First encounters

Lesson plan

3 class periods of about 45 minutes.

1. Day 1 · 45 min

   Two first meetings

   1. 5 minutes: Read the encyclopedia article on the Taíno, linked from the unit page, so students know who Columbus met in 1492.
   2. 10 minutes: Read News of the First Voyage (Columbus), all three passages. In pairs, students sort each sentence into two columns: things Columbus saw or did, and claims about what those things meant. Then list the five new island names and the one Taíno name the letter gives (passage 2).
   3. 15 minutes: Read The First Meeting at Porto Seguro, 1500 (Caminha), passages 7–9. Pairs act out the scene in the Captain's cabin with no words, using only the gestures Caminha describes. Observers write at least two possible meanings for each gesture.
   4. 10 minutes: Compare the class's readings with Caminha's own admission in passage 9: "We took it that way because that is what we wished." Discuss what each writer chose to record about the people of the land, and what each shows about what the Europeans wanted.
   5. Exit: each student writes one thing in either letter they would trust, and one they would not, with a reason.

2. Day 2 · 45 min

   Eyewitness, or memory?

   1. Split the class in two. Half read The Great Market of Tenochtitlan (Cortés); half read The Bison Plains and the People Who Follow the Herds (Castañeda), passages 2.7.2–2.7.7.
   2. 15 minutes: Cortés groups list the goods sold in the market and who kept order there (passages 7–8). Castañeda groups label a bison outline with each part the plains people used and how.
   3. 10 minutes: Each group reads its source's History tab and notes when the writer wrote, for whom, and what he could and could not know. Cortés wrote months later to win the emperor's favor; Castañeda wrote from memory more than twenty years later.
   4. 15 minutes: Pair a Cortés student with a Castañeda student. Each writer compares what he saw with something his readers knew: Salamanca and Granada, or Arabs. Pairs find one comparison in each and discuss what it helps readers picture and what it hides.

3. Day 3 · 45 min

   Whose account to trust

   1. 20 minutes: Each group chooses one more account from the unit: The First Winter and Squanto's Corn (Bradford), passages 4–9; The Mexica Embassy and the Smallpox in Michoacán (Relación de Michoacán), told by Purépecha elders; The Lady of Cofitachequi, 1540 (Gentleman of Elvas); Karlsefni and Gudrid in Vinland (Saga of the Greenlanders); Trading with the Tlingit at Lituya Bay (La Pérouse); or A Visit to the Great Camp on the Plains (Henday). All but Bradford are early versions.
   2. Groups use the History tab and the source worksheet to answer four questions: who told it, how long after the events, whether the teller could speak with the other side, and what the teller wanted from the reader.
   3. 10 minutes: Each group gives its account a trust rating from 1 to 5 and defends it to the class in two minutes. Note on the board which account comes from the people who were met (the Purépecha elders) and which from the newcomers.
   4. 15 minutes: Each student answers the unit question, Whose account of first contact can we trust, and why?, in a paragraph that uses evidence from at least two sources and says which one they trust most.

Read these sources

The sources the lesson plan uses, in its order. Each opens in Hearth Library with the original beside plain English, and a History tab on who made it and how far to trust it.

1. 1

   News of the First Voyage

   Columbus, 1493. Moderate.

   Short and plain; the notes on the Indies and the island names do most of the work.

   Questions, key terms and an activity

   the Indies

   Europeans' name for the lands of South and East Asia; Columbus believed he had reached islands there

