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Museum Educator-led Programs
Pre & Post Visit Resources
Mohicans Then and Now

Grades PreK-K

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Program Description and Frameworks
Program Outline
Key Terms and Concepts
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Print and Web Resources
Learn More About the Mohican Room

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Discover how the Mohicans, early inhabitants of Berkshire County, used the resources around them to meet their needs for food, shelter and clothing. History will come to life as children try on clothes, examine furs, play games, and use tools.

Location: Mohican Room   (Learn More About the Mohican Room)
Length : 45 minutes
Grades : PreK - K

Massachusetts Frameworks
History and Social Science: History and Geography 1, 2, 5

English Language Arts 1.1, 4.2, 5.1

Technology/Engineering Standards 1.1, 1.2, 2.1

Health: Ecological Health 13.1

New York
Standard 1 History of the US and NY

Standard 3 Geography

Introduction
After learning where the Mohicans lived hundreds of years ago, students imagine themselves as part of a Mohican village from the past.

During discussion, students will discover how Mohicans met their needs for shelter, food, and clothing by observing paintings, photographs, and models, and through hands-on interaction with artifact replicas and natural materials.

Shelter
Using a model of one section of a longhouse interior, students are introduced to Mohican homes and are asked to consider how the homes were built.

Food
The group discusses what foods would have been available to the Mohicans. Then students explore Mohican ways of growing, hunting, gathering, cooking and storing food by handling tools and materials like a bow and arrow, a hoe, bark baskets, and clay.

Clothing
Two students dress in Mohican clothing as a demonstration for the rest of the class, who will be able to try on the clothes during the “Celebration."

Celebration
Students explore the room and investigate things that interest them. Try on clothing, mash corn, shake rattles, touch furs, shape clay and more.

Mohicans Today
Photographs help introduce students to modern Mohican life, and the similarities and differences with Mohican life in the past.

• Mohicans lived in the Berkshires, and nearby parts of New York, Connecticut, and Vermont, for many hundreds of years. Map of Mohican Land.
• Mohicans then did not have many things that we have today, like cars, refrigerators, and ice cream, but they had their own effective ways of doing things.
• They used natural materials to meet their needs for food, clothing and shelter. They tried not to waste or use too much of any one thing.
• Men hunted animals like deer, fish, and turkeys to survive. The Mohicans ate the meat, and used the fur, skin and feathers for clothing.
• The Mohicans farmed corn, beans, and squash and gathered berries, roots, leaves and nuts for food.
• Today, many Mohicans live together in the state of Wisconsin. They no longer live together as a Nation in Massachusetts.
• Mohicans now wear modern clothes like t-shirts and sneakers, drive cars, and go to school and work. They also keep their traditional ways alive during everyday life and special celebrations like pow wows.

• Animal Hide
  The skin of an animal such as a deer, bear, or rabbit.Hides were used for blankets and clothing.
• Canoe
  A long, narrow boat with pointed ends that is paddled down rivers.
• Clan
  A smaller family group within a larger band of Native Americans. Mohican clans included the bear, wolf and turtle clans.
• Gathering
  Collecting foods (berries, nuts) that grow on wild plants.
• Longhouse
  A long, narrow house with a round roof that held many families of the same clan. Each section would have a place for a fire and a smoke hole in the roof.
• Native American
  The first people to live in North and South America, before people traveled from Europe to live there.
• Pow Wow
  A meeting of Native Americans.
• River
  A long, narrow body of flowing or moving water.
• Shelter
  A building or a natural place like a cave where people can stay warm, dry and safe, no matter what the weather is like outside.
• Tradition
  Ways of doing things that have been passed down for a long time within a group of people.
• Travel
  Moving from one place to another.
• The Three Sisters
  Corn, beans and squash were called "the three sisters" because they were grown together, with each one helping the others. The corn grew up tall in the center, while the beans grew up around the corn. The squash grew in a circle around the corn and beans, with its large leaves covering the ground.
• Wigwam
  A small, round house for one family with a round roof made out of wood and bark.
• Woods
  A wild area with trees and other plants and wild animals like birds, rabbits, deer, and bears.

