Please click on the following animation to view information about the modern wampum belt.
Have the class create a mnemonic sentence to help them remember what the belt is saying like :
“Five nations met together and made an agreement about how men and women would support each other.”
Evaluation – Break the class into groups, have each group create its own message (without text or speech) that an agreement has been reached. Have them use the representations of the family symbol that they created in lesson D. Encourage them to use movement, gesture, visual art, ceremonial dance, a math equation. Then have them make their own wampum design. Keep in mind that the message would have to travel widely, often in inclement weather and would be repeated often.
Discuss what special thing you would do to make the treaty last and to prove that it was forever (e.g. handshake, share food, a pipe ceremony, give a gift, keep copies of the treaty).
To extend this activity read one of the following books.
Going To Visit Kou-Kum
Print materials / Grade K-3
Category: Student / teacher resource
Audience: General
This primary storybook is about a young Cree girl’s first visit alone to her grandmother’s house. Provides the reader with an understanding of the important relationship between a grandmother and granddaughter particularly in an Indigenous family.
Twin Sisters Publishing Company
P.O. Box 160
Moberly Lake, BC V0C 1X0 / $8.95
Tel: (250) 788-9754 Fax: (250) 788-9347
ISBN/Order No. 0-9696509-1-4
My Elders Tell Me
Print materials / Grade 4
Category: Student / teacher resource
Audience: General
This storybook follows three young Indigenous children through four seasons in a year of their life. Includes themes such as respect for Elders and environment as well as traditional and contemporary food gathering techniques. The story culminates with a family potlatch. The resource includes numerous illustrations and specific explorations of potlatches, Hamatsa society and important mythological figures.
School District No. 85
(Vancouver Island North)
P.O. Box 90
Port Hardy, BC V0N 2P0 / $20.00
Tel: (250) 949-6618 Fax: (250) 949-8792
ISBN/Order No. 1-55056-491-9
