This page has paths:

1. 1 media/1717 first map showing Indiantown_edited-1.jpg 2017-04-09T15:37:38-07:00 Will Fenton 82bf9011a953584cd702d069a30cbdb6ef90650a Art Will Fenton 15 image_header 2021-11-07T12:23:29-08:00 Will Fenton 82bf9011a953584cd702d069a30cbdb6ef90650a

This page is referenced by:

• 1 media/The Indians giving a talk - cropped.jpg 2019-08-26T14:41:42-07:00 Early Encounters: Treaty Protocols and the Significance of Wampum 10 Maria Adamson image_header 2019-10-02T10:48:33-07:00 Like all histories, the story of the early colonial era in Eastern North America is complex. This lesson will complicate students' understandings of the power dynamics between native groups, settler colonists and European empires during the colonial period.
  
  Lesson Objectives:
  • Students will explain wampum, treaty protocol, and their respective significance.
  • Students will interpret and think critically about historical images.
  • Students will use examples from a visual source to support ideas and understandings.
  
  Essential Questions:
  • What was the significance of wampum in early colonial North America? 
  • What was the significance of treaty protocols in early colonial North America? 
  • Whose cultural values were centered in this process? 
  • How did various groups attempt to exercise agency and power through treaty meetings? 
  
  Ongoing Questions (if used in a unit):
  • How did Native Americans and colonial representatives incorporate each other into their respective worldviews?
  • When, how, and why did the power dynamics between native groups, settlers, and European empires change?
  
  Grade Level: Grades 9-12
  
  Standards: 
  • Standard - 8.1.9.A: Compare patterns of continuity and change over time, applying context of events.
  • Standard - 8.3.9.D: Interpret how conflict and cooperation among groups and organizations have impacted the growth and development of the U.S.
  
  Historical Background: 
  
  Excerpts from: Daniel Richter, Facing East From Indian Country: A Native History of Early America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2003. pp. 135, 137.

  At the height of its development, the treaty protocol ideally consisted of nine stages. First came a formal invitation to attend a meeting at a recognized or "prefixed" place or "council fire." This invitation, accompanied by strings or belts of wampum (Dutch colonists called the beads zewant), established a right for the hosts to set the agenda and speak first; it also obliged them to provide ritual and material hospitality for the visitors. Second was a ceremonial procession, by foot or canoe, by which the visitors arrived at the site of the council. Third was the ''At the Wood's Edge" rite, in which the hosts offered rest and comfort to visitors presumed to be tired from a long journey. Each side offered the other the "Three Bare Words" of condolence, to clear their eyes, ears, and throats of the grief-inspired rage that prevented clear communication-the rage that, if unchecked, provoked mourning wars and spiraled into endless retaliatory feuds. After at least one night's rest, the council itself began with, fourth, the seating of the delegations and, fifth, an extensive Condolence ceremony, in which tearful eyes were again ritually dried, minds and hearts cleansed of the 'bile of revenge," blood wiped "from the defiled house," graves of the dead "covered" to keep grief and revenge out of sight, clouds dispelled to allow the sun to shine, and fire kindled to further illuminate the proceedings. Sixth came a "recitation of the law ways," a rehearsal of the history of two peoples' relationships with each other, the basis of their peaceful interactions, and the way in which their forebears had taught them to behave. Almost universally, the connection was described in terms of fictive kinship; two peoples were "Uncle" and "Nephew," or "Father" and "Child," or "Brother" and "Brother," and addressed each other with the authority or deference appropriate to the power relationship inherent in such terms. The recitation of the law ways articulated ideals rather than grubby realities. Kinship terms and other names by which relationships were described served an educative function to remind participants of what their attitudes toward each other ought to be.
  
