Clump Game

Grade Level: 3-5

Time: 30-45 minutes

Purpose:

• Student understands the post-Renaissance consequences of exploration that occurred during the Age of Discovery.
• Student understands why personal responsibility and civic responsibility are important.
• Student knows that a citizen is a legally recognized member of the United States who had certain rights and privileges and certain responsibilities.
• Student knows examples of the extension of the privileges and responsibilities of citizenship.

Objectives: To establish how the arrival of Europeans effected the Native populations through disease, warfare, slavery, changing customs, etc.

Resources: Adapted from: Wise Hearts, Wise Hands; Hernando de Soto and the Indians of Florida by Jerald T. Milanich and Charles Hudson

Materials: None

Sunshine State Standards: SS.A. 3.2.4, SS.C.2.2.1, SS.C.2.2.2, SS.C.2.2.3, SS.C.2.2.4

Teachers Information: The Circle - In Native American cultures, the circle is connected with every aspect of life. Through the circle, we can see that we are all connected to one another, even if it doesn?t appear that we are in a circle.

Procedure: Have students "clump" together in a cleared area of the room (or outside). Each student reaches into the clump and takes someone?s right hand in his or her left hand. Then, without letting go (hands may pivot if necessary), untangle the clump by going over, under, etc. The clump eventually becomes a circle. Have the students sit in the resulting circular order for a story and discussion.

Story:The Juan Ortiz story

The saga of Juan Ortiz, a young officer of the Spanish explorer Panfilo de Narvaez, began in 1528 when he and four other Spaniards became separated from the others and were captured at Tampa Bay by the Chief of the Uzita natives, Chief Hirrahigua.

In an earlier encounter with Narvaez, Chief Hirrahigua and his people had been tortured and enslaved by the Spaniards in their search for gold, silver, and for natives to serve as guides and burden bearers. Unwilling or unable to reveal the location of any treasure, Chief Hirrahigua had been forced to watch as his Mother was torn to shreds before his eyes by fierce war dogs that accompanied the Spaniards. Narvaez then ordered the nose of the chief to be cut off in order to get him to tell of hidden gold.

Needless to say, Chief Hirrahigua, in his anger, sought revenge on Juan and the other captured Spaniards, sending them to run through a gauntlet that none of the first four survived. But when Juan?s turn came to run for his life, Chief Hirrihigua?s wife and two of his daughters spoke for Juan, pleading that he be spared because of his tender age.

Although Juan was spared that day, the Chief?s animosity towards this Spaniard continued to grow. Many times he tortured Juan and attempted to carry out his death sentence. After more than a year of enslavement, Juan was placed upon a barbacoa (a smoking and drying rack for foods and hides) and was nearly cooked to death before being rescued by the women.

When the Chief?s eldest daughter, Ulele, decided that she could no longer protect Juan from her father?s rage, she helped Juan to escape to the domain of her fiancee, the Chief of the Mocoso. Here, Juan spent the next 10 years under the personal protection of Chief Mocoso until he was rescued by Hernando de Soto in 1539.

Juan, covered with tattoos as was the Timucuan custom, traveled with de Soto?s army, acting as a guide and interpreter. He and de Soto both died during the winter of 1541-42, near the Mississippi River, from disease. Chief Hirrihigua?s daughter, facing the full force of her Father?s wrath for aiding Juan in his escape, was never allowed to marry her fiancee, Chief Mocoso.

Two hundred years later, an Englishman, John Smith read an account of the Juan Ortiz story and thus was born the tale of Pocohontas and John Smith.

Evaluation: Discussion Questions:

1. Did you realize, when you were in a "clump", that you were really in a circle?

2. What made you a circle?

3. How did the appearance of Europeans effect the Native Peoples?

4. By what means where the Europeans connected to the Native peoples?

5. How are we connected to one another today? To our environment?

6. In the Juan Ortiz story, what effect did the European explorers have on the Natives?

7. How did the Native?s actions affect the Europeans?

8. How did Ulele?s actions show her to be a member of her village? Why do you think she helped Juan to escape?

9. Do you think Juan was glad to be rescued? Why?

10.How do you think the story of Juan Ortiz and Ulele became the story of Pocahontas and John Smith?