Land, People and Time:
Exploring Northwest Treaty History

Guidelines for Teachers: Looking at Primary Sources

Primary Sources  |  Objects  |  Photographs & Images

hink about this scenario. A man is walking across a field and suddenly falls into a deep dark well. Luckily, the well is dry and he hits the bottom uninjured. He considers his predicament and observes his surroundings. Twenty feet above him is the circular opening of the well that allows some sunlight to drift down to him. Beyond the opening he sees blue sky and a few clouds. Occasionally a bird flies overhead. This is all he can see from his vantage point at the bottom of the well. Eventually, by observing his surroundings, by asking questions about plausible ways to get out of his predicament and by drawing conclusions that lead him to a solution, the man pulls himself out of the well.

By analogy, the historian's view of the past is much like that of the poor man who fell down the deep dark well. Historians can only predict what the past was like with incomplete information. Indeed, like the man looking up at the sky from the bottom of the well who sees only a small view of the landscape around him, historians sometimes only have fragments of information about the past to help them form understandings of events. It is only by bringing together information from diverse sources that historians begin to formulate solid theories.

The basic sets of evidence examined here are: written sources, including public and private documents of all sorts; objects and artifacts; and photographs and other images. Where possible, we have included our own recording forms and worksheets from OSPI's pilot classroom based assessment program. We hope you will find the frameworks below helpful as you design your own classroom activities.

Stages of Historical Inquiry

Examining historical evidence and arriving at explanations require the skills of

observation, interrogation, inference, and conjecture.

Historians utilize the four skills above to complete the three stages of historical inquiry:

1. Collect data and identify clues in the evidence.
2. Ask questions - Who? What? When? Where? How? Why? Good questions make good historians.
3. Interpret the evidence by making connections and drawing conclusions from the evidence after the questioning phase.

Teaching with Primary Documents

Historians' assumptions about documents

• Be aware that historians carry out their work with some basic assumptions as they look at primary documents. Here are some historians' assumptions:
• Primary sources are better than secondary sources.
• Some documents are written for the public eye while others are for private consumption only.
• Often there is a difference between what is said and what is really meant.
• All sources have biases and limitations.
• Sources must be read in the context of their own tines and in light of their own values.

Your students should be sensitive to their own assumptions that they might be harboring during the historical inquiry process. The past is a foreign place and modern assumptions sometimes get in the way with truly understanding the past. Just because Native Americans in the 1850s did not have phones and newspapers, there were extensive communication networks and news traveled across large geographical areas. Native Americans did not live in total isolation from one another and information exchange was an important aspect of trade and social life. A modern assumption that Native Americans lived in relative isolation would therefore not hold true.

Techniques for Understanding a Document

To begin to understand a primary document, it is helpful to look at the source in a holistic way. The following is a beginning structure for looking at a primary document:

1. Examine the title or headings. Why did the author give the document this title?
2. Look at how the document begins. How does the beginning set up the rest of the document?
3. Look at the ending. Why does the document end the way it does?
4. Locate key words and sentences. Are there words and sentences that seem to be central to the entire document? Make a list of key words.
5. Look for descriptive and/or casual language. What are the underlying assumptions behind the language the author uses?
6. Write a list of questions you would like to ask the author? This will invite you to begin interpreting the document.

Questions to ask a document

The most brilliant historians are the ones who ask good questions. Data collection, while an important part of the historical process, is only a first step. Once an historian has gathered all the extant documents, then he must begin to make sense of it all. By asking questions, meaning begins to form and patterns in the evidence take shape. Below are some questions you might find useful in the classroom as you examine documents:

• What kind of document is it? Is it private or public? Is it casual or formal? Is it a government document of a work of fiction, a diary, or a newspaper article?
• What was the motive for producing the document? How does the author's intention affect the document's credibility?
• When was the document created? What does its appearance tell us about the society that produced it? In this sense, the physical attributes of a document (for example the paper and ink used) are also evidence of the past.
• What are the strengths and weaknesses of this document as a source? What conclusions would you draw if this were the only surviving source about its subject?
• What questions does the document leave unanswered? What is left out? What other document or piece of evidence would you like to supplement this one?
• What do you know about the author(s)? What were his social background, economic class, occupation, religion, education, residence and circle of associates?
• Is the author a credible witness of his times? Was he in a position to see what he describes? Was he physically present? Is this a firsthand account? If not, what sources did he use to create his own version of the story?
• What is the author's relationship to the subject he is writing about? What biases or prejudices does she express openly or reveal unintentionally?
• For whom was the document written?
• What is the relationship of the author to the audience? Did the author have any reason to deceive the audience?
• What response did the author hope to produce in the audience?

