Literature in English
Writers have described Canada in many ways: for example, as a French or English colony, a "fifty-first state," a Pacific Rim country, an arctic giant, a friendly territory or an uninhabitable wilderness.
Literature in EnglishThe term "Canadian Literature in English" refers to that which is written in what is now territorially Canada or written by Canadians abroad. (See alsoLITERATURE IN FRENCH.)
Writers have described Canada in many ways: for example, as a French or English colony, a "fifty-first state," a Pacific Rim country, an arctic giant, a friendly territory or an uninhabitable wilderness. Canadian literature has often had to deal with such differences in attitude, not just because many Canadian authors were born elsewhere and brought outsiders' expectations with them, but also because popular attitudes often perpetuated stereotypes of Canada. Three pervasive stereotypes portray Canada as (1) a physical desert, (2) a cultural wasteland and (3) a raw land of investment opportunity and resource extraction. These distortions have created an audience for stereotypes, which Canadian writers sometimes reinforced by writing romantic adventures of the frozen North, in which everything local was savage or hostile and "civilization" was imported. But, over time, they sought to record local experience and to use literature to shape their own culture rather than to imitate or defer to the presumptions of another society.
Insofar as Canadian culture continues to be shaped by a range of languages in use and by wide variations in geography, social experience, FIRST NATIONS cultures, IMMIGRATION patterns, and proximity to Europe, Asia, and the USA, the "Canadian voice" is not uniform. Nevertheless, however much their aesthetic practices and political commitments differ, Canadian writers do bring many shared perspectives to their representations of nature, civility, and human interaction, whether at home or abroad. Some critical approaches to Canadian literature have tried to identify national or regional characteristics in literature. Other criticism (SeeLITERATURE IN ENGLISH: THEORY AND CRITICISM) has fastened on language and formal strategies, theories of knowledge and meaning, ethics (variously defined), and the politics and psychology of race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, identity, and environment. "Canadian literature" does not therefore restrict itself to a particular set of topics, terms, or even Canadian settings, nor does any set of topics and terms constitute a required ingredient in a Canadian book.
Motifs and Patterns
Although the national character is not always the subject of Canadian literature, the culture's social attitudes and values can be seen in the language and forms it uses. (SeeLITERATURE IN ENGLISH: LANGUAGE & LITERARY FORM) For instance, communication is often achieved through tone as much as through direct statement. Irony is a dominant mode, litotes (the negative positive: not unappreciated) is a common speech pattern, trickster (rather than hero) figures recur, and a sense of humour (understatement, parody, mimicry, wry satire) punctuates much serious literary work. Some commentators have interpreted Canadian tendencies toward literary indirectness politically and psychologically, finding in it a sign of national insecurity and a group feeling of inferiority. Others argue that indirectness is a healthy demonstration of the culture's ability to adapt an inherited tongue to its own purposes. Irony, for example, can undercut as much as apologize, and the quiet demeanour of an onlooker figure in a narrative can effectively undermine positions of ostensible power.
Several specific narrative patterns recur in Canadian writing, especially evident in fiction and life writing (SeeAUTOBIOGRAPHY): (1) a community walls itself off from the wilderness (the "garrison mentality"); (2) a person leaves the homeland, adjusts to the new world, then finds the "homeland" to be "alien"; (3) a person born in Canada feels like a permanent stranger in his or her own home; (4) people arrive in the new home only to find that they are excluded from power; (5) a person attempts to recover from the past the secret or suppressed life of a previous generation; (6) a woman struggles to come to terms with her own creativity and the inhibitions of her cultural upbringing (often told as conflict between colony and empire); (7) an apparently passive observer, surrounded by articulate tricksters and raconteurs, turns out to be able to tell both their story and his or her own, often ironically; (8) an adventurer turns failure into a form of grace; (9) a child grows up to inherit a world of promise, or a world of loss, frequently both at once; (10) a subjective historian meditates on place and memory; (11) characters celebrate space and wilderness, usually after a struggle to learn to accept that the wilderness provides spiritual therapy only on its own terms; (12) characters, adrift in a maze of words or a fog of ambiguity and anonymity, shape "acceptable fictions" into a workable life.
Writing about their society, many writers of SHORT FICTION, the NOVEL, BIOGRAPHY, POETRY, and DRAMA have recurrently portrayed particular historical figures, both to reveal their intrinsic interest and implicitly to suggest how they epitomize certain cultural attributes or qualities of character. Such figures include Samuel HEARNE, Louis RIEL, Susanna Moodie, Sir John A. MACDONALD, Emily CARR and William Lyon MACKENZIE. In the retelling, sometimes transposed from their own time into the present, each possesses a vision but remains an ordinary human being, one with frailties, not a conventional hero. Characteristically, Canadian writing resists the binaries associated with perfectionism (right-wrong, good-evil, hero-villain dualism), embracing notions of multiple alternatives, working pluralities, multi-voicedness, and negotiated or evolving resolution instead. In narrative, violence generally functions as an instigation of action and as a penultimate event rather than as a solution or act of closure. Repeatedly, individual rights balance against community responsibilities. In more recent drama, poetry, and prose--even in much popular genre writing (SeePOPULAR LITERATURE IN ENGLISH)--open endings predominate over conventional strategies of closure, inviting readers/listeners to participate in the play of alternatives and possibilities.
Settings often possess a symbolic dimension. Catholic Québec recurrently figures in anglophone writing as a land of mystery, attractive but enthralling and morally dangerous; Ontario as an enigmatic blend of moral uprightness and moral evasiveness; Atlantic Canada as a repository of old values; the North as a land of vision; the Prairies as a land of isolation and acquisition; and the West Coast as a dream of the future in which people often mistakenly believe. Europe often appears as the home of refinement, deceit, and discrimination; the US as a land of crass achievement and tangible success; and Africa as the embodiment of all that seems "other" to Protestant rationalism. In recent writing, Latin America and Asia (both East and South) are frequently configured as sites of political entanglement, which is expressed through inheritance and family ties or embodied in the complexities of larger communities. Within Canada, the land itself is recurrently associated with power, whether as property, region, a hostile force, a godly gift, the basis for resource extraction, the site of communication, the contested territory of competing cultural claims, the border, or the ecological medium in which human life integrates with all other living beings in Nature.
