Native American Books

Native American Unit Study Resources - Books and Videos

There are so many books on Native American History. Our favorites are the type that teach through story. LIVING BOOKS!

Grade 1st - 4th

The Book of Indians by Holling C Holling describes Native Americans in four regions of the United States including the people of the forests (eastern and Great Lakes), plains, deserts and mesas and the rivers and sea (west coast Indians). Each tribal region is first described and then followed by two historical fiction stories of Native American children who lived there. Because I wanted my daughter to understand that the term Native American does not describe one group of people, but many, Holling C Holling's book was the core for this unit study.

My eight year old loves crafting, so our key to this unit study was the book More Than Moccasins: A Kid's Activity Guide to Traditional North American Indian Life (Hands-On History) by Laurie Carlson. The book contains over 100 simple crafts to be completed using common materials such as brown paper bags, and markers.

North American Indians (Pictureback(R)) was a simple book we read while writing down the names of some Indian tribes on the United States map showing where they used to live.

Northwest

Very Last First Time
Eskimo Boy ~ Life in an Inupiaq Eskimo Village
Kayuktuk: An Arctic Quest

Southwest
Pueblo Storyteller
Pueblo Boy: Growing Up in Two Worlds focus

Midwestern
The Sacred Harvest: Ojibway Wild Rice Gathering (We Are Still Here : Native Americans Today)


The Birchbark House

Eastern
Tapenum's Day: A Wampanoag Indian Boy In Pilgrim Times

Grade 5th - 8th


Indian Costumes
Water Sky

The Delaware Indians
Girl of the Shining Mountains: Sacagawea's Story tells the story of the Lewis and Clarke Expedition from Sacagawea's point of view. 

Videos -
Illinois Stories: Native American Clothes and Beads
America's Great Indian Nations
Native America Before Colonization

High School


Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison is based on the life of a colonist girl whose entire family was kidnapped by Indians. After the very difficult adjustment, Mary Jemison lived out her entire life with her new Indian family.


Undaunted Courage: Meriwether Lewis, Thomas Jefferson, and the Opening of the American West





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Native American Unit Study - Lesson 11: Pow Wow

Lesson 11: We attended an Native American Pow Wow.

Throughout our Native American Unit Study my 8 year old daughter created clothing in the Native American style using modern materials. She is shown below in her completed outfit which includes a Hopi style dress, midwestern style collar, plains style leggings, southwest style bracelet and more. She had lots of fun creating her outfit, so visiting a Pow Wow was the perfect ending to our Native American unit study. (Even if we went to the Pow Wow in the middle of our study. :))

A large drum was placed in the center of the Pow Wow where several men circled and played. Surrounding the drum there was an open area for dancing. Many different dances were performed. Some were hunting dances and special for the tribe hosting the event, but many were open to members of all tribes.

Plains Indians wore fancy bustles made from feathers during ceremonies.

Natives from many tribes carried pouches decorated with beadwork.

Today most Native Americans also have a mix of European ancestry. Although I don't know the history of this gentleman, to me he looked very Native American.

We liked the bells and beads on her dress.

Beaded barrettes handmade were sold at the Pow Wow.

Baskets were also sold as were goods from all over the world. My older daughter purchased a hand made shall from Ecuador as it was a bit cold the day we visited the Pow Wow.

Native American Unit Study - Lesson 10: Northwestern Indians

Lesson 10: My daughter made a clothespin totem pole.

Before creating her totem pole we read several picture books to learn more about Native American tribes of the north.

Very Last First Time
Eskimo Boy ~ Life in an Inupiaq Eskimo Village
Kayuktuk: An Arctic Quest

In addition we read the book Water Sky, a chapter book which tells the adventurous story of a whale hunt.

Totem poles were made by the whale hunting, fish eating tribes of the Northwest extending from Washington into Alaska. Much like a coat of arms from medieval Europe is a family specific symbol, a totem pole represents a specific family. Animals on the poles tell stories which may tie to personality traits or events involving the family's history.

They were traditionally carved from cedar trees, but my daughter's totem pole was miniature sized and simply painted onto a wooden clothes pin.

She used acrylic paints to create images of several animals.

Native American Unit Study - Lesson 9: Advanced Beadwork

My daughter created a Native American style beaded bracelet.

After experimenting with large plastic beads to create Native American beadwork, my daughter wanted to create more authentic pieces. Therefore, I purchased a Learning Circle Loom Kit from the Noc Bay Trading Company. The kit came with everything needed to create a bracelet including beads, nylon tread, needles, directions, wax and a loom.

Setting up the project was simple and straight forward after reading the directions. The most difficult part, by far, was stringing the first row of beads. It was quite difficult to get each bead into its proper place, but once the first row was complete, my daughter was able to do the rest on her own.

