The Teacher Tribe

         I recently presented a Native American Tribe project with my group. We were given the Tlingit tribe to research. I had not heard of this tribe prior to this experience, but was very intrigued to learn more about it. The main theme of this assignment was the impact that geography has on the tribe. The information that we researched was the geography, history, habitat, food, clothing, famous people, and culture of the tribe. Through this assignment, I learned that there are 5 themes of geography. They are location, place, region, movement, and human-environment interaction. As always, my group worked very well together, and the contribution of ideas and efforts was very evident. Working with a group was very helpful with this project, due to the amount of information to be researched. Each member of the group took a different topic to research, which really allowed the presentation to come together. The presentation went very well, and the group was very confident and proud of our work. I think it is important that students learn about different tribes in order to earn a better understanding of the diverse culture. I think that this could be a really fun topic to learn about for kids. In my future classroom, I would make this a major project and have the students dress up and

perform different cultural routines of their tribe. I would also encourage all of the students to make the connection that geography has a major impact on people, including the elements of the tribe that were discussed (food, clothing, culture, etc.). The Tlingit tribe was located in the Pacific Northwest, along the Southern Alaskan coast. This geographic location impacted their life. Since it was a cold region, their clothing was warmer and their habitats incorporated a hole in the roof for smoke from a fire to escape. They were located along the water, so it was optimal for trading, and their main source of food was salmon. In future classrooms, I would incorporate an assignment in which the students think about the different ways their geography affects their everyday lives. Learning about the Tlingit tribe was a really fun experience!