(This is the lessons plan for curriculum “Sacred Spaces and National Parks” authored by curriculum designers Joseph Scott and Crystal Boulton-Scott.)
“Inquiry by Design Blueprint”
Essential Question:
As stewards of places and landscapes held sacred by Native Americans, how should National Parks honor the spiritual health and wellbeing of both the Native American people and the landscapes themselves?
Standards This Unit Meets:
See the document “02 Sacred Spaces, Standards Addressed”.
Staging the Question:
National Park public lands contain innumerable places held sacred by Native American people. This can create barriers to traditional spiritual practice and have a negative impact on the health and wellbeing of tribal peoples.
Preparing to Teach:
Prepare for the lesson by familiarizing yourself with the National Park Service. Access NPS website: https://www.nps.gov/aboutus/index.htm. Prepare to describe the history and vision of the NPS. Prepare for the possibility that some learners may want or need more information about national parks and the NPS.
Understand that both the workers in the NPS and Native American citizens are represented by separate, sovereign governments. Agencies are often at odds regarding access to and the use of sites within the parks that are seen as tourist destinations by some and sacred places (also sometimes described as sacred medicine) by others.
While we understand that the National Park Service has good relationships with many of those tribes and tribal people who need access to their traditional sacred spaces, we must also recognize that controversy and conflicts continue to arise.
Consult “Treading on Sacred Ground: Are Native American Sacred Sites Protected by the Freedom of Religion?” (https://www.freedomforuminstitute.org/first-amendment-center/topics/freedom-of-religion/free-exercise-clause-overview/treading-on-sacred-ground-are-native-american-sacred-sites-protected-by-the-freedom-of-religion/) These are legal scholars’ perspectives. reading will be available to learners as an Informed Action resource as well.
Preparing to Learn:
Prepare learners by introducing a general discussion about the National Park Service. Gauge learner familiarity with the NPS, and guide learning accordingly.
Check for understanding of the concept of “sacred place.” Read the blog post “This Land is Their Land” (https://www.npca.org/articles/2742-this-land-is-their-land) and ask learners to begin thinking about “sacred places.” Ask students to illustrate their understanding of what a “sacred place” looks like. They can write a few sentences, make a list of features, and make a sketch. Encourage them to think about what they might see, hear, and feel in a sacred place. Sometimes the word “medicine” is associated with sacred places. See document “08 Sacred Places, Landscapes as ‘Medicine,’” which could be converted into a slide presentation that you would share with your learners.
Use the map provided by the National Park Service to locate parks and monuments in your area. (https://www.nps.gov/findapark/index.htm)
Ask students to reflect on what makes a place suitable for protection under National Park/National Monument status and discuss features that might contribute to a park designation.
Locate one or more nearby parks or monuments. Identify the tribe/tribes on whose traditional homeland these places exist. Consider one or more place as a possible destination for learners, whether as a class or family excursion. Subsequent activities will focus on these chosen places.
Entry Question #1
What does “sacred” mean?
Themes:
“Sacred” means many things to many people.
Recognizing what is sacred to others can help facilitate civil discourse.
People can disagree about what they believe is sacred but cannot assert that something is not sacred.
Sacred may be seen as both a subjective belief and an objective fact.
Procedures:
Introduce the concept of “sacred,” and work toward student-guided understandings of what makes something sacred.
Formative Performance Task:
Learners will identify a place they could personally hold sacred—one they are willing to share. Students will create an illustration of sacred perspective—envisioning what makes the place sacred to them. This could take the form of a list of characteristics, a narrative description of experiences, a visualization, etc. Craft a poem, story, song, image, performance, map, or other interpretation.
Entry Question #2
What is a sacred space?
Themes:
Many Native American people believe that all things are sacred, and that there exist special places that hold unique power (sometimes described as “medicine”).
Creation and origin stories are held as objective fact by many Native American people.
Procedures:
Watch the PBS film, “In the Light of Reverence”, with an emphasis on the segment about Devils Tower National Monument. (https://sacredland.org/in-the-light-of-reverence/)
Conduct a classroom activity of your choosing. For guidance, consult document “03 Sacred Spaces, Reverence Lesson”.
Explore the PBS Lesson “Sacred Spaces: Cultural Connections” (https://opb.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/c20c117e-11f8-496c-9a8d-911007a03b6c/sacred-spaces-lesson-plan/).
View the short interview with Native American playwright, poet, author, and community arts activist, Marcie Rendon published by the Public Broadcasting System (https://opb.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/1fcefe89-7be2-4698-8f0b-2c443f116ea5/marcie-rendon-interview-question-2/)
Formative Performance Task:
Adapt content and use your classroom strategies to create discourse and generate inquiry arising from the above activities. Students will draw on this discourse and inquiry to design a list of questions to ask during an interview of a person of their choosing on the topic of “What is Sacred?” They should imagine that this interview would be with a historical tribal leader, tribal philosopher, or culture bearer.
An extension of this lesson could include conducting this interview. Because arranging an interview with a real tribal member might be an intrusion or task the Native community too much, students can research tribal people and then role play the parts of interviewer and interviewee.
Entry Question #3
What responsibility does the National Park Service have in honoring sacred spaces?
Themes:
The National Park Service has a “government-to-government” relationship with tribal nations.
Balancing the will of colonial Americans on public land with the spiritual needs of Native American people creates challenges for the NPS.
The NPS has a “mixed record” when it comes to honoring Native American spiritual practice.
Spiritual practice can require access to a physical place.
National Parks and Monuments include artificial boundaries that were typically drawn without input from Native American nations and on traditional tribal homelands.
Procedures:
Explore the term, “government-to-government.” Learners should understand that this is a relationship defined by laws and treaties and is different from a socially constructed relationship. Ask learners to illustrate their understanding of the differences and similarities among different types of relationships—interpersonal, intrapersonal, legal, familial, etc.
Prepare students for role play.
Formative Performance Task:
Begin by discussing and illustrating barriers to traditional spiritual practice encountered in the National Parks system. Barriers to spiritual practice can take several forms. In the context of the national park that you have chosen as a focus in the leadup to this lesson, Identify as many barriers as you can in each of the following categories:
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- Social
- Legal
- Political
- Logistical
- Physical
- Historical
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Compile a classroom list of barriers students raise. Discuss what is involved in overcoming these barriers. Ask learners to illustrate their understanding of barriers to spiritual practice and illustrate an expression of strategies they might use to overcome these barriers.
Conduct the “Conflict Resolution Role Play” lesson from POV. (http://archive.pov.org/inthelightofreverence/lesson-plan-2/)
Enduring Understandings:
National Parks and Monuments have a relationship with Tribal people that includes a need to honor the ties Native Americans have to the sacred places within park boundaries.
Summative Performance Task:
Students will use research strategies to gather information and create a framework for taking informed action on the issue of Native American access to sacred places on National Park and National Monument lands. Use document “04 Sacred Spaces, Informed Action” as a guide to developing this action.
Some relevant research resources are included in the document “06 Sacred Spaces, Recommended Supplemental Research,” document “05 Sacred Spaces, Research NARF on AIRFA,” and document “07 Sacred Spaces Resolution.”