She followed a pattern included in the kit to create her design.

Once the bracelet was long enough, it was cut from the loom.

Next it was glued to a strip of leather included in the kit. Two small strips of leather were glued over the ends to hide the nylon string.

Once it was dry, she punched holes into the ends and tied it around her wrist.

She really enjoys crafts, so learning about Native American beading through this hands-on activity was perfect.

Check out these great blogs full of educational activity ideas.

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Native American Unit Study - Lesson 8b: Plains Indians

My daughter made leggings, a pouch and a fancy bustle.

Since my daughters were both in dance and often wore leg warmers, they knew exactly what legging were. Native Americans wore them to keep warm, but also to protect their legs from plants and bushes. If you've ever done yard work or broken the trail on a hike wearing shorts, the value of leggings can be appreciated.

The crafts from this post were based on crafts discussed in the book More Than Moccasins: A Kid's Activity Guide to Traditional North American Indian Life (Hands-On History) by Laurie Carlson. Each day we read about several traditions of Native Americans and then my daughter selects a craft based on the tradition. Since she enjoys sewing, she often selects clothing based crafts and modifies the instructions to incorporate fabric instead of paper.

Leggings
Native leggings were usually made from animal skins and contained fringe and other decorative items. My daughter made her leggings from green fleece fabric to go with the other articles of Native American clothing she has been sewing over the past several weeks.

 The were made by sewing rectangular pieces of fabric in half with a seam approximately two inches from the open edge of the fabric. Next she cut fringe into the open edge and sewed on ribbon for decoration.

Pouch
Native Americans carried pouches and bags in a large variety of shapes and sizes. Like the clothing, carrying cases were often decorated with beadwork.

 My daughter made this pouch from red fleece by sewing two pieces of fabric together. Once together, the flap was decorated with beads and folded down.

Fancy Bustle
Plains tribes wore a circle of feathers attached to their back for ceremonies. My daughter made one for her stuffed hedgehog.

 It was made by stapling feathers to a doughnut shaped piece of cardboard.

Native American Unit Study - Lesson 8a: Plains Indians

My daughter made a Native American headband and a fetish necklace.

The plains Indians followed the buffalo as the buffalo was essential for their houses, clothing and food. Horses brought to America by Europeans drastically changed the way of life of plains tribes. After some horses escaped and flourished in the wild, plains Indians began to capture and tame the wild horses. They became expert horsemen, using horses to transport goods and more easily hunt the buffalo.

The crafts from this post were based on crafts discussed in the book More Than Moccasins: A Kid's Activity Guide to Traditional North American Indian Life (Hands-On History) by Laurie Carlson.

Fetish Necklace
Much like a lucky rabbit's foot is carried in a pocket or worn around the neck, Plains Indians carried or wore fetish necklaces. Traditionally carved from stone, these small objects were thought to have magical powers and bring luck to the wearer.

My daughter made her fetish necklace by sewing two tiny pieces of fabric together in the shape of a hedgehog. She tied her hedgehog to a string to wear around her neck.

Headdress
Many tribes wore headdresses containing feathers. Depending upon the region, the feathers stuck straigt up, out to the sides or draped down the back. Often Eagle feathers were placed in the headwear as they were difficult to obtain.

In the same way Americans are rewarded with medals of honor, Natives were rewarded by adding another feather to their headdress.

To make her headdress, my daughter folded a piece of construction paper into a strip and then attached a string to make it fit around her head. She glued on feathers and added hanging beads.

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Native American Unit Study - Lesson 7b: Hopi Clothing

My daughter made a Hopi dress with a belt.

In the book More Than Moccasins: A Kid's Activity Guide to Traditional North American Indian Life (Hands-On History) by Laurie Carlson, my daughter learned that Hopi women wore dresses with only one shoulder strap belted at the waist. She decided to make a dress of her own.

Her dress was constructed from fleece. To cut the material she laid one of her tank tops on top of the material to get the sizing close. Then she cut the fabric into a dress shape.

The dress was sewn down the sides and at the shoulder.

A decorative ribbon was added at the bottom.

Next she cut a long narrow strip of fleece to be tied at the waist as a belt. Fringe was added to the end of the belt as were fancy stitches into the boarders.

If you've been following Highhill Education, you may have noticed the theme of green fleece in the Native American clothing posts. My daughter's favorite craft is sewing. Therefore, after reading about many different traditions of Native American tribes, my daughter usually decided to make an article of clothing for her craft. She has an entire Native American outfit nearly completed. However, the outfit was made by combining the traditional clothing styles of many different tribes. Therefore, you will have to wait a week or two to see the entire outfit. Stay tuned. :)

Looking for more activities to do with children? Be sure to check out the pages of this blog; Math, Language Arts, Science, History, Geography, Arts and Crafts and these other great Blog Hops.