Add a Curriculum Bundle to Your Account!
Please select a bundle.
The Pack contains associated resources for the learning experience, typically in the form of articles and videos. There is a teacher Pack (with only teacher information) and a student Pack (which contains only student information). As a teacher, you can toggle between both to see everything.
Here are the teacher pack items for American Indian Cultures in Texas:
In this experience, students identify the four cultures of Native Americans in Texas: Gulf, Southeastern, Plains, and Pueblo. Then small groups research and write a report about a specific tribe. Finally, students analyze how tribes in a given region adapted to that region’s environment. Objectives:Overview
Many distinct Native nations and peoples lived on the land that is now Texas long before Europeans arrived. Historians and geographers often group these peoples into four broad cultural regions: Gulf, Southeastern, Puebloan, and Plains. These regions help describe similarities in environment and ways of life, but the peoples within each region had their own languages, traditions, governments, and identities.
For generations, Caddo people have passed down stories that explain their origins, values, and relationship with the natural world. The story below is one version of a Caddo emergence story from oral tradition. It describes how the first people and animals came into the world and reflects important ideas about community, responsibility, and the connection between people and the earth.
A very long time ago, men and animals were brothers and they lived together underground. Their leader, Neesh (Moon), discovered the entrance to a cave leading up to Earth’s surface. Neesh told everyone they should follow him to the new land. The people divided up into groups, each with a leader and a drum. The people sang and beat their drums as they walked along, and Neesh warned them never to look back the way they had come.
Soon they reached the opening at Earth’s surface. First an old man climbed out, carrying fire and a pipe in one hand and a drum in the other. Next came his wife, bringing corn and pumpkin seeds. They were followed by many more people and animals.
When Wolf climbed out, he turned around and looked back, even though Neesh had warned them not to. The opening snapped shut, trapping the rest of the people and animals underground, where they remain until today. Those who moved into the world of light sat down and cried for their friends left below in the world of darkness.
Because their ancestors came out of the ground, the Caddos call the Middle World ina’—Mother—and return to it when they die.
Based on this creation story, what can you infer about Caddo beliefs or values? Use one detail from the story to support your answer.
Students should be able to infer that the Caddo tribe depended on agriculture as their main food source. Supporting details include the seeds that they brought from underground, and that some of them still remain underground.
