Philanthropy is a core value of Native American tribes in Oregon. Many tribes refer to this as the “spirit of potlatch,” which is a tradition that goes back hundreds and possibly thousands of years. In this spirit, many tribes have created charitable foundations or funds to support causes that benefit the local and surrounding communities. Collectively, tribal foundations are among the largest sources of philanthropy in Oregon.This lesson uses the mathematical practice of fractions to introduce students to Native philanthropy. Students are given a dataset and asked to perform fraction concepts and justify their choices as part of a philanthropic effort. Students will be addressing Critical Areas 1 and 2 while addressing mathematical practices.

This lesson introduces students to the traditional housing styles of Native American tribes in Oregon, while also giving them the opportunity to practice using the Pythagorean Theorem to solve a real-world problem. Students will learn about the diverse materials and building styles tribes used and how their choices were shaped by the natural environments in which they lived and the traditional lifeways they followed. Studying traditional Native American housing styles will help students begin to grasp the diversity of tribal cultures in Oregon. Too often, Indigenous people in Oregon and across the country are represented as a single, homogeneous group. This does not do justice to the rich diversity of tribal cultures, nor does it honor their individual identities, histories, traditions, and cultural contributions.

In this lesson, students will learn essential information about taxes and how they impact enrolledmembers of federally recognized Native American Tribes. Many people believe that Native Americans do not pay taxes and therefore should not benefit from federal and state tax-supported programs. This lesson debunks that myth and helps students understand the complex interrelation between state, federal, and Tribal governments and tax systems. Students will also complete a math exercise using piecewise functions to analyze and calculate federal and Oregon state income taxes. The lesson can stand on its own or serve as a complement to or extension of other math lessons. 

This link provides access to the ODE 10th Grade Tribal History/Shared History Lesson Plans.

This link provides access to the ODE 8th Grade Tribal History/Shared History Lesson Plans.

This link will provide access to all of the ODE SB 13 Tribal History/Shared History 4th Grade Lesson Plans.

This lesson introduces the Native American tradition of seasonal rounds and also discusses the important connection between land, food, nutrition, and energy for Native American people in Oregon. Many tribes migrated seasonally, based on the food sources that were available in a given place at a given time. Tribes and smaller bands of Native people would often travel several hundred miles in a few weeks to get to the next food-gathering source in time.In this lesson, students will reflect on their own lives and the foods they eat throughout the year while also learning about the food traditions of Native American people in Oregon. This lesson will also help students understand the close connection that Native Americans in Oregon have with the land.

Students will learn about the concept of food sovereignty and will explore features of the traditional food systems of Native Americans in Oregon and compare them to current food cultivation and consumption practices. Optionally, they can then research and prepare case studies of tribal and intertribal food sovereignty projects in Oregon and analyze the lessons those studies can provide for reducing the impact of human activities on natural systems.

Native American people have lived in the area now known as Oregon since time immemorial. During the era of colonialism (beginning in the 1600s)-and even into the 21st century-non-Native people often portrayed the North American continent as a vast wilderness that was virtually unpopulated when they arrived. This could not be farther from the truth. In Oregon alone there were dozens of tribes, each with its own ancestral territory and rich cultural history. There was not a single region of Oregon that did not have an Indigenous tribe or band living within it. Nothing was discovered or “untapped”, but instead well managed as Indigenous stewards of the land. Over time, the environment has been impacted by changes such as an increase in human population, and over consumption of natural resources (freshwater, minerals and energy). This lesson focuses on the impact of dams on the salmon population of Oregon. The activity in this lesson will give students an essential understanding of why salmon are essential to the traditional lifeways of Native Americans in Oregon. It will also highlight the important contributions tribes are making to salmon restoration efforts in Oregon.

