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GRADE LEVEL: Middle School |
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THE
ACTIVITIES
SACRED
TO MY PEOPLE
Description: Students will read a letter from Chief Seattle to President Pierce about the Native American's relationship to the Earth and natural resources. Students will write their own letter to President Bush expressing their positive and negative views of how natural resource conservation and economic development have affected various regions of the U.S.
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Students will:
- Make connections between the letter allegedly written by Chief Seattle and current issues and problems in natural resources conservation, sprawl, and land development
- Students will research current land use, urban development and sprawl issues within a certain area of the U.S.
- Comment directly on the comparison between eras in American history of use, development and issues
- Engage their skills in editorial and narrative writing in the form of a letter to President Bush advocating their perspectives with analogies and/or metaphors similar to those of Chief Seattle
PROCEDURE AND TEACHING SUGGESTIONS
The letter you will read was allegedly written in 1855 by Chief Seattle, patriarch of the Duwamish and Suquamish Indians of Puget Sound. It is often a topic of debate in today's analysis of U. S. history and native peoples. In addition, it has been used to justify and fortify current attitudes and perspectives regarding the treatment of The First Americans and the natural environment in the United States.
There is conjecture that Chief Seattle wrote this letter to President Pierce as his people were being forced off their ancestral land.
The attitudes and sentiments reflected in the letter (ascribed to Seattle) are consistent with those professed by generations of individuals upset at the damage perpetrated on the American frontier by our 19th and 20th centuries industrial societies.
The words of this Indian spokesman have been frequently quoted to many target audiences as a catalyst for reflecting on the issues of human rights, land settlement and agrarianism, economic development, conservation, European acculturation of native peoples, extinction of indigenous species, and many more.
Students should be introduced to the letter and the social, political and environmental/ecological implications of its day (1850s). Help students transition these same implications to 2002. Include discussion, research and demonstrations about the way that certain actions can impact organisms within an ecosystem and upset that living balance. Help students demonstrate how what happens in one ecosystem impacts the ecosystems connected to it.
Finally,
students will write a letter penned in a metaphorical style on their observations
of the 21st century's social and environmental/ecological impact on a
selected area in the United States.
Introduce the literary styles — metaphors and allegories — to students and direct them to identify the metaphors and analogies used by Chief Seattle. Encourage students to experiment and practice with writing their own analogies and metaphors. Use this link to help students understand and practice the style.
Help students select a region and begin to put together an outline for a letter to President Bush on their 21st century thoughts on the changes that have occurred in their selected region.
Students should then site scientific research in the form of a bulleted report to back up the judgments and conclusions they put forth in the narrative letter. This is the "facts behind the feelings" component.
STUDENT ACTIVITY
 Together, we must redefine the American dream lest we wake up some day and find that we've paved it over. We need to find ways to protect the public interest while showing private property owners and businesses that they can do well while doing good. —UNCW
Chancellor James Leutze |
Read Chief Seattle's 1855 letter to President Pierce.
How is his message like the information similar to what you are learning about smart growth and sprawl? How is it different? What has happened in the last 150 years to most of the western frontier lands? To other parts of the country?
Select a region of the United States that has historical appeal to you and has undergone a dramatic shift from frontier or undeveloped natural resources to urban, industrialized and heavily populated. Research Native American peoples that lived there, European settlement, transition of native peoples off the land and the succeeding development of those lands. Collect current and substantive facts.
Learn about and discuss metaphorical and allegorical writing. Visit this link for information and practice writing in this style.
Using a similar metaphorical style as Chief Seattle's, write a letter to President Bush about your thoughts on your selected region and what has happened to it as the result of human activity upon its natural resources and peoples.
Write a bulleted fact sheet/report to supplement your letter, supporting your thoughts with scientific evidence/facts and current events.
Read your letter aloud to the class (optional).
EXTENSION
Not only is there a great deal of controversy surrounding Chief Seattle's letter of 1855, but also a purported speech from 1854. As with the letter, there are many sources of information, various versions of the speech, and even debates over its existence. Use the link below to explore the debate and research that surrounds the authenticity of the oration and other historical events related to it.
http://www.synaptic.bc.ca/ejournal/seattle2.htm
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