Online Exercise: Examine the letter on Instant Transcriber online activity. (4th - 12 grades)

1. Use the OSPI  Dig Deep: Written Document  form to find out about the writer of this letter.

Historical inquiry and interpretation of documents an aid to critical thinking

Historical inquiry and interpretation of primary documents promote critical thinking. By observing, asking questions, and formulating interpretations, students sharpen academic skills for success across disciplines. Documents come in many forms, including personal letters, published census records, maps and business accounting records to name a few. Careful consideration of historic documents in your classroom can easily be associated with the civics, economics, history and geography EALRS. The exercise of historical inquiry using documents may also help you address math and reading requirements mandated by the Leave No Child Behind Legislation.

Guidelines for Teachers: Teaching with Objects

The only reason to study artifacts is to get at the people behind them.
—Henry Glassie

We live in an increasingly visual world surrounded by material things. Although for many decades, museums championed the study of objects as an accepted portal to understanding the past, academics have only slowly begun to realize the richness of objects as historical information. Students used to observing material things in video games already possess many of the skills needed to glean understanding from objects. In this section of our guidelines for teachers, we will guide you through the process of discovering historical information from objects.

Objects and artifacts as material evidence of the past

• Things surround us.
• People's values and beliefs are embodied in things.
  Objects reveal a record of people's lives, attitudes, and ideas. For example, an American flag is symbolic of the union of our country and our democratic system.
• Things are products of intention and choice.
  All people are designers - some people make things; everyone arranges and manipulates things made by others. Examples of designing with objects are landscaping yards, furnishing homes, and setting tables. Each step along the way of creating and using objects involves making choices about materials, construction methods, and design elements. These choices are culturally derived.
• Things provide evidence for the past behavior of all historic actors.
  Since everyone uses objects, the actions of people not recorded in the documentary record are present in the material record. Archaeologists uncover a rich record of the daily activities of slaves on southern plantations; these same people left few written records.

Sometimes artifacts record events more fully than documents. For example, a newspaper simply describes the location and date of a house fire. The artifactual record remaining in the house reports that a rough iron pot containing stew left unattended on top of the open cook stove spilled over and caused the blaze. Fragments of burned pork bones discovered near the smoldering pot of stew offer clues about the daily activities of those living within the burned out home and suggestions about their nutrition and culinary choices. The everyday tasks of cooking and preparing meals are not noteworthy to the newspaper editor. These activities are, however, noteworthy to students of history trying to determine how people in the past went about their daily chores.

People give things meaning.

Meanings given objects are affected by a variety of factors:

1. The physical context and time when an object was produced and used create meaning.
2. Values, attitudes, points of view affect the meanings given to objects.

Scholars studying objects believe "forms follow ideas." For example, a commuter coffee copy reflects the values of our mobile society. Harried commuters rushing to work use the cup as a vessel to safely carry hot coffee. Gone are the days, when Americans had time in the morning to pour hot coffee from a silver service into a cup and saucer and then genteelly sip.

Designs for the same type of object differ across time and place.

Shifts in design are important clues to cultural meaning and human behavior and reflect choice and intention. For example, chairs produced in 18th century France and 18th Century New England would not look at all alike. Both chairs reflect the culture producing it.

All things have histories.

Understanding the historical context of an object is essential as nothing exists in a temporal or spatial vacuum. For example, a silver spoon has the initials of A.B. and a date of 1867 on one side and the initials of A.B. to E.D. April 10, 1888 on the other. Anna Boune gave this spoon to her daughter, Edith Durand as a wedding gift. Before the twentieth century, it was not uncommon for weddings to be held in April. Today, this practice of early spring weddings would be considered an aberration from the more commonly held ritual of June weddings.

All things are parts of systems.

For example, an iron is part of a system of weekly household chores; a system of maintaining clothes; a system of technology; and a system of product distribution.

• Things are part of social and economic systems and link people together—or apart.
• Things are part of ideological systems and often act as tools for convincing and persuading people of ideas and values. Some things send strong symbolic signals to those looking at them.

Things are a form of non-verbal communication.

Objects send silent but powerful messages to those viewing them. Without speaking, a general entering a room elicits behavior from the subordinate soldiers in the mess hall. Immediately, they stand at attention even if they have never before seen the general's face. Silently, signature items on his uniform send signals to the soldiers who respond with gestures of respect as they acknowledge the general's authority. Similarly, a table set for two connotes an intimate dining experience and subsequent embarrassment for a third wheel who uninvited, crashes the tête-à-tête.

Teaching Artifact Analysis

The outline below should provide you with a structure for teaching with artifacts. You might select one object and have the entire class go through the outline together.

