A Mohawk Iroquois Village
at the New York State Museum
TEACHERS’ GUIDE
Where to Go
Entering the Native Peoples of New York hall turn left
at the mastodont exhibit and follow the corridor around to the right until
you see the life-size reconstructed Longhouse. Stand at the bottom of the stairs looking up at the Longhouse.
What to See
Look at the life-size statue of the man who is up on
the house. Question what he is doing, how he got up there, what he might do
next, and if anyone else would be around to help him or if he would be
working alone to build the house.
NYS Standards
Social Studies 1.2 –
Historic information at a specific time in New York history (1600)
Where to Go
Go up the stairs and enter the Longhouse, gently touching the outside
of the house as you enter.
What to See
Gently touch* the poles that make up the structure of
the house and the lashings strips. These are made of strips of bark and
would be wet when the house was being built. Look up and see the strips
that the man is using to hold the house together.
NYS Standards
Social Studies 4.1 –
Economics, Use of natural resources
Social
Studies 3.1 – Geography, Physical settings
*Although most things in the Museum’s exhibits
are not to be touched, the poles, lashings, and bark that make up the
Longhouse are accessible and can be touched. Students should be reminded to
be gentle when touching these parts of the exhibit.
Where to Go
Go all the way into the house to the Wisdom of the Elders life group.
There is an audio tape presentation of the grandmother telling 3 stories to
her family.
What to See
Listen to one of the stories. Iroquois history and
culture is taught by the elders through storytelling.
NYS Standards
English Language Arts 3.1 –
Listening for critical analysis, Family History/Memories, Oral transmission of history
Social Studies 1.3 – cultural comparison/contrast
Where to Go
Go back out and sit on the lower seating platforms in
the Longhouse.
What to See
The basic structure of the longhouse was wooden poles
cut from trees and lashed together with strips of bark. The framework was
then covered over with large sheets of bark.
The inside of the longhouse was divided into sections
each with its own fire and smoke-hole along with sleeping and storage
areas.
NYS Standards
Social Studies 3.1 –
Geography, the world in spatial terms - Spatial relationships and human
systems
Where to Go
Artifacts of the Iroquois Longhouse c. 1450-1600 cases outside the Longhouse contain household items that were found by archaeologists.
Objects like these were reproduced to furnish the Wisdom of the Elders life group and Three Sisters/Growing Field
exhibits.
What to See
Large cooking pots were needed to prepare food for the
many people living in the longhouse. Decorations on the pots show that the
people took time to make even every-day objects special. Size, shape and
decoration can help archaeologists date the pots, because these changed
over time.
NYS Standards
Social Studies 4.1 –
Economics, Use of natural resources, size, and degree of technology
Social Studies 1.2 –
Historic information on a specific time in New York history (1600)
Where to Go
Go past the Longhouse to the Three Sisters/Growing
Field, a life-size reconstructed field where the crops of corn/maize, beans, and squash are being tended
by the women of the village. http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/Iroquois Village/sistersone.html
What to See
The crops (corn/maize, beans, and squash) are planted
in mounds with the squash spreading out on the ground and the beans
climbing up the corn/maize stalks. This practice allowed the natural
properties of the plants to work together.
NYS Standards
Social Studies 4.1 – Economics, Use of natural
resources, Resources, size, degree of technology, Division of labor
Where to Go
Turn around and see the life-size reconstruction of a
section of the palisade wall that would have encircled the village.
What to See
The palisade is a double wall made of tall poles that
are held together with smaller branches. The space between the two walls
would have been filled with branches and stones.
NYS Standards
Social Studies 3.1 –
Geography, the world in spatial terms - Spatial relationships and human
systems
Where to Go
Go down the stairs by the Longhouse to the Village Model. This is a miniature model of an entire Mohawk Iroquois
village as it is being built (1600).
What to See
Hilltop site
Palisade wall for protection
Large size population
NYS Standards
Social Studies 3.1 –
Geography, Physical settings, How people live in different regions, The
world in spatial terms
Please note that all of the web links in this document
were active at the time it was written. However, we cannot guarantee that
links will remain functional indefinitely.
Skills Goals
Students visiting the exhibition may:
• identify the
materials used to make Iroquois Longhouses
• classify the
natural materials used for tools and household objects
• compare the
Iroquois Longhouse to other houses of the time (the Algonkian wigwam
located in New York Hall) and/or to houses today
Content Goals
From this exhibit students may:
• learn how
Iroquois people built houses out of wood
and bark
• listen to
traditional Iroquois stories
• view the
spatial patterns of Iroquois villages and
farm fields
• learn about
Iroquois farming methods
Some Information Available on the New York State
Museum’s Web Site
A Mohawk Iroquois Village: An Exhibit at the New York
State Museum
Extensive background information about this exhibit,
along with photographs can be found on the New York State Museum’s
web site at: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/IroquoisVillage/
• These three
exhibits depict life in a Mohawk Iroquois village about 1600, before
European influence greatly changed Iroquois culture. Exhibit photos include
a scale model of an Iroquois village, part of a full sized longhouse with
furnishings, and an agricultural field. This web site presents scenes from
these dioramas and explanatory text on Iroquois longhouses, village life
and agriculture.
