Grade 6 | We Are California

Picture courtesy of Dania Colegrove (Hupa) 2024

Tanoak Environmental History: A Study of Historical Imagery (Lecture/Discussion)

Lessons in this unit could be used for a week, or up to a month. Students will receive a foundational understanding in Hupa culture, traditional ecological knowledge and environmental science. Opportunities for written/multimedia expression as well as critical thinking are integrated throughout lessons. This unit prepares students for the interactive “Life of an Acorn Game” unit. Authors recommended completing this unit before the game unit. Essential questions: Why do Hupa peoples prefer Tanoaks? Why should I prefer/prioritize acorn trees over all other trees? What are the expected results of promoting healthy acorn trees? What do I need to understand to unlock the acorn as a food source?

Acorn Maiden Story Visualization Exercise (Art)

Lessons in this unit could be used for a week, or up to a month. Students will receive a foundational understanding in Hupa culture, traditional ecological knowledge and environmental science. Opportunities for written/multimedia expression as well as critical thinking are integrated throughout lessons. This unit prepares students for the interactive “Life of an Acorn Game” unit. Authors recommended completing this unit before the game unit. Essential questions: Why do Hupa peoples prefer Tanoaks? Why should I prefer/prioritize acorn trees over all other trees? What are the expected results of promoting healthy acorn trees? What do I need to understand to unlock the acorn as a food source?

K’iwinya’n: The Preferred Acorn of Hupas (Na:tinixwe)*

RI.6.7, MS-LS2-1, MS-ESS3-3

Lessons in this unit could be used for a week, or up to a month. Students will receive a foundational understanding in Hupa culture, traditional ecological knowledge and environmental science. Opportunities for written/multimedia expression as well as critical thinking are integrated throughout lessons. This unit prepares students for the interactive “Life of an Acorn Game” unit. Authors recommended completing this unit before the game unit. Essential questions: Why do Hupa peoples prefer Tanoaks? Why should I prefer/prioritize acorn trees over all other trees? What are the expected results of promoting healthy acorn trees? What do I need to understand to unlock the acorn as a food source?

Ka’m-t’em: A Journey Toward Healing: Songs of “Those Within”

HSS 6.1.1, HSS 6.1.3, RI.6.1, RI.6.6, W.6.1, MS-ESS3-3

This unit utilizes an excerpt of Ch. 14 Songs of “Those Within” and a poem entitled, Visitor in the Forest, both written by Callie Lara. The readings introduce an Indigenous perspective of relationship and responsibility to the natural environment including the river, forest, animals, etc. Through her poetry and story-telling, the author helps students to visualize landscapes such as ravines, rivers, vegetation, animals, prairies, and aromas. Further, the author reminds students that humans are but one component of the natural environment. Therefore, awareness of human impact and responsibility to the natural environment is integral to its preservation. This lesson addresses science, history, reading and writing state standards and encourages students to build awareness and promote change through their writing.

How Good Fire Builds Habitat for Animals and Plants

MS-ESS3-3, MS-ESS3-4, MS-ESS3-5, MS-LS2-1, MS-LS2-2, MS-LS2-4, MS-LS2-5, MS-ETS1-1, MS-ETS1-2, MS-ETS1-3

A multi-media, science-focused exploration of how cultural burning (good fire) brings health to traditional basketry plants, often the same plants that provide food and shelter to native bird species.

Traditional Native Ways of Conserving Marine Life

MS-LS2-1, MS-LS2-2, MS-LS2-4, MS-LS2-5

This science-focused unit provides video interviews, art and photographs to describe how coastal resources are important to Tribal peoples, and how Tribal peoples manage those resources in different ways.

Hupa and Chumash Astronomy and Hand Games

HSS 6.1, RI.6.2, RI.6.3, MS-ESS1-1, MS-ESS1-2, MS-ESS1-3

This lesson introduces students to the history and traditional astronomical knowledge of both Hupa and Chumash Peoples of California. Students will learn how Oral Histories have been passed down and preserved for hundreds of years and will learn to appreciate how cultural and/or family knowledge is passed down in their families.

Miwok dancers in regalia. © Dean Hoaglin

Coast Miwok Cultural Wellness and Community

9-12.2.1.P, 7-8.2.1.P

This lesson introduces the Coast Miwok people, homelands, and cultural lifeways that connect to wellbeing practices. Students will participate in an activity that centers wellbeing and understanding of Coast Miwok lifeways.

Joy Harjo: The First Indigenous US Poet Laureate

RL.5.1, RL.5.2, RL.5.4, RL.5.5, RL.5.6, W.5.3, W.5.5, W.5.8, W.5.10, RL.6.4, RL.6.5, RL.6.6, W.6.3, W.6.5, W.6.10

This interdisciplinary poetry unit invites students to explore voice, identity, memory, gratitude, and interconnectedness through the lens of Joy Harjo’s poetry and worldview. Over the course of five multi-session lessons, students will read, analyze, and respond to poems by Joy Harjo—the first Native American U.S. Poet Laureate—while crafting their own original poetry. Blending reading, writing, visual art, and social-emotional learning, the unit supports students in reflecting on their lived experiences and expressing themselves creatively.

Jump Middle Stick by Brian Tripp, Photo of Print

Imagining the Native American Native California Artists Brian Tripp (Karuk)

HSS 5.1.2, HSS 5.3.5, 5.VA:RE7.1, 6.VA:RE7.1, 8.VA:RE7.1, Responding—Anchor Standard 8, Connecting—Anchor Standard 11

This lesson introduces students to the life and artwork of Brian D. Tripp (Karuk), a groundbreaking Native California artist, poet, singer, and ceremonial practitioner. Tripp was a powerful early voice in the modern Native California art movement. His work blends traditional imagery and symbolism from Karuk, Yurok, and Hupa cultures with bold, modernist expression, giving visual form to cultural identity, ancestral memory, and contemporary Native experiences.