Summit first graders are learning about a third Native America tribe, the Sioux of the Great Plains. Students have discovered the Sioux Nation is comprised of three main tribes: the Lakota, the Nakota, and the Dakota. Integrating mapping skills they have identified the Great Plains as being located west of the Rocky Mountains and east of the Mississippi River.
Students have learned the buffalo was extremely important to the Sioux, and they used all of its parts (skin, hair, bones, flesh, and sinew) for either food, shelter, clothing, tools, or weapons. They have learned about parfleche, or untanned animal hide used to make bags or shields, wasna, or pemmican made of dried beef and berries, and tipis, or conical shaped homes made from animal hide.
Prior to winter break, students will begin learning about how Native Americans of the Great Plains used pictographs, or picture writing as a form of communication. Students will have the opportunity to translate and then create their own pictograph stories and construct tipis with pictographs.