Although most Canadians live in cities, until recently writers used rural and small-town settings more frequently than urban ones, and to the degree that they adapted conventional adventure and pastoral formulas to Canadian settings, they seldom questioned unstated assumptions about status and race. From early on in Canadian literature, however, essayists (SeeESSAY IN ENGLISH) and travel writers (SeeTRAVEL LITERATURE) analyzed and challenged as well as celebrated Canadian political life. Often women writers used fiction and autobiography to reveal social divisions within Canada that male adventure writers ignored or underplayed, and to suggest reforms. Recent writing by both women and men focuses more directly and fully on urban life as well as on social issues (ethnicity, gender, poverty, health, education) that transcend setting.
"Regional" writing also conveys political stances. The term is used in two ways: to refer to places ruled by a real or imagined centre, and to configure the variant parts that make up a collective unit or community. By rejecting a single definition of "Canada," writing about regional distinctiveness sometimes declares separatist claims on identity and power and in other instances asserts the viability of a nation with a plural character (seeREGIONALISM IN LITERATURE). Increasingly, First Nations writers and writers who draw on ethnic backgrounds other than western European ones have examined the political opportunities of Canadian pluralism, but also the social limitations of local convention (seeETHNIC LITERATURE)
A rough chronological guide to changes and developments in Canadian writing should not be equated with a simple chart of "progress"; each age (Colonial, Early National, Interwar and Postwar, Contemporary) reveals differing conventions, preoccupations, and accomplishments. Hence, as fashions and critical tastes change over time, so do determinations of value and significance.
Colonial (SeeLITERARY HISTORY IN ENGLISH 1620-1867) Canadian literature in English can be said to begin in the early 17th century, with Jacobean poetry in Newfoundland; or in the decades that followed, with numerous explorers writing narratives of contact and discovery (SeeEXPLORATION LITERATURE); or in the mid-18th century, with the epistolary fiction of the English garrison community in Québec. After 1776, in the LOYALIST settlements of Upper Canada and the Maritimes, many writers turned to political verse satire (SeeHUMOROUS WRITING IN ENGLISH; LITERATURE AND POLITICS). Newly founded NEWSPAPERS and MAGAZINES (See alsoLITERARY MAGAZINES) became venues for political commentary, both conservative and reform-minded, as well as for literary expression, which in the 19th century generally followed romantic, Sentimental and Orientalist fashions in Britain. Some scathing satire emerged in Nova Scotia. Novels and dramas followed historical romance and Gothic paradigms, as did most long poems. Susanna Moodie's settlement narrative was one of many early autobiographies. Short personal sketches of persons and places formed the basis for much travel writing and for the short fiction that emerged as a new genre during the 19th century. Folksong and folktale survive, but Native ORAL LITERATURE received scant literary attention until the later 19th century.
Early National (SeeLITERARY HISTORY IN ENGLISH 1867-1914) In the years leading to Confederation and during the five decades following, much attention turned to literacy and political organization. Schools and universities opened, as did several Carnegie Libraries. Writers celebrated their newfound nationalism and were drawn variously to such enterprises as the MECHANICS' INSTITUTES, the INSTITUT CANADIEN, the ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA, the CANADA FIRST Movement, and Imperial Federation [See: IMPERIALISM]. Philosophic and science writing flourished, encouraging thoughtful discourse across language lines. Travel (within Canada and abroad) encouraged other kinds of contact, and with it, both impressionistic and reportorial writing. By the end of the 19th century, proponents of WOMEN'S SUFFRAGE and PROHIBITION wrote stories and essays to focus on issues of social change.
Many other social assumptions nevertheless remained largely unexamined. While attention turned to First Nations' oral tales, writers treated them (despite the emergence of First Nations writers publishing in English) as "simple" texts, suitable in translation (if expurgated) mainly to entertain children. Poems and tales about "Indians," however sympathetic in intent, largely assumed that First Nations people were "a dying race" and their several complex cultures unsophisticated. This romance of the Indians was matched by a continuing romance of Empire. Ontario- and Maritime-based Canadian culture remained dominantly Celtic and anglocentric. Early creative narratives from the Prairies and the West Coast, while recurrently probing the real-life travails of immigrants and the exigencies of farm and forest management, were largely overshadowed in the popular imagination by Ontario romances of Presbyterian conversion.
By the early 20th century, many books won widespread international popularity, notably L.M. MONTGOMERY's ANNE OF GREEN GABLES, for its humorously told tale of an orphan's life in Prince Edward Island. C.G.D. ROBERTS' and E.T. SETON's seemingly realistic animal tales provide other examples, as do the comic sketches of Stephen LEACOCK, which parodied literary stereotypes and dealt ironically with social platitudes. In poetry, the Confederation group produced the most important writings of the late 19th century; committed to closely observed details, they variously reshaped how the lyric represented nature, winter, and the Canadian landscape.
Cultural and social attitudes changed during and after the FIRST WORLD WAR. One creative generation was lost. Another emerged, objecting both to the imperial assumptions of militarism and the language associated with it. (SeeTHE FIRST WORLD WAR IN CANADIAN LITERATURE) New magazines affirmed the independence of Canadian thought. New PRIZES were established to recognize Canadian literary accomplishment. In fiction of the 1920s, while some popular family chronicles continued to affirm conventional class distinctions, anti-war novels and CLASS critiques began to appear, a trend magnified during the GREAT DEPRESSION of the 1930s. Many writers focussed on uprooted or marginalized individuals and the troubled lives of non-English-speaking immigrants. Novelists championed industrial workers' rights, and sought fresh, more direct forms of speech, spurning the sentimental romance in favour of a more 'realistic' (some called it a more 'violent') vocabulary. American literary practice--and the international avant-garde of postwar Paris--drew writers such as John GLASSCO and Morley CALLAGHAN; the short story genre thrived, espousing forms that resisted narrative closure. Young writers also rejected received social values by mounting left-wing agitprop drama, writing dramas that satirized nationalist pageantry, publishing erotica, finding inspiration in the GROUP OF SEVEN painters, and embracing the Modernist dicta of the poet T.S. Eliot and others. Chief among emerging Canadian poets at this time were those associated with the "McGill" (or "Montreal") Group, especially F.R. SCOTT, for his commitment to social justice, and Abraham KLEIN, for his passionate embrace of his Jewish heritage. Over succeeding decades Dorothy LIVESAY became the voice of socialist feminism, and Scott, with the poet- critic A.J.M. SMITH, became an influential anthologist, shaping the early teaching of Canadian literature.
