English requires a broad cultural background….because American English adopts words, phrases, idioms, and constructs from languages and other dialects of English all over the world.  Slang is adopted when a culture wants to clue someone into something under one's breath.  We are not all here forever, given the change in our leadership, the words "legacy", "power", "activist", "democracy", and "cynicism", "participation" are worth looking up.

Whether Chief Seattle has left a legacy by writing as a chief, prophet, leader of a nation, even a in today's perspective a humanitarian if not a patriot.. becomes an opportunity to teach using a dictionary and measuring one's words.  What is the point of view behind the text? What does the text say? http://www.readwritethink.org/classroom-resources/lesson-plans/reading-informational-texts-using-951.html as one of hundreds of example.)

Thanksgiving can take on new meaning by being combined into a mixed media lesson possibility. You can use an old speech in a civics lesson, speech writing unit, or a dictionary use segment in class by using the segments in this psa and reflecting on the past and the future. It is elegant, insightful, part of our common history, and long published before the copyright act so in the public domain for class room dissections.

After the holiday, students can research this speech for themselves. With federal educational standards, it is recommended to teach through reading informational texts.  California Recycle has a portal to how California looks at Earth Systems.

Your students might reinterpret this quote in modern language, such as we, North Americans, are interdependent with our ecosystem or home, not immune or separate or argue for their own point of view.

They might argue as Maui or Moana using ideas embedded into Disney's new Hawaiian hit,

But to disclose, Moana is seeking solutions.  From Green Songbooks, green Christmas carols, from "Oh Tannenbaum" to iphone apps, this contextual mime is current….our one Earth shares its atmosphere, its water, earth, air and fire elements with all of us. Will we make this a month with Green Friday and Black Monday in California, but also a holiday season recycle our trees and decorations, reduce the wrapping paper, and lower our water/energy use during the holiday and afterwards? That might be a project. But here's an excerpt from his speech available on Amazon from the 1850's:

"If we sell you our land, love it as we have loved it. Care for it as we have cared for it. Hold in your memory the way the land is as you take it.

And with all your strength, with all your might, and with all your heart – preserve it for your children, and love it as God loves us all.

One thing we know – our God is the same. This earth is precious to him.

Even the white man cannot escape the common destiny." 

Common Destiny is a band in South Carolina, in Ecclesiastes it's a state we will all meet with the Grime Reaper or due to our sins http://biblehub.com/ecclesiastes/9-2.htm).  The Christian Science Monitor says the EU is looking for a common destiny (http://www.csmonitor.com/Commentary/the-monitors-view/2015/0526/In-Europe-and-now-Asia-a-search-for-common-destiny)

Precious is a ring in the Hobbit and in Merriam Webster "of high quality" like gemstones.

You can show students analogies and thesaurus dictionaries in hard back or on the web http://www.thesaurus.com/browse/precious)

You couldn't have a better text to look at words like "precious" and "destiny"…because the words alone are significant but the phrases have historic meaning.  For English, you can ask students to write an essay to compare "manifest" to "common" and see what we find out about Chief Seattle's statements or the history in Missouri along the Cannon Ball River last time there was a stand off there.  Los Angeles has a river running through it.  The Missouri can be studied through many historical texts and through big data and doesn't have to seem so far away due to the Internet and hand held electronics that can make school library books come alive.

If his is a context that citizens  maturing into…..a green manifesto….we will need more than ads by Iron Eyes Cody (http://www.adcouncil.org/Our-Campaigns/The-Classics/Pollution-Keep-America-Beautiful-Iron-Eyes-Cody).  The U.S. will need to follow policy that protects national resources consistently and that will link civil duty to cleaning up our disputes that can slow down global warming and create a slow economy….that will give us enough time to learn and enough response time to mediate conditions that come with a loss of biodiversity and mounting trash, anxiety, and heat?

Maybe, democracy can and will resolve our differences and protect what is irreplaceable.  Maybe interesting times are making new partnerships such as: the National Parks (in their centennial), the Sierra Club, and "tree huggers" or Scientists. 

Despite the compelling story of burial grounds, treaties, and clean water for 8 million people, no matter the outcome.  The Standing Rock Stand will continue as a teachable moment.  You can read your text book and compare and contrast the news, the issues, and the biases of the parties involved.  Your students read texts, use blended instruction, and learn skills for future specialization.  They can plan a vacation and make a budget, they can donate money to a Standing Rock Scholarship Fund or learn about artifacts, aquifers, or tribes, geology, phenology, and tribal languages there are even popular historic novels with footnotes to look up like the "Heart of all there is".  Certainly citizen science can show through place based experiments or subjects like biology, geology, mineralogy, or weather and explore the impact over time of industrial decisions to recycling school plates.

