Indigenous Perspective on Using Coastal Lands

Engage: 

Project the link to the Myrtle Beach timeline and share with students. Have students scroll back in time and pay attention to the development of the beach front. Eventually students will come to the Native American tribes that originally lived there. *Note: this timeline neglects to include the role of Enslaved Africans in this region. 

Remind students that we have been studying the use of the land from the perspective of citizens who currently live on the coast, i.e. of European descent. Facilitate a discussion of the colonization of lands from Indigenous peoples. 

Explore: 

Divide students into groups of four, and each student will get a different quote from a Native American (Handout 1) (Kirwan 1999). Students will individually read the quote and discuss what they can deduce about Native American perspectives/views of the natural world from their individual and collective quotes.

Explain 

The teacher then facilitates a whole class discussion regarding the perspective of Indigenous views with the natural world from the quotes provided to the class, clarifying misconceptions where possible and directing them for further discussion or research where needed. 

Elaborate 

Students will be directed to the Indigenous Corporate Training Inc. Website that compares the Worldviews of Indigenous People and Western People. Using this information students will assess their accuracy in deducing Indigenous views of the environment.

In their team of four, students will develop a Google Slide presentation synthesizing the knowledge of Indigenous views and western views and apply it to the coastal land use. Students are to predict how lands would be managed in modern times if Indigenous populations still maintained control of regulations and resource management. Slides Rubric is included as Handout 2