In the wake of the SECOND WORLD WAR came a mix of propaganda, pacifist rhetoric, parodies of military ineptitude, and a new wave of progressivist writers, by turns humanist, anti-clerical, community-minded, and intellectually anarchist. Notable names include Irving LAYTON, Earle BIRNEY, Gabrielle ROY (who remains one of the best- known francophone writers in translation), P.K. PAGE and George WOODCOCK. In the 1940s and 1950s, social policies were being drafted that would shape a Canadian sense of community for decades to come. New LITERARY PERIODICALS demanded a sharper, more locally grounded language. RADIO technology also served this end. Public radio, established in 1932, led to a wave of cross-country spoken-word broadcasts--talks, dramas, readings of short stories, children's programs, all reconfirming the sounds of Canadian speech as a literary medium--especially from 1943 on. Novelists such as Hugh MACLENNAN and Sinclair ROSS turned again to local settings, rendering the prairies, the Maritimes, and Montreal as sites of personal and political trauma. Critics now praise more highly the innovative stylistic practice of Ethel WILSON, for her insights into women's lives; Malcolm LOWRY, for his symphonies of despair and transient joy; Sheila WATSON, for her rendering of life as an elliptical mythology; and in a career that would last for half a century, Mordecai RICHLER, for his frank and animated cultural politics.
Several social developments markedly changed Canadian society in the years following 1960. The large "baby-boom" generation matured, with the vocal "X" and "Y" generations following; immigration policies altered to allow greater numbers of new citizens from Asia, Africa, and Latin America; startling technological developments (from radio to the INTERNET) collapsed notions of space and speeded up communication. All these changes had an impact on literary topics and techniques. Cross-border and cross-cultural contacts validated notions of cultural "hybridity" as a social norm, challenging conventional definitions of "ethnic purity" and "fixed identity." Family biographies shifted focus from single lives onto lives-in-context. Multimedia presentations challenged conventions regarding the unity of literary form. Bilingual texts, triptychs (in fiction and drama), and discontinuous narratives in fiction and poetry all deliberately disrupted conventional linearity as a literary technique. Numerous integrated (but discontinuous) collections of short fiction--called sequences, cycles, or "composite narratives"--appeared. Some of the major writers of these decades had just been emerging in the 1950s--Richler, and two of the world's foremost authors of short fiction, Alice MUNRO and Mavis GALLANT, whose stories embed more than announce, reveal more than parade. They would be joined by Alistair MACLEOD, Clark BLAISE, and numerous others.
The number of Canadian universities, SMALL PRESSES, accessible academic and literary periodicals (from CANADIAN LITERATURE to Geist), courses in Canadian Literature, and Creative Writing schools also increased, in part because of the recommendations of the MASSEY COMMISSION and the emergence of the Canada Council in the 1950s. Further government policies led to such social developments as the CHARTER OF RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS in 1982, but a sudden shift to policies that favoured fiscal restraint and cultural cutbacks occurred in the early 21st century; the publishing industry, libraries, public media and scholarship were all affected. New technologies opened up opportunities for local (and frequently more innovative) publishing (including experiments in syllabic and concrete poetry, mixed media presentations, performance poetry, and other formats), yet they did not guarantee access to publicity and sales. Coteries came and went; so did scores of journals and papers. Publishers of formula fiction remained monetarily successful (some writers of mystery and science fiction achieving international stardom), but publishing houses that had thrived in the 1960s, when American control over the information industry was resisted, faced closure in the 2010s, with the increasing influence of electronic publishing and multi-national corporations. A plethora of prizes began to construct literature as spectacle. Many bookstores nevertheless closed.
Throughout the decades from 1960-on, while there is some evidence of a literary return to older forms of expression and fundamentalist redefinitions of ethics, writers more characteristically, each generation, embraced SOCIAL JUSTICE and reformist causes: for women's rights (SeeWOMEN'S MOVEMENT), for gay and lesbian equality (SeeHOMOSEXUALITY), against colonialism, against increasing POVERTY. CHILDREN'S LITERATURE--an enterprise that flourished at this time, ranging from nonsense verse to problem-centred novels for young adults--addressed some of these same issues of RACE, gender, alcohol, drug abuse, social identity. Science writing, social history, life writing, environmental and ecocritical inquiry, and other forms of "creative non-fiction" also frequently combined discovery with protest. Critiques of social arrogance in one decade (foreign wars, napalm, racism) morphed into critiques of other disparities in the next (discrimination by sex, gender, ethnicity, economics). Margaret ATWOOD embraced the new nationalism of the 1960s and 1970s (with the CENTENNIAL celebrations in 1967), but thirty years later tempered her observations in dystopias. Robertson DAVIES' Jungian novels expressed one pervasive understanding of myth and psychology; Robert KROETSCH's poems and tales deconstructed such conventions and re-rooted the epic in everyday vernacular experience. Language and literary form again became subjects for analysis and theoretical discussion, as in the work of Marshall MCLUHAN and Northrop FRYE, as well as territories for dispute, as when Nicole BROSSARD's critiques of French grammar influenced feminist writers in English, or when, in much 21st-century fiction, conventional vulgarities became normative (and therefore potentially radical, culturally upsetting) speech. The WRITERS UNION OF CANADA formed in 1973, reflecting writers' numbers and endeavouring to help deal with the challenges they face.