   Indians

   Columbus's name for the people he met, because he thought he was in the Indies; they were Taíno

   fleet

   a group of ships sailing together

   take possession

   to claim a land formally as belonging to a ruler

   proclamation

   a formal public announcement

   royal banner

   the flag of the king and queen, raised as a sign of their rule

   1. Comprehension According to Columbus, how did he take possession of the islands, and what did he do with each island's name?
   2. Analysis Columbus writes that he took possession of the islands “and no one opposed me.” Why might that detail matter to the readers he had in mind? What would we need to know about the islanders to judge what it meant that no one opposed him?
   3. Analysis (reliability) Columbus wrote at sea on his way home, to an official who had helped raise money for the voyage, and the letter was soon printed. Which statements in this opening could he know firsthand, and which depend on what he believed? How might his reader and purpose shape what he chose to say?
   4. Connection Read The First Meeting at Porto Seguro, 1500 (Caminha), in which the Portuguese cannot talk with the men on the beach and trade a cap, a hood and a hat for a feather hat and beads. Compare what each writer chose to record about meeting the people of the land, and what each shows about what the Europeans wanted.

   Activity In pairs, students sort each sentence of the letter into two columns, things Columbus saw or did, and claims about what those things meant (for example, that the islands now belonged to the king and queen). They then make a chart of the five islands with their new Spanish names and, where the letter gives one, the Taíno name. The class discusses what the letter records, what it leaves out, and what renaming the islands was meant to do.

   For teachers · Worksheet for this source

2. 2

   The First Meeting at Porto Seguro, 1500

   Caminha, 1500. Moderate.

   Long, close descriptions of bodies and gifts; the notes explain the unclear words.

   Questions, key terms and an activity

   Captain-major

   the commander of the whole fleet; here Pedro Álvares Cabral

   pilot

   the officer who guides a ship's course

   soundings

   measurements of how deep the water is

   signed

   made signs with the hands to get a meaning across without words

   dais

   a raised place of honor where an important person sits

   rosary beads

   a string of beads that Catholics use to count their prayers

   1. Comprehension What did the young man who looked at the Captain's collar do with his hands, and what did the Portuguese take him to mean?
   2. Analysis Caminha records which foods and drinks the two men refused, what they did with the water, and how they reacted to the parrot, the sheep and the hen. Why might he set down these details so carefully for the king? What do they show about the two men, and what do they show about the Portuguese?
   3. Analysis (reliability) Caminha admits, “We took it that way because that is what we wished.” He could not speak with the people of the land, and he was writing to the king about a week after the meeting. How do these facts affect how far we can trust his reports of what the two men meant, and his reports of what they did?
   4. Connection Read News of the First Voyage (Columbus). Columbus tells Luis de Santángel that he took possession of many islands for the king and queen, with a proclamation and the royal banner, and that no one opposed him. Caminha describes gifts traded and signs that both sides tried to read. What does each account show about what the people of the land did, and what does each leave out?

   Activity Pairs act out the scene in the Captain's cabin with no words, using only the gestures Caminha describes (pointing at the collar, the candlestick, the parrot and the beads, then toward the land). Observers write down at least two possible meanings for each gesture. The class then compares their readings with Caminha's and with his admission that the Portuguese understood what they wished.

   For teachers · Worksheet for this source

3. 3

   The Great Market of Tenochtitlan

   Cortés, 1520. Moderate.

   Long lists of goods, and comparisons with Spanish places that the notes explain.

   Questions, key terms and an activity

   arcade

   a row of arches along the side of a building or square, with a covered walk behind it

   provisions

   food and other supplies

   herbalist

   someone who gathers and sells plants used as medicine

   apothecary

   a person or shop that makes and sells medicines

   maguey

   the agave plant; its sap was made into syrup and into the drink pulque

   by count and by measure

   sold by the number of items or by the size of a container, not by weight

   1. Comprehension According to Cortés, how were the goods arranged in the market, and who kept order there?
   2. Analysis Cortés compares the square to the square of Salamanca and the cotton stalls to the silk market of Granada. Why might he describe the market through Spanish places for Charles V? What can comparisons like these show, and what can they hide?
   3. Analysis (reliability) Cortés says more than sixty thousand people came to the market every day. Using the headnote, explain how his situation when he wrote, and his reasons for writing, should affect how we use this number. Is his description of how the market worked more or less trustworthy than the number, and what other evidence would help you check it?
   4. Connection Read Maize, Markets and Books in Yucatán (Landa). Landa writes that Maya traders exchanged salt, cloth and slaves for cacao and stone beads, which served as money, and that they sold on credit and paid back honorably. Compare what Cortés and Landa each admired about Native trade, and what each writer's own background led him to notice.

