(This is the introduction to Rose Honey’s curriculum, “Discovering Our Relationship with Water.”)
“When this world was created, it was the water that was created first. When the water was created it spoke a promise, ‘I am going to take care of the Indian people. I am going to give life to everything.”
— Armand Minthorn, Cayuse/Nez Perce (Contemporary Voices along the Lewis and Clark Trail, 2008)
Discovering Our Relationship With Water helps to guide teachers and their students toward discovering and building a relationship and connections to water as well as think about water’s relationship to everything in the world. Utilizing Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery’s search for a waterway to the Pacific Ocean as a starting point and drawing from beliefs and practices of tribal peoples along the trail, the lesson plans connect scientific concepts related to water with resources that offer different perspectives related to water. This curriculum is intended for children ages 3-5 who live in Tribal or non-Tribal communities. Each lesson plan suggests that prospective teachers envision activities at various levels (both Emergent and Advanced Learners) and teach to ability as opposed to age.