(These are the curriculum expressions that are the backbone for Julie Cajune’s curriculum unit, “Sxwiwis – The Journey.”)
Grade Band
11 and 12th grades, but could be adapted for lower grades.
BIG IDEAS
Relationship with place shapes all facets of a people’s society. The Salish People enjoyed millennia of intimate and sacred relationships with their homelands.
Cultural protocols and traditions are poignant expressions of values and worldviews. The Salish people engaged traditions of generosity and hospitality to the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
A singular historic event can have significantly different outcomes for individuals or groups that are culturally, socially, or economically diverse or dissimilar. This phenomenon is evident in the consequences and legacies of the Lewis and Clark Expedition.
ENDURING UNDERSTANDINGS
Knowledge of cultural, environmental, political, social, and economic factors affects how we make sense of a particular place.
Decisions made about a place at a particular time will affect the status of that place for years to come.
History can be described and interpreted in various ways and from different perspectives.
ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS ALIGNED WITH TRAIL/TRIBAL THEMES
Since Time Immemorial
- What are the Creation stories of this place? How are these stories pertinent to our understanding of the world today?
- What are the ancestral sites and scope of territory of American Indian Tribes who inhabited this place?
Traditional Tribal Cultures
- How have American Indian peoples traditionally named, described, and interpreted this Place?
Lewis and Clark Encounters with Tribal Peoples
- What political, economic, social and cultural conditions led to Lewis and Clark visiting this place?
- How did American Indian peoples describe encounters with members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition?
- How did tribal peoples contribute to the Lewis and Clark Expedition at this place?
- How have tribal perspectives of the Lewis and Clark Expedition been passed down through time?
Impact on Tribes after Lewis and Clark
- Since the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition, what changes in the traditional cultures and languages have occurred in this place?
Tribes Today
- How is understanding of the Trail enhanced through contemporary tribal cultures, languages, cultural landscapes, place names, sacred sites, and communities?
ENTRY QUESTIONS
Lesson Plan 1
- How can land be a church, store, hospital, and refuge?
- How was the Salish diet of meat supplemented?
- How are places named?
- Who has the authority to name places?
- Where was the Salish population centered at the time of the Lewis and Clark Expedition?
Lesson Plan 2
- How can we have a relationship with a place?
- What place is important to me?
- How do I define “home?”
Lesson Plan 3
- How did the Salish protect their territory?
- How did the Lewis and Clark Expedition view the Salish people?
- How did the Salish people view members of the Lewis and Clark Expedition?
- What did each side in this encounter understand, or misunderstand, about the other side?
Lesson Plan 4
- What were the intentions and purposes of the Lewis and Clark Expedition?
- What did Pete Beaverhead mean by his statement, “They hadn’t even seen our land yet and they had already sold it?”
- What was really purchased in the Louisiana Purchase?
- How do American Indian people today view the Lewis and Clark Expedition?