Objectives: The student will be able to:

1. locate specific landforms and water bodies on a map of New York State.

2. identify the culture areas where the major Indians tribes lived in what is now New York State.

3. make inferences about how natural resources helped the Iroquois meet many of their daily needs.

Description of lesson/activities:

1. The accompanying blank map of New York entitled "New York in the l500s" will be given to each student along with a "List of Major Land Forms and Water Bodies." Directions for completing the map are located at the top of the list.

Other commercially produced maps may be used, and the list of land forms and water bodies may be changed or supplemented in any way that is appropriate to the resources available to students. The purpose of the activity is to familiarize students with the geographic features needed to complete objective 3.

2. When students have completed the "New York in the l500s" map, distribute a second map that will show the culture areas where the various tribes of the Iroquois Confederacy were located. You may want to use an overhead transparency to help students complete this map. Large duplicates of both maps should be placed on bulletin boards so that they can be referred to by you and the students throughout the unit. (Remind students that although the maps show political boundaries, those boundaries did not exist in the l500s. Students should infer, with your help if needed, why those boundaries did not exist in the l6th century.)

3. Students will work with fellow tribe members to make inferences about how geographical features helped the Iroquois meet their daily needs. The tribes will first brainstorm a list of "daily needs" (e.g., food, clothing, shelter, water, fire, transportation, protection, etc.). When a list has been generated, all tribes will share their ideas. Individual tribes will then brainstorm how geographical features such as lakes, rivers, forests, hills, rocks, etc., helped the Iroquois to meet their daily needs (e.g., lakes, rivers, streams, and ponds provided fish for food and a means of transportation; forests provided habitat for deer and bears, which in turn provided meat for food, fur and skins for clothing, bones for utensils and tools; rocks and stones provided arrowheads, tools, and flint for starting fires, etc.). Once again, this information should be shared among all the tribes. This exercise provides an opportunity to introduce that the Iroquois, like all Indian tribes, had a "stone and bone" technology, i.e., all tools, utensils, weapons, etc., were created from animal bones or stones from the earth.

LIST OF MAJOR LAND FORMS AND WATER BODIES IN NEW YORK STATE

Directions:

1. Title your map "Major Land Forms and Water Bodies of New York State"
2. Use your textbook or an atlas to locate each land form or body of water listed below.
3. Print the names of the following items on your map (remember to write small).

Rivers		Mountains
Hudson		Adirondack Mountains
Mohwawk		Catskill Mountains
Susquehanna		Taconic Mountains
Genesee
St. Lawrence
Delaware
Lakes		Lowlands
Lake Ontario		Hudson
Lake Champlain		Mohawk
Oneida Lake		St. Lawrence
Finger Lakes		Champlain
Lake George