Tour - American Indian Homes in Kansas - Shawnee Indian Mission State Historic Site

American Indian Homes in the Central Plains

First Grade
To address Kansas standards

Download PDF with tour information - Kansas Standards

Students will travel, with us, back 500 years to talk about traditional American Indian homes, as they existed for the Cheyenne, Wichita, and Pawnee.

The student will identify ways in which the American Indians in Kansas built homes from natural resources (grass, mud, buffalo hide). They then will compare the homes of the Wichita, Pawnee and Cheyenne and note similarities and differences between their homes. The student will observe models of three different Indian homes and make inferences about the Plains Indians’ life style (i.e. food and clothing, sedentary or nomadic, building materials).

The student will identify how American Indians built homes from natural resources and compare and contrast the homes of the Wichita, Pawnee, Kansa, and Cheyenne. Students will be introduced to a hands-on tipi building activity. Not only did the tipi reflect a use of natural resources, it reflected a cultural development of the Plains Indians.

This two-hour tour will also include an examination of Indian artifacts and they will be introduced to a hands-on tipi building activity. Not only did the tipi reflect a use of natural resources, it reflected a cultural development of the plains Indians.

Kansas Standards

History

Benchmark 2, Indicator 4: The student compares types of shelter used by American Indians in Kansas over time (e.g., grass lodge, earth lodge, bark lodge, tipi).

Benchmark 4, Indicator 3: The student asks questions, shares information, and discusses ideas about the past using resources such as maps, photographs, books, and people.

Geography

Benchmark 5, Indicator 2: The student describes how the physical environment impacts humans (e.g., choices of clothing, housing, crops, recreation).

Reading

Benchmark 2, Indicator 4: The student uses knowledge of sentence structure to read fluently at instructional or independent reading levels.

Length of tour: approximately two hours.

Cost: $2 per participant

Number of students in a group: For the best experience, we recommend no more than 30 students per tour.

For registration and scheduling: Contact Anita Faddis, site administrator, 913-262-0867; shawneemission@kshs.org.

A minimum of two weeks advance registration is needed.