Honoring Our Ancestors: Sierra Valley Wel-mel-ti
Grade 2 Curriculum Unit
Lessons
Unit Core Themes: History, Cultural Strengths, Relationship to Place, Cross-Curricular Integration
Unit Summary
This unit introduces students to the Northern Washoe Indians, or Wel-mel-ti, who lived in Loyalton, California, and throughout the Sierra Valley.
Students will benefit from this rare example of Wel-mel-ti perspectives on an important time and place, through the tangible stories of actual Wel-mel-ti people, shared by those individuals and their family members. Too often, Native American voices have been missing from the social studies and historical records taught in U.S. schools. This has led to a warped understanding of American peoples’ history, present, and future together, and allows erasure and negative stereotypes to harm Native students.
Through the following lessons, all students have the opportunity to 1) learn some California history and Sierra Valley Washoe values and traditions, 2) build vocabulary and strengthen reading comprehension, critical thinking, and discussion skills, and 3) increase their empathy and feelings of belonging in the classroom.
Download Honoring our Ancestors Unit
Unit Learning Goals
Students will:
Name the Tribal group and place described in the unit
Describe the 3 Wel-mel-ti individuals featured in the unit
State how each individual represents/represented aspects of Wel-mel-ti culture
State how each individual made a difference in the world or in the lives of others
Compare and contrast the lifeways of these current and historical Native American people with their own cultures/experiences
Understand and begin to apply new vocabulary for the topics
Teacher Background
I grew up listening to my grandmother Carmelita’s stories about life in the Sierra Valley. This oral tradition was more than entertainment -- the specific knowledge and values passed from elder to child have sustained our Tribes in challenging environments for many thousands of years. So, I always paid close attention, knowing it was my responsibility to practice what I’d learned and continue to pass it on to the next generations.
Elders in the tribe also had special status and wisdom that they accumulated as they grew older. They were the keepers of the fire, and they taught the Washoe traditions that they had learned from their grandparents. For this reason, the old ones were treated with great respect. No one ever passed by an elder without saying something, and during a feast, elders were always fed before anyone else.” (Dodds, 2009, p. 10)