Grade Level: 3 – 4

Purpose and Goals:

1. To show the changes in the use of containers, both in form and function, by Native Americans from prehistoric to historic times.
2. To show that “containers” mean different things to different people.
3. To show that prehistoric Native Americans had to rely on nature for a source of containers.
4. To show the connection of the creation of pottery to Earth materials.

Targeted Objectives:
By the end of this lesson, students will be able to:

1. Define what a container is.
2. Identify containers as they evolved through time.
3. Recognize the ways that pottery changed the lifestyles of Native American people.
4. Identify the earth materials Native Americans used in making pottery.
5. Create a simple pottery container in the Native American tradition, such as an effigy pot or a pinch pot.

Background:
In the Archaic Period (10,000 – 3,000 years BP), in a camp along the Wabash River in Illinois, about 4500 BP, Archaic people would have lived in small camps near rivers and streams so they could have access to water and food. They also hunted and gathered their food from the forests. When the weather got colder, there was not as much food nearby. They would break into smaller groups and move to a different area to find more food. They moved often.

Archaic people used materials from nature to make containers. They would use a dried gourd to scoop Water from the river. They would weave plant fibers into baskets and bags. Many times they would carve bowls of wood. Archaic people even used animal skins as containers.

In the Woodland Period (2500 – 1000 years BP), in a village along the Illinois River, about 1750 BP, Middle Woodland people would have lived together in villages. They still hunted animals such as deer for food, and they ate a lot of fish. At first, people collected seeds from wild plants. Many years later, they planted some of the seeds and grew their own plants in gardens near their homes.

Native Americans continued to use natural materials such as wood, plant fiber, and animal hides to make their containers. The biggest difference from the Archaic time was that they were now making pottery. The pottery was made from clay mixed with crushed rock. It was then made into shapes and hardened in a fire. These clay containers were so strong that they could be put right into the fire and used for cooking food.

In the Mississippian Period (950 - 600 BP), in a town in Southern Illinois along Mill Creek, about 800 years ago, Mississippian people would have been living in very large towns. These towns sometimes had villages nearby. Tall walls made of logs were built all the way around the towns. The people also made mounds of earth in their towns. Houses were built on top of the flat-topped mounds, to be used as temples or as homes for the leaders.

These Native American people chose to live mostly along big rivers, where the land was rich for farming. They planted food crops in large fields.

Mississippian people also made pottery for storing and cooking food. The shapes of the pots were different from the ones made by earlier people. Sometimes they would design a bowl with the head of a frog, turtle duck on the rim. They also learned to make pottery into different shapes for special uses. A water bottle with a long neck kept the water from evaporating or spilling out. They also made plates, bowls, and jars. They would grind up mussel shell and mix it into the clay to make it strong and keep it from breaking during firing.

In Illinois, the Mississippian people continued their traditions until the 16th century, in some cases until contact with Europeans. A community near Funk’s Grove in central Illinois, about 190 years BP, would have been one site where Historic American Indians of the Kickapoo lived. The Kickapoo lived in Illinois in the late 1700s and early 1800s. The Kickapoo moved at least twice a year. In the spring they moved to their summer villages near the prairie. Here they planted crops, hunted deer and other animals, and later harvested their crops. At times they traveled west to hunt bison.

After the fall harvest, the Kickapoo split into smaller groups and moved to their winter camps. Sometimes they built these camps in the forests, where there were many animals to hunt and trap.

Native Americans continued to make pottery for a time. They used clay pots to carry water and to store and cook food in. After the Kickapoo began to trade with people from Europe, they no longer made pottery. They used their new brass and iron kettles for cooking. The metal would not break and lasted much longer. They also traded for and used glass bottles and tin cups.

Materials and Preparation:

• clay – a nice clay that requires no firing and is easy to work
  • Dick Blick, (800) 447-8192, has a White Bone Ware Clay that dries naturally without use of a kiln - Catalog Number 33213-2550
  • Making clay balls ahead of time and wrapping them in plastic will help save class time.
• books about Native Americans placed around the room (those with an abundance of pictures are good)
• water
• spray bottle
• sharpened twigs wrapped with cords (See "How to Make a Pinch Pot" in the PDF download version of this lesson.)
• braided cord
• mussel shells (or other shells)
• newspaper for covering working surfaces
• pictures of pottery pieces (See GeoGallery for images of containers)

Procedures:

1. Begin by asking students to bring a “container” to class. Avoid giving too much information about what you envision a container to be – to elicit a variety.
2. Conduct a discussion/sorting session having students sort the containers they brought in using several approaches, i.e., shape, what they would be used for, material they are made from, etc.
3. Begin an introduction to the use of pottery in prehistoric Illinois. (See “Pottery in Prehistoric Illinois” in the PDF download version of this lesson.) One method would be to create a K-W-L Chart with the class. (A K-W-L Chart lists what students Know, what they Want to Know, and what they’ve Learned about a topic.)
4. Have students find 4 bowls in the ISM Geology Online GeoGallery. Have them describe the bowls and tell how they think the bowls might have been used. Direct them to the 2 scenes below from the ISM Peoples of the Past exhibit and to books in your classroom to give them ideas about the lifestyles of Native American people.
   