   Activity Groups each take one part of the market from the letter (metals, jewelry and building materials, game, herbs and medicines, food and honey, maize, fish and eggs, cotton, colors and pottery). They list every good named and sort the list into food, medicine, materials and tools, and fine goods. The class combines the lists into a labeled sketch of the market: the arcades, a street for each kind of goods, and the building Cortés says is “like a courthouse,” noting that he gives no layout. Then the class discusses what the market shows about Mexica farming and healing, and what Cortés admits he could not name.

   For teachers · Worksheet for this source

4. 4

   The Bison Plains and the People Who Follow the Herds

   Castañeda, 1560–1570. Moderate.

   Old measures and Spanish pack-saddle words, all explained in the notes.

   Questions, key terms and an activity

   league

   an old measure for long distances over land

   bison

   large wild animals of the plains, related to cattle, which Castañeda calls “cows”

   dress hides

   to clean and prepare animal skins for use or trade

   packsaddle

   a pad or frame strapped on an animal's back for carrying loads

   ravine

   a narrow, deep valley cut by running water

   flint

   a hard stone that can be chipped to a sharp edge and used as a blade

   1. Comprehension How did the people of the plains dry and store bison meat, and how did they cook it?
   2. Analysis Castañeda says the plains peoples travel “like Arabs.” What does this comparison help his Spanish readers picture, and what might it lead them to miss about the Querechos and Teyas?
   3. Analysis (reliability) Castañeda served as a common soldier and wrote more than twenty years after the journey, from memory. He says that what he did not see, he learned by asking. Choose one detail in this passage that he most likely saw himself and one that he most likely heard from others. How does the difference affect how far you trust each one?
   4. Connection Read Maize and Cassava Bread (Oviedo). Oviedo writes that cassava bread keeps for a year or more and can be carried long distances, even at sea. Castañeda describes bison meat dried, ground and stored. Compare what each writer noticed about how Native people prepared food to keep and to travel with, and what each writer seems to have valued in it.

   Activity Students draw a simple outline of a bison and, using only the text, label each part the plains people used and how (meat, blood, gut, stomach, fat, hides). Beside it they list the tools and animals the passage names (the flint on a stick, the dogs with their packs, the tents). Each student then writes a short paragraph on what Castañeda admired in the plains people and what he found strange.

   For teachers · Worksheet for this source

5. 5

   The First Winter and Squanto's Corn

   Bradford, 1630–1650. Moderate.

   Modernized seventeenth-century English with long sentences; the notes explain the old calendar date.

   Questions, key terms and an activity

   scurvy

   a disease of long sea voyages, from a lack of fresh food

   elder

   a leader of a church congregation, chosen to guide its members

   visitation

   a time of sickness or trouble that believers saw as sent by God

   sachem

   a Native leader or chief in southern New England

   interpreter

   a person who puts what is said in one language into another

   calamity

   a great disaster that brings suffering to many people

   1. Comprehension How many of the English were healthy at the worst time of the winter, and what did they do for the sick?
   2. Analysis Look at the six terms of the peace. Which terms bind Massasoit and his people, which bind the English, and which bind both? What does this suggest about what each side wanted?
   3. Analysis (reliability) Bradford lived through this winter, but he wrote about it some twenty years later, as the colony's governor and as a believer who saw God's hand in its survival. Another English account words two of the treaty terms differently. How should these facts shape how we use his account of the treaty and of Squanto?
   4. Connection In Winter at Stadacona and the Cedar Cure, Cartier's men are cured after Domagaya and two women of Stadacona show them a remedy from a tree. Compare how that account and Bradford's give credit for the help the Europeans got. How much credit goes to Native people, and how much to God?

