Introduction to Native American Social Studies Curricula
By Nancy Maness, M.A.

Pictures: West

Anasazi: Social, Colorado, 850? A. D.

By Margaret Windhorst, 1995, Marquette University Libraries, Negative #7531

Level 3: The ancient people who made this village used mud bricks and stones.

•     Level 4: These ancient people probably chose this location so that their homes would stay cool in summer.

•     Level 5: By building their village under a ledge on the side of a cliff, these ancient people were probably safe from intruders because they had an advantage in defending themselves.

Canoeing: Social, Lummi, Washington, 1993

By Mark Thiel, Marquette University Libraries

•     Level 4: Canoe racing is popular among the Lummi and other tribes on Puget Sound. It is fun and helps them stay in shape.

Caribou hunting: Economic, Eskimo (Inuit), Alaska, 1936

By Rev. Paul C. O’Connor, S.J., Marquette University Libraries, Negative #0030

Courtesy Oregon Jesuit Province

•     Level 4: Eskimos who live on the Alaskan coast hunt caribou as well.

Farming: Economic, Pima, Arizona, 1950s

Marquette University Libraries

•     Level 4: Luke and Brenden Juan are plowing their field with a horse drawn plow, using methods introduced by the Spaniards during the 1600s.

Food rations: Economic, Dakota (Lakota or Sioux), South Dakota, 1916

Marquette University Libraries, Negative #0663

•     Level 3: These women on the Pine Ridge Reservation are waiting for their government rations of sugar, flour, beans, and lard. By 1889, the buffalo were gone and the Sioux were confined to reservations where life was strange and difficult.

Food drying: Economic, Dakota (or Sioux), North Dakota, ca. 1930

Marquette University Libraries, Negative #0280

•     Level 3: These people are crushing and mixing dried berries and meat. They are Dakota (or Sioux) and their homeland is in the Northern Plains states of Minnesota, Montana, North and South Dakota, and Nebraska. Their ancestors hunted buffalo as well as they picked wild berries when they were ripe.

•     Level 4: These people are making pemmican (or “wasna” in Dakota and Lakota) an important food years ago. Dried chokecherries were crushed and mixed with shredded dried beef (or buffalo) for use in winter and at special ceremonies. Pemmican was made after the chokecherries ripened in late summer.

Net fishing: Economic, Eskimo (Inuit), Alaska, ca.1938

By Rev. Bernard R. Hubbard, S.J., Marquette University Libraries, Negative #0032

Courtesy Oregon Jesuit Province

•     Level 5: To better support their continued high consumption of whales, sea lions and fur bearing animals, Eskimos switched to nets fishing when they became available during the early 1900s.

Roasting salmon: Economic, Lummi, Washington, 1993

By Rev. Emit Hoffman, O.F.M., Marquette University Libraries

•     Level 2: The Lummi were very poor people. Building a factory would have brought many jobs.

•     Level 3: The Lummis enjoy cooking fish by roasting them over open fires.

•     Level 4: In 1967, the Lummi needed more jobs, but instead of building a factory, they returned to fishing and cultivating sea-foods along with preserving the natural environment.

•     Level 5: In 1974, federal courts affirmed the rights of the Lummi and other tribes in Washington State to fish according to their own rules without state rules and taxes.

Tipi living: Economic, Kiowa, Oklahoma, 1937

Marquette University Libraries, Negative #0453

•     Level 3: A tipi is a portable tent and usually the home for one family. Tipis are made of long straight poles covered with hides, bark, rush mats, or today, canvas.

•     Level 4: The Kiowa homeland was in Montana. By the late 1600s, which made it easier to hunt and travel with tipis. From the 1600s to 1800s, they lived in tipis year round so they could hunt buffalo and follow the herds.

•     Level 5: This is the home of a Kiowa family on a reservation in Oklahoma in 1937. To help settlement by non-Indian immigrants, the government moved the Kiowa here from their homeland in Montana.

Wool working: Economic, Navajo, Arizona, 1923

By Sr. M. Josephine, S.B.S., Marquette University Libraries, Negative #0064

Courtesy Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament

•     Level 5: Carding, spinning, and weaving are essential steps in making rugs and blankets from wool.