  Only in the seventh stage, after the ritual requirements for establishing a peaceful environment had been fulfilled, could what Europeans considered the business of a treaty council--the offering of specific "propositions"--take place. To be considered valid, each "word" had to be accompanied by an appropriate gift, usually of wampum strings ("fathoms") or belts prepared specially for the occasion. "Presents among these peoples despatch all the affairs of the country," explained a French missionary who understood the process much better than Livingston. "They dry up tears; they appease anger; they open the doors of foreign countries; they deliver prisoners; they bring the dead back to life; one hardly ever speaks or answers, except by presents." Wampum gifts in particular confirmed the validity of a speaker's words in several interrelated ways. As a sacred substance, wampum underscored the importance of what was being said.  As a valuable commodity, it demonstrated that the speaker was not talking only for himself or on the spur of the moment, but that he had the considered support of the kin and followers who had banded together to collect the treasured shells and have them strung. And, as carefully woven patterns of white and black beads, wampum also became a mnemonic device, allowing belts or strings to be "read" accurately both by a speaker delivering a message as instructed and by a recipient recalling promises made years before.
  
  While propositions and wampum were offered by the hosts, visitors were to listen politely but not respond substantively until at least the next day. Hasty replies were not only disrespectful but indicated that the negotiator had not conferred with his colleagues and therefore could not be speaking with their approbation or with properly prepared wampum. Only when each of the hosts' propositions had been answered could the visitors introduce new points. The same expectations of polite listening and postponed responses applied throughout a treaty conference. Thus, as at Albany in 1679, the whole affair could last for weeks. Once the substantive dialogue finally ended, the eighth step was the affixing of marks to any documents Europeans might insist upon. The ninth step consisted of a feast and the presentation of final gifts from the hosts. Unlike symbolic wampum, these tended to be of more material value: food, cloth, tools, weapons, and, too often, liquor-all of which leaders would redistribute to their followers.

   
  Materials:
  • Benjamin West, "The Indians giving a Talk to Colonel Bouquet in a Conference at a Council fire, near his Camp on the Banks of the Muskingum in North America in Octr. 1764." William Smith, An Historical Account of the Expedition Against the Ohio Indians in the year MDCCLXIV (Philadelphia, 1766).
  • "The belt of wampum delivered by the Indians to William Penn at the ‘Great Treaty' under the Elm Tree at Shackamoxon in 1682" (Penn Wampum Belt).
  • "Hiawatha Belt" (National Belt of the Haudenosaunee). Onondaga Nation. 
  • "George Washington Belt" (1794 Canandaigua Treaty Belt). Onondaga Nation.
  
  Procedure:
  Prior to this unit, students should already be familiar with major cultural patterns among Eastern Native American groups (daily life, work cycles, political organization, concepts kinship and reciprocity, etc.), as well as the basic events surrounding the arrival of European groups to Eastern North America.
  
  Warm up Activity (10 minutes)
  In groups of 2-3, students examine a copy of the engraving The Indians giving a Talk to Colonel Bouquet and discuss their impressions of the image. The teacher posts the following questions and asks students to pick one or two to discuss.
  • What is happening in this image?
  • Who do we see in this picture and what actions are taking place?
  • What objects do we see in this image?
  • What title would you give this image?
  • Who do you think made this image and why?
  • What questions do you have about this image?
  
  Share and discuss responses as a class. Make note of comments or questions that can be returned to later. The teacher tells students that in today's class, they will dive into treaty protocol, and wampum, both of which are central in this painting.
  
  Mini Lecture: Wampum (10 minutes)
  a) Zoom in on the wampum in The Indians giving a Talk to Colonel Bouquet. Tell students that they will learn about the significance of wampum and the role it played in Eastern North America at this time.
  
  b) Project or distribute printouts of wampum images (e.g. Penn Wampum Belt). Ideally, the teacher might share quahog shells or physical replicas of wampum with which students could interact.
  
  c) Explain wampum and its significance for native peoples at the time/currently and that it played a role in the spiritual and political life of peoples in colonial America.
  