   Activity Small groups each take one of the six terms of the peace and rewrite it in their own words, naming who must act and who gains. Groups report in order, and the class builds a chart of the whole treaty. Then the class decides whether the treaty, as Bradford gives it, binds both sides equally, keeping in mind that another English account words two terms differently.

   For teachers · Worksheet for this source

6. 6

   The Mexica Embassy and the Smallpox in Michoacán

   Relación de Michoacán, 1539–1541. Challenging.Early version

   Long, repetitive speeches that follow Purépecha speech closely, with a few unclear sentences flagged in the notes.

   Questions, key terms and an activity

   cazonci

   the title the Spaniards used for the Purépecha king

   mantle

   a loose cloak worn over the shoulders

   loincloth

   a strip of cloth worn around the hips and between the legs

   pestilence

   a deadly epidemic that spreads quickly through many people

   smallpox

   a contagious disease that causes fever and a rash of sores over the body; it was unknown in the Americas before Europeans arrived

   bloody flux

   dysentery or severe diarrhea with blood

   high priest

   the leading priest of a temple; the friar called the Purépecha high priests "bishops"

   1. Comprehension What did the Mexica ask the cazonci to do, and how did Zuangua answer them?
   2. Analysis Why, according to Zuangua, have the strangers come, and why are the gods angry? What does he tell his people to do about it?
   3. Analysis (reliability) These words come from Purépecha elders speaking about twenty years after the events, written down in Spanish by a Franciscan friar. Which parts of the chapter could the elders have known well, and which could they not have known? How far can we trust the long speeches as the words actually spoken?
   4. Connection Read The Smallpox in Mexico, 1520, which Nahua elders told to a Franciscan friar decades after the events. It describes the sores and the hunger in detail. The Michoacán account gives the sickness a few sentences and names who died. What does each account choose to record about the epidemic, and why might they differ?

   Activity Students read the chapter aloud as a council scene: two students read the messengers' report, one reads Zuangua's answer, and the rest are the lords who reply. Afterward the lords list every reason Zuangua gives for not sending warriors to Mexico and for bringing more wood to the temples. Then one student reads the last paragraph, and the class discusses how the ending changes the way the council reads.

   For teachers · Worksheet for this source

7. 7

   The Lady of Cofitachequi, 1540

   Gentleman of Elvas, 1543–1557. Moderate.Early version

   Short, but the formal speeches and long place names need a slow reading; the notes explain the *cacica*, the *barbacoas*, and the arroba.

   Questions, key terms and an activity

   cacica

   a woman who ruled as chief; the Spaniards made the word from the Taíno word *cacique*, "chief"

   litter

   a seat or bed carried on poles by bearers

   barbacoa

   a raised platform of poles, used for storage and for drying food

   arroba

   an old unit of weight, about 15 kilograms (32 pounds)

   pestilence

   a deadly disease that spreads through many people at once

   province

   a region or territory under one ruler or government

   1. Comprehension What reason did the people of Cofitachequi give for the large empty towns around their town?
   2. Analysis Many of the men wanted to settle at Cofitachequi, but the governor decided to move on. What reasons does each side give, and what do they show about what the expedition wanted?
   3. Analysis (reliability) The writer could not speak with the cacica himself; her words reached him through an interpreter, and he published his account in 1557, seventeen years after the meeting. How far can we trust that her speech of welcome gives her own words? Which parts of the passage did he more likely see for himself?
   4. Connection Read Las Casas, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (Opening). Las Casas says the Spaniards' final goal was gold. The Gentleman of Elvas says de Soto wanted another treasure like that of the lord of Peru and would not be content with good land or pearls. Compare how the two writers describe the Spaniards' search for riches. Does each one judge it, and if so, how?

