The Rockwell Museum
Fourth Grade Tour:
Iroquois Art & Culture
Pre and Post Visit Materials
111 Cedar Street, Corning, NY 14830 607-937-5386
E-mail: [email protected] or visit www.rockwellmuseum.org
Table of Contents
Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 2
New York State Learning Standards Addressed
Page 2
Theme
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Curriculum Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 3
Page 3
Pre Visit
Museum Manners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 4
K W L Exercise
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 5
Vocabulary List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 6
The Rockwell Museum Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 7
The Tanner by Seth Eastman Image. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 8
Painting Analysis Worksheet Directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 9
Painting Analysis Worksheet
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Page 10
The Tanner Questioning Activity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page 11
Writing Activity
Page 12
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Biography of Seth Eastman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page12,13
Post Visit
Extension Ideas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Page1315
Compare/Contrast - Venn Diagram
Page 16
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PLEASE NOTE
Please have your students wear nametags large enough to be read
by our docents.
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OBJECTIVES
Theme: Historic Iroquois Culture
Objectives:
1. To introduce students to Iroquois culture as it is seen through daily family life
and the child’s role within that social structure.
2. To help students understand that the Iroquois culture has changed, but is
alive and well today.
3. To understand Iroquois lifestyle through an exploration of the culture’s
agricultural year and its seasons and ceremonies.
4. To understand Iroquois lifestyle through an exploration of the culture’s
division of labor and its resulting male/female roles and domains.
5. To experience historic Iroquois craft by making traditional corn husk dolls.
NEW YORK STATE LEARNING STANDARDS ADDRESSED
Art
Standard 1:
Standard 2.
Standard 3.
Standard 4.
Creating, Performing, and Participating in the Arts
Knowing and Using Arts Materials and Resources
Responding to and Analyzing Works of Art
Understanding the Cultural Dimensions and Contributions of the Arts
English Language Arts
Standard 1.
Standard 2.
Standard 3.
Standard 4.
Language for Information and Understanding
Language for Literary Response and Expression
Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation
Language for Social Interaction
Social Studies
Standard 1. History of the United States and New York
Standard 3. Geography
Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government
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THEME
Historic Iroquois Culture
CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS
Art
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Exploration of mediums
Using themes, symbols, events, and personal experiences
Defining the artist
Cultural awareness
Analysis
English Language Arts



Listening
Speaking
Acquiring/Evaluating Data
Math


Comparative terms
Geometry
Science



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Cause and Effect
Earth’s resources
Climate
Animals
Social Studies

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Geography
New York State History
Iroquois Culture
Community
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MUSEUM MANNERS
Please go over these basic rules with your students before their visit; and if
possible, make copies for your chaperones.

Number One Rule – Do Not Touch.

Stay at least one foot away from the works of art and one foot away from
cases containing art.

Please do not lean on walls.

Groups must stay together at all times.

Walk; don’t run.

Talk; don’t yell.

Raise hands to speak.

No eating, drinking, or chewing gum in the galleries.

Backpacks must not be carried through the museum but may be left in our
coatroom.

Use pencils only for sketching or notes.

No flash photography.
PLEASE NOTE
Teachers and chaperones are responsible for maintaining the
same discipline as you would in the classroom.
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K W L EXERCISE
What do you know, what do you want to know,
and what did you learn?
This exercise is an assessment tool that you can use to evaluate basic
information that was learned on the tour.
Before your visit ask students to tell you:
What do you know
 about Iroquois agriculture and ceremonies?
 about Iroquois lifestyle?
Then ask students:
What do you want to know


about Iroquois agriculture and ceremonies?
about Iroquois lifestyle?
Record answers and save for post visit.
After the visit ask students to tell you:
What did you learn


about Iroquois agriculture and ceremonies?
about Iroquois lifestyle?
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VOCABULARY
1. Art Museum - A place that protects and displays artwork that is of special
interest or value.
2. Native American - The first people to live in the Americas (North, Central,
and South). Native Americans are also called Indians.
3. Pattern – In artwork, repeated pictures or shapes that make a design
(i.e., on clothing, pottery, beadwork, and weaving).
9. Pottery - An object made out of clay (i.e., bowls, cups, dishes).
10. Matrilineal - is a system in which lineage is traced through the mother and
maternal ancestors
11. Natural resource – something found in the Earth that people can use.
12. Environment – The surroundings in which people, animals, and plants live.
13. Haudenosaunee – People of the longhouse - is what the Six Nations
Iroquois Confederacy call themselves.
14. Heritage – is the history, beliefs, and customs that a group of people share.
15. Ancestors – people in your family that lived before you.
9. Clan – matrilineal extended families.
10. Cradleboard - a wooden frame worn on the back, used by North American
Indian women for carrying an infant while working or traveling.
11. Tanning - The process of making leather from rawhides.
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PROPERTY OF THE
The ROCKWELL MUSEUM
The Rockwell Museum, Corning, New York
Exterior Photo 2001
Photo Credit: Frank J. Borkowski
7
Seth Eastman, The Tanner, 1848
PROPERTY OF THE ROCKWELL MUSEUM
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PAINTING ANALYSIS WORKSHEET DIRECTIONS