  Information on this topic paraphrased from a lecture by Daniel Richter (McNeil Center of Early American Studies, August 31, 2019):
  • Early European visitors thought that wampum was "money," and while it was very valuable, that wasn't quite the case.
  • Wampum was a spiritually charged item, and possessing it and exchanging it showed ones' connection to spiritual power (similar to earlier Cahokian medallions, and other specialty items traded in that time).
  • Wampum was also used to communicate and commemorate messages for diplomatic purposes, and giving wampum reinforced alliances and connections.
  • Wampum didn't just communicate a message as a text--it was a gift that strengthened and upheld the idea of reciprocity between exchanging parties.
  • As such, wampum played a crucial role in treaty talks.
  • Indigenous and European groups had to decide ahead of time what they would be saying in treaty meetings, and then embedded the message in wampum strings or belts, which were made by native women.
  • The native speakers in diplomatic meetings were highly trained specialists, who read the belts in a formal dialogue.
  • Importantly, the wampum beads themselves carried the messages--the belt spoke, and spoke with the authority of the people and place it was from. These belts can't be read today because the messages are connected to the time and place they were from.
  • Europeans also had to produce wampum belts as part of diplomatic processes.
  
  d) Show images of various wampum belts: Penn Wampum Belt, George Washington Belt, and the Hiawatha Belt. Discuss the messages these belts may have strengthened or reinforced.
  
  Treaty Protocol in Action (15 minutes)
  a) Explain that there was a certain protocol – have a student define or look up this word for the class – when indigenous and colonial leaders met. The teacher may quote from this excerpt of Daniel Richter's Facing East from Indian Country:

  Originating in the internal political practices of the Iroquois League, the protocol spread in the mid-seventeenth century to other Native groups and to the French, English and Spanish officials throughout the northeast, the Great Lakes, and the southeast, accreting along the way a variety of non-Iroquois Indian and European customs. By the early eighteenth century, treaty conferences throughout eastern North America conformed to very similar ceremonial patterns (134).

  
  b) Tell students that they will learn about the protocol by drawing out the steps on the whiteboards or posters around the room. If you haven't already, establish norms about drawings (e.g. all drawings should respect the humanity of all people.)
  
  If your room is equipped with whiteboards, divide them into distinct spaces and label each with a description of that step. Ideally, the teacher would do this before class or as students enter the classroom. If you don't have whiteboards, you may use large post-its or other poster paper.
  
  Treaty Protocol Steps, as outlined in Facing East (135-137).
  1. Formal invitation to attend a meeting: invitation is accompanied by strings or belts of wampum.
  2. Ceremonial procession by foot or canoe to the site of the council.
  3. "A the Wood's Edge" rite: hosts offer hospitality to visitors, who are tired from their journey. Both sides give each other the "Three Bare Words" of condolence, to clear their eyes, throats and ears of unproductive emotions (rage, grief, etc.).
  4. Seating of the delegations.
  5. A Condolence ceremony: "eyes were again ritually dried, minds are cleared of the ‘bile of revenge,' blood wiped ‘from the defiled house,' graves of the dead ‘covered' to keep grief and revenge out of sight, clouds dispelled to allow the sun to shine, and fire kindled to further illuminate the proceedings."
  6. Recitation of "law ways:" the history of the relationship between the groups, and rationale for peaceful interactions- described as kinship and becoming family.
  7. Specific propositions offered and each should be accompanied by a gift, usually wampum strings or belts. Replies from each group had to wait until the next day.
  8. Signing documents.
  9. Feast and final presentation of gifts.
  
  c) In small groups, give students 3-4 minutes to draw their step.
  
  d) After students return to their seats, briefly walk students through each of the steps and add details as necessary. For example:  For indigenous peoples, treaties were primarily ceremonies that ratified and demonstrated alliance and connection – "polishing the chain" that connected groups. The process and ritual was the most important part. It was conducted in public and many members of the community would be present to witness it.
  
  Discussion (5 minutes) 
  a. In small groups, have students discuss: 
  • What connections can you make to your prior knowledge of Eastern North American culture and history? 
  • Is anything about this diplomatic process that you find surprising? 
  • Who has power in this process? 
  • Whose cultural norms are centered? 
  • What does this say about the dynamics between settler colonists and native peoples at this particular time?
  
  b. If time permits, have students report out to the larger group.
  