Poetry and satire are rich ways to compare and contrast historic principals to metaphor.  "They paved Paradise" by Joni Mitchell ironically is still contemporary. Gene Wilder was a fox in "The Little Prince"…..older students can look up national and international decisions and join sides to debate the issues once they understand them.  They goal is vocabulary acquisition and historic context, group collaboration, listening, hearing, speaking, and writing practice.

Chief Seattle pleads for living in harmony with the Earth and expresses his concerns that the White Leadership would not value what it was purchasing enough to protect it?  Is that still true? The speech has currency for Earth Day or for intra-community conversation and interdisciplinary future careers.

Although musicals are awakening the metaphor of a "web of life"….do we as a nation have a fabric of guiding principles across each region or state by 2016 that at large will protect those that don't vote children, plants, animals, the atmosphere from our business bias to progress no matter the cost?  Given the new term "Anthropocene Era" wouldn't some of your students choose to argue the case that its reasonable to redirect our national energy trajectory towards amending our carbon footprint?  Now you could not only look at websites celebrating ancient peoples like Chaco Canyon, but even tie in the dinosaurs, wild broncos, and the Dust Bowl.  You can celebrate the news from the Aquarium of the Pacific or from the Roosevelt Library that we have been successful dealing with manmade crises in the past and recent future and we could be in the messy changes that can do that again.  Perhaps create dialogues and scripts in the past, present and future about taming our egos (Everyman), and finding shared values (choose your text), reading poetry or lyrics, or giving up chocolate chip cookies.  The goal integrating rigorous and relevant ideas into your writing time, with scaffolding, prewriting, improvisation and structuring concepts.  Teaching reading for immersion, comprehension, editing, and vocabulary use.

http://www.context.org/iclib/ic03/haenke/

Seattle expands on atmosphere and sensitivity:

"The air is precious to the Redman. For all things share the same breath – the beasts, the trees, and the man. The white man does not seem to notice the air he breathes. Like a man dying for many days, he is numb to the stench."….if humanity is being called to stewardship to aid our own life systems (Nature's ecological balance), which are now at risk by further fossil fuel emissions…..we better find out what the word means…a) managing for another; b) caring for something…

One script on Common Destiny, don't sully your home…keep the oil in the ground ,,,it will leak.  Another student might talk about economy, international trade and engineering and be for progress or for his/her Board members.  They may be able to find a way to agree or not.

An environmental steward is protecting the Earth for future generations and a steward of a huge investor group is managing for the Board of Directors not for the common weal.

The battle at hand may be in the crux of language and how words land and define how we perceive our choices… Still far from the classroom, 1000 people have gathered.  "Who will protect the us in U.S" if not the "Water Keepers, the cbos, the Indians, and the doctors?" for now until we clear up the issues it will be those who advocate or act for both sides.

If stewardship has two definitions, which will we pick has consequences and context.  The Seattle speech allows this to be researched, measured, debated, and taken apart to teach concepts of non-fiction writing, journalism, diary, or documents.  Terms like indigenous can replace others.  Students can read the papers and watch for what's next.

They can study allegations or learn about media literacy.  With a 40 year cost of cleaning up after Fukushima, they can consider how they can volunteer and make a difference or if they want to study STEM to understand their world. (http://finance.yahoo.com/news/japan-oks-40-fukus

hima-cleanup-035227357.html)

Links to explore and research below:

Context is everything:

http://www.context.org/iclib/ic03/seattle/

Letting go of the past, and taking a stand for the future:

http://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/news/who%27s-banking-dakota-access-pipeline

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/judge-orders-temporary-stop-work-on-portion-of-dakota-access-pipeline/

Call to action…we need all of us not just Marrekesh:

http://www.npr.org/documents/2006/feb/evangelical/calltoaction.pdf

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/frances-beinecke/as-climate-change-hits-ho_b_5804570.html

Winners and Losers:

http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/climate-change/which-species-will-thrive-text

http://www.waterworld.com/articles/wwi/print/volume-28/issue-5/regional-spotlight-us-caribbean/fracking-wastewater-management.html

http://e360.yale.edu/feature/as_fracking_booms_growing_concerns_about_wastewater/2740/

