Overview
Author(s) : Kellie Harry (Northern Washoe) and Jesse Blackburn
Lesson partner: Rebecca Lowry, Humboldt County Office of Education
Grade(s) : 2
Suggested Amount of Time : 65-70 minutes
Curriculum Themes:
- History
- Cultural Strengths
- Relationship to Place
- Cross-Curricular Integration
Learning Goals
- Apply new vocabulary terms
- Summarize the biography of Marvin Sam
- Identify traditional foods and methods of harvest
- Illustrate a camas plant
- Reflect on maintaining food and celebration traditions in one’s family
- Design and label a traditional foods garden
Lesson Overview
- This lesson provides insight into how life changed for the Wel-mel-ti in Sierra Valley as their traditional foods and practices were impacted by the influx of immigrant settlers. Historically, the Wel-mel-ti thrived in a reciprocal relationship with their environment, caring for the plants and animals that provided nutritious sustenance, medicine, economy, and more for them. However, current land use practices have made harvesting traditional foods much more difficult. Students will design a garden with some of these traditional plants, considering how this not only helps the grower with a harvest, but also begins to restore natural landscapes.
Knowledge keeper Marvin Sam is the last living Wel-mel-ti of the area who experienced this time of extreme change in lifestyles, and Mr. Sam provided primary source information for this lesson, including an interview video.
Teacher Background
Marvin Sam is my grandmother’s younger cousin. Marvin was born at the Stewart Indian Boarding School in Nevada and raised in the “Old Indian Camp” above Loyalton, California, where his family had lived for many generations before the town existed. When a lumber mill was developed on the property, mill owners for a time permitted the Wel-mel-ti to remain in their homeplace as they worked for the mill. After new owner Sierra Pacific Industries disallowed this residential use of their property, Marvin then lived through the transition of the Wel-mel-ti being forced to move into Loyalton.
Although Indian boarding schools were not mandated in the Sierra Valley, Marvin chose to attend Chemawa Indian Boarding School in Salem, Oregon. He returned after two years, unhappy with the harsh assimilation strategies, especially when students were punished for speaking their Native languages. He completed school in Loyalton and continued to work, later settling in Susanville, California, with his wife and children. Like Carmelita, Marvin holds on firmly to his cultural values and traditions of the Sierra Valley, believing it’s important to both remain Wel-mel-ti and be successful in today’s world.
– Kellie Harry, with Jesse Blackburn
Unit Background
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.