  Assessment and Extensions: Students will be assessed on the day's objectives through individual writing in their journals. This could be completed at the end of class, or for homework.
  
  Prompt: Write a journal entry reflecting on today's class. It should be at least two paragraphs.
  • In the first paragraph, refer back to the engraving that we saw at the beginning of class. Drawing upon your new understanding of wampum and treaty protocol, describe what may be happening in this image.
  • In the second paragraph, write your personal reflections from today's class. For example, has your understanding of the engraving changed since the beginning of class? What stood out to you or surprised you? What questions do you have moving forward?
  This lesson was created during the 2019 Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Teacher Seminar, "Native Peoples, Settlers, and European Empires in North America, 1600-1840" (July 28-August 3, 2019). You may also download a printable version of this lesson.
• 1 media/153756.jpg 2019-09-03T11:21:36-07:00 Wampum Tells a Story 7 Jacqueline Dukes image_header 2019-10-02T10:55:28-07:00 This two-part lesson asks students to consider wampum belt as historical, political, and symbolic meaningful objects in relation to the graphic novel, Ghost River: The Fall and Rise of the Conestoga.
  
  Lesson Objectives:
  • Students will describe similarities and differences of several examples of wampum.
  • Students will identify how visual changes reflect and reinforce narrative changes.
  • Student will contextualize narrative tensions using awareness of historical events.
  
  Essential Questions:
  • What are characteristics of wampum belts?
  • Why was the Penn Wampum Belt well suited to the role it played in Iroquois society?
  • What was the symbolism of the wampum belt in Ghost River?
  • What conclusions can you draw from the changes to the wampum belt in Ghost River?
  
  Grade Level: Grades 6-8.
  
  Standards: Ohio History and Language Arts Standards
  • Grade 6: Reading and Literature
    • Cite textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
    • Determine a theme or central idea of a text and how it is conveyed through particular details; provide a summary of the text distinct from personal opinions.
    • Describe how a particular story’s or drama’s plot unfolds in a series of episodes as well as how the characters respond or change as the plot moves toward resolution.
  • Grade 7: Literature Topic Key Ideas and Details Standard Statements
    • Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
    • Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
    • Analyze how particular elements of a story or drama interact (e.g., how setting shapes the characters or plot)
  • Grade 8: Literature Topic Key Ideas and Details Standard Statements
    • Cite the textual evidence that most strongly supports an analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
    • Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze its development over the course of the text, including its relationship to the characters, setting, and plot; provide an objective summary of the text.
    • Analyze how particular lines of dialogue or incidents in a story or drama propel the action, reveal aspects of a character, or provoke a decision.
  
  Historical Background:
  • Lynn Ceci, "The Value of Wampum Among the New York Iroquois." Journal of Anthropological Research Vol. 38, No. 1 (Spring, 1982): pp. 97-107.
  • Colin Galloway, The World Turned Upside Down: Indian Voices from Early America. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 1994.
  • Joy Harjo, "Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings" from Conflict Resolution for Holy Beings. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2015. Reprinted by Poetry Foundation with permission of W. W. Norton & Company, Inc.
  • "Haudenosaunee Guide for Educators," National Museum of the American Indians.
  • "Treaty of Renewed Friendship." Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Museum, August 13, 2014.
  
  Materials:
  • Lee Francis, Weshoyot Alvitre, and Will Fenton, Ghost River: The Fall and Rise of the Conestoga. Albuquerque: Red Planet Books and Comics, 2019.
  • Wampum Belt Reproductions (Penn, Two Row, Wing Fan, Washington, Hiawatha Belt).
  • Pencils, prepared table and/or chart paper and computer access.
  
  Procedure:
  Before reading Ghost River: The Fall and Rise of the Conestoga, introduce students to wampum. Students need to understand that wampum served political, economic, and diplomatic functions for Northeastern Native Peoples such as the Haudenosaunee.
  