Links within the site include:
• Iroquois Village http:
//www.nysm.nysed.gov/IroquoisVillage/villageone.html Photographic
prints with text
• The Three Sisters http:
//www.nysm.nysed.gov/IroquoisVillage/sistersone.html A guide to an
Iroquois agricultural field diorama
• Iroquois Longhouse http:
//www.nysm.nysed.gov/IroquoisVillage/constructionone.html A description of
a longhouse: construction, interior layout and tools
• Building a Longhouse Model http:
//www.nysm.nysed.gov/IroquoisVillage/buildingmodel.html Plans and materials
• A Mohawk Iroquois Village circa 1600 http:
//www.nysm.nysed.gov/IroquoisVillage/slideonea.html A 20 slide set with
annotations
• Some Iroquois Artifacts http:
//www.nysm.nysed.gov/IroquoisVillage/slidetwoa.html A 20 slide set with
annotations
• Eyewitness Accounts http:
//www.nysm.nysed.gov/IroquoisVillage/accounts.html
Original
descriptions of Iroquois longhouses by early European explorers
The Lewis Henry Morgan Collection
• Photographs and
information from The Lewis Henry Morgan
Collection at the New York State Museum -
mid-nineteenth century Iroquois materials collected by Morgan between 1849
and 1850 can be reached at: http://www.nysm.nysed.gov/morgan/
The Governor’s Collection of Contemporary Native
American Crafts
• The
Governor’s Collection is a collaborative effort between the New York
State Museum and Native American communities to create a collection of
contemporary crafts representing the living culture and thriving art of
Native Peoples of New York. Recent acquisitions may be viewed at: http:
//www.nysm.nysed.gov/govcollect
Current Research
• Information about the current research on the historic and prehistoric archaeology of
New York that is being conducted by the New York
State Museum’s Anthropological Survey can be reached at: http:
//www.nysm.nysed.gov/research/anthropology
You May Also Want to Visit Some of These Additional
Web Sites
[These sites are not affiliated with and not endorsed
by the New York State Museum.]
• The Haudenosaunee Home Page http:
//www.sixnations.org
• Artisans and Craftworkers of the Mohawk Nation
of Akwesasne
http://www.peacetree.com/akwesasne/home.htm
• The Oneida Nation http://www.oneida-nation.net/
• The Onondaga Nation School http:
//www.onondaganationschool.org/
• The Seneca Nation http://www.sni.org/
• Peace 4 Turtle Island, a site dedicated to
providing culturally sensitive and
accurate information about the
Iroquois, or Haudenosaunee (People of the Longhouse) people, http:
//www.peace4turtleisland.org/
Bibliography for Teachers
To evaluate children’s books for anti-Indian bias
when presenting
Native American history to young children:
Through Indian Eyes: The Native Experience in Books
for Children
Author: Slapin, Beverly and Seale, Doris
This book includes a compilation of work from a Native
American perspective presented by parents, educators, poets, and writers.
More than 100 critical reviews of children’s books by and about
Indian peoples are discussed. It is an excellent source for anyone
interested in presenting non-biased material about indigenous people to
children.
Publisher & Date: Beverly Slapin and Doris Seale,
1998
Age-Appropriateness: Preschool - Grade 8
This book is available at the New York State Library
and may also be available at your local or school library.
Fluffs and Feathers: An Exhibit on the Symbols of
Indianness – A Resource Guide
Author: Doxtator, Deborah
This book offers an important introduction to the way
First Nations and Native Americans are portrayed in popular culture.
Written by Mohawk scholar Deborah Doxtator, Fluffs
and Feathers details the ways in which Native
People have been categorized, displayed, portrayed, and exploited by
Western culture and advertising. Fluffs and
Feathers offers a sample of the range of
images used to portray “Indians in historical and contemporary
North American society. The ideas of Indianness, the use of Indians as a
cultural resource, the portrayal of Indians in movies and literature, and
the depiction of Indians in history texts are all areas for analysis. The
use and impact of these symbols on contemporary Native and non-native
cultures are detailed. This book is available at the New York State Library
and may also be available at your local or school library. It is also
available for purchase at http://www.goodminds.com/american/aframe.htm
An extensive bibliography for teachers, Native Americans: Stereotype vs. Reality, is available on line from the Smithsonian Institution at http:
//www.si.edu/resource/faq/nmai/naster.htm
Pre-Visit Suggestions
Discussion ideas:
Land Use – have
students describe how we use the environment and compare that to the way
the Iroquois of c.1600 used the same environment. For example, compare and
contrast how sites are selected when choosing land for building
settlements, for farming, for land ownership differences, or for
communication between settlements.
What do people need to survive – make a list of objects we use every day. Compare and
contrast these with objects used by the Iroquois of c.1600. Think about the
similarities and differences between how we and the Iroquois of c.1600
solve the basic human needs of food, clothing, housing, transportation, and
tools. Also, think about what materials were used to make tools – today we have many
steel tools – and about the proliferation of specialized tools today.
