“Still Here” by Gaia. Courtesy of The Avenue Concept and Tomaquag Museum.
Grade Level: High School (9-12)
State Standards
Massachusetts
Craft and Structure
- Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors’ claims, reasoning, and evidence.
Grades 11-12 Speaking and Listening Standards
Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas
- Present information, findings, and supporting evidence, conveying a clear and distinct perspective, such that listeners can follow the line of reasoning, alternative or opposing perspectives are addressed, and the organization, development, vocabulary, substance, and style are appropriate to purpose, audience, and a range of formal and informal tasks.
Connecticut
HIST 9–12.4 Analyze how historical contexts shaped and continue to shape people’s perspectives. (e.g., immigration, labor, the role of women).
HIST 9–12.5 Analyze the ways in which the perspectives of those writing history shaped the history that they produced.
HIST 9–12.6 Explain how the perspectives of people in the present shape interpretations of the past.
HIST 9–12.7 Analyze how current interpretations of the past are limited by the extent to which available historical sources represent perspectives of people at the time
Rhode Island
SSHS.USI.1.2. The impact of European colonization on Indigenous life: Argue the ways that European colonization impacted the lifeways and populations of Indigenous peoples.
Background and Context
For Educators
The mythology that Indigenous people were not industrious has been employed for centuries to explain and justify Native dispossession and to normalize the perceived “natural” disappearance of Indigenous communities. This mythology also glorifies settler colonialism by preferencing Euro-American “first” and interpreting Indigenous peoples as inconsequential. By presenting a landscape devoid of the presence of Native peoples, the Moshassuck mural helps perpetuate the myth of an unmanaged or “wild” landscape. The fact is that the wildlife and “natural” scene depicted in the mural would not have existed without the labor of Native people.
The We Are Still Here mural was designed in association with Indigenous people and depicts the presence and continuity of the local Native community. The mural powerfully rebukes and challenges the mythology of the disappearance. Please see the explanations in the image below for more information about how the We Are Still Here mural communicates Indigenous presence and continuity.
For Students
Think of the monuments and murals that you have seen. What values and beliefs do they communicate? Why do you think that people choose to create these memorials? Are there people or communities that might feel slighted or harmed by these depictions?
For this lesson, it is important to note that there is a long history of interpreting the Indigenous population as unimportant to the development of the United States. This false history has been used for centuries to explain and justify the taking of Native land (dispossession) and to normalize the perceived “natural” disappearance of Indigenous communities.
Lesson
For many Rhode Islanders, the history of this place begins in 1636 with the arrival of Roger Williams. Local monuments, waterways, parks, streets, and schools honor the experiences and contributions of the region’s early colonists. But for thousands of years before it was an English colony, the place many now call Rhode Island was home to the Narragansett Nation. But, the names, experiences, and contributions of these Indigenous forerunners are not as well preserved and visible throughout the local landscape. This lesson seeks to provide students with a more complete account of Rhode Island’s origins and endeavors to promote a greater understanding of the continued significance of historical erasure and settler colonialism.
Objectives:
Students will be able to:
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- Examine different lifeways and traditions experienced by the Narragansett Nation and other Indigenous peoples.
- Analyze the ways in which the Narragansett Nation and other Indigenous peoples helped to shape historic and modern realties in Rhode Island.
- Situate settler colonialism and identify how it continues to inform outcomes in Rhode Island.
Essential Questions:
- How does the erasure associated with settler colonialism manifest in Rhode Island’s origin story?
- Why is it important for Rhode Islanders to know that the experiences of Indigenous peoples are mostly absent from the common narrative about the founding of the colony/state?
Bellringer Activity (5m): Create anticipation and access prior knowledge by asking students to write down three things that they know to be true about Rhode Island’s history prior to 1790 when it became a state. Ask for a few volunteers to share one or more of their answers.
Individual/Group Work (15m): Provide students with the handout. Have them complete the assignment. After students have had a chance to identify what is true and false, have them work with a partner to compare answers. Ask for partnerships to volunteer answers that they feel confident about. As students share their answers, use the key to explain why each statement was true or false. Click here for the handout.
Free Write (10m): Provide students with the Moshassuck Mural image. Ask students if they have seen this mural or if they have heard the name Moshassuck before. Ask students to do a focused free write analyzing the image and describing what they think that it represents. Allow students five minutes to jot down their thoughts. Ask for volunteers to share what they wrote.