Preliminary Outline for Artifact Analysis

All artifacts have meaning for the people who create and use them. This outline should help provide you with preliminary tools necessary for interpreting artifacts. Learn to view artifacts as part of a continuum by comparing an artifact with similar objects created and used during different time periods. Such comparison involves a small amount of research into how an artifact has changed and evolved over time. What story does each artifact tell about the people and culture creating and using it? Think carefully about the concept of artifact as a form of non-verbal communication.

I. Form: (general description)

Begin artifact analysis by describing the artifact much like you did in the documentary evidence exercise. Consider the following:

1. General class or typology of the artifact.
Examples of classifying artifacts are a hammer is a tool; a table is a piece of furniture; a fork is a piece of flatware.
2. Shape.
   Is the artifact square, oblong, multifaceted?
3. Size.  Actually measure or weigh the artifact if you can.
4. Construction.
   What materials are used and how is the artifact put together?
   Look for nails, dovetails, stitching or any other clues about how the object was put together.
5. Workmanship.
   Is the artifact cheaply or expensively constructed?
   This question leads you into evidence about the social and economic class of the user. Victorian Americans went mad using many different serving utensils as a part of their elaborate ritual of dining. In the upper class home, sterling silver was the preferred material used for serving utensils. In a more modest home, silver plate utensils allowed the users to emulate the rituals of the upper classes without the same economic cost.
6. How much control did the individual maker have during construction of the object?
   By this we mean was there risk or certainty associated with the manufacture of the object.
7. Risk to the maker-hand made?
   In this case, it would be hard for the artisan to replicate objects exactly. A set of hand made chairs is not a set at all; each one will have some details that are not exactly the same. People living in the early nineteenth century did not expect to have sets of plates or chairs indistinguishable from each other.
8. Certainty to the maker-machine, mass produced.
   Machines create objects that are virtually the same. Today, we expect to have uniformity in the mass produced goods we own.
You might have your students draw or photograph the object from all sides. This is a good aid to closer observation.

II. Presentation: (social, geographic, chronological)

In this section of artifact analysis, you will begin to ask more interpretive questions to get at the historic actors creating and using your object. Sometimes there may be text on your object, including makers' marks or words that act as clues to understanding the object. In this regard, you will utilize the skills you learned from the document analysis guide as you look at the textual component of the artifact. In other cases, there may not be any text at all and you will have to ask other questions to get at the heart of the artifact. You may even have a document that goes with the document that helps you answer the basic questions below.

1. Who made it? Who used it?
2. When made? When was it used?
3. Where made? Where was it used?
4. How was it used? Are there any marks or scratches on it that provide clues to how it was used?
5. How is it oriented in space? For example, a teapot is designed to be looked at from every side while it may be necessary to view a wall hanging from the front.

III. Public versus Private Orientation

1. Was the object just for personal use?
   Is the item used in private or designated to be only seen by a few persons in a particular environment. For example, a roll of toilet paper is not usually found in the middle of the dining table. Nor, do we often find highly decorated toilet paper in our bathrooms.
2. Was the object meant for public display?
   If the object is to be seen by all viewers, then clues for this orientation will be found on the object and in how it is used. For example, a silver coffee pot would be placed to be seen by visitors, perhaps prominently on a sideboard in the dining room. The pot itself might be decorated on all sides so that each person seated at the table would be reminded that the ritual of formal dining required decorous behavior.

IV. Function or Use

How is an artifact used? What is its function?
Answering these basic questions provide the most information about the historic use and users of the object. Function is often laden with cultural information.

There are several types of functions:

1. Technology: use and purpose. Examples of this include an umbrella that keeps the rain off; a fireplace provides a home with fire and light.
2. Sociology: how an object makes people relate to each other; how the object influences society. Examples of the sociology of an object include an umbrella as gentlemen's object; a fireplace as a place where family gathers.
3. Ideology: artifacts show a specific way of thinking and symbolism. Think about artifacts as fossilized ideas captured in physical space. For example, an umbrella is a symbol of gentility and is a familiar Victorian gentlemen's object; a fireplace becomes a symbol of hearth as home.

Some artifacts have more information than others and are more accessible. Utilitarian objects, including some tools, may not have as much information as a china plate with decorations and maker's marks. While virtually all artifacts are information sources for understanding the past, you should select for your class those items where most of the questions in the analysis outline. Using the techniques outlined above will help you and your class uncover historical information by looking at things.

Artifact Analysis Lesson Plan for Primary School students (4th grade)

In primary grades, teachers guide the students through observation and discussion of artifacts.

