Native New England Ceramic Traditions Yesterday and Today

This lesson would be considered a unit. The goal is to have students look deeply at art of the Northeast Woodland Native culture both past and present and to see what meaning they can gain from the exploration to their lives. This skill can be adapted to any other culture, historical time period for any type of artwork, traditional, or contemporary. The average amount of time a viewer looks at a work of art is six seconds. An exercise such as this helps people to slow down and “see”. This technique can be very enlightening and done as a group students can see that everyone will have their own interpretations of things, but if an understanding can be brought about in regards to tribally specific meanings people can just begin to understand a different viewpoint from the dominate culture.

School name: 

Sherman Indian High School

School district: 

Federal Bureau of Indian Education/ Department of the Interior

State: 

California

Grade Level: 

9-12

Subject Area Focus: 

Other

Estimated days to complete: 

One to six weeks

Creator Name: 

Cindy Bééshłigaii