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Lesson Plan 6: Contemporary Issues: The Nez Perce—Two Hundred Years After Lewis and Clark

OBJECTIVES

Students will:

• become familiar with key issues that threaten the natural environment of the American Indians today along the Lewis and Clark Trail, focusing on the Weippe Prairie
• explain these issues to others in writing and orally
• identify the ways in which the Nez Perce are educating themselves and others about the threat to their plant world and access to their sacred fields

MATERIALS

OPENING

It has been two hundred years since the Lewis and Clark expedition traveled through the Indian lands collecting plant specimens and searching for a possible water route to the Pacific Ocean. A lot can change in two hundred years. What do you think has occurred in that part of the country in the past two centuries that would have had a major impact on the fields from which the American Indians dig camas and other roots and the places from which they gather berries? List student responses on the blackboard.

PROCEDURE

1. Vocabulary Alert: Introduce a short activity to familiarize students with the following words, terms, and concepts to support their comprehension of the article readings. Words and phrases that you will find in your readings that may be new to you: Nimi'ipuu (Nez Perce), sacred roots, relic areas, historic vegetation, traditional plants, exotic versus Indian species, species conservation.
2. Distribute "American Indian Quotations."
3. Students should read or listen to the excerpts and summarize them by writing a few sentences. Questions to consider: What challenges or problems are the people describing? How do they feel about these problems? Teacher can write questions on the board; students write answers in their notebooks or journals.
4. Proceed with a general class discussion. (Be sure all understand the threat to sacred and traditional root and berry fields and the serious impact this is having on Indian lifeways, traditions, etc. It is also very important to raise another perspective on the issue: Shouldn't property owners be able to do what they want with their land? Don't dams benefit more people than camas fields do?)
5. Distribute the "Student Analysis Sheet" and the newspaper articles. Divide class in half. Each half of the class will read one newspaper article (see Web sites in bibliography), taking notes on the Student Analysis Sheet. (List five things that are threatening the Nez Perce plant environment. Copy two sentences or quotes that convey the importance the camas still has for the Nez Perce. Describe one action being taken to preserve their traditional plants or root fields.)
6. Teacher will write the name of articles on the blackboard. Ask students to share major points from their article. Teacher will list five major student-identified points for each article. Add any they missed. Students will keep their worksheets as part of their notebook.
7. Then, ask for any other information they got from the interview excerpts. Add this to their notes.

CLOSING

Have the students respond in their journal: "Can you imagine any action you could take to support the Nez Perce in their struggle to preserve their plant environment?" and "If you can, describe what you would do. If you can't, describe how you feel about the actions they are taking."

SUGGESTED FORMATIVE ASSESSMENT

Check:

• quality of summaries students create based on interview excerpts
• accuracy and breadth of significant issues noted from Student Analysis Sheet

OPTIONAL EXTENSION

Based on the readings and notes above have students:

• create a poster that will convince the people in your town to support the Nez Perce in protecting the fields from which they dig the camas root
• write a speech to give to city council to convince them to pass a law that will protect the traditional plants and root fields that the Nez Perce way of life is built upon
• write a speech defending property owners and their rights to do what they want with their land
• use a rubric for each that could include:
  
  • poster rubric: visuals, facts included, concepts included
  • speech rubric: clarity of key ideas and concepts, significance to Nez Perce people, contents of law meaningful