Moshassuck Mural
Debrief (5m): Ask students if they notice any connections between the mural and the historical myths challenged in the handout. Students may observe that the image depicts a natural landscape or wilderness, that there is no evidence of the presence of Indigenous peoples, that there is no evidence of land management by Native peoples.
Individual/Group Work (10-15m): Provide students with the reading and guiding questions (see Resources: Activity Resources: Erasure: From Moshassuck to Providence and Guiding Reading Questions). Ask students to complete the assignment. See below for resources:
Bellringer Activity (10m): Have students complete a Know-Want to Know-Learned (KWL) chart using their prior knowledge and information they learned about Rhode Island’s Indigenous origins in the first part of the lesson to complete the Know section. Ask students to think about what may be missing from the Know section to come up with topics they would like to learn more about. Have them write these down in the Want to Know section. Ask for volunteers to share what they wrote in the Know and/or Want to Know sections. Click here for additional resources on KWL Charts.
Debrief (5m): Have students pair up and discuss their answers to question 5 on the guiding questions worksheet. Click here to view the Guiding Questions worksheet.
Individual/Group Work (10m): Have students write down the following question: In what ways does erasure (or the perceived absence of Indigenous peoples) continue to impact the lives of Native persons living in Rhode Island? Allow students to view the short film Native Voices/Social Justice. After the video, ask the students to complete a think-pair-share activity reflecting on the question that they wrote down. Click here to view the Native Voices/Social Justice short film.
Free-Write (10m): Provide students with the We are Still Here mural image. Do not share the explanation image with students yet. Ask students if they have seen this mural before. Ask students to do a focused free write analyzing the image and describing what they think that it represents. Allow students five minutes to jot down their thoughts. Ask for volunteers to share what they wrote.
Still Here Mural Explanation
Group Work (15m): Place students in small groups of 3-4. Ask the students to reflect on their focus-free-writes, their answers to the guided reading questions, and their answers and conversations about the question posed with the video. Ask students to work together to create a list of 10-20 items/images/people/communities that they believe should be included in a mural about Providence. Have students write short explanations about why they decided to include each item/image/person/community.
Assessment: The final activity is intended to provide a gauge of how well students answered the essential questions associated with this lesson. Students will demonstrate that they understand that it is important for Rhode Islanders to consider the histories and experiences of various communities if they choose to include items in their murals that communicate diverse perspectives and experiences. You may also choose to use the guided reading questions to determine compression and to assess if students were able to analyze the ways in which the Narragansett Nation and other Indigenous peoples helped to shape historic and modern realties in Rhode Island. You can review the focused-free-writes to evaluate engagement and overall understanding.
Extension: Students can create a visual representation of the mural that their group envisioned.
Vocabulary
Ideology: a system of ideas and ideals, especially one which forms the basis of economic or political theory and policy.
Progressive: a group, person, or idea favoring or implementing social reform or new, liberal ideas.
Moshassuck: this area between the Woonasquatucket River Moshassuck Rivers was an important gathering place for Indigenous persons. Today, this location is known today as the city of Providence.
Stimulate: encourage development of or increased activity.
Claimant: a person who claims to have a right to something.
Perpetuate: make (something, typically an undesirable situation or an unfounded belief) continue indefinitely.
Progenitor: a person or thing from which a person, animal, or plant is descended or originates; an ancestor or parent.
Architect: a person who designs.
Quahog: a type of edible clam found along the eastern coast of North America.
Narrative: a spoken or written account of connected events; a story.
Dispossession: the act of depriving someone of land, property, or other possessions.
Settler-Colonialism: a distinct type of colonialism where the colonizers come to stay and establish a permanent presence, often leading to the displacement or eradication of indigenous populations and cultures.
Adorn: to decorate or add beauty to something by adding ornaments, decorations, or other embellishments.
Obscure: to make something unclear or less visible.
Preordained: something that is destined to happen.
Posit: to assume or suggest a theory, idea, or principle as a fact.
Fictionalization: the process of creating fictional stories or characters, often by taking real events or people and adding invented elements to them.
Primacy: the state of being first in importance, rank, or priority.
Exile: a person who is living away from their native country due to expulsion.
Steward: a person who manages or looks after something, such as property.
Happenstance: a circumstance or event that happens by chance; a coincidence.
Apocryphal: of doubtful authenticity, although widely circulated as being true.
Legitimate: accepted as proper and genuine.
Inconsequential: not important or significant.
