Unit Study: Native American History

For history this year, we are trying to answer the question, "how did everyone in the United States get here?" It seemed natural to start with those who were here first, so we did a unit on Native American history. I think we will probably do a deeper dive into this subject in the future, as well as other history related subjects. We focused on the culture and diversity of different Native American nations, both today and before European settlers arrived. We touched briefly on the struggles Native American people faced upon the arrival of settlers and colonists, in an age appropriate manner. We based the bulk of our study on the book, "A Kid's Guide to Native American History," by Yvonne Wakim Dennis. We supplemented with a wide variety of books written by Indigenous authors where possible.

Here are the books we read:

Squanto’s Journey, by Joseph Bruchac

Turtle’s Race with Beaver, by Joseph Bruchac

When the Shadbush Blooms, by Carla Messinger

Hiawatha and the Peacemaker, by Robbie Robertson

Jingle Dancer, by Cynthia L. Smith

Pow Wow Day, by Traci Sorell

Finding My Dance, by Ria Thundercloud

Grandma’s Tipi, by S.D. Nelson

The Legend of the Bluebonnet, by Tomie DePaola

The First Blade of Sweetgrass, by Suzanne Greenlaw

JoJo Makoons: Used To Be Best Friend, by Dawn Quigley

JoJo Makoons: Fancy Pants, by Dawn Quigley

Paiute Princess, by Deborah Kogan Ray

Berry Song, by Michaela Goade

The Frog Princess: A Tlingit Legend from Alaska, by Eric Kimmel
Meet Kaya: An American Girl, by Janet Beeler Shaw

Our family enjoyed exploring different forms of art, games, and cooking. The Kid's Guide provided a variety of activities that were fun and easy to do. Unfortunately, I didn't take very many pictures, but below, you can see Pumpkin with her hand-sewn Appaloosa horse, and a coiled clay pot.

Possibly the highlight of this unit was hearing some traditional Native American animals stories at the library, told by Dovie Thomasen. I had been worried that the girls would have difficulty sitting and listening to oral storytelling without anything to look at, but we were all spellbound by these engaging stories. Pumpkin asked me to take a video of the words she learned during one of the stories, so that you can learn them too!