Big Data in the Parks.. How do we fix it?...Just Cool It Issue November 2015:

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/power-of-parks/

http://143.95.110.181/Geo-Map

http://www.nationalgeographic.com/climate-change/special-issue/

Army on Security issues:

http://www.defense.gov/News/Article/Article/612710

http://www.foxnews.com/us/2016/09/14/climate-change-poses-significant-risk-to-us-military-report-says.html

AMA on issues:

Air:

http://www.burningissues.org/car-www/medical_effects/NAPE-AMA.html

http://www.burningissues.org/car-www/medical_effects/asthma/index.html

http://www.burningissues.org/car-www/medical_effects/asthma/medical-doc-pollutionrep.htm

Other Doctors:

https://ama.com.au/media/ama-federal-councillor-dr-michael-gliksman-air-pollution-forum

Cities:

http://www.climateactionprogramme.org/news/200_cities_make_climate_pledges

http://www.aquariumofpacific.org/downloads/AOPs_2015_Report_on_Resiliency_(1-7-16).pdf

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2016/10/13/standing-standing-rock-19-cities-express-solidarity-against-dapl-166092

http://www.jpost.com/Israel-News/Fires-continue-to-rage-across-Israel-473517

Tools to look above and downstream:

https://txpub.usgs.gov/DSS/streamer/web/

https://toolkit.climate.gov/

Light:

http://newwest.net/city/article/ama_links_light_pollution_to_cancer_health_woes/C8/L8/

http://darksky.org/wp-content/uploads/bsk-pdf-manager/AMA_Report_2016_60.pdf

Noise:

https://www.modernghana.com/news/492554/ama-public-health-departments-negligence-on-noise-pollution.html

Research:

http://143.95.110.181/Geo-Map

Summaries:

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/pdf/Your_Health_Environment_508.pdf

Public Health:

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/information/about.htm

http://www.cdc.gov/nceh/

https://www.cdc.gov/Features/Wildfires/

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/11/science/climate-change-forest-fires.html?_r=0

https://www.cdc.gov/features/diseasesconditions.html

https://www.healthypeople.gov/2020/topics-objectives/topic/environmental-health

Bikes:

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/top-lists/best-bike-rentals-in-los-angeles/

Events…another kind of green:

https://www.savetheredwoods.org/get-involved/visit/redwood-parks-pass/

http://greenfriday.org/

#green Friday

Coalitions for wellbeing…"flash point" "on the front lines of climate change":

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/nov/24/standing-rock-thanksgiving-jane-fonda-dakota-access-pipeline

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2016/oct/27/north-dakota-access-pipeline-protest-arrests-pepper-spray

http://www.greenpeace.org/usa/stories/these-are-our-prayers-in-action-a-look-at-life-in-the-nodapl-resistance-camps/

Exposure:

https://ahip.org/asthma/

http://www.headhuntersflyshop.com/upper-missouri-waterkeeper-sues-epa-water-quality/

https://www.ndhealth.gov/WM/

Volunteers for causes:

https://www.dosomething.org/us

https://www.dosomething.org/us/campaigns

Histories:

https://www.amazon.com/Indigenous-Peoples-History-ReVisioning-American/dp/080700040X

http://ndstudies.gov/content/sitting-bull

https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17571536-the-heart-of-everything-that-is

http://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-is-the-anthropocene-and-are-we-in-it-164801414/

http://editors.eol.org/eoearth/wiki/Anthropocene

Comments about issues:

http://www.juancole.com/2014/07/warming-solution-endangers.html

Missouri river discourse:

http://www.capjournal.com/news/american-indian-tribes-unite-to-protect-missouri-river-from-pipeline/article_118989ee-6d97-11e6-9942-2b418a1fb0bd.html

https://protectthemissouri.com/2016/01/

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/flood-prediction-gets-boost-from-nasa-satellites/

http://geology.com/lakes-rivers-water/missouri.shtml

http://www.uppermissouriwaterkeeper.org/

Alternative coverage of nonviolent protest "Profit over People":

https://democracynow.org/2016/11/24/standing_rock_special_historian_says_dakota

http://nativenewsonline.net/page/2/

http://www.ienearth.org/

Moana:

http://dcist.com/2016/11/moana_adopts_disney_formula_with_wi.php

Gene Wilder (The Fox and being Tamed):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FOA7CcVOFIs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R5U4GIURv3Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZalwjqNHG2A

Descanso Enchanted Gardens:

https://www.descansogardens.org/programs-events/enchanted/