THE ARRIVAL OF THE WHITE SETTLERS

OBJECTIVE: Students will understand some of the effects of the arrival of white settlers on traditional Washoe life, and on the Washoe people.

TEACHER BACKGROUND: See student booklet of the same title.

KEY POINTS: When the first white people came here, the Fremont expedition, the Donner party, da-'bo-oh and Washoe first impressions, the gold and silver rush, General Allotment Act, Indian schools, citizenship in 1924, federal recognition in 1934.

MATERIALS: cassette tape player.

MATERIALS FROM KIT: Washoe language tape, Lesson 11 notetaker and booklet.

ACTIVITIES:

1. Have the students go to the gym or outside to play tag. Have them gradually play in a smaller and smaller space.

2. Have the students sit down in a circle and talk about something important to them that they lost or that was taken away forever. Ask them if any of them or if any of their parents or grandparents spoke a different language when they were young, but can no longer remember it because they were no longer able or allowed to speak it.

3. Hand out the booklet for Lesson 11, and have the students read individually or with partners, and fill out their notetakers.

4. Have the students write a letter to a relative from far away describing their first encounters with white people. Brainstorm ideas as a class first things about the white settlers that the Washoe might have found threatening to their culture and to their lives.

5. To simulate life for the first Washoe students at Indian schools, have groups of students speak in only in the few Washoe words that they know for a few minutes. Lead a discussion about how it might have felt for Washoe children taken away from their homes and forced to speak English.

6. The Washoe vocabulary word for this lesson is: da-'bo-oh (white people). use the cassette tape of Washoe words for pronunciation, and see Appendix A for suggested vocabulary activities and Washoe spelling.

OPTIONS:

1. Instead of the letter to a relative, have the students write and illustrate a short story from the perspective of a Washoe person in the 1840s and 1850s seeing white people for the first time. Encourage the students to use their imaginations to describe their confusion, disgust, fear, etc., having never seen a white person before.

CLOSURE: Split the group into pairs, and tell them to take on their journal identities as nine-year-old Washoe boys and girls. Have each pair take turns telling each other two effects the arrival of the white settlers might have had on their lives, and two emotions they might have felt.

EVALUATION: Students' letters to relatives and their discussions with their partners will show their understanding of the effects of the arrival of white settlers on traditional Washoe people.