  Lesson 1
  1. Play The Wampum Belt: a Nation to Nation Relationship.
  2. Distribute Wampum Belt Reproductions.
  3. Brainstorm keywords associated with wampum belts.
  4. Divide students into groups of 4-5. Each group will be responsible for collecting the following information about a specific belt:
     1. What is the story behind this belt?
     2. What is the meaning of the symbols integrated into the composition? (The Penn Wampum Belt includes figures)
     3. What materials were used to make the item? Why are these materials used and how were they acquired? (Wampum belts are made of whelk shells and quahog clams, which are strung and woven to form long belt shaped rectangles.)
     4. What colors does the belt include? (Colors are consistently purple and white.)
     5. Who made it and what purpose does the belt serve?
  5. Have group members share their findings by filling in the information into a prepared table that is visible to the class.
  6. Using information in the table, students volunteer to make observations about similarities and differences among the belts. (Should find that materials, colors, methods of construction, and symbols tend to be similar, though specific purpose, creator, use of the belt varies.)
  7. Assessment: Ask students to write a three-sentence reflection.
     1. The most interesting thing I learned was…
     2. Something I would still like to learn is…
     3. I will find my answer by…
  
  Lesson 2
  1. Play Joy Harjo's Eagle Song to prepare student to navigate Ghost River.
  2. Provide brief overview of the previous wampum discussion.
  3. Students will use the Jigsaw technique to analyze and share the story. Divide students into four groups. Each group will read a specific section of Ghost River, takes notes, and summarize key facts about the assigned section.
     1. The Lenape origin story
     2. The massacre at Conestoga Indiantown and recitation of names
     3. The massacre at the Lancaster workhouse
     4. The present-day Native people
  4. Next they will regroup so each new group has at least one expert from the original four groups. Members take turns sharing their findings within the new group. The intent is for everyone to have an introduction to the entire story.
  5. Reconvene as a class to create a timeline of the events in the book.
  6. Discuss the rationale for beginning Ghost River with a Lenape origin story and ending with living Native people. Why are the author, artist, and editor embedded in the book?
  7. See if students noticed any primary source materials embedded in Ghost River. If so, what did they learn about the political cartoons?
  8. Have students look for images of wampum (e.g. the Penn Wampum Belt appears on pp. 33, 64). Write the page number of each instance on the board and have students discuss each instance in the context of the larger narrative. Make sure students engage symbolic instances:
     1. The massacre at Conestoga Indiantown (pp. 31-32)
     2. The rending of the belt (pp. 58) and the single detached bead (pp. 61-62)
  9. Assessment: Have students complete exit ticket:
     1. Why did the artist use wampum throughout Ghost River?
     2. Did the inclusion of wampum enhance or detract from your understanding of the story?
  
  This lesson was created during the 2019 Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Teacher Seminar, "Native Peoples, Settlers, and European Empires in North America, 1600-1840" (July 28-August 3, 2019). You may also download a printable version of this lesson.
• 1 2019-08-25T07:28:41-07:00 The Ghosts of Wampum 6 Ernestine Heldring, Will Fenton image_header 2019-10-02T10:49:22-07:00 Students will compare and contrast the representation of wampum in different types of historical sources to analyze the gap in understanding of reciprocity between the settler colonists and the Conestoga people from different historical perspectives.
  
  Although wampum has often been portrayed as a form of Native American decoration, it played an integral role in colonial diplomacy. Wampum signified "the importance or the authority of the message associated with it. As such, treaties and other such agreements would have a large amount of wampum that had been loomed into a ‘belt' for them" (Ganondagan).
  
  The 1763 Paxton massacres occurred in the context of rising tensions between those who sought accommodation, associated with the exchange of wampum belts, and those who sought ethnic cleansing, articulated in printed materials that conflated wampum with disregard for settler colonists in the borderlands.
  
  Lesson Objectives:
  • Students will evaluate visual primary and secondary sources, including a contemporary graphic novel and an eighteenth-century political cartoon.
  • Students will learn how contemporary historians are working to integrate previously underrepresented voices and stories.
  • Students will use their background knowledge to evaluate sources and create an argument about the symbolism of wampum.
  • Students will compare and contrast arguments using a structured academic controversy.
  • Students will revise arguments and select appropriate evidence.
  • Students will reinterpret the Paxton massacre and learn about settler colonialism.
  
