This Powerpoint address specific aspects of Native or First Nations culture and historical events, primarily with a focus on the Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) or Six Nations of New York.

1. Native American
History for the Social
Studies Classroom
History in Action
February 15, 2011

2. Essential Questions
 1. How were Native American and European or American world
views different? How did this impact their views of land
ownership? What happens when two different views of land
“ownership” are in conflict?
 2. How were different groups of Native Americans viewed by
different groups of Europeans and later by the Americans? How
do you think these perceptions developed? What were the
consequences?
 3. What does it mean to be “civilized?” What do you think
happens when different cultures come into contact with one
another and they have differing views and understandings about
ways of life or “world views”?
 4. How has contact affected both Native and Euro-American
cultures over time?

3. Pre-contact Territories of
Haudenosaunee (Ho-dih-nuh-show-
nee), or People of the Longhouse

4. Things to Keep in Mind
 Native American culture is non-Western
 Encounters between Native Americans and
Europeans were interactive, not reactive
 Native American culture has been altered by
contact, not destroyed by it
 Native American learning should take place in
a cultural context, just as it does for American
History and World Studies
 See discussion and “All Cultures” chart in Cornelius, p. 37-41.

5. Different World Views
 Native American Worldview
Human and natural worlds are
interrelated
Nature is sacred
 Western or European Worldview
Cultural evolution
Fear of nature

6. Haudenosaunee World View
 Is both a civic and social code of
conduct that has been maintained
throughout their history and into the
present:
Creation Story
Thanksgiving Address
Great Law of Peace
Message of Handsome Lake

7. Haudenosaunee Creation Story
 Relates ongoing struggle
between good and evil
 Is part of the belief of the
“Good Mind”
 Calls for the giving of
thanks for all things
created
 Calls for understanding of
duties and responsibilities

8. Haudenosaunee Thanksgiving A
 Defines relation between Creator
and each of the “elements”
contained in cycle of life
 Expresses human kinship with
rest of natural world
 Defines specific duties and
responsibilities for each element
 Expresses appreciation for and
equality of all world elements
 Is recited often
 The People
 The Earth Mother
 The Waters
 The Fish
 The Plants
 The Food Plants
 The Medicine Herbs
 The Animals
 The Trees
 The Birds
 The Four Winds
 The Thunderers
 The Sun
 Grandmother Moon
 The Stars
 The Enlightened Teachers
 The Creator

9. The Three Sisters: Corn,
Beans, Squash
 Ability to harvest food and
sustain life from the earth is
critical to Haudenosaunee
culture
 Indicates a strong agricultural
lifestyle, contrary to “hunter-
gatherer” concept
 Impacted social organization
 Reflected in Haudenosaunee
system of land use – communal
Lesson idea:
The Three Sisters: Exploring an Iroquois Garden

10. Ceremonial Cycle
 Midwinter (Jan/Feb)
 Maple (March)
 Thunder (April)
 Planting/Seed (May)
 Strawberry (June)
 Green Bean (July)
 Green Corn (Aug/Sept)
 Harvest (Sept/Oct)
"Native Things" Project at RM

11. Great Law of Peace
"One good mind" to make decisions, that’s the way we
proceed. When the Confederacy was born, each
nation agreed to act as a part of a league. There is
autonomy for each nation, each nation has its own
fire. Each nation has its own chiefs, its own Clan
Mothers, but when it comes to matters that impact
the entire Confederacy, then we act as one.
The Peacemaker used as a symbol of our Confederacy,
not a flag, but a tree, the great
white pine. The Tree of Peace. And at the base of
that tree grow four white roots in the
four cardinal directions of the earth; north, south,
east and west. And any nation that can embrace the
concepts of peace, power and righteousness, can
follow back one of those roots to the tree of Peace
and join there with us.
• G. Peter Jemison
Lesson ideas: “Symbols of the Haudenosaunee”
“Walk in the Woods”

12. The Confederacy of Six
Nations
 Governance by
consensus
 Tribal representation in
Council
 Establishes role of
women in decision
making
 First use of wampum
recognized
 Clan system
Lesson idea: Great Law of Peace and
US Constitution

13. First Contact and Two-Row Wam
 Haudenosaunee firmly
believe in idea of
separate, equally
respected cultures,
living side by side.
 Haudenosaunee use of
wampum as reminders
of speeches, promises,
obligations
Lesson:
http://www.pbs.org/warrior/content/modules/tworow.pdf

14. Denonville and French Contact
 Jesuit Relations with Native Americans
 Early Canadiana Online
ECO Search terms: seneca, denonville,
iroquois and new york, new york and
seneca
Variations in accounts? Similarities?
Site of Ganondagan today