Other writers addressed cultural, social, and political alternatives in Canadian society, some of which were longstanding, others deriving from more recent changes in population, technology, language and communication. Many of these writers sought a balance between criticism of social practice (racism, passive dismissal, restrictive legislation) and celebration of social potential. Several MÉTIS and First Nations writers emerged (among them Thomas KING and Tomson HIGHWAY), variously critiquing the residential school system, protesting ignorance and abuse, and finding comedy in both traditional tales and contemporary life. The poet Robert BRINGHURST translated some of the great classic Haida oral tales, Al PURDY created poetry out of the rhythms of ordinary speech, Guy VANDERHAEGHE re-imagined prairie history through the politics of present-day media, Jack HODGINS turned Vancouver Island idiosyncrasy into a comedy of human aspiration, George Elliot CLARKE and Wayde Compton called attention to BLACK writing in Canada, and increasing numbers of writers (including Rohinton MISTRY, Michael ONDAATJE, and Wayson CHOY) drew on their Asian heritage both to reflect on adaptations to difference and to dramatize the challenges and rewards of a fractured or shared history. Literally scores of accomplished writers emerged during the last decades of the 20th century and the early years of the 21st, testifying to the continuing vigour of the literary community
Donna Bennett and Russell Brown, eds., An Anthology of Canadian Literature in English (3rd ed., 2010); Coral Ann Howells and Eva-Marie Kroller, eds., The Cambridge History of Canadian Literature (2009); Carl F. Klinck, ed., Literary History of Canada, 3 vols (2nd ed., 1976); Richard J. Lane, The Routledge Concise History of Canadian Literature (2011); Robert Lecker, Making it Real: The Canonization of English-Canadian Literature (1995); John Moss, ed., Future Indicative: Literary Theory and Canadian Literature (1987); Laura Moss and Cynthia Sugars, eds., Canadian Literature in English: Texts and Contexts (2009); W.H. New, ed., The Literary History of Canada (2nd ed., Vol. 4, 1990); W.H. New, A History of Canadian Literature (2nd ed., 2003); W.H. New, ed., Encyclopedia of Literature in Canada (2002); William Toye, ed., The Oxford Companion to Canadian Literature (1983).


The Components of Effective Vocabulary Instruction
Effective vocabulary instruction begins with diverse opportunities for word learning: wide reading, high-quality oral language, word consciousness, explicit instruction of specific words, and independent word-learning strategies. This article explains how these opportunities can be created in the classroom.
In this article:
- encouraging wide reading;
- exposing students to high-quality oral language;
- promoting word consciousness;
- providing explicit instruction of specific words; and
- providing modeling and instruction in independent word-learning strategies.
Each of these components contributes to helping students overcome the major obstacles to vocabulary growth.
What to do about the size of the task
We know that the volume of students' reading is strongly related to their vocabulary knowledge.1 Students learn new words by encountering them in text, either through their own reading or by being read to. Increasing the opportunities for such encounters improves students' vocabulary knowledge, which, in turn, improves their ability to read more and more complex text. In short, the single most important thing you can do to improve students' vocabularies is to get them to read more.
- If, over a school year, a fifth-grade student reads for an hour each day, five days a week (in and out of school), at a conservative rate of 150 words per minute, the student will encounter 2,250,000 words in the course of reading.
- If 2% to 5% of the words the student encounters are unknown words, he or she will encounter from 45,000 to 112,500 such words.
- We know that students learn between 5% 10% of previously unknown words from a single reading. This accounts for at least 2,250 new words the student learns from context each year.
The figure 2,250 new words learned a year is based on the lowest points of the estimated ranges. Even this conservative figure suggests that reading is a powerful influence on students' vocabulary growth.
What kinds of reading are necessary to produce such vocabulary growth? Whereas some argue that almost any reading ultimately will have powerful benefits for students,3 others say that if students consistently select texts below their current reading levels, even wide reading will not result in measurable vocabulary growth.4 Nor is reading text that is full of unfamiliar words likely to produce large gains in word knowledge.5
To help students get the most out of reading, you should encourage them to read at a variety of levels — some text simply for enjoyment, which should benefit their fluency if nothing else — and some text that challenges them. You should also help students develop reading strategies that will allow them to read more challenging texts with lower levels of frustration. When students have been taught comprehension strategies, they tend to do more reading.6
Increasing their motivation to read is another critical factor in helping students make the most of wide reading. One powerful motivating factor associated with more reading is a classroom environment that encourages and promotes social interactions related to reading.7 Making available a variety of books and setting aside ample time for reading also motivate increased reading.
As is true for any method of promoting vocabulary growth, wide reading has some limitations. One is that it obviously cannot be effective with very young students who are not yet able to read very much on their own. Another limitation is that, although wide reading may be effective in producing general vocabulary growth, it is not an effective method for teaching the words that students need to master a particular selection or a concept related to a specific content area. Finally, it is important to acknowledge that, as important as it is, wide reading does not produce immediate, magic results; its effects are cumulative, and emerge over time.
You can encourage wide reading in a number of ways. You might, for example, recommend or provide lists of books for students to read outside of class, and make time in class for students to discuss what they have read. You can set aside a time each day for independent reading. And, of course, you can model the value you place on reading as they read, by telling students about the books you are reading.
What to do about the differences between spoken and written English
High Quality Oral Language
As we discussed earlier, both English language learners and English-speaking students may achieve fluency in the language of face-to-face conversation and still have little exposure to or knowledge of the kind of language they encounter in school textbooks. Clearly these students need more exposure to written English, and wide reading is the most effective way of increasing exposure to this kind of language. But what can be done with students who are in the process of learning to read, and who cannot do a great deal of reading on their own? Here is one solution: Increase the quality of the oral language to which students are exposed — let them hear spoken English that incorporates more of the vocabulary and syntax typical of written, and particularly literate English.
A very effective way to expose children to literate vocabulary is to read to them from storybooks, especially when the reading is accompanied with discussion.8 Authors of good children's literature have always found ways to talk "over children's heads" — using big words and other aspects of literate language — without decreasing children's interest or enjoyment. Both younger and older students appear to benefit from read-aloud activities, and older students can learn the meanings of new words as efficiently from hearing stories read to them as they can from reading the stories themselves.9 Making available (either in the classroom or school library) a selection of quality audio books and players that students can use on their own can also be a good way to expose them to a variety of good books and broad language experiences.
