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MapQuesters Activity

Classroom activity to be used with Keepers of the Fire; the American Indians of Dowagiac, Michigan. A school program of the Museum at Southwestern Michigan College

Introduction: This activity will 1) introduce children to basic map reading skills and 2) demonstrate that a number of highways in Berrien and Cass counties were laid atop trails used by native people before Europeans arrived. Students may work in teams to study a set of four maps, answering questions about their observations aloud or on paper. This activity addresses State of Michigan school curriculum Social Studies benchmarks 2.2.3 and 5.1.1.
Supplies Needed:
Preparation:
  1. For each student team, print out the following on a *color printer:
    • One copy of the Cass and Berrien Counties map
    • One color copy of the Cities and Roads of SW Michigan map
    • Two copies on transparency sheets of the Indian Village and Indian Trails map

    *If you do not have access to a color printer, see below.

  2. If you do not have access to a color printer:
    • line over with blue colored pencil the rivers, creeks and lake “waves” and the symbols for them in the legend on the Cass and Berrien Counties map
    • Use a red pencil can be used to line over the roads on the Cities and Roads of SW Michigan map so that they stand out.
    • Color with green permanent marker the wigwam symbol for Indian villages
  3. Slide each map copy into a page protector.
  4. Order each set of four maps in a binder. Begin at the back of the binder (since students will have to work from back to front to lay transparencies over solid background maps) with:
    1. Cass and Berrien Counties;
    2. Indian Villages and Indian Trails;
    3. Cities and Roads;
    4. Indian Villages and Indian Trails.
Procedure and Questions
Step 1:

Show the national map.

  • Where is Michigan on this map?

Note that Michigan is one of the few states whose outline can be seen from space because so much of it is surrounded by water.
 

Show the Michigan map.

  • Where is Berrien County?
  • Where is Cass County?
  • What large body of water are they near?
Step 2:

Pass out a binder to each student team.

  • Have students open binder from back and turn over first map, Berrien and Cass Counties.
  • Orient them to compass rose and cardinal directions.
  • Have them find legend on map and use it to guide discussion.
  • Help students:
    • Find state line;
    • find a county line;
    • name some of the cities they see on the map;
    • locate Lake Michigan (Also note that there are many small lakes in the area that could not be included on the map);
    • name all rivers they see.
Step 3: Have students turn over second map in binder on top of first one.
  • Tell them they will focus on the Indian villages symbolized on this map.
  • Point out that the symbol for a village (as seen in legend) is a wigwam, the typical dwelling of the Potawatomi Indians. (It was dome shaped, with a frame constructed of arched tree saplings. The frame was covered with mats of cattails, rushes or twigs, or with animal skins. Villages were small, perhaps 75-100 people.) The ones your students see on their maps are well documented 19th century Potawatomi villages.
  • What do you notice about the location of these villages? It should be apparent that nearly all of them are located close to rivers (and those that aren’t, are near small lakes not shown on the map).
  • Why would the Indians want to locate near a source of water? (For drinking, washing, fishing, canoeing, recreation, etc.)
Step 4: Ask students to turn over third map in set.
  • Have them look at legend and tell you what the red lines stand for.
  • Locate cities near your school and roads in your area.
  • Have them distinguish using the symbols the state, U.S. and paved roads from each other.
  • Point out that roads are the way people and goods move now.
Step 5: Have students turn over fourth map, the same transparency as before. This time students will focus on the Indian trails shown. (These were major overland routes before Europeans arrived. They were mostly narrow paths through woods and prairies and around the many marshy areas. They connected Indian villages, hunting grounds, maple sugar camps, and trade routes used by other tribes.)
  • What do you notice about the location of these trails? They should be able to see that a number of them run alongside or atop of modern roads.
Step 6: Closure.
  • Why do you think some of today’s roads follow old trails? (Early missionaries, traders and settlers to this country used the Indian trails as overland routes to reach Indians and new land. Because the trails had been blazed according to the topography of the land – for example, they skirted swampy areas and crossed creeks at the shallowest parts –it was economical and easier to widen them to become some of the first roads used by settlers with their covered wagons. Stagecoach companies then improved them more for their use. Later, paved roads were laid atop the early dirt roads, which by then connected towns. U.S. 12 between Niles and Detroit is well known as the former “Old Sauk Trail.” Today it is likely there are still some remnants of old Indian trails that were not plowed up or covered with pavement.
  • Is there an “Indian-trail-turned-road” close to your town?