15. War for Empire Impacts
Haudenosaunee
 Papers of Sir William Johnson
Use of wampum and reference
to two-row wampum policy
Familial terms
Johnson’s “position” on role of
Natives v. Amherst’s position

16. Colonial Relations with Native
Americans
 George Washington's Diaries at
 George Washington's Mission to

17. The American Revolution and
Native American Relations
 Divided by British and
American pressures
 The Clinton-Sullivan
Campaign
 Excluded from treaty
negotiations
 Land seizures
 In sum, the Sullivan-
Clinton Campaign
destroyed roughly 50
towns, 1 million bushels
of corn, 50 thousand
bushels of vegetables,
and 10 thousand fruit
trees. Forty Yankee
soldiers were reported
killed, as were scores of
Indians with no final
tally. And over 5,000
Indian refugees fled
north to Ft. Niagara to
face the winter of 1779-
80 -- the worst in
recorded memory.
Sullivan Clinton Campaign

18. Treaties and Loss of Lands
 After the Revolutionary War, the lands of Iroquois first became part
of the public domain, then were given to Massachusetts and New
York, then quickly turned into a few private land empires and a few
small Indian reservations. The original Haudenosaunee territories
were surveyed, taken away by treaty and sold off to speculators.
 In 1781, New York authorized a military tract to pay off soldiers and
officers. In, 1788, Indian titles to it were extinguished by the Ft.
Stanwix Treaty. And, in 1789, 1.75 million acres were surveyed and
allotted to some soldiers and officers in the absence of pay. Known
as the Military Tract, it was subdivided into 26 (later 28) townships
with 'civilized' names
 Proceedings at Fort Stanwix
 Treaties and Transactions
 Jefferson's Message to Handsome Lake, 1802
 Red Jacket's speech, 1819 (Granger Collection)

19. Haudenosaunee Leaders: Was
“Living in Two Worlds” Ely Parker’s
conflict or was it America’s conflict?
 Molly Brant (1736-1796)
 Joseph Brant (1742-1807)
 Cornplanter (1740-1836)
 Mary Jemison (1743-1833)
 Red Jacket (1758-1830)
 Governor Blacksnake
(1760-1859)
 Ely S. Parker (1828-1895)
 Arthur C. Parker (1881-
1955)
 Jesse Cornplanter
(1889-1957)
 Ernest Smith (1907-1975)
 Oren Lyons (b. 1930)
 John Mohawk (b. 1945)
 G. Peter Jemison
(b.1945)
First People website

20. Further Challenges to
Haudenosaunee Culture and
Sovereignty
 Fishing Rights and Water Use
 NYS Thruway and Land Easements
 Kinzua Dam and Land Use
 City of Salamanca and Land Use
 NY Power Authority and Land Use
 Taxes and Sovereignty
http://www.sni.org/content/press-room

21. The American Stereotype:
Broken Promises
 …*142 It may be hard for us to understand why these Indians
cling so tenaciously to their lands and traditional tribal way of life.
[FN24] The record does not leave the impression that the lands of
their reservation are the most fertile, the landscape the most
beautiful or their homes the most splendid specimens of
architecture. But this is their home – their ancestral home. There,
they, their children, and their forebears were born. They, too, have
their memories and their loves. Some things are worth more than
money and the costs of a new enterprise.

… I regret that this Court is to be the governmental agency
that breaks faith with this dependent people. Great nations, like
great men, should keep their word.
 Excerpt of dissenting opinion of Chief Justice Black in Federal
Power Commission v Tuscarora Indian Nation, 1960

22. Lesson ideas:
 Modify secondary level lesson on “Treaties and Land,” using related
resources and documents and artifacts from Ganondagan and RMSC
instead of suggested material to explore conflicting ideas of land ownership
and the purpose of agreements made.
 Create comparison chart on how Europeans and Natives met basic needs
using the environment and borrowing from each other.
 Have students explore ideas about what makes a group of people civilized.
Have them look at both Native American and European social
systems discussing features of a civilization.
 Compare Native and European stories of creation and other stories that
teach lessons or help explain things to their young people. Ask questions
such as, “How are people portrayed in these stories?” “What is the
relationship of people to their environment?” and so on. Have students
consider the value of storytelling in both cultures.
Have students explore biographical information about Native American
leaders (include Cornplanter, Handsome Lake, Red Jacket, Joseph Brant and
Mary Jemison) in order to discover that there was (and still is) diversity
among Native American communities, including in their attitudes towards
the European and American settlers.