5. Have students make a piece of pottery in Native American tradition. You can choose to have students make a pinch pot or a duck head effigy bowl. (Directions are included in the PDF download version of this lesson.)

Questions:

1. Can you think of four ways Native Americans could have used gourds as containers? [for seeds, for water and food, as storage containers, as rattles or shakers]
2. What other types of material from nature could have been used 4,000 years ago to make containers? [mussel shells, turtle shells, wood could be carved into bowls, animal skins]
3. Using the picture in the GeoGallery of a Middle Woodland Village scene, name two ways you can see pottery being used in the village. [to store water, to cook food in the fire]
4. How do you think pottery was made? [by mixing clay with coarse sand; the clay could be molded into shapes then fired in the open fire to make it stronger]
5. Where do you think the Native Americans got the clay to make their pottery? [dug it from the banks of the rivers, streams, and lakes]
6. How do you think a Mississippian water bottle might have been shaped? [with a long neck to keep the water from evaporating and spilling out - just like the bottles today]
7. Can you think of some animals that these people might have considered important enough to use as part of a pottery bowl? [beavers, ducks, and dogs were used; sometimes owls were depicted on water bottles]
8. Why do you think the Native Americans in the Mississippian Period put figures of animals on their containers? [archaeologists are not certain; accept any reasonable suggestions regarding artistic expression, celebration of how important the water and water animals were to their daily life, and ceremonial purposes]
9. Once the Kickapoo began trading with the settlers from Europe who were living here, do you think they continued to make and use pottery as containers? [no; they began using metal such as brass, copper, and iron. They also used glass bottles and tin cups that they had traded for]
10. How would this be better than pottery? [the metal would not break if dropped and would therefore last much longer]
11. From what natural materials were the iron pots made? [hematite is iron ore – see specimen in GeoGallery]
12. What natural materials were used to make glass? [silica from quartz – at that time - see specimen in GeoGallery]

Extensions:

1. Using the ISM Geology Online GeoGallery, have students look for other objects used by Native Americans and have them choose one to find more information about. Students could work in groups and create and illustrated presentation to give to the rest of the class.
2. Explore other aspects of Native American lifestyles with your students. [Information on the containers was taken from “Discover Illinois’ Peoples of the Past,” a set of four educational posters that depict changes in Native American lifestyles over the past 4,000 years. Topics such as food, tools, technology, housing, and transportation are presented. The set, which includes 4 11X24 in. posters and an instruction sheet with 4 color illustrations and 63 b/w illustrations, can be ordered for $8.00 plus tax and shipping by calling 217-785-0037, or by e-mailing bookorders@museum.state.il.us.]
3. Find a museum in your area that you can visit with your students that highlights Native American art and culture. Plan a field trip.
4. Expand your study to include Native Americans and their relationship with wetlands. [A resource book of activities and lessons involving wetland, Illinois Wetlands: An Interdisciplinary Study, is also available by calling 217-785-0037, or by e-mailing bookorders@museum.state.il.us. The price is $17.00 plus tax and shipping.

Assessment:

• Observe students involved in small group work and in whole class discussions.
• Read through written reports or listen to oral presentations of the online pottery that the students found and described.
• Look at the pottery that the students create. Do they look like they could be used as containers?
• Collect some samples of clay, limestone, and other rocks that could have been used in the pottery-making process. Have students identify the material and explain how it was used.

Print Resources:

• Illinois Association for Advancement of Archaeology. September, 2000. “Discover Illinois Archaeology,” Illinois Antiquity. Vol. 35, No.3.
• Walthall, N., Wiant, M., Warren, R. & White, J. 2002. Discover Illinois’ Peoples of the Past, Learning and Activity Books Series. Springfield, IL: Illinois State Museum.
• Illinois State Museum. 1998. Illinois Wetlands: An Interdisciplinary Study. Springfield, IL: Author.

Web Resources:

• ISM Geology Online Geogallery Web Site
  http://geologyonline.museum.state.il.us/geogallery/
• Illinois State Museum Web Site
  http://www.museum.state.il.us/

Lesson Specifics:

• Skills: comparison, description, observation, communication, creating, tuning motor skills, art appreciation
• Duration: 2 to 3 45-minute class sessions
• Setting: Classroom
• Group Size: whole class, small groups

Illinois Board of Education Goals and Standards:

• 4.B.1b: Participate in discussions around a common topic.
• 5.C.1a: Write letters, reports and stories based on acquired information.
• 12.E.1a: Identify components and describe diverse features of the Earth's land, water and atmospheric systems.
• 16.A.1a: Explain the difference between past, present and future time; place themselves in time.
• 16.A.1b: Ask historical questions and seek out answers from historica lsources (e.g., myths, biographies, stories, old photographs, artwork, other visual or electronic sources).
• 16.C.1a: Describe how Native American people in Illinois engaged in economic activities with other tribes and traders in the region prior to the Black Hawk War.
• 26.A.1e: Identify media and tools and how to use them in a safe and responsible manner when painting, drawing and constructing.

Appendices:
Appendices for this lesson are available in the downloadable PDF. Click here to download.