History in a Vegetable

Course: US History Theme:1 Three Worlds Meet

Focus/Big Idea(s): Corn was developed by Native agriculturalists in Mesoamerica. The forms of culture and agriculture developed there influenced Native American cultures in the American Southwest, and influence mainstream American society today: corn is the country’s most important agricultural export.
This unit deals with the development of corn agriculture and associated forms of civilization (in the literal sense of city-based cultures) in Mesoamerica, and the ways in which these were adopted by three civilizations in the North America, including
1) a prehistoric Native American example (the Anasazi in Chaco Canyon),
2) a current Native American example (the Hopi) and
3) mainstream American culture.
This unit is also designed to
  • help students see that history in North America is not something that begins with the arrival of Europeans.
  • counter the stereotype that Native Americans were originally all nomadic hunter gatherers (a stereotype that contributed to Supreme Court rulings confirming European American claims to land formerly occupied by native people.
  • consider some of the connections between culture, agriculture, and sustainability.
/ Culminating Assignment:
Culminating Assessment:
Critical Response
DBQ
Essay
Imaginative Writing
Project
What does corn have to say about history in North America?
Poster (or short essay)
Essential Question(s):
  • In what ways are the belief systems, motives, and values of Native Americans and European Americans different?
  • In what ways do the early interactions of these groups still affect us today?

PPS Standards:
Academic Vocabulary: (Content to Know)
Civilization, cultural eclecticism, history, agriculture, sovereignty, legal title, ownership / Skills to learn:
  • Give an example of developments in the history of America before the arrival of Europeans.
  • Give examples of cultural exchange and adaptation between Native American cultures in agriculture, culture, religion, and architecture.
  • Give an example of a way in which native culture exerted a continuing influence on American society.
  • Debunk stereotypes about Native cultures.
  • Find history in a vegetable

Time Frame: (in Hours)
Instructional Design:Outline of lessons, in step-by-step progression. Attach additional pages.
1) Opening discussion: What is this? Hold up several ears of colored corn; engage students in a discussion. What might corn have to do with US History? Has anyone ever seen wild corn growing? Why not? Where does corn come from if it doesn’t grow by itself in the wild? Some one may remember fragments of an elementary or middle school lesson about the Squanto (Tisquantum) and Samoset, Wampanoag Indians who taught the Pilgrims to plant corn. Massasoit, a Wampanoeg leader, is also credited with teaching the Pilgrims to grow corn. These fragments contain two insights important for this lesson: 1) the Pilgrims had to learn corn agriculture from the Indians, and 2) growing corn is a specialized field of knowledge passed on by a process of education and cultural exchange; the presence of corn on the Northeast Atlantic coast proves the existence of a system of exchange linking this area with Mesoamerica, where corn was first developed by native agriculturalists.
2) Reading providing overview of historical development and geographical spread of corn agriculture and culture: The Dynamo: Agriculture in Precontact Mesoamerica. In: The Founders of America by Francis Jennings, Norton & Company, New York, 1993. pp 40-47.
4) Video documentary of the Anasazi: 15-minute segment entitled “The Anasazi” in: 500 Nations, The Ancestors (Episode I, Volume I of the 500 Nations series).
6) For background on native cultures in the Southwest that collapsed (Anasazi) and established sustainability into the present (Hopi): The Ancient Ones: The Anasazi and Their Neighbors in: Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed by Jared Diamond, Viking Penguin, 2005. PP 136-156.
8) For information on contemporary and traditional Hopi culture: watch Itam Hakim, Hopiit, a documentary video on Hopi culture by Hopi filmmaker Victor Masayesva (1990).
9) For information on role of corn in contemporary US society: Omnivore’s Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals by Michael Pollan.
Culminating Assignment: Students create posters documenting the historical roles of corn, past and present, in societies in North America.
Resources and materials: (Text, links, videos, speakers, etc. Please note if available district-wide) / Additional supports and extensions: (TAG, SPED, ESL, etc.)

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Ted Dreier, 11/14/2018

Draft