Lesson+Plans

=**Birchbark and the Native Americans of Wisconsin: Art From Bark?** =  4th grade Johanna Worley, October 2012

**Big Idea or Enduring Understanding**: How do the natural resources of a region influence the arts and crafts of the indigenous people of that region, in particular the Oneida of Northeast Wisconsin?


 * Lesson Goals: **
 * 1) Identify Birch trees and understand the historical importance of their species for indigenous people in Wisconsin. http://www.bio.umass.edu/biology/conn.river/whiteb.html
 * 2) Understand that artists create art out of whatever materials are available to them…natural or recycled.
 * 3) Students will create “faux” birch bark to illustrate a creation myth about an element of Wisconsin's natural environment.
 * 4) Learn about the craft of birchbark biting and create a symmetrical design using bark and teeth or modern tools (if student doesn’t want to use teeth!)


 * Common Core Standards: Writing Standard.4.3, WS.4.4, Speaking and Listening Standard.4.1c, 5**

Read a passage from the book “The Birchbark House” by Louise Erdrich about the preparations for using birchbark by a family Native American family in northern Wisconsin Discuss how birch is found in the Midwest and ask how Native Americans might have used birch trees for use in their daily life. Take a walk around the school to identify birch trees from their bark and leaves In student sketchbook draw the birch tree. If no birch trees are found on school property, show pictures and bark samples.
 *  Week One: **

 **Week Two:** Teacher will lecture about the history of the native people in the Manitowoc area and their use of birch bark and other natural materials in their everyday objects and crafts. Students will begin to create “Faux” birchbark using white tempera paint over black paper, scratching the surface to create a birchbark-like effect. While painting the birchbark, the students will share the myth that they have created in their classrooms as part of their "Myth of Native Cultures" unit* with the class. The “Birchbark” will be used later to help illustrate their story in class.
 * Extra credit will be given for students who can find birch bark and bring it in to use in their collage creations.**
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 13.3333px;">*//After enquiring when the 4th graders will be studying Native Americans, I was given the performance task developed by their teachers. In the task they are to write a myth explaining the creation of an element in WIsconsin's natural environment. I will be piggybacking on this myth writing and have them illustrate their stories. This is part of the 4th grade ccs.// **


 * Week Three**: Students will begin to illustrate their story ideas beginning with "thumbnail" or planning sketches keeping in mind that they will be including their "faux" birchbark to in the art work. The illustration will be in the form of a collage using pieces of their “faux” birch bark.


 * Week Four:** work on illustrations and complete.


 * Week Five:** Intro to Birchbark biting project. Teacher will show visuals of birchbark bitten designs and ask students how they think that they were created. After many guesses show video of birch bark biting <http://youtu.be/bFJaa9ndAts> Then students will<span style="font-family: Arial,sans-serif; font-size: 13.3333px;"> create symmetrical designs by biting the patterns with their teeth. Teacher will demonstrate the art of creating birchbark biting designs in regular paper (white paper with graphite paper folded with it). If the possibility arises to find enough pieces of real birch bark it would be wonderful to have enough for all students to have the paper thin pieces for students to try.


 * Week Six:** Presentation of Art Work-art work will be hung up for the class to view and rubric filled out by students on their illustrations and how well it relates to their myth.

The First Nations art of birch bark biting ** July 31, 2009 by [|Bruce Byfield] When you first hear of birch bark biting, it seems so unlikely you might assume that someone is having a joke at your expense. But the truth is, birch bark biting is one of the most intricate and least known of First Nations arts. Concrete knowledge of the art is hard to come by, but, according to Jadeon Rathgeber of [|Half Moon Studios], whose mother and sister are two of the last practitioners, birch bark biting was widely practiced through North America for centuries, and very likely millennia. Rathgeber and his family are trying to revive the art, both in education and in business.

