) is named after a Kootenai family who traditionally camped in the area.
Blackfeet
Ninastako (Chief Mountain) in Blackfeet, means “the mountain that stands apart.”
Preparation
- At Home In This Place DVD
- Marking pens
- Note cards
- Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms by Donald J. Borror
Procedure
- Discuss with students how language is an important part of cultural identity. Have them listen to the different greetings from the Blackfeet, Salish, Kootenai, and Pend d’Oreille so they can hear the differences in the language sounds. Do any of them speak another language?
- Today, there is one common naming language for plants that is used by the entire world. Why would it be helpful for everyone to be using this same language instead of their own for plant names? Why would you want to preserve the name in your own language as well?
- Start a class chart of “plant names and meanings” from the list provided, page 22. Include columns for: common name, scientific name, Blackfeet, Salish/Pend d’Oreille, and Kootenai name with space to write the meaning or translation of that name. Using one of the scientific plant names from the list provided, demonstrate how to use the Dictionary of Word Roots and Combining Forms to find the meaning of the scientific name. Can the students do the same and fill in the meanings of the scientific names for the rest of the plants? What other plants in the field guide are in the same family (related) to their plant? What similarities are there for the plants grouped together with that same family name?
- Have them continue to work individually or in small groups and research the Blackfeet, Kootenai, Salish-Pend d’Oreille names and meanings. Ideally, have a native language speaker come to your classroom. How do names compare? Did they notice that Salish-Pend d’Oreille and Kootenai Languages have different letters in their alphabets?
- Salish language resources: www.cskt.org/hc/salish.htm ; www.salishaudio.org; www.salishworld.com www.thesalishinstitute.org; www.kalispeltribe.com; www.interiorsalish.com www.skc.edu
- Kootenai language resource: Plant names - http://www.firstvoices.com/
- Blackfeet language resources: Piegan Institute-Language Blackfeet words from the Native Languages of the Americas.
Writing Extension
Provide a forum to demonstrate or apply their vocabulary. For instance; labeled drawings could be displayed as part of an open house. One school made a field guide for their own school native plant garden!
Field Trip Extension
- Invite an herbalist from the Blackfeet, Salish, Pend d’Oreille, or Kootenai to visit your class and talk about plant uses.
- Plant a native garden at your school - the Montana Native Plant Society Flathead Chapter has native plant lists, nursery locations and much more.
- Flathead Audubon, Flathead National Forest, and Flathead Conservation District - offer native plant gardening and restoration projects.
- Partner to do a Master Gardner project with Montana State University Extension.
- Visit a native plant nursery or have a speaker from one visit your class.
- Ranger-Led Field Trips and Service Learning Projects in Glacier National Park. The park’s native plant restoration program has service learning field trips for middle and high school students; the Forest Processes and Fire Ecology field trips can be modified for 3rd - 8th grade.
- Self-Guided Field Trips as well as Guided Tours - various concession operated - in Glacier National Park.
- Glacier Institute - geology and other education programs.
- Guided Tours in Glacier National Park- various concession operated.
- Flathead Community of Resource Educators (CORE) - outdoor education guide for field trips in the Flathead Region.
Vocabulary
Genus, prefix, pronunciations, species, suffix.
Assessment Materials
Knowing plant names and being able to recognize/identify plants in the past was a common skill and necessary for everyday survival. Today, for most of us, it is not necessarily a survival need but it is a great way to reconnect with the place where we live. See if students can add some of these plants names (or better yet, ones from their neighborhood) to their vocabulary. Hand out markers and note cards, pick study pairs or teams, and have the students make their own flash cards to study as they would any other language.
Additional Resources
- Salish -Pend d’Oreille Culture Committee- 81 Blind Barnaby Street, P.O. Box 550, St. Ignatius, Montana 59865, Phone: (406) 745-4572.
- Kootenai Culture Committee - Kootenai Culture Committee, PO Box 278, Pablo, Montana 59855, Phone: (406) 849-5541.
- Blackfeet Community College Cultural and Language Division -Browning, MT 59417-0819, Phone (406) 338-5441.
- “Seasons of the Salish” DVD. Produced by Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes’ Tribal Preservation Office and distributed by OPI to every elementary school library. It is also included in the PlaceNames: Building Worldviews Using Traditional Cultures and Google Earth, distributed by OPI to every middle and high school library.
- Glacier National Park Fact Sheet, “Culturally Scarred Trees”.
- Montana Project Learning Tree, Montana State University Extension.
- Niitsitapiisini Our Way of Life; The Story of the Blackfoot People - Blackfoot First Nations and Glenbow Museum of Calgary, teacher toolkit. • Flathead Watershed Sourcebook; A Guide to an Extraordinary Place.
- The Gift of the Bitterroot - K-2 Lesson plan using the illustrated children’s book Illustrated by Antoine Sandoval with story as told by Johnny Arlee. • Indian Education for All, Youth Book Club Trunk, Gift of the Bitterroot and Crown of the Continent Ecosystem. - free from Flathead Audubon Chapter (Contact the NW MT Educattional Coop Office at 406/752- 3302 or auduboneducator@gmail.com).
- Flathead Watershed Sourcebook; A Guide to an Extraordinary Place.
- Place Names In Glacier NP, lesson 2, p. 45 in “The Land of Many Stories: The People & Histories of Glacier National Park” MT Historical Society Footlocker
- Jesse Nenemey, Nkwusom instructor wrote a tree and plant book with many photos, Salish and Latin names, and traditional preparations and uses. It is teacher and student friendly.