1. Things are all around us.

Begin the discussion with some samples of "things" from the students' classroom environment (crayons, books, chairs, desk etc.).

Ask the students what are some of the things they see in the room?

Ask the students why are some of the things in the room? For example, crayons are for coloring; the clock tells when we are to go to recess or lunch. The main point here is that all objects serve a certain function that we determine

2. Things provide evidence of past behavior.

The teacher should suggest to the students that they are going to examine some artifacts or things from the past to see if we can learn about how and why people used the artifact. Consider this part of the exercise, an historic object show and tell.

Begin by asking students to bring in an object that belongs to their grandmother. You might invite parents and grandparents to enter in this assignment by helping the students select and understand the history of an object belonging to their family. Have the students interview their parents and grandparents for information about the object using a simplified version of the artifact analysis guideline. Use the Dig Deep Artifact Analysis form from OSPI's pilot classroom based assessment program.

In class separate the students into groups depending upon the general class of their object. Have the students compare and contrast the objects in their groups noting similarities and differences.

Finally, ask the students to write a short story about their object relating it to their own family's history with the item.

Artifact Analysis Lesson Plan for Primary School students (middle - high school)

For an artifact analysis exercises for students in middle or high school, print out the Artifacts of Encounter lesson on our webpage.

Photographs, painting, prints and drawings as historical evidence

For thousands of years, humans recorded their universe via pictures. Pictographs along the Columbia River offer tantalizing and often poorly understood clues to historic Native Americans living there. Nineteenth century Americans captured the images of their loved ones via painfully slow photography before soldiers went off to the Civil War. Imaging technology continues to advance and now in our digital age, we can instantly capture a moment in time for immediate viewing. All images tell us much about the person or scene depicted provided we take a critical look at the picture as historical evidence.

The steps involved in critically thinking about pictures as evidence are similar to the techniques we explored in looking at documents and artifacts.

1. Describe the picture. Begin by describing the main subject being depicted in the picture. In addition to discussing the main subject of the picture, describe the general setting and detail the props present in the picture. What are the key elements of the image?
2. Look for information that might date the picture. If there is no date on the photograph look for other things, including hair styles, clothing, or types of cars that might help you date the picture by association.
3. Critically examine the photo for evidence that the photograph has been altered.
   Ask your students if there are problems in the picture. For example, the photograph of Isaac Stevens including in the Three Faces of Isaac Stevens classroom exercise on our website is decidedly touched up. Someone has even drawn in Stevens' hands. This is problematic since the picture is not an unaltered image of Stevens.
4. Consider the image as a portion of reality. The camera or painter only captures a small portion of the scene and other activities are excluded from any particular image. Photographs taken at Thanksgiving may or may not capture all the guests; most certainly the photographer, although a guest at the table, will not be in the picture.
5. How much control does either the subject or the recorder have over how the final image is arranged? The famous Civil War photographer Mathew Brady was famous for rearranging the bodies of soldiers killed on battlefields to make his powerful photos. In these cases, Brady created an image of an historical scene that never actually took place.
6. Make connections from the information in the image. In some cases, it is helpful to have several images to compare. Encourage your students to be detectives and ask questions of the images.
7. Finally, after critically looking at the image's authenticity and making inferences about details depicted, students can begin to tell a story about the person or event being captured in the picture. The worksheet below will help your students examine images as historic evidence.

Worksheet for working with images (4 - 12th grades)

1. What kind of image is it? A photograph? A painting? Some other kind of image?
2. What is depicted in the picture?
3. Are there any dates on the image? If not, are there other hints of dates?
4. What type of clothing is the person(s) wearing? What does this tell us about the person?
5. What is the setting of the picture? If there is a person in the picture is he/she sitting or standing? Is the person holding any objects? If so, what are they?
6. What kind of expression does the person have on his/he face? Serious? Angry? Proud? Can you describe the person's expression in a few words?
7. Who would have looked at the picture? The person's family? People reading a book?
8. What does the image tell us about the time in which it was used and made?
9. Describe a similar image or photo from today.

Concluding thoughts for teaching and looking at primary sources

Remember our poor man who fell into the well? Had he only looked at the dirt beneath his feet, he would not have found his way out. By looking at patterns in the stonework, he was able to climb out of the well like a free style mountaineer via a vertical pathway from stone to stone. He utilized all the information he could muster from the evidence around him, considered techniques of extricating himself and began the slow climb to freedom. In the process, he found the answer to his most basic question: How am I going to get out of here? By looking at the different sets of historical evidence, you and your students will also be able to answer historical questions and gain valuable critical thinking skills. Finally, we study history to find out why things are the way they are in an effort to make our present world more understandable.