The Rockwell Museum

Fourth Grade Tour: Iroquois Art & Culture

Pre and Post Visit Materials

111 Cedar Street, Corning, NY 14830 607-937-5386

E-mail: info@rockwellmuseum.org or visit www.rockwellmuseum.org

1

Table of Contents

Objectives . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2

New York State Learning Standards Addressed . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 2

Theme . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3

Curriculum Connections . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 3

Pre Visit

Museum Manners . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 4

K W L Exercise . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 5

Vocabulary List . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 6

The Rockwell Museum Image . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 7

The Tanner by Seth Eastman Image. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 8

Painting Analysis Worksheet Directions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 9

Painting Analysis Worksheet . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 10

The Tanner Questioning Activity. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 11

Writing Activity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 12

Biography of Seth Eastman . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page12,13

Post Visit

Extension Ideas. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page13-15

Compare/Contrast - Venn Diagram . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page 16

PLEASE NOTE Please have your students wear nametags large enough to be read

by our docents.

2

OBJECTIVES

Theme: Historic Iroquois Culture Objectives:

1. To introduce students to Iroquois culture as it is seen through daily family life and the child’s role within that social structure.

2. To help students understand that the Iroquois culture has changed, but is

alive and well today.

3. To understand Iroquois lifestyle through an exploration of the culture’s agricultural year and its seasons and ceremonies.

4. To understand Iroquois lifestyle through an exploration of the culture’s

division of labor and its resulting male/female roles and domains.

5. To experience historic Iroquois craft by making traditional corn husk dolls.

NEW YORK STATE LEARNING STANDARDS ADDRESSED

Art Standard 1: Creating, Performing, and Participating in the Arts Standard 2. Knowing and Using Arts Materials and Resources Standard 3. Responding to and Analyzing Works of Art Standard 4. Understanding the Cultural Dimensions and Contributions of the Arts English Language Arts Standard 1. Language for Information and Understanding Standard 2. Language for Literary Response and Expression Standard 3. Language for Critical Analysis and Evaluation Standard 4. Language for Social Interaction Social Studies Standard 1. History of the United States and New York Standard 3. Geography Standard 5: Civics, Citizenship, and Government

3

THEME Historic Iroquois Culture

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS

Art

Exploration of mediums

Using themes, symbols, events, and personal experiences

Defining the artist

Cultural awareness

Analysis

English Language Arts

Listening

Speaking

Acquiring/Evaluating Data

Math

Comparative terms

Geometry Science

Cause and Effect

Earth’s resources

Climate

Animals Social Studies

Geography

New York State History

Iroquois Culture

Community

4

MUSEUM MANNERS

Please go over these basic rules with your students before their visit; and if possible, make copies for your chaperones.

Number One Rule – Do Not Touch.

Stay at least one foot away from the works of art and one foot away from cases containing art.

Please do not lean on walls.

Groups must stay together at all times.

Walk; don’t run.

Talk; don’t yell.

Raise hands to speak.

No eating, drinking, or chewing gum in the galleries.

Backpacks must not be carried through the museum but may be left in our coatroom.

Use pencils only for sketching or notes.

No flash photography.

PLEASE NOTE

Teachers and chaperones are responsible for maintaining the same discipline as you would in the classroom.

5

K W L EXERCISE

What do you know, what do you want to know, and what did you learn?

This exercise is an assessment tool that you can use to evaluate basic information that was learned on the tour. Before your visit ask students to tell you:

What do you know

about Iroquois agriculture and ceremonies?

about Iroquois lifestyle? Then ask students:

What do you want to know

about Iroquois agriculture and ceremonies?

about Iroquois lifestyle?

Record answers and save for post visit. After the visit ask students to tell you:

What did you learn

about Iroquois agriculture and ceremonies?

about Iroquois lifestyle?

6

VOCABULARY

1. Art Museum - A place that protects and displays artwork that is of special

interest or value. 2. Native American - The first people to live in the Americas (North, Central,

and South). Native Americans are also called Indians.

3. Pattern – In artwork, repeated pictures or shapes that make a design (i.e., on clothing, pottery, beadwork, and weaving).

9. Pottery - An object made out of clay (i.e., bowls, cups, dishes).

10. Matrilineal - is a system in which lineage is traced through the mother and

maternal ancestors

11. Natural resource – something found in the Earth that people can use.

12. Environment – The surroundings in which people, animals, and plants live.

13. Haudenosaunee – People of the longhouse - is what the Six Nations Iroquois Confederacy call themselves.

14. Heritage – is the history, beliefs, and customs that a group of people share.

15. Ancestors – people in your family that lived before you.

9. Clan – matrilineal extended families.

10. Cradleboard - a wooden frame worn on the back, used by North American Indian women for carrying an infant while working or traveling.

