american indian lesson -- tribes -- TEACHERS' LOUNGE

[ Show ]

Support VoyForums

[ Shrink ]

VoyForums Announcement: Programming and providing support for this service has been a labor of love since 1997. We are one of the few services online who values our users' privacy, and have never sold your information. We have even fought hard to defend your privacy in legal cases; however, we've done it with almost no financial support -- paying out of pocket to continue providing the service. Due to the issues imposed on us by advertisers, we also stopped hosting most ads on the forums many years ago. We hope you appreciate our efforts.

Show your support by donating any amount. (Note: We are still technically a for-profit company, so your contribution is not tax-deductible.) PayPal Acct: Feedback:

Donate to VoyForums (PayPal):

[ Login ] [ Contact Forum Admin ] [ Main index ] [ Post a new message ] [ Search | Check update time ]

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]

Date Posted: 09:08:28 08/27/04 Fri
Author: dpego
Subject: american indian lesson -- tribes

Here is a free lesson on American Indians:

Just what is a tribe anyway?

A tribe is a group of men, women and children who share common backgrounds such as a historic language, ancestry, traditions, original homelands.

Because many Indian tribes were part of nearly 400 treaties between their leaders and the United States government long ago, the U.S. Supreme Court has long ruled that tribes are still soverign nations, but that they hold what is called limited sovereignty. That is, they have the right to make their own laws as long as they do not interfere with the laws and regulations of the U.S. government. As a group or as individuals, they can designate and own land in areas where their people once lived. These lands are called reservations. The U.S. government recognized there are about 570 American Indian tribes but the number grows by up to three or four tribes every year or so. Some states also recognized groups as being American Indian tribes who lived in their territoroy. Nearly 100 groups also have applications on file to the U.S. government which determines if they really had ancestors who once lived together in tribal communities for several hundred years.

We'll talk more about tribes later, but let's look at different politically designated groups, such as tribes, that YOU belong to.

Do you live in a city, town or village? Then you are a resident of that place. Do you live in a state or a commonwealth or a territory? Then you also are a member of that group.

Think of other groups that you belong to. In small groups of you and your classmates, write a list of other groups that you can think of related to geography and politically designated rules.

(Certainly, counties, parishes and even geographical regions apply. Can students also think of any geographical areas - such as The Pacific Northwest -- that are used to desribe where they live?)

For groups to maintain a peaceful and prosperous lifestyle, they usually have to have a set of common laws, rules and regulations.

Look in the newspaper today and find stories that involve rules being broken or enforced. What groups made the rules?

We'll look at more about American Indians in the near future on this message board

[ Next Thread | Previous Thread | Next Message | Previous Message ]