SS 4 Standard 1 Combo
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Standard Indicator
The Miami Indians
Purpose
Students will identify and describe historic Indian groups that lived
in the region that became Indiana at the time of early European
exploration and settlement in the seventeenth century.
Materials
For the teacher: overhead projector, transparency of the map
on page iv of The Miamis! by Nancy Niblock Baxter
For each student: blank journal or notebook, copy of Black Line
Master (BLM) Learning About the Miami Indians
For each group of students: copy of The Miamis! by Nancy
Niblock Baxter
extending
THE
ACTIVITY
Divide students into
10 groups, and assign
each group one of the
tales from Chapter 3
of The Miamis! to
dramatize or retell
to another class in
the school.
Activity
A. Introduction
1. Tell students that they will be learning about the American
Indians who lived in Indiana at the time of the early explorers
and settlers.
2. Show the transparency of the map from The Miamis! and point
out the location of the different tribes in 1790. Point out
the location of your local community to give students a sense
of perspective.
3. Remind students that, even though they will be focusing on
the Miami Indians, there were other tribes living in Indiana.
B. Reading About the Miamis
1. Divide students into groups of four or five. Explain that each
group will let its members take turns reading The Miamis!
and leading discussion on each chapter.
2. Hand out copies of The Miamis! and the BLM Learning About
the Miami Indians to each group. Give each student a social
studies journal.
3. Explain to students that they will work in their groups to read
the book and discuss the questions from the BLM. Explain that
they will discuss the answers to the questions as a group but that
each student will write down the answers in their individual
social studies journals.
(continued)
Standard 1 / Curriculum Framework / Activity 2
Indiana Social Studies Grade 4 Standards Resource, February 2003
meeting
individual
NEEDS
Have students who
need a challenge do
additional research on
another Indian tribe
that lived in Indiana
when the European
settlers arrived.
Standards Links
4.1.3, 4.1.14
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Standard 1
4.1.2
SS 4 Standard 1 Combo
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Activity (continued)
Standard 1
4. Allow students regular class time to read the chapters
and discuss the questions from the BLM in their groups.
5. Hold a class discussion after each chapter has been read
and questions have been answered in groups.
Questions for Review
Basic Concepts and Processes
After students have completed their journal entries, ask them
questions, such as:
What are some things you learned about the Miamis that
you did not know before?
Did your attitude about American Indians change after
reading this book? In what ways?
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Standard 1 / Curriculum Framework / Activity 2
Indiana Social Studies Grade 4 Standards Resource, February 2003
SS 4 Standard 1 Combo
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2:05 PM
Page 41
Name:
Learning About the Miami Indians
Chapter One − Introduction and Sa-kia’s Tale
1. What did you learn about the houses the Miamis lived in?
2. How did they travel from place to place?
3. Why were the Miamis friendlier toward the French than the English?
4. What other tribes lived in Indiana at this time?
5. How were babies and children treated?
6. What was the work of the women in the Miami tribe?
7. What was the work of the men and boys?
8. Tell about a girl’s “vision time.”
Chapter Two − A-son-da-ki’s Tale: A Miami Boy
1. What are some things A-son-da-ki’s uncle taught him in the “forest schoolroom”?
2. What new name did Little Turtle give A-son-da-ki?
3. What was in the medicine bag given to A-son-da-ki? Was he happy with it? Why?
Chapter Three − Minji’s Tale: Folk Tales of the Miamis
Read and summarize each of the tales told by Minji.
What event in nature does each explain?
Chapter Four − The Priest’s Tale: Religion and War
1. How did a Miami Indian become a Meda priest?
2. What was the responsibility of the priest?
3. What did the word “medicine” mean to an Indian?
4. What did the Meda “hear” at the end of this chapter?
What did he think it meant?
Chapter Five − Little Turtle’s Tale: Politics of the Miamis
1. How does Little Turtle become a war chief?
2. What were the spirit Thunder Bird’s rules of war?
3. Why was George Rogers Clark so angry with the Miamis?
4. Tell what you learned about William Wells.
Chapter Six − War Comes to the Miamis
Chapter Six tells about war coming to the Miamis.
Write a summary of what happened in this chapter.
Standard 1 / Curriculum Framework / Activity 2
Indiana Social Studies Grade 4 Standards Resource, February 2003
Black Line Master 1
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SS 4 Standard 1 Combo
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2:05 PM
Page 42
Learning About the Miami Indians
Teacher Directions
Divide students into groups of four or five. Explain that each group will let its members take turns reading
The Miamis! and leading discussion on each chapter.
Hand out copies of The Miamis! and the BLM Learning About the Miami Indians to each group. Give each
student a social studies journal. Explain to students that they will work in their groups to read the book
and discuss the questions from the BLM. Explain that they will discuss the answers to the questions as
a group but that each student will write down the answers in their individual social studies journals.
Allow students regular class time to read the chapters and discuss the questions from the BLM in their
groups. Hold a class discussion after each chapter has been read and questions have been answered
in groups.
Answer Key
Accept any appropriate response similar to the following:
Chapter One
1. They lived in wigwams that were made of bent branches covered with bark and sod.
2. They walked most of the time.
3. The French traded with them but did not try to take their land.
4. Delawares, Kickapoos, Shawnees, and Potawatomis.
5. Babies stayed always with mother on the cradleboard. Children did not cry. Children ate last.
6. Women built the summer and winter huts, tended the fields, and cooked. They took care of children.
7. The men fought the battles and hunted for food.
8. After not sleeping or eating for three days, the girl fell asleep and a vision came to her to tell her
what she would do later in life.
Chapter Two
1. The lesson of the months; how to fish, bend trees at right angles to show others which way to go, make signs
on big rocks, watch animal tracks, mask footsteps, hide his smell, carry the right weapon, identify snakes,
make a canoe.
2. He gave him the name of “Wounded Sun.”
3. There were turkey feathers in his medicine bag instead of hawk feathers. He thought it was a sign
of his foolishness.
Chapter Three
Students should identify and describe the events of nature in each tale.
Chapter Four
1. He became a priest because his ancestors (fathers, grandfathers, etc.) were priests.
2. The priest’s responsibility was to give the Indians the things necessary to make the spirits work for them.
3. Medicine meant magic or power.
4. He heard the brook saying that all things change, die, and then come again. He thought this meant that
the Miamis could not die, only change. If they fall, they will grow and bloom again as long as they are strong
in spirit.
Chapter Five
1. He was “a man of short stature and a strong-looking face.”
2. Know the enemy and try to out-think him; fight him in a fair fight; go swiftly, kill quickly, and act fairly;
if you cannot beat the enemy, find a way to live in peace.
3. Because when they attacked the fort in Kentucky, they went wild and killed women and children and looted
and took many things. They did not follow the rule of acting fairly.
4. He was Little Turtle’s American son. He returned to the whites.
Chapter Six
Students should have described how the Miamis wanted to achieve a “good peace,” but lost the battle
to save their lands.
Black Line Master 1
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Standard 1 / Curriculum Framework / Activity 2
Indiana Social Studies Grade 4 Standards Resource, February 2003