Project the transparency of The Rockwell Museum to show students where their
visit will take place.

Project the transparency of The Tanner. Please let your students know that they
will be seeing this painting when they come to The Rockwell Museum.
Have students observe the painting and complete the Painting Analysis
Worksheet on page 10. You will need to make one copy for each student.
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PAINTING ANALYSIS WORKSHEET
Painting: The Tanner
Artist:
Seth Eastman
Observe the entire painting again. Next, examine individual items in the
painting. Then, divide the painting into four sections and study each
section to see what new details become visible.
Step 1: OBSERVATION
List people, animals, objects, and actions in the painting.
People
Animals
Objects
Actions
Step 2: CONCLUSIONS
Based on what you wrote above, list three things you think are happening
in this painting.
1.
2.
3.
Step 3: PURPOSE
Why do you think the artist created this painting?
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The Tanner
QUESTIONING ACTIVITY
Engage students in the questioning activity below. Students may refer to their
painting analysis worksheet to begin the dialogue. This activity will encourage
students to feel free to answer questions and share their ideas on the tour.
Ask:
“What’s going on in this picture?”
(This asks students to open the conversation about their observation.)
Expand questioning with:
“What else is happening?”
“What more?”
Seek clarification with:
“What do you see that makes you say that?”
(This causes students to ground interpretations in their observations.)
Ask:
“Who do you see here?”
(This asks students to delve more deeply into what they can and cannot
surmise about the characters represented in the work and to extract
information from the painting itself.)
“What can we learn from looking at…their clothes, their pose, expression,
gesture?”
Ask:
“What are they doing?”
(This requires students to pinpoint activities, events, body language, and
gestures.)
Ask:
“Where are they?”
(This asks students to examine the work carefully to determine the setting for
the piece.)
Ask:
“When is it?”
“What time of day is it?”
“What season is it?”
“In what era can we place this work?”
Ask:
“What do you think the artist was trying to tell us about the people, person,
and place?”
(This introduces the idea that artists make choices and do so intentionally.)
“How does the artist persuade us of particular interpretations?”
(This requires students to provide evidence for their speculation or
conjecture.)
“Why do you think the artist might have made a picture like this?”
(This encourages students to think about art in relationship to real life.)
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WRITING ACTIVITY
Paint a picture with words…
Have students write a descriptive paragraph, story, or poem that reflects your
interpretation of the painting The Tanner, by Seth Eastman.
Note to teacher: This is your choice depending on what you are working on in your
ELA curriculum at the time of your tour.
Suggestion for a poem:
Describe what the Indian(s) sees, hears, and feels.
Starting Line I am a Woodland Indian….
Second Line I see (describe)…
Third Line
I hear (describe)…
Fourth Line
I feel (describe)…
NOTE: Please bring one or two examples of writing to be read aloud while
observing the painting on the tour.
SETH EASTMAN BIOGRAPHY
Origin: United States
Profession: Draftsman, Painter, and Military Officer
Born: 1808, Brunswick, Maine
Died: 1875, Washington, D.C.
As a career military man, Seth Eastman traveled along the
Mississippi frontier during the first half of the nineteenth
Skinning the Buffalo,
century as part of his service in the army. After graduating
Engraving
from West Point in 1829, he served as a topographical
draftsman at Fort Crawford in Wisconsin and Fort Snelling in Minnesota. He
regularly sketched the Indians and landscapes of the military forts where he served
and also learned the languages and customs of many tribes, especially the Dakotas
and Chippewa. From 1833 to 1840, Eastman taught drawing at West Point,
continued to study art under C.R. Leslie and Robert W. Weir, and exhibited at the
Apollo Gallery and National Academy of Design. He returned to Fort Snelling in 1841
to continue his Indian studies. After tours of duty in Texas and Utah, he served in the
Civil War as a quartermaster general and then retired as a brigadier general.
Congress commissioned the artist to paint Indian and fort scenes for the Capitol
building in 1867.
Eastman sketched and painted realistic, detailed images of frontier life at the forts.
He focused his subjects on the Indians who would meet at the forts as well as the
landscapes along the Mississippi.