Storytelling is yet another way to increase the quality of students' oral language experiences. Even when no text is involved, storytelling still exposes students to richer language than does normal conversation. Pretend play likewise involves rich language use. The quality of preschool children's conversations, and teachers' use of a more sophisticated vocabulary also have been found to affect students' language and literacy development.10
Asked what they could do to use more sophisticated vocabulary without intimidating or confusing their students, a group of teachers responded enthusiastically, "Make it fun!" We definitely agree. Playing with language is an essential component of language development. Word consciousness is the knowledge of and interest in words. Word-conscious students enjoy learning new words and engaging in word play. They know and use many words, and are aware of the subtleties of word meaning and of the power words can have.11
To become word conscious, students first need to develop a feel for how written language is different from everyday conversation. To this end, it is valuable to draw their attention to the distinctive characteristics of written language, even when reading aloud, and to help them learn to read like a writer, and to write with an audience in mind.
Having students copy in their journals phrases or sentences from their reading that are examples of especially effective language use — vivid descriptions, striking metaphors, interesting similes, plays on words-can help make language more alive for them. Students can share their examples with the class, or they can post them in the classroom to serve as inspiration or models for others.
Reading and discussing two versions of the same story — ideally, one with rich language and one with language that is less interesting — can promote word consciousness in younger students.
Word consciousness can be promoted in a way that helps students become aware of differences between Standard English and non-standard varieties, without stigmatizing the latter. Shirley Brice Heath describes classrooms in which students learned to be "language detectives," studying how people speak differently in different groups and in different situations. She believes that this awareness made an important contribution to the students' academic success.12 It may be especially important to make such differences explicit for students less familiar with standard English.
A number of oral and written word games can serve to promote word consciousness, including puns, limericks, Hink-Pinks, crossword puzzles, jokes, riddles, and anagrams.13 Encouraging students to play with words can create an interest in knowing more about them, and thus, can become a strategy for independent word learning.
What to do about the limitations of sources of information about words
Independent Word-Learning Strategies
- the efficient use of the dictionary;
- the use of word parts (prefixes, suffixes, roots, compounds) to unlock a word's meaning; and
- the use of context clues.
Instruction in dictionary use that focuses on having students look up words and use information from their definitions to write sentences does not provide students with the guidance they need to make dictionary use an efficient independent word-learning strategy.
This is not to say, however, that dictionaries are not important aids to word learning. In fact, the more students are exposed to dictionary definitions, the better their word learning.14 The crucial point here is that students receive instruction in how to use what they find in a dictionary entry so that they are able to translate the cryptic and conventionalized content of definitions into usable word knowledge.15 This instruction includes modeling how to look up the meaning of an unknown word, thinking-aloud about the various definitions in an entry, and deciding which is the most appropriate definition for a particular context.16
Teaching students how to use information about word parts can be very valuable in promoting vocabulary growth. Many students, however, are not aware of this strategy. Even students who have learned to break words into parts in their decoding instruction may not understand that they can use this knowledge to figure out word meanings. Teacher modeling helps to make the strategy's value clear to students.17
Using word-part information can be especially helpful in learning certain content-area concepts. (See Teaching Word Meaning as Concepts)
Context clues are clues to the meaning of a word contained in the text that surrounds it. These clues include definitions, examples, and restatements. Teaching students strategies for identifying and using context clues has been suggested as a major instructional technique for vocabulary development.18 A student learns a new word from context by making connections between the word and the text in which it appears. When a new word is first encountered, the student stores in memory some information about how it fits into what is being read. In subsequent encounters with the word, this information is reinforced, and more information about the word's role in particular contexts is added until the word is understood and used appropriately. As in teaching other kinds of strategies, teaching students to use context clues to develop vocabulary is an extended process that involves: modeling the strategy; providing explicit explanations of how, why, and when to use it; providing guided practice; gradually holding students accountable for independently using the strategy; and then providing intermittent reminders to apply it to reading across content areas.
As we noted earlier, learning words from context is a long-term process, one that involves multiple encounters with words. The challenge is to create vocabulary instruction that compresses this process to enable students to learn more words in a shorter period of time.19
What to do about the complexity of word knowledge
Explicit Instruction of Specific Words
- Use both definitional and contextual information about word meanings,
- Involve students actively in word learning, and
- Use discussion to teach the meanings of new words and to provide meaningful information about the words.
Use Definitional and Contextual Information
In the past, vocabulary instruction most often consisted of learning lists of words and definitions (with a test on Friday). We now know that such instruction is of limited value, particularly in improving students' reading comprehension.20 Students need to know how a word functions in various contexts. Therefore, instructional methods that provide students with both definitional and contextual information do improve comprehension, and do so significantly.
- Teach synonyms.
Often a synonym is all students need to understand a new word in context.
- Teach antonyms.
Not all words have antonyms, but thinking about antonyms requires students to identify the crucial aspects of a word. For example, the word chaos implies an abyss, a void, or clutter, but its antonym, order, narrows the focus to the "clutter" part of the word's meaning.
- Rewrite definitions.
As we noted earlier, dictionary definitions can often confuse or mislead students. Asking students to restate a dictionary definition in their own words can be more effective than requiring them to remember the exact wording of the definition.
- Provide example sentences.
A good way to ascertain whether students understand a word's definitions is to have them provide example sentences in which they use the word. They may draw these examples from personal experiences ("Mom's kitchen is chaos.") or from textbooks ("After the great flood of 1937, there was chaos all over the Tennessee Valley.").
- Provide non-examples.
Another way to find out if students truly understand the meaning of a new word is to have them supply words that are not examples of the word's meaning. For example, point out to them that cry is not an example of the word guffaw, then ask them to think of other non-examples of the word (bawl, sniffle, whine, whimper). Coming up with non-examples requires students to think about the critical attributes of a word, much like providing antonyms.
- Discuss the difference between the new word and related words.