  Essential Questions:
  • What role does reciprocity play in relationships between different peoples?
  • How and why do relationships between groups of people change over time?
  • How do symbols embody change or continuity in relationships?
  • What did Native peoples in colonial Pennsylvania expect from their relationships with the settler colonists? How do we know?
  • What did the settler colonists expect from their relationships with the Native peoples? How do we know?
  
  Grade Level: Grade 11
   
  Standards:
  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.WH.6-8.1: Support claim(s) with logical reasoning and relevant, accurate data and evidence that demonstrate an understanding of the topic or text, using credible sources.
  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12: Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.2: Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas.
  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.8: Evaluate an author's premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information. 
  • CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RH.11-12.9: Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
  
  Historical Background:
  • Historians use a wide range of artifacts, including wampum belts, to explore Native American history (which has limited, extant written primary source records).
  • Native peoples' understanding of reciprocity was enacted through the exchange of wampum.
  • Wampum belts are connected and represent a relationship, whereas individual wampum beads are a form of currency. For example, the Treaty of Shackamaxon wampum belt given to William Penn in 1682 (featured in Ghost River), which is on exhibit at the Philadelphia History Museum, "was said to be given to William Penn by the Lenape tribe at the time of the 1682 treaty. The belt, donated in 1857 to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by a great-grandson of Penn, is made of white wampum with darker accent beads and depicts two figures holding hands, often interpreted as a sign of friendship and peace."
  • The tension between the settler colonists (and their increasing desire to move away from accommodation to thorough occupation of the land) and London's continued desire for reciprocity and accommodation was reflected in the pamphlet war, both during and after the Paxton massacre.
   
  Materials:
  
  Reading packet:
  • Excerpts from Daniel Richter, Facing East from Indian Country: A Native History of Early America. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 203. pp. 201-206.
  • Excerpts from Lee Francis, Weshoyot Alvitre, and Will Fenton, Ghost River: The Fall and Rise of the Conestoga. Albuquerque: Red Planet Books and Comics, 2019.
  • James Claypoole, An Indian Squaw King Wampum Spies.
  • Penn Wampum Belt (1682 Shackamaxon treaty).
  • Guiding questions (printed or projected on smartboard)
  
  Background readings:
  • Ganondagan
  • Haudenosaunee Guide for Educators (pp. 6 & 7)
  • NativeTech: Native American Technology & Art
  
  Optional readings:
  • Lee Francis, Weshoyot Alvitre, and Will Fenton, Ghost River: The Fall and Rise of the Conestoga. Albuquerque: Red Planet Books and Comics, 2019.
  • Digital Paxton
  • Author, Artist, and Editor bios
   
  Procedure:
  
  Pre-work: Have students read the homework packet on wampum and the Paxton massacres.
  
  Classroom Activities (75 minutes)
  
  1. Play this excerpt from the musical Chicago as students come in:

  Ask any of the chickies in my pen
  They'll tell you I'm the biggest mother hen
  I love them all and all of them love me -
  Because the system works;
  the system called reciprocity!
  
  Got a little motto
  Always sees me through
  When you're good to Mama
  Mama's good to you!

  
  2. Ask students to free write on "reciprocate." Students may write a list, letter, scene, poem, or draw a sketch that they associate with the word.
  
  3. Students talk in pairs: what did you write or draw, and why?
  
  4. As a class, generate a working definition for "reciprocate" and write it on the board.
  
  5. Class or small-group discussion: why is it important to reciprocate in relationships? Segue to thinking about ways of symbolizing reciprocity in relationships. How do I communicate my relationships with people or organizations? (e.g. a wedding ring shows marital status).
  
  6. Homework recap/ mini lecture on reciprocity, accommodation and wampum in the 1600s and 1700s. Ask students to retrieve/recall how wampum represented based on what they read for homework (ex. to Native people wampum belts represented reciprocity in treaties with the British. Wampum was not money or decoration).
  