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Using *daguerreotype photographs and pencil sketches from the field, Eastman
composed watercolor and oil paintings that are extremely detailed and accurate
without changing the original compositions. The artist only altered his paintings from
the field sketches by adding a canoe, deer, or some other element to add a sense of
scale to the landscape.
Henry Lewis bought over eighty of Eastman's sketches as resource material for his
panorama project as well as his book Das Illustrirte Mississippithal. Eastman also
collaborated with his wife on several books, including The Romance of Indian Life,
American Aboriginal Portfolio, and Chicora, in which she wrote the text and he
provided illustrations. Eastman's paintings can be seen in the Capitol building,
Smithsonian Institution, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art,
the Gilcrease Museum, the Stark Museum, The Rockwell Museum and the Joslyn
Museum of Art.
*Daguerreotype:
an early photographic process named for its inventor Louis Daguerre (1789-1851) with the image
made on a light-sensitive silver-coated metallic plate. It was first introduced in America by Samuel
F.B.Morse in 1839.
POST VISIT SUGGESTIONS
Have students access the Museum’s website @www.rockwellmuseum.org and click
on “Collections”. A slide show of Museum artwork is available for viewing.
Compare/Contrast Paintings
Have students’ select two pieces of artwork with a Native American theme. Ask them
to compare and contrast the images. Students may use copies of the Venn diagram
graphic organizer on page 16.
Create Folktales and Legends
Share some examples of Iroquois folktales and legends with students. Explain that
many Indian legends were explanations of how things came to be. Ask the students
to create their own legend about a provided topic or on a topic of their choosing. An
example of a topic idea is why the turtle carries his house on his back. Compile the
stories to make a book featuring “Legends from Mr. /Mrs. /Ms. ________
Classroom”. Include illustrations of the legends as well.
13
Nature Poetry
Appreciation of nature and order marked the Indian’s world. Have students create
poems celebrating nature and the earth’s gifts. Topic ideas: seasons, fruits and
vegetables that grow locally, animals that populate our environment in upstate New
York etc.
Play Iroquois Games
Practice some of the Iroquois games mentioned in the program (peach pit, ring and
pin toss games.
Peach Pit Game:
During the Green Corn Ceremony the peach pit game was played because peaches
were ripening in addition to the corn.
How to play the game: dried pits are marked and tossed in a wooden bowl like dice.
You earned 1 point if black, 5 clear or vice versa; 5 points if all clear or all black.
Games pitted clan against clan.
Split the class in half and have them choose a clan animal and keep score.
Ring and Pin (Stick) Game:
This game required good hand-eye coordination. A ring was attached to a cord
which was then attached to a stick. The ring was swung in the air with an attempt to
catch it on the stick. Woman and girls typically played this game. A similar European
game is the cup and ball toss.
Have the students bring in twigs or small sticks from home or the school’s grounds.
Use rawhide shoe laces for the cord. Tie off a loop at the end of the cord or tie on
some type of ring. Have the students swing the cord upward to try and catch the
loop with the tip of the stick.
14
Imaginary Diary
Have the students write a diary from several days in the life of a young Iroquois girl
or boy. The diary can focus on a special event or ceremony of the tribe, or may
simply describe everyday life.
Prepare traditional Iroquois foods
Traditional recipes have evolved or changed as ingredients became available in new
forms. Recipes that predate European settlement can now be made with canned
goods and mixes from the local supermarket.
Corn Pudding
1 package JIFFY corn muffin mix
1 17 oz can creamed corn
2 eggs
1/3 cup oil
2/3 cup milk
Bake in well greased deep dish in 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes
Corn Bread
1 package JIFFY corn muffin mix
1 8 oz can corn kernels, drained
1 egg
1/3 cup milk
Bake in greased square 8” x 8” pan in 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes
Pumpkin Soup (10 – 12 Servings)
(1) 1 lb. 13 oz. can pumpkin puree
1 qt. milk
2 Tbs. butter
2 Tbs. honey
2 Tbs. maple sugar
½ tsp. powdered marjoram
dash fresh pepper
¼ tsp. cinnamon
½ tsp mace
1 tsp salt
juice of 1 orange
1. Heat pumpkin, milk, butter and honey, slowly.
2. Combine maple sugar, marjoram, pepper, cinnamon, mace and salt.
3. Add orange juice, a little at a time. Stir constantly. Do not boil.
Serve hot
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