Long-Ago Life in the Berkshires
Create a simple K-W-L chart before your visit to the Museum, asking students to think about what life was like for the Mohicans hundreds of years ago. Make sure to discuss what kinds of animals lived around them (and some examples of those that lived far away like tigers and elephants.) In the "K" (Know) column, write down what students know about life long ago. In the "W" (Want to know) column, write down what the class wants to know. After your visit to the Museum, fill in the "L" (Learned) column with what the class has learned. (For a reference list of Massachusetts mammals, go to MassWildlife's State Mammal List

Plant the Three Sisters
Corn, beans, and squash (three sisters), when planted together, grow in harmony, depending on each other for support throughout the growing season. Learn first-hand why Native Americans grew these three plants together by growing your own “three sisters." Click here for complete instructions.

Let's Grow a Garden Movement Game
In this fun and active game, students will learn about the lives of the Mohicans, as well as plant life cycles. Gather students together in a circle. Ask students if they help out in their parents' or grandparents' gardens. As a group, make a list of jobs that need to be done in a garden. Tasks might include: break up the soil, water, keep away pests, fertilize (Mohicans used fish), pick weeds and harvest the food. Then explain that you are all going to work together to make a Mohican garden come to life. Discuss what the Mohicans would have planted in the garden (corn, beans and squash).

Then ask students, what job do we need to do first? Ask for volunteers to go into the center of the circle to act out each task. Having a small hoe and rake (even toy versions) for students to use is helpful. When you get to the task of planting seeds, ask student volunteers to be the seeds. Ask the class where each kind of seed should go (see Three Sisters in Key Terms). The seeds should stay in the circle and continue to grow as other volunteers water them and give them sunlight.

Once the garden is fully-grown, have your students finish with a harvest. What would the Mohicans have done with their crop once the harvest was complete? (Fresh food would be eaten at festivals celebrating the harvest. Smoking and drying food was common. Food was often kept in covered storage pits dug into the ground and lined with grass or bark.)

Turtle Rattles
Native Americans in the Northeast sometimes made rattles out of turtle shells. To make your own rattles, give each student two paper plates and a copy of the template for the turtle head, tail and legs. You will also need a handful of dried beans, one large popsicle stick, scissors, markers, tape and glue for each student.

Students can color and cut out the turtle pieces, and color the bottom sides of the plates (these will be the turtle's shell). Lay one plate on the table, with the bottom of the plate facing down. Students can tape the head, tail, arms and legs into place so that they stick out over the edge of the plate. Tape a popsicle stick to the bottom near the tail (this is the handle). Place a handful of beans in the center of the plate. Put glue around the outside edge of the plate, and place the other plate on top, bottom side up. Let it dry. Click here for the turtle template.

To use your rattles, make a circle. Try doing a round dance. Practice shaking your rattles to a steady beat. Then try doing the "stomp" step: everyone faces the center of the circle, and takes one step to the side with the left foot and then brings the right foot to meet it. After a while, try changing directions.

Try sitting in the circle with your rattles and playing "Echo." One leader shakes a rhythm with their rattle, and then the rest of the circle shakes the same rhythm. Have students take turns being the leader.

Pebble Guessing Game
This traditional Native American game builds non-verbal communication and observation skills. It is also good way for students to learn each other's names early in the year. Have your students sit in a circle, with one student in the middle (if you have a large class you may want to break them into smaller circles). Hand one of the students in the circle a small object (Native Americans would have used a small stone).

Instruct the student in the middle of the circle to close his or her eyes. Pass the object around the circle until the student in the middle says stop. Whoever has the object should then try to conceal it, and the student in the middle will try to guess who is holding the object. If they guess correctly, they switch positions with the students holding the object. If they guess incorrectly, they continue guessing until they find the right person.