  7. Split students into two groups to examine the Reading Packet:
  • Group One examines Ghost River excerpts with Penn Wampum Belt.
  • Group Two examines Ghost River excerpts with Indian Squaw King.
  
  8. Both groups address their respective guiding questions and draft a thesis statement about what wampum meant to the settler colonists and Conestoga people.
  
  9. As a class, compare both groups' thesis statements.
  
  10. Finish by examining the full cartoon (Indian Squaw King) and explaining the role of pamphlets in the aftermath of the Conestoga Massacres. Stress to the students that Native people were still engaging in centuries-old ideals of reciprocity, whereas the settler colonists were increasingly intent on acquiring more land. Settler colonists were also frustrated that the metropolis (Parliament in London) did not unconditionally support them.

  The Paxton crisis, as Thomas Penn predicted, was a war of words and images fought by Paxton critics and defenders who debated Pennsylvania's future by inflaming the passions and misleading the judgement of many in the colony. Yet, in a war sparked by violence against Indians, it is surprising how absent or misrepresented the Conestogas were in these discussions. Few texts acknowledged the Paxton murders. Instead, most works, including political cartoons, either denied the Conestogas' agency by portraying them as helpless dependents of the colony and its Quaker merchants, or by stereotyping them as either cunning, half-naked savages or hatchet-wielding warriors, images popularized during the Seven Years' War. With no native voices to argue on behalf of the Conestogas, the Paxton debates document the colonial narrative of the crisis. They also capture a turning point in the history of the Pennsylvanian colony, away from acknowledgement and negotiation and towards the whole scale displacement and dispossession of indigenous peoples

  (Judith Ridner, Passion, Politics, and Portrayal in the Paxton Debates)
  
  Assessment and Extensions:
  
  Assessment: Write a thesis statement that addresses one or more of these questions. State what two pieces of evidence best support your thesis.
  • What did Native peoples in colonial Pennsylvania expect from their relationships with the settler colonists? How do we know?
  • What did the settler colonists expect from their relationships with the Native peoples? How do we know?
  
  Extension: What additional resources would you need to better understand the significance of wampum to different groups of people? What else do you know, need to know, or want to learn? 
  
  Homework: Read and annotate Ghost River. Select one page you want to close-read and discuss in class.
  
  This lesson was created during the 2019 Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History Teacher Seminar, "Native Peoples, Settlers, and European Empires in North America, 1600-1840" (July 28-August 3, 2019). You may also download a printable version of this lesson.
• 1 2019-08-13T13:03:11-07:00 Preparing the Learner 3 Donna Sharer plain 2019-08-14T04:23:49-07:00 Lesson Overview
  Introduce five key terms / concepts for the lesson. State the term and ask students to repeat the term (2 - 3 times). Have students complete the Knowledge Rating to assess if they understand the terms. Students understanding and use of the terms will increase as they use them throughout the unit. A Vocabulary Jigsaw is included to review the terms at the end of the unit.
  
  NOTE: The Knowledge Rating includes cognates. For students whose first language (L1) is not Latin-based, the teacher may choose to provide a translation of the term.)
  
  In the eighteenth-century, "frontier" was defined as a vulnerable, militarized boundary, not an area for expansion (Spero). In Spanish, "frontera" is a term for a national border.
  
  Materials
  • Knowledge Rating
  • Primary Source Analysis Tool 
  • Reproductions of Materials
  • Vocabulary Jigsaw
  
  Analyze Benjamin West Painting
  1. Use the Primary Source Analysis Tool to model analysis of the Benjamin West's Penn's Treaty with the Indians (1771-72).
  2. Distribute reproductions of the painting and the Primary Source Analysis Tool.
  3. Have students complete the tool in pairs or triads.
  4. As a class, share summaries about what they learned from the painting. What is the message? What may be misleading about the paintings? (buildings, clothing, position of people, etc.) Is the painting a primary source document? (No – it's an artist's rendition of an event created nearly 100 years after it occurred and it was commissioned by Penn's son, Thomas Penn.)
  5. Ask students what the painting tells people about the relationship between European settlers and indigenous peoples?
  
