Table of
Contents

The following activities help students put their knowledge of Gran Quivira into a broader perspective.

Activity 1: Retrieving Data
Have students make a retrieval chart for the information they learned from this lesson and for data they find in their textbooks and other sources about the groups of people Gran Quivira's inhabitants probably traded with. Encourage them to be creative about the categories they use, but suggest that across the top of their paper they consider headings such as Diet, Architecture, Making a Living, and Religions. Headings on the left side of the chart might include Anasazi, Apache, Mohave, Navajo, and Spanish Missionaries. Explain that they also might need to be creative in using inferences for some of the data they would like to include. Have the students divide up into groups of four or five and discuss their completed charts. Have two or three groups put a composite list on the chalkboard. Complete the activity by inviting other students to add to those lists. Discuss with students the significant amount of trade that took place between American Indians long before Europeans came to the continent.

Activity 2: Constructing a Model of a Pueblo
Have students locate articles in encyclopedias and other reference works about the Pueblo Indians. Using the materials in Visual Evidence as references, have groups of three or four students each build a model of one of the components of the village of Gran Quivira. Models should be of the same general scale and should include typical Puebloan dwellings, a few kivas, and a mission church and convento. Students may use any craft materials they can find, but frosting-covered shoeboxes, papier-mache, and homemade adobe of clay and straw work well. Put the completed models on dried grass and dirt covered poster boards and assemble the village. Have students use Drawings 2 and 3 and Photo 3 to help them decide where to place their models. Show the completed pueblo to other classes.

Activity 3: The Puebloans and Local Indians
Working in small groups, have students research the lives of American Indians who lived in their own region from about A.D. 1300 to 1660. Have groups find answers to the following questions: How did they make a living? What kind of possessions did they have--tools, weapons, etc? What type of houses did they live in? What foods did they eat? What kind of ceremonies did they participate in? Why did they leave the area (if they did)? When did their first contact with Europeans occur? What were the results of European contact? Have each group report its findings and then have students discuss similarities and differences between these groups and the people of Gran Quivira.