Home | Lessons & Resources | Life Along the River: The Pamunkey Indian Tribe of Virginia
storybook
instructional resource
Life Along the River: The Pamunkey Indian Tribe of Virginia
Life Along the River: The Pamunkey Indian Tribe of Virginia is a digital storybook that explores the history and contemporary lives of the Pamunkey peoples. The content of the storybook is organized into four chapters. Each chapter explores a particular theme that is important to the Pamunkey Indian Tribe: place, community and culture, history, and the future.
Resource Information
grades
4
5
featured nations
Pamunkey, Piscataway
subjects
Government & Civics, English Language Arts, Environmental Science, Geography, History, Social Studies
NK360° and You
Here's what Erin L., a 4th–5th grade teacher in Alexandria, VA, had to say:
"NK360° changed my teaching about Native Americans by offering classroom materials that were ready to use and that I didn't need to do extra research and time to find. I knew they were accurate. These were the first materials about Native people that I came across that had the perspective of the people I was teaching about."
"NK360° changed my teaching about Native Americans by offering classroom materials that were ready to use and that I didn't need to do extra research and time to find. I knew they were accurate. These were the first materials about Native people that I came across that had the perspective of the people I was teaching about."
How did you tie this lesson into your curriculum?
Students connected to this lesson through their study of the Jamestown Settlement and the contact between the Powhatan people and the English settlers.
Students connected to this lesson through their study of the Jamestown Settlement and the contact between the Powhatan people and the English settlers.
What did you do with your students?
Students were guided through Chapter Three, beginning with Part A: Observe, Reflect, Question. Students did a turn-and-talk to respond to the reflection questions. Some of the questions for student wonderings included:
Students were guided through Chapter Three, beginning with Part A: Observe, Reflect, Question. Students did a turn-and-talk to respond to the reflection questions. Some of the questions for student wonderings included:
- How was the treaty made?
- How many kings and queens were there in the Powhatan?
- Where was it made?
- How many people signed the treaty?
- How long was the treaty?
- What did the Powhatan gain from the treaty?
- What kind of paper was the treaty on?
- Why did the Powhatan let the English inhabit their land?
- Why did the Indian kings and queens want to sign the treaty?
Teacher Reflection
"For fifth-grade students, the teacher had to activate background knowledge so that students had a context for what a treaty is and where they may have encountered something similar in their reading, such as treaties that end wars, for example. They may not have understood the actual document creation and writing, but they did see that there were gains and losses and saw this from the perspective of the Pamunkey. Students understand that an imbalance of power between parties is unfair and that the Pamunkey were not in the position to demand more from King Charles II."
"For fifth-grade students, the teacher had to activate background knowledge so that students had a context for what a treaty is and where they may have encountered something similar in their reading, such as treaties that end wars, for example. They may not have understood the actual document creation and writing, but they did see that there were gains and losses and saw this from the perspective of the Pamunkey. Students understand that an imbalance of power between parties is unfair and that the Pamunkey were not in the position to demand more from King Charles II."