  Optional: Project Penn Wampum Belt (1682 Shackamaxon treaty). The belt was given to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania by William Penn's great grandson in 1857. Ask students to consider whether or not it is a primary source and what it might tell us about contact between European settlers and indigenous peoples.
  
  Analyze historical maps of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Conestoga Manor
  1. Students will analyze 5 historical maps of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Conestoga to locate the Conestoga Indiantown in relation to Philadelphia, Harrisburg, and the colony of Pennsylvania.
  2. Model using the Primary Source Analysis Tool to analyze A Map of the Province of Pennsylvania (1756)
  3. Divide the class into groups of 4 students. This is the "home group."
  4. Give each member of the "home group" a different map. Tell students they will be responsible for teaching one map to other members of their home group.
  5. Break into "expert groups." Each member of the "expert group" has the same map. Students should complete the Primary Source Analysis Tool for their map.
  6. Return to the "Home Group." Each student will report their findings of the map.
  7. As a class, discuss the summary of their findings about the maps.
  
  Summary Quick Write
  Project the Conestoga Indian Town Historical Marker and read the marker text:

  About one mile eastwards stood the Conestoga Indian Town. Its peaceful Iroquoian inhabitants were visited by William Penn in 1701 who made treaties with them. In 1763 they were ruthlessly massacred by a frontier mob called the Paxtang Boys.

  
  Students will summarize the historical maker: who, what, where, when.
  1. Model who (Iroquoian inhabitants, "Paxtang Boys").
  2. Ask students to find what, where, and when with a partner. (Students may benefit reading the text with the bold, italicized and underlined information.)
  3. Review the summary.
  4. Quick Write: What will be read in Ghost River? (In Ghost River, we will read about…)
  
  Think/Write/Pair/Share
  1. What did you learn about Pennsylvania, Philadelphia and Conestoga Indiantown based on the information on the maps? (I learned…)
  2. What is the connection between the paintings, historical marker, and the maps? (The connection is…)
  3. What did you learn from the historical marker? (We learned…)
• 1 2019-08-13T13:08:52-07:00 Interacting with Texts / Concepts 3 Donna Sharer plain 2019-08-14T04:28:14-07:00 Lesson Overview
  Students will read Ghost River: The Fall and Rise of the Conestoga multiple times. Before reading, project Penn Wampum Belt (1682 Shackamaxon treaty). How might the image in the wampum belt relate to the paintings? Is it a primary source? Tell students the belt was given by William Penn's great grandson to the Historical Society of Pennsylvania in 1857 and that historians do not know if the belt and date are accurate. Legend has it that the Lenapes and William Penn signed the "Great Treaty" in what became Philadelphia. The site is now called Penn Treaty Park and includes a statue of William Penn. 
  
  Wampum was used for peace treaties, political agreements, historical events and ceremonial gifts. "[W]ampum beads, strings, and belts [were] integral to much of (the Iroquoian) religious and political life" (Richter 45).
  
  Materials
  • Ghost River: The Fall and Rise of the Conestoga
  • Knowledge Rating
  • Guiding Questions
  
  Multiple Readings of Ghost River
  1. Initial read: Teacher Think Aloud focused on the images.
  2. Review the Knowledge Rating vocabulary terms / concepts. Students will encounter additional terms / concepts in the text.
  3. Echo read: Teacher reads text and students echo the reading. (Teacher may opt to have groups rotate the echo read. For example, group 1 echoes chapter 1, group 2 echoes chapter 2, etc.)
  4. Read with Guiding Questions. 
  5. Divide the class into groups of 3 - 4. While reading, students will answer the guiding question in a double entry journal. Teacher may select to jigsaw the text. Each group will read and answer the guiding questions for one chapter.
  6. Have students share responses on chart paper or smart board. Re-read the chapter, students share responses, and the class agrees/disagrees with the responses.