11. Tanning - The process of making leather from rawhides.

7

PROPERTY OF THE The ROCKWELL MUSEUM

The Rockwell Museum, Corning, New York

Exterior Photo 2001 Photo Credit: Frank J. Borkowski

8

Seth Eastman, The Tanner, 1848 PROPERTY OF THE ROCKWELL MUSEUM

9

PAINTING ANALYSIS WORKSHEET DIRECTIONS

Project the transparency of The Rockwell Museum to show students where their visit will take place.

Project the transparency of The Tanner. Please let your students know that they will be seeing this painting when they come to The Rockwell Museum.

Have students observe the painting and complete the Painting Analysis

Worksheet on page 10. You will need to make one copy for each student.

10

PAINTING ANALYSIS WORKSHEET Painting: The Tanner Artist: Seth Eastman

Observe the entire painting again. Next, examine individual items in the painting. Then, divide the painting into four sections and study each section to see what new details become visible. Step 1: OBSERVATION

List people, animals, objects, and actions in the painting.

People Animals Objects Actions

Step 2: CONCLUSIONS

Based on what you wrote above, list three things you think are happening in this painting.

1.

2.

3.

Step 3: PURPOSE

Why do you think the artist created this painting?

11

The Tanner

QUESTIONING ACTIVITY

Engage students in the questioning activity below. Students may refer to their painting analysis worksheet to begin the dialogue. This activity will encourage students to feel free to answer questions and share their ideas on the tour.

Ask: “What’s going on in this picture?” (This asks students to open the conversation about their observation.)

Expand questioning with: “What else is happening?” “What more?”

Seek clarification with: “What do you see that makes you say that?” (This causes students to ground interpretations in their observations.)

Ask: “Who do you see here?” (This asks students to delve more deeply into what they can and cannot surmise about the characters represented in the work and to extract information from the painting itself.) “What can we learn from looking at…their clothes, their pose, expression, gesture?”

Ask: “What are they doing?” (This requires students to pinpoint activities, events, body language, and gestures.)

Ask: “Where are they?” (This asks students to examine the work carefully to determine the setting for the piece.)

Ask: “When is it?” “What time of day is it?” “What season is it?” “In what era can we place this work?”

Ask: “What do you think the artist was trying to tell us about the people, person, and place?”

(This introduces the idea that artists make choices and do so intentionally.) “How does the artist persuade us of particular interpretations?”

(This requires students to provide evidence for their speculation or conjecture.)

“Why do you think the artist might have made a picture like this?” (This encourages students to think about art in relationship to real life.)

12

WRITING ACTIVITY

Paint a picture with words… Have students write a descriptive paragraph, story, or poem that reflects your interpretation of the painting The Tanner, by Seth Eastman. Note to teacher: This is your choice depending on what you are working on in your ELA curriculum at the time of your tour. Suggestion for a poem: Describe what the Indian(s) sees, hears, and feels. Starting Line I am a Woodland Indian…. Second Line I see (describe)… Third Line I hear (describe)… Fourth Line I feel (describe)… NOTE: Please bring one or two examples of writing to be read aloud while observing the painting on the tour.

SETH EASTMAN BIOGRAPHY

Origin: United States Profession: Draftsman, Painter, and Military Officer Born: 1808, Brunswick, Maine Died: 1875, Washington, D.C. As a career military man, Seth Eastman traveled along the Mississippi frontier during the first half of the nineteenth century as part of his service in the army. After graduating from West Point in 1829, he served as a topographical draftsman at Fort Crawford in Wisconsin and Fort Snelling in Minnesota. He regularly sketched the Indians and landscapes of the military forts where he served and also learned the languages and customs of many tribes, especially the Dakotas and Chippewa. From 1833 to 1840, Eastman taught drawing at West Point, continued to study art under C.R. Leslie and Robert W. Weir, and exhibited at the Apollo Gallery and National Academy of Design. He returned to Fort Snelling in 1841 to continue his Indian studies. After tours of duty in Texas and Utah, he served in the Civil War as a quartermaster general and then retired as a brigadier general. Congress commissioned the artist to paint Indian and fort scenes for the Capitol building in 1867. Eastman sketched and painted realistic, detailed images of frontier life at the forts. He focused his subjects on the Indians who would meet at the forts as well as the landscapes along the Mississippi.

