Trade Trials Treaties

Driving Question of the lesson:
How did the treaty affect cooperation, create conflicts, and affect trade and wars between the Cherokee and English during 1761?

The following questions will guide student learning in the lesson:​

• What was the reoccurring theme presented in the treaty between the English and Cherokee?
• How did the treaty affect trade and the exchange of property? 
• What cause and effect relationships existed between the English and Cherokee during 1761?
• What is the main idea of the treaty articles? 
• What viewpoint is expressed most vividly and why?
• What connections exist between the treaty and life in 1761?

1. The teacher will access background knowledge and show students a short video clip of the Cherokee people and their shrinking territories.
2. The teacher will flash forward to the Cherokee Wars and its impact on Pickens County.
3. Introduce key vocabulary and access prior knowledge using a power point and websites. 
4. Access Prior Knowledge using a Thinking Map for trade, treaty, and other key words to aid understanding.
5. The teacher will teach a short background and history of the Cherokee, Attakulla Kulla, trade and treaties.
6. The students will examine the Treaty of 1761, see “A Treaty of Peace and Friendship, to analyze the cause-effect relationship, main idea, theme, connections to life in 1761, and visual imagery between the Cherokee and English. 
7. Pose driving question: How did the treaty affect cooperation, create conflicts, and affect trade and wars between the Cherokee and English during 1761?
8. Students will answer guided questions individually, meet in groups to read article transcripts, see Primary source transcription, and connect it to the essential question.
9. The teacher will describe the project requirements and review rubric, see Project Outline and Rubric. 
10. The students will sign up, see Treaty Project Sign Up, for an individual project based on their interpretation of the treaty articles.  They will be able to choose from the following: a power point presentation, illustration, or newspaper article that establishes the cause-effect relationship or explains the main idea of the article, a title that expresses the overall theme of the article, and a visual representation with a caption. 
11. Students will share individual projects and justify the relationship between the Cherokee and English.

Historical Background Notes
Trade was an important aspect of the Cherokee culture for centuries. The Cherokee Path was a trade route for early Carolina. The Cherokees were part of a sophisticated agrarian community that traded with other tribes.  As colonists began to settle deep within Cherokee towns, trade formed between the English and other Europeans. The Cherokee traded deerskins for metal farming tools which was appealing because of the durability of the tools. The exchange of goods also provided the Cherokee with weapons and a new found desire to kill deer for more than personal need. As the Europeans increased in number, the demand for deerskins increased. One account records that an average of more than 53,000 skins per year were sent to England. Between 1699 and 1715, deerskins were the single most valuable export (Weir 1997, 143). Trading became more complex due to restrictions placed on deerskins. The Cherokee were shrewd traders and viewed the process differently than colonists. They viewed trade as an interwoven relationship of personal and political ties as well as the direct exchange of goods (Hatley 1995, 42-45). Even though their trade views differed, the Cherokee adopted the European’s concept of profit, credit, and debt.  For example Cherokee women often provided corn to those in need as a gift, yet they adopted the payback principle. If something was given, then something was expected in return (Hatley 1995, 48-49). Cherokees associated trade to kinship which created concerns when traders abused trade agreements.         

The cultural exchange between the Cherokee and the English adapted to meet the needs of each while holding on to their varying views. This cultural exchange would not mesh the differences among the population. The disputes over land, mistreatment of the Cherokee people, skirmishes between traders, colonists, and the Cherokee formed a bubbling pot of turmoil. The Cherokee viewed war very differently than the English. War was an act of revenge or swift justice.  Warring parties could be as small as two men that retaliated against an injustice (Claro 1992, 19). Trade became strained when tensions escalated in the 1750s. Often times these disagreements resulted in death, war, and imprisonment (Hatley 1995, 120-125). The Cherokee retaliated against an attack that began in Virginia when settlers killed several Cherokee warriors that were fighting against the French (Edgar 2006, 162-163). The tensions continued to increase and spread southward. The controversy over trade, attacks within settlements, and land disputes would escalate to war with the Cherokee. This war lasted from 1759-1761. 

