Lesson 5: Stories of My Rights and Responsibilities
Links to all videos and stories can be found in the Lesson 5 PowerPoint.
Materials to Download
Caring for Mother Earth
Watch: CBC News: I Am Indigenous with Anishinaabe Indigenous Rights Activist Autumn Peltier (2:03).
Discuss: How do you care for your Mother Earth relatives? What are ways you can show respect to the land you live on?
Read Aloud: We Are Water Protectors by Carole Lindstrom (Turtle Mountain Band of Ojibwe Indians, Anishinaabe/Métis) (2020).
- Lead a question-and-answer period about words and pictures in the book and what they mean.
Protecting Our Waterways
Watch: Saving the C’waam with Sheea Scott (Klamath Tribes) (8:01).
Discuss: What is the name of the lake and tribe that is being talked about?
- What is the tribal name for fish that live in the lake?
- What is going wrong with the fish and lake?
- How do the tribe and the scientists plan to restore the land and lake?
Watch: Warm Springs – Mill Creek Restoration Project
Discuss: What is the name of the river and tribe being talked about?
- What is the name of the fish in the river? What ruined the natural waters of Mill Creek?
- What do juvenile fish need to survive?
- What is the Mill Creek Restoration Project? Why is Restoration important?
Watch: Indigenous Water Ceremony performed by the Mexica/Azteca Group Ollin Yoliztli at the St. John’s Bridge in Portland, OR on the Willamette River (3:37)
Discuss: Where is this water ceremony located?
- What is the purpose of this special water ceremony?
- Write a list of observations from the ceremony.
- What do you see?
- What do you hear?
- What do you feel?
Listen and Discuss
Listen: A Tlingit Story Shanyaak’u∤aax: Salmon Boy edited by: Johnny Marks, Hans Chester, David Katzeek, Nora Dauenhauer & Richard Dauenhauer. Illustrated by Tlingit Artist: Michaela Goade (5:47).
Discuss: KWL Chart “Learned”
- Fill in the graphic organizer that was created together as a class at the beginning of the Unit.
- Discuss ideas, themes, storytelling, impact, the power of youth, and gather information of what students have learned.
Closing Activity for this Unit: Create!
Make an End of Unit 6 Collective Poster using the graphic organizer provided.
Students will fill in each of the 5 labeled areas and draw what each means to them.
- The Power of Storytelling
- Stories of My Community
- Stories of My State
- Stories of My Country
- Stories of My Rights & Responsibilities.
They may use crayons, colored pencils, markers, and/or cuttings from old magazines.
Extension Opportunities: Students may interview each other and create a media arts collection of Object Stories. Each student may choose a question that speaks to them the most:
- What does Storytelling mean to you?
- What do stories of your community, state, and/or country mean to you?
- Which stories are important?
- Who gets to decide what stories are important?
- What Rights & Responsibilities do you have?