   Activity Students make a two-column chart from the passage: in one column, everything the cacica and her people gave or offered; in the other, everything the Spaniards took, searched for, or wanted. Each entry needs a short quotation. Pairs then write two or three sentences on what each side seems to have expected from the meeting, using only the chart.

   For teachers · Worksheet for this source

8. 8

   Karlsefni and Gudrid in Vinland

   Saga of the Greenlanders, 1310–1387. Moderate.Early version

   A plain story told in short scenes; the many Norse names are the main hurdle.

   Questions, key terms and an activity

   Skræling

   the Norse name for the Native people they met in Vinland; the saga does not say who they were

   saga

   a prose story from medieval Iceland about families, kings, or voyages, often drawing on stories handed down by word of mouth

   livestock

   farm animals, such as cattle, sheep, and goats

   sable

   the dark, costly fur of a small animal related to the weasel

   palisade

   a strong fence of tall wooden stakes built around a place to defend it

   headland

   a high point of land that sticks out into the sea

   tunic

   a simple garment like a long shirt, worn over the body

   1. Comprehension What did the Skrælings want most in exchange for their furs, and what did Karlsefni give them instead?
   2. Analysis The meetings in this chapter begin with trading and end with a battle. Trace the steps from one to the other. Which events does the saga present as turning points?
   3. Analysis (reliability) This saga was written down about three centuries after the events, from stories handed on by word of mouth, and the Norse could not understand the Skrælings' language. Which parts of the chapter, such as the trading, the woman in the doorway, or the axe, would you trust most as memory of real events, and why?
   4. Connection Read Trade and Battle at Hóp, from the other Vinland saga. There the Skrælings trade pelts for strips of red cloth, a bull frightens them away, and one of them breaks an axe on a stone and throws it down. Compare the two sagas' versions of the trading and of the axe. Where do they agree, where do they differ, and what might explain the differences?

   Activity Students divide the chapter into its three meetings between the Norse and the Skrælings: the first trading, the second winter, and the battle. For each meeting, pairs fill in a two-column chart: what the Norse did and wanted, and what the Skrælings did, as far as the saga shows. The class then discusses which column the saga can tell us more about, and why.

   For teachers · Worksheet for this source

9. 9

   Trading with the Tlingit at Lituya Bay

   La Pérouse, 1786. Moderate.Early version

   A clear narrative; readers need the notes on signs and on the joke about Sparta.

   Questions, key terms and an activity

   sea otter

   a sea mammal of the North Pacific coast with thick, valuable fur

   pewter

   a gray metal made mostly of tin, used for plates and pots

   adze

   a tool like an axe, with the blade set crosswise, used to shape wood

   barrel hoops

   the metal bands that hold the boards of a barrel together

   plainchant

   the simple, unaccompanied singing of church services

   sentries

   soldiers on guard

   league

   an old French measure of distance, roughly three miles

   1. Comprehension What did the Tlingit offer the French, and what did they want most in return? How did the price of salmon change?
   2. Analysis La Pérouse calls the Tlingit great thieves, but he also says they bargained as well as the shrewdest buyers in Europe. Why might the same people seem to him both skilled traders and thieves? What might each side have thought it was owed?
   3. Analysis (reliability) La Pérouse spoke no Tlingit and read the people mainly through signs and trade. Find two places where he tells us what the Tlingit meant, thought, or believed. How sure can we be of each one?
   4. Connection Read The First Meeting at Porto Seguro, 1500 (Caminha), where the Portuguese read a young man’s pointing as news of gold “because that is what we wished.” Compare how Caminha and La Pérouse each handle signs they could not check, and how far each admits doubt.

   Activity Students make a price list from the passage: in one column what the Tlingit offered, in the other what the French paid, from glass beads and pewter to axes, adzes, bar iron, barrel hoops, nails, and small iron tools. They mark where La Pérouse says a price went up or a good went out of favor. Then they discuss what the list shows about who set the terms of the trade.