Skinning the Buffalo,

Engraving

13

Using *daguerreotype photographs and pencil sketches from the field, Eastman composed watercolor and oil paintings that are extremely detailed and accurate without changing the original compositions. The artist only altered his paintings from the field sketches by adding a canoe, deer, or some other element to add a sense of scale to the landscape. Henry Lewis bought over eighty of Eastman's sketches as resource material for his panorama project as well as his book Das Illustrirte Mississippithal. Eastman also collaborated with his wife on several books, including The Romance of Indian Life, American Aboriginal Portfolio, and Chicora, in which she wrote the text and he provided illustrations. Eastman's paintings can be seen in the Capitol building, Smithsonian Institution, the Corcoran Gallery of Art, the Minneapolis Institute of Art, the Gilcrease Museum, the Stark Museum, The Rockwell Museum and the Joslyn Museum of Art.

*Daguerreotype: an early photographic process named for its inventor Louis Daguerre (1789-1851) with the image made on a light-sensitive silver-coated metallic plate. It was first introduced in America by Samuel F.B.Morse in 1839.

POST VISIT SUGGESTIONS

Have students access the Museum’s website @www.rockwellmuseum.org and click on “Collections”. A slide show of Museum artwork is available for viewing.

Compare/Contrast Paintings Have students’ select two pieces of artwork with a Native American theme. Ask them to compare and contrast the images. Students may use copies of the Venn diagram graphic organizer on page 16. Create Folktales and Legends Share some examples of Iroquois folktales and legends with students. Explain that many Indian legends were explanations of how things came to be. Ask the students to create their own legend about a provided topic or on a topic of their choosing. An example of a topic idea is why the turtle carries his house on his back. Compile the stories to make a book featuring “Legends from Mr. /Mrs. /Ms. ________ Classroom”. Include illustrations of the legends as well.

14

Nature Poetry Appreciation of nature and order marked the Indian’s world. Have students create poems celebrating nature and the earth’s gifts. Topic ideas: seasons, fruits and vegetables that grow locally, animals that populate our environment in upstate New York etc. Play Iroquois Games Practice some of the Iroquois games mentioned in the program (peach pit, ring and pin toss games. Peach Pit Game: During the Green Corn Ceremony the peach pit game was played because peaches were ripening in addition to the corn. How to play the game: dried pits are marked and tossed in a wooden bowl like dice. You earned 1 point if black, 5 clear or vice versa; 5 points if all clear or all black. Games pitted clan against clan. Split the class in half and have them choose a clan animal and keep score. Ring and Pin (Stick) Game: This game required good hand-eye coordination. A ring was attached to a cord which was then attached to a stick. The ring was swung in the air with an attempt to catch it on the stick. Woman and girls typically played this game. A similar European game is the cup and ball toss. Have the students bring in twigs or small sticks from home or the school’s grounds. Use rawhide shoe laces for the cord. Tie off a loop at the end of the cord or tie on some type of ring. Have the students swing the cord upward to try and catch the loop with the tip of the stick.

15

Imaginary Diary Have the students write a diary from several days in the life of a young Iroquois girl or boy. The diary can focus on a special event or ceremony of the tribe, or may simply describe everyday life. Prepare traditional Iroquois foods Traditional recipes have evolved or changed as ingredients became available in new forms. Recipes that predate European settlement can now be made with canned goods and mixes from the local supermarket. Corn Pudding 1 package JIFFY corn muffin mix 1 17 oz can creamed corn 2 eggs 1/3 cup oil 2/3 cup milk Bake in well greased deep dish in 350 degree oven for 30-35 minutes Corn Bread 1 package JIFFY corn muffin mix 1 8 oz can corn kernels, drained 1 egg 1/3 cup milk Bake in greased square 8” x 8” pan in 350 degree oven for 25-30 minutes Pumpkin Soup (10 – 12 Servings) (1) 1 lb. 13 oz. can pumpkin puree 1 qt. milk 2 Tbs. butter 2 Tbs. honey 2 Tbs. maple sugar ½ tsp. powdered marjoram dash fresh pepper ¼ tsp. cinnamon ½ tsp mace 1 tsp salt juice of 1 orange

1. Heat pumpkin, milk, butter and honey, slowly. 2. Combine maple sugar, marjoram, pepper, cinnamon, mace and salt. 3. Add orange juice, a little at a time. Stir constantly. Do not boil.

Serve hot

16