Major Concepts:

1. Geography affects culture.

2. Indian tribes had their own histories, cultures, systems of government and laws, and understandings of how to live in the world.

Objectives: The student will be able to:

1. Describe the cultural differences between two major Indian tribes from different regions of North America and decide whether these differences may be due to the geographic conditions under which each tribe lived.

2. Select one defining cultural characteristic that all Indian tribes had and show how this characteristic differed from tribe to tribe.

Suggested lesson/activities:

1. Using the photographs and material from the article "Dancing in Honor of Their People" (Smithsonian, vol. 23, no. 1, Feb. 1993), present a short lecture explaining how the various Indian tribal dances use materials from and reflect the geography of the lands where the tribal dances originated. Point out that the dances are part of the culture as well as explanations of the culture.

2. Using the six groups formed in Lesson One, assign each to investigate one of the following ideas held by the Aztecs, Pueblos, Iroquois, Cherokee, Comanche, and Nez Perce: religion; economics; ideas about property; government; law; science and technology. These groups are to be the "experts" reporting back to the "home" groups. Each ÒhomeÓ group is assigned one of the six tribes. (Each "home" group must have at least one member assigned to each of the six "expert" groups.)

3. The "home" groups' task is to develop a concise report that an Indian envoy might have presented to the Europeans at the first encounter, explaining what the Europeans should know about the aboriginal societies.

4. Each expert group is to develop a classroom display of their findings, using whatever media the group decides is the most appropriate for a full explanation of the Indian characteristics.