Lesson: The Iroquois Great Law of Peace and The Constitution of the United States

By:  Laura Oyen, Battle Creek Middle School

Course:  American History or American Indian History:  Grades 7-8

# Days:   1-2 (50 minute class period.)

Standards:  Government & Citizenship

§         The student will demonstrate knowledge of influential and foundational documents of American constitutional government.

§         Students will describe the principles expressed in the Preamble to the Constitution and how these principles influence the United States constitutional government.

Content and Habits of Thinking:

§         Students will examine an illustration of the founding fathers and the Iroquois in Independence Hall

§         Students will compare and contrast the Opening Oration of the Great Law of Peace and the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution

Guiding Questions:

• Whose ideas influenced the creation of the American Constitution?
• What is the Preamble to the Constitution?
• What principles were expressed by both the Great Law of Peace and the U.S. Constitution?

Lesson Sequence and Instructional Strategies:

Warm-Up:

Illustration:  June 11, 1776 Onondaga sachem gave John Hancock an Iroquois name at Independence Hall.  By John Kahionhes Fadden   

http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/EoL/chp8.html

Use an overhead of the above illustration as an introduction to the lesson. As the students the following type of questions as an analysis of the illustration:

§         Remove or cover-up the caption of the illustration.

o       What do you see in the picture?

o       Do you recognize anyone in the picture?

o       Can you give an approximate date for the picture?

o       What do you think is happening in the picture?

(Typical answers from students will include clothing, hair styles, Indians, Ben Franklin, Flags, Drums, Feathers, book on table, Revolutionary War, People having a discussion, could be treaty negotiations)

§         Uncover the caption or tell the students what the caption is.

o       Continue the discussion do they have any different answers, does it change what they think the people were doing in the picture?

o       Ask the students if they think this is a primary source (original to the time) illustration, why or why not.  Discuss the fact that this was original artwork done in 1991 to illustrate historical source material.  You can discuss perspectives of the artist if you have time.  If the artist was not at the meeting, how did he know what it was really like?

Assignment:

            Interpreting History Worksheet

§         Hand out worksheet to students.  Working in groups of 2-3 students will read both the Opening Oration of the Great Law of Peace and the Preamble of the U.S. Constitution. 

§         Students will need to interpret the meaning of the two items.

§         Students may need to look up definitions of words they do not know.

§         Students will compare what they find the same with the two documents and what they find different and document this in the space provided.

Closure:

§         Complete the lesson with a group discussion debrief.  Review the guiding questions as a part of this discussion.

 (Some items I focused on was the “voice” behind the words for example the great law of peace described a tree with roots and other nature related phrasing.)

Assessment:

§         Student worksheet completion and discussion participation.

§         Possible extension assessments:  Have students write paragraph answers to the guiding questions as homework.  Write the definitions of two words that they need to look up during the assignment.

Materials/Resources:

Overhead

Transparency of illustration

Source:  http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/6Nations/EoL/chp8.html

Worksheet:  Interpreting History attached

            Adapted from: http://www.iroquoisdemocracy.pdx.edu/html/activity4.htm

Guiding Questions Posted

Comments:

This lesson can be used as an activity for “Constitution Day.”

This lesson focuses on interpretation of visual media, vocabulary and compare and contrast skills in addition to looking at where ideas came from that helped the United States create our founding documents.  The lesson also focuses on contributions made by Native Americans to our founding documents.