Reflection About Native American Farming

Students will understand that traditional Native American farming and agricultural practices are still used today and many are passed down from one generation to the next. Students will realize that each tribe has their own practices and beliefs ranging from their spirituality to how they take care of the land. The lesson examines how these practices have been around since time in memorial and were long practiced traditions at the time of the “discovery” of America and continue to be used.

Procedures:

Day 1: The lesson begins with students doing a pre-assessment of playing four corners. All four corners of the room are labelled either; one, two, three, or four, these numbers represent a spectrum of agree to disagree, one stands for not agreeing

The activity involves two circles. One circle will be the outside circle, this circle is large and everyone is a part of it, the other circle is inside the big circle and has three chairs in it. It will begin by having three assigned students in the inner circle or the “fishbowl” and they will discuss the following prompt. “Is there a possible solution to the current land and resource management issues? Are there common themes in the land and resource management amongst all the tribes?” Students in the big circle can “tap” a student out of the fishbowl to contribute to the conversation. Each student will need to enter the fishbowl at least once to receive full points. The idea behind this activity is that students take it in any direction they deem fit. They can focus on policy change, possible solutions, combining both traditional and western ways of resources management; accurate information and staying on the topic of Native American land and resource management are the only requirements. However, it is possible that the conversation will go off topic or hit a lull if this happens the teacher can use the following prompts to get the conversation back on track. “Where there any examples of compromise between Native American and non-natives in finding a solution?” “What sort of effects have western ways of management had on the land and resources, is there a way to recover from this?” “If you could ask an expert from any Native American tribe researched in Montana, what land and resources management question would you ask them, and why is this question important to answer?” In the activity students come together using what they learned to enact possible changes and solutions to current and real events for many people in the state of