A discussion of the word debris, defined as "trash," "garbage," or "waste," might include a discussion of the differences between debris and trash, garbage, and waste. For example, debris might be the result of some sort of accident or disaster, whereas trash might include anything. Garbage generally refers to organic material, such as food leftovers, and waste implies something left over, rather than something resulting from a disaster. Such a thorough discussion encourages students to focus on the meanings of words.
Some activities that provide students with contextual information include:
- Have students create sentences that contain the new word.
Encourage students to create sentences that show a clear understanding of the meaning of the word — not just "I like chaos." More acceptable sentences are those that include the definition, such as, "Chaos is when everything is in disorder." Even more acceptable are sentences that extend the definition, such as, "The scene was complete chaos — desks were turned over, paint was splashed on the floor, and the trash can was upside down." Of course, to write sentences containing a new word, students need examples of how it is used correctly. Definitions, even those that give brief examples, rarely provide enough information to guarantee that students have a real sense of how words are used. One way to scaffold students' use of new words is to have them complete sentence stems containing the word, e.g., "John thought it would pacify the teacher if "21
- Use more than one new word in a sentence.
Asking students to use more than one new word in each sentence they create can force them to look for relations among words.
- Discuss the meaning of the same word in different sentences.
Many words have multiple meanings, which depend on the context in which the words appear. To prevent students from limiting word meanings to one particular context, have them use a new word in several different and varied sentences. For the word chaos, their sentences might include topics such as chaos in classroom behavior, chaos as clutter and mess, chaos in personal relations, and so forth.
- Create a scenario.
Invite students to make up a story in which a new word features prominently. If students are too young for this activity, have them draw a picture story for a new word.
- Create silly questions.
You might have students pair new words and use each pair to make a silly question.22 For the words actuary, hermit, philanthropist, and villain, their questions might include "Can an actuary be a hermit?" "Can an actuary be a philanthropist?" "Can a philanthropist be a hermit?" "Can a philanthropist be a villain?"
Involve Students Actively in Word Learning
Students remember more when they relate new information to known information, transforming it in their own words, generating examples and non-examples, producing antonyms and synonyms, and so forth.
Instruction that works
In one study of exemplary vocabulary instruction, activities were conducted in a five-day cycle. On the first day, the new words were defined, and students discussed the use of each word in context. This discussion took different forms, including discussion of examples and non-examples, pantomimes, and having students say "Yay" if the word was used correctly in a sentence and "Boo" if it was not. On the second day, after a review of the definitions, students might work on log sheets, completing sentences for each word. On the third day, they completed another log sheet, then worked on a timed activity in which pairs of students attempted in the shortest amount of time to match words with their definitions. This activity was repeated on the fourth day. After completion of the second timed activity, students were asked silly questions. On the fifth day, they took a post-test.
These activities varied somewhat with different units. For example, students also completed a "Word Wizard" chart activity each day. A Word Wizard chart is a chart that contains new vocabulary words. These words can be taken from a storybook, from a text, or just be words that are encountered in some way. Every time a child in the class found one of these words in context, the teacher attached an adhesive note with the child's name and the context next to the word. The first child who received 5, 10, or some other number of notes became the Word Wizard. Students were given credit toward becoming a "Word Wizard" by finding examples of each word used outside of class.
This program, or variations of it, significantly improved students' comprehension of texts containing words that were taught. As part of the program, it was revealed that twelve encounters with a word reliably improved comprehension, but four encounters did not. The instructional approach, which involved active processing of each words' meaning, had significantly greater effects than did a definition-only approach on measures of comprehension but not on measures involving the recall of definitions. These findings suggest that vocabulary instruction can improve comprehension, but only if the instruction is rich and extensive, and includes a great many encounters with to-be-learned words.
Use discussion to teach word meanings. Discussion adds an important dimension to vocabulary instruction. Students with little or no knowledge of some new words they encounter in a vocabulary lesson are often able to construct a good idea of a word's meaning from the bits of partial knowledge contributed by their classmates. (When the class as a whole does not know much about a particular word, however, you may have to help. Perhaps supplying some information about the word, such as a quick definition.)
Discussion can clarify misunderstandings of words by making the misunderstandings public. For words that a student knows partially, or knows in one particular context, the give-and-take of discussion can clarify meanings. When misunderstandings are public, the teacher can shape them into the conventional meaning.
Discussion involves students in other ways. As they wait to be called on, students practice covertly, or silently prepare a response. Therefore, even though you call on only one student, many other students anticipate that they will have to come up with an answer. As a result, discussion leads to increased vocabulary learning.23 Without the practiced response, discussion is not likely to be valuable as a learning experience.
Bringing instruction together
This sample lesson illustrates how a teacher can bring together the three components of explicit vocabulary instruction to teach words that are key to understanding the story The Talking Eggs by Robert San Soucil. The words chosen for instruction are backwoods, contrary, dawdled, groping, rubies, and silver.24
For the key word backwoods, read the following sentence from the story: "Then the old woman took her by the hand and led her deep into the backwoods." Ask students to predict what backwoods means. Backwoods is a compound, and, when the information from the word parts is combined with some information from the context, its meaning should be fairly clear. Next, ask students to describe the backwoods briefly.
The key word contrary can be taught the same way, beginning with reading this sentence from the book: "You do as I say and don't be so contrary," and asking students to predict the meaning of the word from context. For this word, have students discuss a definition for the word, such as "disagreeable, raising objections," and encourage them to explain how the definition fits in the context of the sentence. As a follow up, you have them create some sentences that contain contrary. This can lead to a discussion of another, related meaning for contrary, that of "from another point of view," as in the expression "to the contrary."
For dawdled and groping, begin once again by reading sentences in the story that contain the words. Because these words are verbs, however, you might want to pantomime the meaning of each, rather than supply a conventional definition. Then ask students to create sentences that use the words. You might define dawdled with some non-examples, because it is a word that has some clear antonyms, such as hustled, ran, went quickly, and so on.
For rubies and silver, begin by having the class discuss what precious things are. You might illustrate the words by providing pictures that show rubies and things made of silver. Next, work with the class to make a list of precious things, including rubies and silver, as well as gold, diamonds, and so forth.