Colonel James Grant attacked the middle and upper towns of the Cherokee. He destroyed towns along with thousands of crops which broke the Cherokee’s will to fight. The Cherokee were defeated and forced to negotiate a treaty with the Europeans. They exchanged captives, broke all ties with the French, and relinquished South Carolina land to the English. The Cherokee realized that their position within the upper and lower towns was limited and the ability to win against the colonists was near impossible.  As a result they agreed to sign a treaty which ended the Cherokee War.  It was signed in Charleston on September 23, 1761 (Edgar 2006, 163). 

Cherokee leadership was an important aspect of trade and peace with the English.  The Cherokee leaders were instrumental in negotiations with the settlers to establish peace, although it cost them hunting grounds, land, and unfair treatment.  One of the Cherokee leaders during the mid 1700s was known as Little Carpenter, Attakulla Kulla (Edgar 2006, 35).  He helped build Fort Prince George in Pickens County and was an influential diplomat with trade problems.  Shortly after the Cherokee War, Attakulla Kulla was instrumental in helping establish peace and trade once again with the Governors of South Carolina.  Most of the treaties signed during this time gave little compliance to the Cherokee, but with their population, land, trade and freedoms dwindling, they had little to no bargaining power.  Treaties became trials for the Cherokee which forced them from their lands and limited their freedoms. 

Trade had been a normal part of the Cherokee culture for thousands of years.  European trade would eventually change the Cherokee way of life.  “In nearly 250 years of contact with whites, the Cherokees had faced constant turmoil.  War and disease had devastated their way of life.  But now they looked ahead to a peaceful future.  They had lost many of their people and much of their territory.  They were confident, though that their peace with the Americans would gain them some security at last (Claro 1992, 31).”

Teacher Reflections
My students loved the visualizing activity because they enjoy drawing. It also helped them identify the main idea and theme of the article. I thought that identifying the theme would be the most difficult task of all, but my students were able to process the information with little to no problems. As soon as we had decoded the treaty and discussed its meaning, the students were given the option of creating a PowerPoint, drawing and writing a caption, or writing a newspaper article from a section of the treaty. 
No one signed up to write a newspaper article.  The most popular choice was PowerPoint. That was the second obstacle that we faced.

Many students that chose to create a PowerPoint had never been exposed to the program. I had to spend one day allowing them to “play” on the computer to understand how to type and insert pictures from clip art or web files. The technology barrier seemed to be the greatest factor in the quality of the assessment. If you will notice in the student’s copy of work, one of my students created a slide show with his name and a cow, another student added random images that had no explanation or reasoning for using it. Many of the student’s examples had grammar and spelling errors. Overall the technology barrier was the most difficult to overcome, although the students were not frustrated. I actually needed one adult per computer station to help with the technology barrier.   

The visual framing was the smoothest assessment. Students completed a “sloppy copy” of his or her work before making the final. I checked the work, and they were finished much earlier than the students making a slideshow. This was not a major problem because early finishers read Native American books.

Students were required to take a vocabulary test. Most students did quite well on the vocabulary. We identified a group of primary and secondary sources by using post-it-notes to categorize it. We also enjoyed creating a graphic organizer for Articles 6-12 in the treaty. Students quickly picked up on the unfair practices of the English toward the Cherokee. 

Overall the lesson went well, but the project creation took too long. I felt much more prepared in teaching content because I used more than one source in my lesson. If we had not spent an extra week in the computer lab finishing a slide, I would have been more pleased with the lesson. I thought technology would allow the students to finish quickly. Next year when I use this lesson, I will take a quick survey of student’s exposure to PowerPoint and ask the media specialist to help out. I think this would make my life much easier. 

The students will take a Vocabulary test on key terms including primary and secondary sources.  The students will identify the cause and effect relationship between trade, trials, and treaties using the guided questions as a guide.   The students will choose an individual project to complete: power point, illustration with captions, or a newspaper article, see Treaty Project Sign Up.  The project will be graded using a rubric, see Project Outline and Rubric, that outlines the requirements for each.
(Refer to lesson resources)