Before the arrival of Europeans, both American continents were fully utilized by over 500 tribes and bands of people – some of them descendants of people who came here thousdans of years ago. Welcome to Episode 91 of Ramping Up your English. We focus on some of the Native groups and explore a few of their beliefs and practices. For listening comprehension and content, we also feature a segment of Colorado Experience on the Ute people.
Watching Episode 91: Before
The following link takes you to my You Tube Channel Ramp Up your English. Click here to view Episode 91 on my channel. While Ramping Up your English is produced on RVTV’s Public Access Channel (RVTV Voices), you can watch this episode as free video on demand at Archive.org. Here’s a link to the Episode on Archive. Click here This video is misnamed on the Archive site as THE CALM, which is the name of of Episode 90. Don’t be discouraged. The link actually takes you to Episode 91 – the one you want. Sorry for the confusion!
Episode Summary
A large part of this episode is the video Before. It’s part 6 of our series of video about Native Americans produced for Ramping Up your English. We take viewers back a thousand years when explorers from Scandinavia temporarily settled in the extreme Northeast section of North America. These Norse explorers gave up their settlement after a short time, leaving the people of North America largely unaffected by their fleeting presence. We learn about the Tkinget and other Pacific Northwest groups that lived on the abundance of ocean life. The organization into clans is explained. We further feature the people of the Columbia River Plateau and their connection to the salmon. Celilo Falls attracted Native People from far and wide for trade and ceremonies. People of the Great Plains, the Continental Divide, and the Southeast are briefly featured. I also give a very brief tour of the website LetzCreate.org
Language Objectives
The ongoing objective of improving Listening Comprehension is featured in this episode. While this episode contains no direct instruction, Listening Comprehension is supported in understanding the content in the two featured videos. After several episodes with video presentations in this unit, Listening Comprehension is likely to increase. Viewers are asked to estimate the percentage of content they understand as an informal assessment.
Academic Content Objectives
Locate the regions of the Pacific Northwest, Columbia River Plateau, Great Plains, Southeast, and Northeast regions of North America. Name some Native American groups that lived in the regions listed above. Identify the resources that groups in various regions depended on for maintaining their lives and lifestyles. Compare and Contrast the Native peoples of various regions in terms of the resources they utilized. Describe one region in terms of the geography and natural resources present. Compare and Contrast two regions in terms of geography. Explain the importance of Cello Falls to the Native Americans of the Columbia River Plateau and the tribes that surrounded this region. Locate the region that’s home to the Utes on a map. Explain how the Utes utilized resources from the Rocky Mountain region to sustain their way of life.
Video Clips Used in Episode 91
We feature two videos in this episode. The first is Part 6 of our Native American series. It’s entitles Before. This video takes a brief look and some native tribes and their way of life. It also contains the limited affect of the Viking settlement in the extreme Northeast. Click here to watch Before. To see the video ad-free on archive.org, click here.
Related Linked Videos
You can learn much more about the Ute Indians from this linked video on You Tube. Click here to watch.
The previous linked video is part of a series produced by Rocky Mountain PBS. Click here to see of list of Colorado Experience episodes on PBS.
Next Episode
The next episode includes a comparison of the Past Perfect and the Past Perfect Progressive verb tenses. Learn how to choose which of these tenses to use in Episode 92. Click here to go to the Episode 92 page. You can watch the episode from that page.