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Skype Lesson With The Buffalo Bill Centre Of The West

On Wednesday last week, we were fortunate enough to be able to skype with the Buffalo Bill Centre Of The West, in Wyoming, U.S.A, for an interactive lesson on the Culture and Stories of the Plains Indians.

This topic, investigating Indigenous Americans, linked in beautifully with our current study of Indigenous Australia. It allowed us to gain a global perspective about Indigenous people and their cultures around the world, and in what way these cultures are similar or different.

One question we asked ourselves prior to the Skype session was “Are the Plains Indians stories similar to Dreamtime stories, do they serve the same purpose?”

pic from Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Iktomi-And-The-Buffalo-Skull/dp/0531070778

pic from Amazon.com http://www.amazon.com/Iktomi-And-The-Buffalo-Skull/dp/0531070778

In the story of Iktomi And The Buffalo Skull, we learnt how Iktomi put his nose into other people’s business and ended up with his head stuck inside a buffalo skull!

Through this story, we understood that the Plains Indians’ stories did indeed serve the same purpose as Dreamtime stories: to educate youngsters and give them the skills to survive harmoniously in their society.

Following the story of Iktomi, Mr George Miller introduced us to a very important element of the Plains Indians’ culture: the bison. Through the presentation of artefacts, Mr Miller showed us how primordial the bison was to the Plains Indians, who used just about any part of the bison you could think of in their everyday life.

 

 

The Padlet Board below collects the comments from our students about this outstanding Skype lesson:

The video below is a teaser for this fantastic lesson. To sign up for this lesson or others like it, visit Microsoft Education.

Mrs Pratt

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