Birch bark biting is exactly what it sounds like: The making of patterns in bark through careful bites. Traditionally, it is an art done by women, in which the artists fold the bark so that it can fit in their mouths, and visual a pattern as they create it with delicate bites, at times one tooth at a time. “What I’ve found out about the art is that anywhere they had birch trees, they’ve had birch bark biting,” Rathgeber says. “It could have a ten thousand year old history. Nobody really knows. When Contact happened, it sort of got lost along with all our other ceremonies because it was outlawed.” What is known is that three century old Chippewa examples are in the Smithsonian in the United States. Rathgeber has heard of a recent dig in Shuswap territory that unearthed samples that may be three thousand years old. The art is definitely known to have been widely practiced in eastern and central North America, and there are even rumors of it being practiced on the northern coast of British Columbia. A student at the Freda Diesing School, for example, reports hearing his teachers list birch bark biting among the lost local arts. Exactly what samples of the art were used for is equally undocumented. However, Rathgeber suggests that the art may have been used to create hunting and fishing maps, and to pass cultural and ceremonial secrets between generations. “I call it the first Indian printing press,” Rathgeber says. Examples of the art may also have been used as the equivalent of wampum belts to commemorate exchanges between different groups. Among the Cree, it was also used in historical times as the pattern of bead work, laid directly over the leather the beads were sown to. The best-known biter in modern times was Angelique Merasty of the Cree Nation, who lived much of her life in Beaver Lake, Manitoba. Rathgeber’s mother, Pat Bruderer (also known as Half Moon Woman), knew Merasty for over two decades, and sometimes assisted in the sale of her work. When Merasty died about fifteen years ago, Bruderer began teaching herself the craft. Bruderer is now regarded as the foremost birch bark biting artist. Perhaps three or four other biters exist, but none approach her skill. The making of a piece of birch bark biting begins with the gathering of the raw materials. In Rathgeber’s family, the gathering is usually done by his step-father. The bark is taken by trees of the right size that are free of knots after a tobacco ceremony in which the harvester asks forgiveness for what he is about to take. Large strips are sometimes taken, but never enough to kill the tree. When Bruderer receives the bark, she sorts out the most suitable pieces, and peels them away until they are only one layer thick. The peeling is a delicate craft in itself, in which one rough motion can destroy a piece of bark. Perhaps that is why, when Rathgeber says, “No one can peel birch bark like my Mom can,” he speaks with such obvious pride.

Bruderer has her own ceremony to put here in the right mood of calm alertness to work. According to Rathgeber, she does not need absolute silence in which to work, but prefers a setting that is quiet where she will not be distracted. She folds the bark up to sixteen times — “like a xylophone,” Rathgeber says – and works using different teeth for different effects, with one tooth for drawing lines, her incisors for shading, and another for large details. She can use only very light pressure, or else the bark will tear. Even so, she sometimes does as many as five or six pieces before getting one that is up to her standards. Rathgeber reports that his mother has as many as five hundred rejects that he hopes one day to use in collages. Each piece takes a couple of hours to complete, and is usually done in one session, since it would be next to impossible to resume work after quitting. When a piece is finished, Bruderer flattens her pieces using a secret twelve step technique that is one of the hallmarks of her work. Another mark of her work is the singeing the edges of her work to give it give it a border. Her work is either framed by itself between two pieces of glass, or else incorporated into other work, such as boxes by other artists. For many years, the family sold Bruderer’s work for two hundred dollars and upwards. However, now, as Bruderer talks of retirement and focusing on preserving her skills by teaching thems to another generation, the family is starting to husband her output more carefully, limiting sales and raising prices considerably. More importantly, Rathgeber is also searching for a museum or teaching institution to display the best of her work as well as Bruderer’s collection of Merasty’s pieces. He hopes that by making some of this work public, he can encourage academic study of the art – study that might, for example, help to determine how bite patterns differed culturally, or even through the ages. When I talked with Rathgeber, he had just heard that the Bill Reid Gallery’s gift shop and the Path Gallery at Whistler had agreed to take some pieces of birch bark biting for sale. Should you see any pieces, you should have no trouble identifying it for what it is. Mysterious and meticulous, birch bark biting is like no other art you have ever seen.

Content Standard 1.
Understanding and applying media, techniques, and processes

Achievement Standard

 * Students know the differences between materials, techniques, and processes
 * Students describe how different materials, techniques, and processes cause different responses
 * Students use different media, techniques, and processes to communicate ideas, experiences, and stories
 * Students use art materials and tools in a safe and responsible manner

Content Standard 2
Using knowledge of structures and functions

Achievement Standard

 * Students know the differences among visual characteristics and purposes of art in order to convey ideas
 * Students describe how different expressive features and organizational principles cause different responses
 * Students use visual structures and functions of art to communicate ideas

Content Standard 3
Choosing and evaluating a range of subject matter, symbols, and ideas

Achievement Standard

 * Students explore and understand prospective content for works of art
 * Students select and use subject matter, symbols, and ideas to communicate meaning

Content Standard 4
Understanding the visual arts in relation to history and cultures

Achievement Standard

 * Students know that the visual arts have both a history and specific relationships to various cultures
 * Students identify specific works of art as belonging to particular cultures, times, and places
 * Students demonstrate how history, culture, and the visual arts can influence each other in making and studying works of art