The words used in the sample lesson are highly dissimilar. They were selected for instruction only because they happen to come from the story they students were reading. The techniques used to teach the words, however, are somewhat similar. For four of the six words, the teacher starts with sentences from the text, then asks students to create additional sentences to extend the meaning of the word beyond the text. Finally, the teacher also includes a definition, either a conventional verbal one or a gestural one, for each of the words.
The instruction this lesson illustrates is relatively minimal, designed to support the reading of the text. More elaborate instruction would shift the focus from the story to the vocabulary words, and might be useful in a classroom with many English language learners, or in any classroom when a greater emphasis on vocabulary is appropriate. More elaborate instruction also might include using additional sentence contexts for each word, a "yea or nay" activity ("Would you dawdle in the backwoods?"), or having students write a scenario, or story that contains these words.
Explicit vocabulary instruction does seem to improve comprehension significantly, at least when the words taught come from the text students are reading. Nevertheless, some cautions are in order. First, teaching vocabulary as students read can, under certain circumstances, distract them from the main ideas of the text. Second, teaching words that are not important to understanding the text leads students to focus on individual word meanings rather than on the overall meaning of what they read. The more effort students expend focusing on word meanings, the less effort they will have available to recall information that is important to comprehension.25 Thus, to be effective, pre-reading vocabulary instruction should focus on words that relate to the major ideas in a text, rather than on words that are interesting or unusual.
Click the "References" link above to hide these references.
iunningham, A. E., & Stanovich, K. E. (1991). Tracking the unique effects of print exposure in children: Associations with vocabulary, general knowledge, and spelling. Journal of Educational Psychology, 83, 264-274.; Fielding, L. G., Wilson, P. T., & Anderson, R. C. (1986). A new focus on free reading: The role of trade books in reading instruction. In T. Raphael & R. E. Reynolds (Eds.), The contexts of school-based literacy. New York: Random House.
2 Herman, P. A., Anderson, R. C., Pearson, P. D., & Nagy, W. E. (1987). Incidental acquisition of word meanings from expositions with varied text features. Reading Research Quarterly, 23, 263–284.; Nagy, W. E., Anderson, R. C., & Herman, P. A. (1987). Learning word meanings from context during normal reading. American Educational Research Journal, 24, 237–270.; Nagy, W. E., Herman, P. A., & Anderson, R. C. (1985). Learning words from context. Reading Research Quarterly, 20, 233–253.
3 Krashen, S. (1993). The power of reading: Insights from the research. Englewood, CO: Libraries Unlimited.
4 Carver, R. P. (1994). Percentage of unknown vocabulary words in text as a function of the relative difficulty of the text: Implications for instruction. Journal of Reading Behavior, 26, 413-437.; Carver, R. P., & Leibert, R.E. (1995). The effect of reading library books at different levels of difficulty upon gain in reading ability. Reading Research Quarterly, 30, 26-48.
5 Shefelbine, J. L. (1990). Student factors related to variability in learning word meanings from context. Journal of Reading Behavior, 22, 71–97.
6 Guthrie J.T., Schafer, W.D., Wang, Y., & Afflerbach, P. (1995). Relationships of instruction to amount of reading: An exploration of social, cognitive and instructional connections. Reading Research Quarterly, 30, 8-25.
7 Guthrie, Schafer, Wang & Afflerbach, 1995.
8 Dickinson, D.K., & Smith, M.W. (1944). Long-term effects of preschool teachers’ book readings on low-income children’s vocabulary and story comprehension. Reading Research Quarterly, 29, 104-122.
9 Stahl, S.A., Richek, M.G., & Vandevier, R. (1991). Learning word meanings through listening: A sixth grade replication. In J. Zutell & S. McCormick (Eds.) Learning factors/teacher factors: Issues in literacy research. Fortieth yearbook of the National Reading Conference (pp. 185-192). Chicago National Reading Conference.
10 Dickinson & Smith, 1994.
11 Graves, M.F., Juel, C., & Graves B.B. (1997). Teaching reading in the twenty-first century. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.
12 Brice Heath, S. (1983). A lot of talk about nothing. Language Arts, 60, 39-48.; Brice Heath, S. (1983). Ways with words: Language, Life, and work in communities and classrooms. New York: Cambridge University.
13 Stahl, 1999.
14 McKeown, M. G., Beck, I. L., Omanson, R. C., & Pople, M. T. (1985). Some effects of the nature and frequency of vocabulary instruction on the knowledge and use of words. Reading Research Quarterly, 20, 522–535.
15 Scott & Nagy, 1997.
16 Graves et al., 1997.
17 Nagy, W. E., Winsor, P., Osborn, J. & O’Flahaven, J. (1994). Structural analysis: Some guidelines for instruction. In F. Lehr & J. Osborn (Eds.), Reading, language, and literacy: Instruction for the twenty-first century (pp. 45–58). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
18 Anderson & Nagy, 1991; Sternberg, R. J. (1987). Most vocabulary is learned from context. In M. G. McKeown & M. E. Curtis (Eds.), The nature of vocabulary acquisition (pp. 89-105). Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum.
19 Stahl, 1999.
20 Stahl, S. A., & Fairbanks, M. M. (1986). The effects of vocabulary instruction: A model-based meta-analysis. Review of Educational Research, 56, 72-110.
21 Beck, I. L., Perfetti, C. A., & McKeown, M. G. (1982). Effects of long-term vocabulary instruction on lexical access and reading comprehension. Journal of Educational Psychology, 74(4), 506-521.
22 Beck, Perfetti, & McKeown, (1982).
23 Stahl, S. A., & Clark, C. H. (1987). The effects of participatory expectations in classroom discussion on the learning of science vocabulary. American Educational Research Journal, 24, 541–556.
24 This sample lesson is adapted from Stahl, 1999.
25 Wixson, K.K. (1986). Vocabulary instruction and children’s comprehension of basal stories. Reading Research Quarterly. 21, 317-329.