The oral traditions of Native American tribes in Oregon tell the story of continuous existence ofIndigenous people on this land. From the coast to the inland valleys, the Columbia Plateau to theGreat Basin, tribal people have maintained continuous and balanced relationships with Oregon’snatural environment since time immemorial.This connection between Indigenous people and place has always informed their approach to whatis now called land management. Indigenous people had a thorough understanding of seasonal ecosystems and ecoregions, and this knowledge of soil, water, plants, and animals helped themsurvive. Contemporary Native people in Oregon continue to draw on traditional Indigenous knowledge, also known as traditional ecological knowledge, to guide how they manage the land.In this lesson, students will explore the components and processes of traditional ecological knowledge through the lens of contemporary tribal projects being conducted across the state. Students will consider how tribes are stewards of their lands and natural resources and how they leverage their resources by collaborating with nonprofit and government agencies.

This lesson examines tribal stewardship of natural resources and the concept of a federal trust relationship between tribes and the U.S. government. More than a century of federal policy denied tribes the rights to control and manage the lands that were set aside for them as part of treaty negotiations. These lands are legally owned by tribes and Native American individuals but are held in trust by the U.S. government. In recent decades, tribes have fought and won many legal battles to establish the right to manage the natural resources on tribal land, as well as the right to hunt, fish, and use those resources in accordance with their traditions. Today, tribal agencies frequently collaborate with both state and federal government agencies, such as the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife and the U.S. Forest Service, to manage and protect the land.

In this lesson students will learn how Native American tribes living in what is now Oregon incorporated geologic knowledge into their lifeways and cultures. It will describe tribes’ use of stone tools, designation of prominent landforms as significant and meaningful places, and oral traditions they maintained regarding geologic events to help them understand and organize the world they lived in. This lesson assumes students have some familiarity with or prior instruction in earth science concepts such as Oregon landforms, the rock cycle, plate tectonics, and earthquakes and tsunamis.

Native American tribes in Oregon have relied on salmon for thousands of years. Salmon is considered a first food—a food resource that Indigenous people have depended on since time immemorial. This lesson includes four activities to support student learning about this traditional resource. In the first activity students will learn why salmon are essential to the traditional lifeways of Native Americans in Oregon. In the second activity students will evaluate the life cycle of salmon, specifically the importance of salmon returning to their home stream to spawn. In the third activity students will examine the impact of dams on the life cycle of salmon. Finally, students will work in small groups to identify strategies being used to restore the salmon population in Oregon.

The annual cycle of seasonal rounds for Native Americans in Oregon reflects the relationship theyshare with the land—a relationship that includes intimate knowledge of local ecosystems. Since time immemorial, Tribes in Oregon have carefully considered seasonal ecosystems and ecoregions, and this knowledge of soil, water, plants, and animals helped them survive. Native Americans in Oregon today continue to draw on traditional Indigenous knowledge to guide how they manage the parts of their ancestral homelands that remain in their care.In this lesson, students will use a systems-thinking approach to explore the components andprocesses of ecosystems as they consider how the seasonal rounds of Native American Tribes in Oregon reflect local ecosystems. Students will analyze a hypothetical and a local ecosystem by identifying abiotic and biotic components and their relationships and then consider how Native people in Oregon considered the local abiotic and biotic components of their seasonal ecosystemsin seasonal rounds. Students will also consider the impact of forced relocation to reservations. Prior to white settlement, most Tribes in Oregon moved seasonally throughout a vast region in a pattern based on the availability of foods. Students will consider habitats, natural resources, stability and change, and living and nonliving components of habitats.

The U.S. government’s effort to culturally assimilate Native Americans can be traced to at least 1819, with the passage of the Civilization Fund Act. Up to that time the U.S. government’s approach to Native Americans had been one of outright extermination, at worst, or forced removal to reservations, at best. While it would take several more decades to play out, the Civilization Fund Act began an era in which many Euro-American politicians, religious leaders, and cultural reformers would push for the assimilation of Native Americans into mainstream Western culture. Some of these cultural reformers were well-intentioned, believing that assimilation would be the best thing for the survival and health of Native people. For others, cultural assimilation was a convenient excuse to deny tribal sovereignty and to steal tribal land and resources. In either case, these assimilation efforts would have a devastating impact on many Native people, families, communities, and entire tribal cultures. That impact can be traced to one policy: the forced removal of Native American children from their families and their enrollment in Indian boarding schools.

