History

History

Grade Level:

9, 10, 11, 12

Scope & Sequence:

US History (20th/21st Century)

Goal:

The students will be able to understand how the building of the Grand Coulee Dam impacted the Spokane Tribe’s way of life.

Objective:

The students will be able to understand the background and purpose of the Grand Coulee Dam.

Background Knowledge / Cultural Concept

  • Depression
  • New Deal for U.S. economic recovery
  • Were there laws or policy that had to be made in order to allow Grand Coulee Dam?
  • What happened to U.S. government’s legal financial responsibility to the Tribe?
  • What towns, orchards, roads, churches, cemeteries, etc. were inundated?

Spokane Tribal Values

  • Land and environment
  • Community
  • Forgiveness
  • Honesty
  • Home
  • Generosity
  • Hope

Vocabulary

  • FDR
  • Reservoir
  • Public Works
  • Resonate
  • The New Deal
  • Megawatt
  • Inundate
  • 1310 line
  • Jurisdiction

Lesson Plan

  • Introduce vocabulary and definitions – students will make a list with definitions
  • Activate prior knowledge through discussion of depression era • Grand Coulee Dam History – (http://www.nwcouncil.org/history/grandcouleehistory)
  • Teacher will print this document and pass out to students.
  • Students will annotate the text as the teacher reads and discusses. Guiding Questions: • How has the Dam impacted the State overall?
  • What are the Dam benefits for State/farmers/Tribes?
    • Irrigation
    • Manufacturing
    • Transportation
    • Recreation
    • Economy
    • Aluminum
    • Defense

Assessment:

  • Write a letter to Congressman in support of the Spokane Tribe for their Coulee Dam Settlement.

Enrichment:

Give students a poem from Children Left Behind: The Dark Legacy of Indian Mission Boarding Schools to analyze and reflect/connect

Materials Needed:

  • Article from website above
  • “Echoes of yesterday” [“Memorial to the American Indian and Howard T. Ball.” re: moving graves for Coulee Dam]
  •  “Damnation” documentary
  • Book: Dupris, J. C., Hill, K. S., & Rodgers, W. H. (2006). The Si’lailo Way: Indians, Salmon and Law on the Columbia River. Durham, NC: Carolina Academic Press.
  • United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP) available online
  • Pictures and maps of rivers after dams

Activity:

Lesson PDF Download

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Community Resources

Lesson Assigned To:

  • Social Studies Skills 5.2.1 Creates and uses research questions that are tied to an essential question to focus inquiry an idea, issue, or event.
  • Geo: 3.2.2 Understands and analyzes examples of ethnocentrism.

NGSS

Common Core Standards

RL.9-10.2 Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text.

Spokane Tribal Standards