Home Life – discuss
differences between living in your family home and living as a member of a
communal longhouse. Have students think about their own homes, especially
their bedrooms. Discuss the concepts of privacy, property, family,
discipline, competition and recreation. These questions might be posed
after a discussion of typical Iroquois domestic architecture – the longhouse – and its internal organization of space, compared with the variety
of dwelling kinds known in our culture – mobile homes, apartments, houses – and their internal
organization into spaces having specific functions. You might want to
compare this to the one room log cabin on the “American
Frontier” in 1800.
Activity ideas:
Archaeology –
make a list of each object in one waste basket at home. If all of this were
buried for 500 years what would survive? How would an archaeologist
interpret these objects? Also, would the archaeologist be able to identify
the individual[s] who owned these objects? Would these objects be
sufficient for the archaeologist to identify the language and culture of
the persons to whom these objects belonged? And would these objects in
themselves be sufficient to reconstruct the “entire culture?”
What information is missing? What information would be needed: more
artifacts, more written records, some or more visual records? If you can
excavate a 2 meter square in your school yard, list everything you find and
explain, using the suggestions listed previously, what you can learn about
your school yard by studying these materials.
Drama – Create a
play about an Iroquois story.
Cooking – list
foods that would have been available to the Iroquois, such as corn/maize,
beans, squash, berries, fish, and deer meat. See how many of these same
foods are available in your local market. Make a class treat using the
foods that you find.
Post-Visit Suggestions
Discussion ideas:
Cultural differences –
compare the way “Indians” are usually shown on TV with what you
have learned about the way the Iroquois people of c.1600 actually lived.
Have there been any recent TV programs or recent movies in which you feel
that Indians have been more accurately (or inaccurately) represented and
why do you think so?
Geography –
Iroquois villages of c.1600 were usually located on top of a hill. What are
the advantages of such a location and what are the challenges in choosing a
hill-top location. Why do you think early European visitors described them
as “castles?” Think about where British and European castles
are usually built – in low spots, on plains, or on hills and
mountains, and why?
Society – compare the
Iroquois of c.1600 (food, clothing, houses, games, stories) to people that
lived in other places at the same time. Think about the functions of
clothing –
physical and/or social comfort; think about specialized clothing for
specific jobs or specific social contexts. There is a good opportunity here
to compare the more or less egalitarian character of an early 17th century
Iroquois village – that is reflected in the relative homogeneity in
clothing and housing – with the heterogeneity of clothing [peasants,
tradesmen, clergy, nobility, etc.] and architecture in a British or
European “rural” community of the same time period.
Activity ideas:
Architecture –
build a model longhouse. Directions can be found at: http:
//www.nysm.nysed.gov/IroquoisVillage/buildingmodel.html
Crafts – have
students make things that would have been found in an Iroquois village of
c.1600 (clay pot, cornhusk doll, moccasins). Have the students discuss
whether or not they thought each Iroquois man and woman made all of the
stuff they needed and used. Could there have been specialists? Why would
this be a good thing for everybody?
Recreation – research
and then play an Iroquois game. You can look for resources in your school
or local library or explore the information available about the game of
lacrosse at this web site (This site is not
affiliated with and not endorsed by the New York State Museum):
http:
//www.peace4turtleisland.org/pages/lacrosse.ht
During Your Visit
Attached is a Venn Diagram that you can print for your
students to use at the Museum. They can use it to organize note-taking
during the visit. Please remember to provide the students with a hard
surface to write on (for example, a clipboard). Leaning on the labels or
the exhibit surfaces can cause damage to the exhibit.
While you are at the Museum you may want to visit our
Algonkian Wigwam. Students can compare and contrast what they see in the
Wigwam exhibit with what they see in the Longhouse exhibit.
Also attached is an Observation Recording Sheet that
you can print for your students to use with The
Three Sisters exhibit. Please remember to
provide the students with a hard surface to write on (for example, a
clipboard). Leaning on the labels or the exhibit surfaces can cause damage
to the exhibit. Using this sheet, students will focus on featured objects
to make observations about the exhibit.
The following information may be useful to you in
helping your students with this activity.
The object to be identified is part of the lower
jawbone of a white tailed deer. The bone attached to the label is a
replica, not a real bone. The jawbone was used to scrape the fresh
corn/maize from the cob. The man using the object in the exhibit is leaning
against a burned tree trunk. Fire was used to clear the trees to make a
space for the growing fields. The stumps that were left behind were planted
around and were used as back rests by the workers when sitting. The man
also needs a bowl to hold the corn/maize kernels. The bowl he is using is
made from a gourd. Gourds were another crop grown in the field. Information about the other activities in the
exhibit can be found in the computer interactive.
NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM
Observation Recording Sheet for The Three Sisters exhibit
NAME:
Go to The Three Sisters exhibit and find the object attached to the label on
the right side of the exhibit.
Look at the object (you can touch it!), sketch it and
answer the questions. You will find information in the label text.
SKETCH
OBSERVATIONS
What is the object made of?
What is the object used for in this exhibit?
SKETCH
OBSERVATIONS
What is behind the person using the object?
In addition to the object, what else does the person
need to do the job they are doing?
SKETCH
OBSERVATIONS
What is the person is doing.?
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