Native American people have lived in the area “now known as Oregon since time immemorial (long predating European contact and beyond human memory). During the era of colonialism— and even into the 21st century—non-Native people often portrayed the North American continent as a vast wilderness that was virtually unpopulated when they arrived. This could not be farther from the truth. In Oregon alone there were dozens of tribes, each with its own ancestral territory and rich cultural history. There was not a single region of Oregon that did not have an Indigenous tribe or band living within it. Despite disease, genocide, forced assimilation, and cultural suppression, many of these tribes managed to survive, and they continue to carry their cultural traditions forward as sovereign tribal nations. To survive, however, required giving up vast areas of their ancestral territory, sometimes by way of treaties and sometimes as a result of force. The two activities in this lesson will give students an essential understanding of the rich diversity of Native American tribes that existed in Oregon prior to European settlement, the current territory of the nine federally recognized tribes in Oregon, and the inseparable bond between Native people and the land.

The U.S. Supreme Court is an institution with the power to change and shape the lives of all Americans. This lesson asks students to review what they already know about the Supreme Court and to build on that knowledge by examining the court’s relationship with tribal governments and Native American people. For most students this will be new information, and this lesson provides an opportunity for students to learn about theunique relationship between the Supreme Court and tribal nations. Students will read summaries of Supreme Court decisions and reflect on what they’ve learned with peers. If resources allow, students can practice their research skills and find information about Supreme Court cases beyond those provided.

This lesson introduces students to the governance structures of the nine federally recognized tribes in Oregon. Tribes have a unique relationship to the federal and state governments and to each other. Each tribe is a sovereign nation, with its own constitution and the power to make, carry out, and interpret its own laws, while also being subject to some laws established by the U.S. government. Treaties between the federal government and some individual tribes (or groups of tribes) also designate certain goods and services that must be provided.Students will work in groups to conduct research, discuss their findings, and prepare and deliver a presentation that demonstrates their knowledge. This lesson asks students to compare and contrast the governance structure of one assigned tribe (per group) to those of the U.S. government, the Oregon state government, and other tribal governments. Students are expected to have prior knowledge of the U.S. and Oregon Constitutions and the institutions, functions, and processes of those governments (see the “Civics and Government” section of the Oregon State Board of Education standards for high school social studies).

This lesson will give students a foundational awareness of the Indigenous, sovereign people groups who live in what is now known as Oregon—their history, their culture, and the issues that continue to impact them today. When undertaking the study of Indigenous people, it is important to begin with their long history on the land. Indigenous people have lived in Oregon for thousands of years, in established communities, with established social structures, languages, and cultures. They were—and are—deeply and inextricably connected to the land. It is also important to increase students’ awareness of the continued presence of Indigenous people groups in Oregon and to explore what it means to be a sovereign nation within the United States. This lesson will also help students begin to think about how the story of the American West (e.g., the Oregon Trail, westward expansion) has typically been told from a white settlers’ perspective and to consider how that history might look from the perspective of those whose ancestors were here for thousands of years before the settlers arrived. Finally, this lesson will enable students to identify the nine tribes in Oregon that are currently recognized by the federal government and to understand that all of Oregon was and still is Indian Country.

From 1774 to 1871, the U.S. government negotiated hundreds of treaties with individual NativeAmerican tribes. These negotiations were conducted on a government-to-government basis,with the understanding that tribes were sovereign nations with an inherent right to self-governance and self-determination. This lesson will provide students with an understanding of the history and impact of treaty-making between Native American tribes in Oregon and the U.S. government. Thereare six activities.