At the beginning of the year we made a three dimensional Topographical Map of the United States including Hawaii and Alaska.  We used a map to find out where the indigenous cultures lived.  Then investigated 10 indigenous groups and found out about their culture.    We had to do research on what they ate, the housing that they lived in, the clothing they wore, what they used for transportation, tools they used, and the geography Environment they lived in. Then we had to pick out one indigenous culture to make a diorama of.  After some of were done looking up the indigenous groups we got to go and get some things that we needed from outside.  After that we started to build our diorama.  A diorama is a three-dimensional scale model of a scene or a landscape.

The indigenous group that I’m working on is the Navajo.  The Navajo Indians used to live in Hogan’s, which were made out of poles and brush covered with earth.  They got around by foot and waterways. They lived in Arizona, Colorado, Utah and New Mexico and they used spears and rocks to catch fish. Navajo clothing for both men and women to begin with was deerskin for shirts and skirts.  The men later wore cotton or velvet shirts with no collars, breeches below the knee, and moccasins.  Women gradually wore the “squaw dress,” made of plain dark blankets.

by Dolly Ann Zharoff - 5th Grade