Oklahoma Priority Academic Students Skills Grade 4 Social Studies: 5.2 – Describe major events of Oklahoma’s past, such as settlements by Native Americans, cattle drives, land runs, statehood, and the discovery of oil. Grade 5 Social Studies: 7.4 – Interpret geographic information to explain how society changed as the population of the United States moved west, including where Native Americans lived and how they made their living.

Lesson Objectives Students will learn how Native Americans made their living before European settlers came to that part of North America that became the United States. Students will discover where Native Americans lived before settlers arrived. Students will realize why Native Americans were pushed out of their traditional lands. Students will discover where the different Native American tribes were moved during and after colonial expansion.

How Did Powhatan Natives Live? 1. What crops did the Powhatan natives grow? 2. What animals did they hunt? 3. What materials were used to build their homes? 4. What natural plant resources did they use?

This recreated Powhatan Village at Jamestown, Virginia, is based on archaeological findings and descriptions recorded by colonists. These reed covered houses demonstrate how the natives depended on natural resources. Canoes were made by hollowing out trees. All photos without URLs are by Glenda Sullivan

Many of the Powhatan lived in longhouses which housed one nuclear family. An indoor fire was used for warmth and cooking in the winter. The houses had storage racks to hold equipment and food.

Skins and furs were used for clothing and blankets.

Women and children planted gardens of corn, beans and squash. A child would sit in this scarecrow hut and scare animals away from the garden. When harvested in the fall, many vegetables were dried for later use. In winter, Powhatan natives relied upon gathering edible roots, nuts, acorns and berries.

Men hunted or trapped white-tailed deer, rabbits, squirrels, bear, beaver, geese and ducks for meat and hides for clothing.

Fish, which supplemented their food supply, were plentiful in the James River. The village was not far from the Atlantic Ocean where oysters, mussels, crabs and clams were abundant.

On May 14, 1607, a group of 104 English men and boys aboard 3 ships (the Susan Constant, the Godspeed and the Discovery) arrived on the banks of Virginia’s James River.

The English established a permanent settlement they called Jamestown. The settlers cleared the land and began exploiting the available resources.

Jamestown had deep water off shore for ships, but the drinking water was not good. It was brackish and salty because the settlement on the James River was too close to the estuary.

The settlers fenced in land and brought cows from England.

The English brought Christianity to Jamestown. The original church was made of wood. Pocahontas was converted to Christianity and married John Rolfe in the Jamestown church.

Pocahontas Statue Pocahontas was the daughter of Chief Powhatan. Captain John Smith believed she had saved his life twice. In , she was a frequent guest at Jamestown, often bringing gifts of food from her father. The marriage of Pocahontas to John Rolfe in 1614 helped establish peaceful relations between the English and the Powhatan tribe, but Pocahontas died in 1617, at the young age of twenty-two.

The English settlers continued to seek the land and resources of the Powhatan tribe. The Powhatan natives fought back, but did not have the capacity to fight an endless stream of armed Englishmen.

The United States in 1800 consisted of 16 states. Florida did not become a state until 1845, although St. Augustine was founded by the Spanish in The United States also included the Northwest, Indiana and Mississippi Territories. Maine was a part of Massachusetts, Virginia included West Virginia, and Georgia claimed northern Alabama and Mississippi.