Corncob Ring Toss
Native Americans have created and played many variations of corn cob games. This one is similar to lawn darts. To create your "darts," you'll need small, dried corn cobs (with corn removed), and the tip of the smaller end cut or broken off (this is easiest before the cob has dried out). Use an awl to create an indentation in the smaller end of the corncob. Then push a couple of feathers into the indentation and glue into place.

To create a target, create a circle on the lawn using a hula-hoop or jump rope. The goal is to toss your dart from a distance and get it to land inside the hoop. Alternately, have two students hold the hoop up in the air. You can adjust the size of the target or the distance to adjust the level of difficulty. For a more challenging game, roll the hula-hoop and toss the dart through the hoop as it rolls.

Many active Native American games provide practice of skills that children will need when they are adults. Discuss with students, what skills does this game help to develop?

All print resources listed are available through the Central/Western Massachusetts Library System. Use the Berkshire Athenaeum’s on-line catalogue to search for these print resources in Central/Western Massachusetts.

Print Materials For Students

Bruchac, Joseph, Jonathan London, Thomas Locker. Thirteen Moons on Turtle’s Back. New York: Philomel Books, 1992. This collection of poems that tell the story of the legend of the 13 moons could add a new dimension to a study of the seasons. Available in book and cassette format.

Carlson, Laurie. More than Moccasins: A Kid’s Activity Guide to Traditional North American Indian Life. Chicago: Chicago Review Press, 1994. This book has fun Native American crafts for children from ages 5 to 12.

De Wit, Dorothy. The Talking Stone: An Anthology of Native American Tales and Legends. New York: Greenwillow Books, c1979. Twenty-seven tales of Native Americans from nine geographic regions of North America.

Doolittle, Bev. The Forest has Eyes. Connecticut: Greenwich Workshop Press, 1998. This book is full of Native American animal spirit paintings; accompanying poems help children understand the traditional Native American relationship with nature.

Greene, Rhonda Gowler, Susan Gabor (illustrator). The Very First Thanksgiving Day. Atheneum, 2002. An introduction to Thanksgiving for the very young. Simple, rhyming text is accompanied by engaging and informative illustrations.

Print Materials For Educators

Ciment, James. Scholastic Encyclopedia of the North American Indian. New York: Scholastic Reference, c1996. An accessible reference with diagrams, photos, maps and illustrations covering Native Americans of different regions of North America.

Murdoch, David. North American Indian (An Eyewitness Book). NY: Dorling Kindersly, 2000. Covers the clothing, homes, crafts, tools and ways of Native Americans across North America. As an Eyewitness Book, it does a fantastic job of illustrating the topics and items discussed.

Web Materials for Students

Nipmuc Indian Association of Connecticut Kid's Corner
Activities accessible for young learners like finger puppets and mazes.

Web Materials for Educators

Carnegie Museum of Natural History
This website allows you to explore a tribe from each corner of the United States. To learn more about Native Americans in the east you can look at the Iroquois, or you can compare tribes in different areas by exploring the north, south or west of the United States.

Index of Native American Native American Teaching Resources on the Internet
A searchable database that includes book reviews, articles, and web pages.

National Museum of the American Indian
This is a Smithsonian Museum website and is a good place to find current Native American art work and events, and examples of historical artifacts. Their Education Publication Page has PDF versions of teacher resources like Harvest Ceremony: Beyond the Thanksgiving Myth, a curriculum guide developed by the NMAI Education Department.

Native Language of the Americas: Mohican Indian Fact Sheet
This site is organized into questions and answers and responds to many questions frequently asked by students.

Nipmuc Indian Association of Connecticut
The official site to the Nipmuc Indians of Connecticut. This is a good site for crafts and information about current Indian traditions, ceremonies, art and publications.

Stockbridge-Munsee Community
The official web site of the Stockbridge-Munsee Band of the Mohican Nation in Wisconsin. Includes pages on community life, Mohican artists, pow wows, a "meet the elders" page, and Mohican history.

 

The Institute of Museum and Library Services, an independent Federal grant- making agency dedicated to creating and sustaining a nation of learners by helping libraries and museums serve their communities supports the Berkshire Museum.

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