Land Is a Relative - Indigenous Stewardship of Land and Water

What is a relative? Quick-listing: brainstorm all the relatives we have. Then: 'What if a river was your relative? What if a mountain was your grandmother?'

• Accept all sincere answers
• Don't dismiss as 'pretend'
• Bridge: 'In many Indigenous nations this is exactly how the land is understood - as family, not as property.'

Read 'We Are Water Protectors' by Carole Lindstrom (Anishinabe/Metis) and illustrated by Michaela Goade (Tlingit and Haida). This book won the Caldecott Medal in 2021 - the highest honor for a picture book. The book tells us 'water is the first medicine' and that the people are responsible for protecting the water because the water is a relative. In English we often say 'the land' or 'the water' - just a THING. In many Indigenous languages, the land and water are not 'it' - they are 'who.'

• This is not metaphor - in many Indigenous nations this is a literal kinship relationship.

  model She stands up, she speaks, she joins her community, she says 'we are water protectors' - because the water is a relative.

  prompt What does the girl in the book do to protect the water?

• Finish: 'The water is not an it - the water is ___.' (a relative / a who / a relation)
• Show me on MG-5 one stewardship practice from one named nation.

M-2-F-GEO-04-A Illustration

Three-spread layout from Michaela Goade's Caldecott-winning 'We Are Water Protectors' (Roaring Brook 2020): (1) cover - the girl with the long flowing river-blue hair holding a feather aloft; (2) interior - the girl with grandmother teaching at the riverside; (3) interior - the multi-nation crowd of protectors with raised hands. Each spread captioned with page number and source credit. Color palette per the original: indigo, ochre, river-blue. Style: present the artwork at gallery scale (12x18 reproduction) and credit Michaela Goade as Tlingit/Haida illustrator.

• On MG-5 each pair selects 1 of 8 stewardship practices (e.g., controlled fire by Karuk, three-sisters by Haudenosaunee, salmon redistribution by Yurok, oyster reef stewardship by Wampanoag, prairie burns by Plains nations, water protection by Anishinabe and Standing Rock Sioux, cedar harvest by Coast Salish, prescribed agriculture by Tohono O'odham). Read the practice card.

  scaffold Highlight WHO (which nation) and WHAT (practice)
• Each pair uses the sentence frame to introduce 'their' practice to the class.

M-2-F-GEO-04-C Chart

Wall chart 36x48, 4x2 grid of 8 practice cards each with: nation name + nation glyph, practice name (e.g., 'CULTURAL BURNING'), 1-paragraph description vetted by the nation, 1 photo from the nation's own communications. The 8 practices: Karuk cultural burning, Haudenosaunee three sisters, Yurok salmon redistribution, Wampanoag oyster reef, Lakota/Dakota prairie stewardship, Anishinabe water protection, Coast Salish cedar reciprocity, Tohono O'odham desert agriculture. Each card cites source (the nation's own publication when possible).

• Name one Indigenous stewardship practice and the nation that practices it.

• Add 'relative', 'stewardship', 'Mni Wiconi' to Word Wall
• Preview tomorrow: how to write a land acknowledgment

• Notice one piece of land or water in your neighborhood (a creek, a tree, a hill, a park). Ask yourself: what does this land/water DO for me, my family, my community?