   For teachers · Worksheet for this source

10. 10

    A Visit to the Great Camp on the Plains

    Henday, 1754–1755. Moderate.Early version

    A plain day-by-day journal; readers need the note on the name Archithinue.

    Questions, key terms and an activity

    buffalo

    the American bison, a large wild grazing animal related to cattle

    hobbled

    with the legs loosely tied together so that the animal can graze but not run away

    halters

    ropes or straps around an animal’s head, used to lead or tie it

    hands

    a unit for measuring a horse’s height at the shoulder, equal to four inches

    scalps

    pieces of skin and hair cut from the heads of enemies and kept as a sign of victory

    captives

    people taken and held by force, often in war

    ochre

    an earth colored by iron, used to make red or yellow paint

    1. Comprehension What reasons did the leader give for not sending his young men down to the fort?
    2. Analysis At the first meeting, a good deal happened before anyone spoke. What happened in the leader’s tent before the talk began, and why might the order of these steps matter?
    3. Analysis (reliability) Henday could not speak the leader’s language, his own journal is lost, and this text comes from a copy made years later by another man. Which details here would you trust most, and which least? Use what the headnote says about the copies.
    4. Connection Read The Bison Plains and the People Who Follow the Herds (Castañeda). Both writers describe plains peoples who followed the herds, more than two hundred years apart. Compare what each says about how the people traveled, hunted, and fed themselves, and how each writer came to know it.

    Activity Students draw the camp from Henday’s entries: the 200 tents in two rows with a broad street open at both ends, the leader’s large tent at one end, the horses tied to lines on stakes, and Henday’s party’s tents a full quarter of a mile outside the lines. Then they discuss what the layout and the scouting parties show about how the camp protected itself, using Henday’s own words.

    For teachers · Worksheet for this source

More sources for this unit

• Trade and Battle at Hóp Saga of Erik the Red, 1263–1300. Moderate.Early version For teachers
• The Second Voyage Reaches the Islands of the Caribs Chanca, 1494. Moderate.Early version For teachers
• A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies (Opening) Las Casas, 1542–1552. Moderate. For teachers
• The Images in the Field Pané, 1496–1498. Moderate.Early version For teachers
• The Gilded Chief of Lake Guatavita Rodríguez Freyle, 1636. Moderate.Early version For teachers
• Naked and Starving on the Gulf Coast Cabeza de Vaca, 1537–1542. Moderate.Early version For teachers
• The Unconquered People of Arauco Ercilla, 1558–1569. Challenging.Early version For teachers
• Brought to Ubatuba as a Captive, 1554 Staden, 1555–1557. Moderate.Early version For teachers
• Bloody Point and the Two Captives Best, 1577–1578. Challenging. For teachers
• The Sickness That Followed the English Harriot, 1586–1589. Challenging. For teachers
• Into the Orinoco Delta Raleigh, 1595–1596. Challenging.Early version For teachers
• Champlain Fights beside the Algonquin and Wendat Champlain, 1609–1613. Moderate. For teachers
• The Wendat Feast of the Dead Brébeuf, 1636–1637. Moderate.Early version For teachers
• The Death of the Tattooed Serpent Le Page du Pratz, 1734–1758. Moderate.Early version For teachers

To finish

Come back to the question: Whose account of first contact can we trust, and why? Ask students to answer it with evidence from at least two of the sources, and to say which source they trust most and why.

Standards

Students separate what European writers saw from what they assumed, read Champlain's engraving against his text, and note that Native voices come only through them, and compare two tellings of one meeting, such as the two Vinland sagas, noting where they differ.

Go further

Other units

Food, farming, and Native knowledge · Violence, disease, and blame

Encyclopedia

Maize · Tenochtitlan · The Columbian Exchange · The Taíno · Tisquantum (Squanto)

Play

Lost Settlement

Collection

Every source in Early Americas