North Carolina place names
This lesson contrasts and compares the names that Native Americans living in North Carolina gave to their villages and places with the names that European and other settlers gave to theirs.
A for grade 8 Social Studies
(Ward, H. Trawick, and R. P. Stephen Davis, Jr. 1999. Time Before History: The Archaeology of North Carolina. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. [Figure 7.13.]. More about the photograph)
Details
- Subjects
- social studies, language arts
- Skills
- knowledge, analysis, evaluation
- Strategies
- observation, discussion, mapping, compare and contrast
- Duration
- 45 minutes
- Class size
- any, groups of 4 to 5
View this page in context
- Intrigue of the Past
- Lesson plans and essays for teachers and students explore North Carolina's past before European contact. Designed for grades four through eight, the web edition of this book covers fundamental concepts, processes, and issues of archaeology, and describes the peoples and cultures of the Paleoindian, Archaic, Woodland, and Mississippian periods.
- Page 4.8
Learn more
- Language families Students will identify and locate the three language families of contact period North Carolina and calculate the physical area covered by each language family.
- Lesson plan: North Carolina place names In their study of culture, students will use a chart to show the different ways that cultures meet basic human needs and recognize that archaeologists study how people from past cultures met basic needs by analyzing and interpreting the artifacts and sites that they left behind.
- Lesson plan: Language families and diversity North Carolina is not large geographically, but the people who lived here were tremendously diverse prior to English colonization.
Related pages
- Intrigue of the Past: Teach your students about North Carolina's fascinating past. This edition contains lesson plans about the fundamental concepts, processes, and issues of archaeology, as well as essays for the teacher with detailed information about four periods in North Carolina's ancient history.
- Language families: Students will identify and locate the three language families of contact period North Carolina and calculate the physical area covered by each language family.
- Shadows of North Carolina's past: Students will infer past Native American lifeways based on observation, construct a timeline of four major culture periods in Native American history, and compare these lifeways and discuss how they are different and alike.
Related topics
- Learn more about American Indians, North Carolina, analysis, archaeology, compare and contrast, discussion, evaluation, knowledge, language arts, mapping, observation, place names, settlers, and social studies.
Legal
This page copyright ©2001. All Rights Reserved
Objectives
This lesson contrasts and compares the names that Native Americans living in North Carolina gave to their villages and places with the names that European and other settlers gave to theirs. In a study of North Carolina place and village names, students will use a state map to:
- discover the heritage left by Native Americans and settlers in the names of places;
- differentiate the cultural values expressed in names.
Materials
- For the teacher, one large state road map.
- For each group of students, a North Carolina road map, copies of “Native American Place Names” and “Settler Place Names,” along with stars or paper dot markers in two colors.
Background
Echoes of North Carolina’s past peoples linger today in a place’s name. Whether towns, rivers, meadows, or mountains, the names given to locations in North Carolina are derived from a variety of sources. Some come from Indian words, which usually describe the landscape or qualities of the area, such as Nantahala, meaning “land of the noonday sun,” or Cullowhee, meaning “place of the lilies.” Others are taken from commodities or natural resources that were produced by the settlers, such as Sapphire or Cranberry. Still other names are derived from the influence of the English, European, and African settlers, such as Jefferson and Jackson Springs, or from military and religious history.
A name is a word or group of words by which a person, thing, or place is known. Everything has a name which identifies it to others, and it is through names that people can communicate with and understand one another. Names help people tell stories about the past. For example, the town of Silk Hope in Chatham County was probably named before the Civil War, when there was an interest in producing home-grown silk. Sometimes, however, the original meanings of names have been lost. Some Indian place names continued to be used by European settlers, but over time people forgot what the words originally meant. For example, Chockoyotte Creek, which flows into the Roanoke River, is believed to be a Tuscarora word, but its meaning is no longer known.
Setting the stage
Show students the names and origins of two towns. For example, Jugtown, a small community in Moore County, was named for the hand-turned pottery that has been produced in that area for several centuries. Tuckasegee—the name of a river, a lake, and a community in western North Carolina—is the Cherokee word meaning “crawling terrapin.” What differences, if any, do students notice about the names?
Procedure
- Give each group of 4 to 5 students a state road map, dots or stars, and a copy of “Native American Place Names” and “Settler Place Names.” Show students how to find a particular place by looking up the name and coordinates on the map index. Depending upon the amount of time you wish to spend on the exercise, you may wish to assign each group only three or four names from each of the two lists.
- Working cooperatively, students place a star or dot on the map next to each listed place they find. Native American place names should be marked with stars or dots of one color, while European settler place names should be marked with stars of another color.
- Display a large state map, and ask each group to share two or three places they have found. As the students call out the names and their meanings, place a star on the map.
Closure
In class discussion or in quiz form, ask students to contrast and compare place names derived from Native American culture and those derived from European or other settlers.
- For what kinds of things was each place named?
- What can be learned about past cultures from place names?
- Did Native Americans and settlers tend to live in the same places? What observations support the student’s conclusion?
Evaluation
Have students turn in their maps for evaluation.
North Carolina Curriculum Alignment
Social Studies (2003)
Grade 8
- Goal 1: The learner will analyze important geographic, political, economic, and social aspects of life in the region prior to the Revolutionary Period.
- Objective 1.02: Identify and describe American Indians who inhabited the regions that became Carolina and assess their impact on the colony.
- Objective 1.07: Describe the roles and contributions of diverse groups, such as American Indians, African Americans, European immigrants, landed gentry, tradesmen, and small farmers to everyday life in colonial North Carolina, and compare them to the other colonies.
