Image Source - Native-Land.ca

Driving Question

How can we truly become native to this place, living in reciprocity with the land?

Project Description

Our country's history starts with the Indigenous. The relationship to the land brought connection to all life. The European colonizers landing on the shores of North and South America introduced, often violently, a new perspective and way of life interacting with the land. The goal of this project is for students to gain a better understanding of the Indigenous ways of life and how the culture clashes set the stage for the foundation of our country. Becoming native to place is understanding the history of the land and what the land provides to the people who have lived here for hundreds of years.  

Entry Event

Go outside of your home and take pictures of different plants, flowers, bushes, trees, weeds, and any animals you see, birds, insects, mammals, reptiles. What are their names? Are they native to Arizona?

Add your information to this Google Sheet - Names Are Important
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**Download Seek by iNaturalist on iPhone and Android. If you do not have a device to download an app, click here for plants identification.

Grade
11th

Length
9 weeks

School Year
2020-2021

Author
Dylan Wince

School
​Marcos de Niza High School

Topics To Be Covered

Indigenous Worldview/European Worldview
European Colonization (English, French, Dutch, Spanish)
Enslavement of Indigenous and Black People
Slavery Essential to Growth and Development of Colonies
Growing Divide Between Rich and Poor

Essential Sources

Braiding Sweetgrass by Robin Wall Kimmerer
A People's History of the United States by Howard Zinn
An Indigenous Peoples' History of the United States by Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz
Primary Document - Massachusetts Body of Liberties (1641)
Primary Document - Code Noir (1685)
Primary Document - Declaration of Independence
Podcast - Civics101 - Founding Documents - Declaration of Independence