Excerpt from: Texas Education Agency. (2002). Promoting Vocabulary Development: Components of Effective Vocabulary Instruction, 2002 Online Revisited Edition (pp. 10-20). Retrieved October 11, 2007, from http://www.tea.state.tx.us/reading/practives/redbk5.pdf.
Comments and Recommendations


Mattaponi Indian Reservation
West Point, Virginia
Webster "Little Eagle" Custalow
State Recognized February 25, 1983
The members of this tribe live on a reservation
that stretches along the borders of the Mattaponi River in King William County, Virginia. Presently they number about seventy-five.
Many of the younger members have left the reservation to seek work elsewhere. The Mattaponi Indian Reservation dates back
to 1658. In those early days, the people made their living completely from nature's sources. Before the first settlers reached
this land, these Indians served and worshipped the Great Spirit, who was their God in the Heavens above the sun, the moon,
and the stars. Now they worship as Southern Baptists, and have their own church on the reservation.
1646, the Mattaponi Indians began paying tribute to an early Virginia governor, and this custom continues to the present day
when at Thanksgiving they present game or fish to the Governor of the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The Mattaponi Indian Reservation was created
from land long held by the Tribe by an act of the Virginia General Assembly in 1658. Being one of the oldest reservations
in the country, the Tribe traces its history back to the Great Chief Powhatan, father of Pocahontas, who ruled most of Tidewater
Virginia when Europeans arrived in 1607. The story of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith begins here.
Since the Assembly's designation of the
Reservation in 1658, the Mattaponi Tribe has maintained its heritage and many of its customs despite strong pressures pushing
toward assimilation with the mainstream culture.
Through the years both the Reservation's
physical size and the number of Tribal members have been diminished. The Reservation presently encompasses approximately 150
acres, a portion being wetland. Although the Tribal Roll numbers 450 people, not all actually live on the Reservation. The
Mattaponi Indian Tribe is State recognized and continues to maintain its own Sovereign government. The Governing Body today
is made up of the Chief (pictured above), Assistant Chief, and seven Councilmen.
Many Mattaponis who live off the Reservation
would like to return to their traditional homeland to continue the Tribe's culture and traditions. To do so will require expansion
of the land holdings of the Mattaponi Tribe. The Reservation today
sits on the banks of the Mattaponi River, one of the most pristine rivers in the Eastern United States. Facilities on the
Reservation today include living quarters, a small church, a museum, a Fish Hatchery and Marine Science Center, and a community Tribal building that was formerly the
Reservation school. While some of the residents pursue their
endeavors on the Reservation, many of the younger members seek work in other areas.
A Message from the Assistance Chief
Carl Lone Eagle Custalow
Mattaponi Indian Reservation
1467 Mattaponi Reservation Circle
West Point, Virginia
804-769-4508~ FAX 804-769-0294
Dear Friend of the Mattaponi,
When I was a boy in the early fifties, my father, Chief Webster Little
Eagle Custalow, would bring me on a crisp spring morning to the banks of the Sandy Point tract on the Mattaponi River. I still
feel the thrill of seeing the river flowing, the herons fishing, and ducks nesting in the marshes. Occasionally an eagle or
an osprey would soar overhead. I used to long for this large piece of our original Homeland to become part of our Reservation
again. The fish, wildlife and bird habitat make Sandy Point an especially sacred site for our Tribe.
When I returned to the Reservation and became Assistant Chief of the Tribe,
I had this vision of a modem Hatchery, a beautiful three story Cultural Center built over the water and a Living History Village
to study and teach our culture to tribal members and the general public alike.
We now have the opportunity to re-acquire this 2050 acre piece of
our Homeland, known as the Sandy Point Tract, for an estimated 3 million dollars. At first, I felt overwhelmed as I considered
the large sum of money needed. I didn’t know how we were going to raise this kind money. Then I realized we could not
turn this opportunity down.
The vision for my beloved Reservation, the beauty of it all and the
chance to protect rich Virginia natural resources, forests, meadows and wetlands, while strengthening our cultural heritage,
gave me the will to hope.
We may have only six months in which to purchase the first 550 acre
parcel. How can I even begin to express what this land means to us? It used to be part of our Reservation. It has a sacred
and very special meaning to us. This land is our natural heritage and the way for us to realize our vision.
On the present 150 acre Reservation, the Church still stands. The
old School House is now a Community Center. One of the oldest Shad Hatcheries in the Nation has been replaced with a newly
equipped modem one. The Mattaponi River flows unchanged, much as it did in the 1600’s. Last year, the Tribe returned
an estimated 8 million endangered Shad to the river.
We have struggled to maintain our identity for over 350 years. We
have endured. The Mattaponi have been described by historians as a people who have refused to give up. I won’t give
up. I am determined to raise the funds necessary to re-acquire our Homeland.
This place is in our hearts. We need your help to place it safely
in our stewardship. Please help us to realize our dream. What I seek to do, I can not do without you. It is critically important
that you be with us in our quest. We have our work cut out for us. Can I count on you again for help in returning Pocahontas’
Homeland – our Homeland – to our Tribe?
Your gift in any amount will make a difference.
Thank you,Carl Lone Eagle Custalow
Chief of the Mattaponi Tribe
VIRGINIA COLONIAL RECORDS.
Govern'r & the Councill of our Colony and
Plantacon of Virginia in The West Indys.
Treaty Between Virginia And The Indians
Articles of Peace between the most Mighty Prince & our Dread Soveraigne Lord Charles the
II by the Grace of God King of greate Brittaine, France, and Ireland. Defender of the ffaith &c: And the severall Indian
Kins and Queens &c Assentors and Subscribers hereunto made and Concluded at the Camp of Middle plantacon, the 29th day
of May: 1677; being the day of the most happy birth & Restauration of our s'd Soveraigne Lord, and in the XXIX yeare of
his said Ma'ties Reigne.
By the Right Honourable Herbert Jeffreys Esq'r Governour and Cap't Generall of his Majesties
Colony of Virginia: Present the Hon'ble S'r John Berry Kn't & Francis Morrison Esq'r his most Sacred Ma'ties Commiconers
appointed under the great Seale of England for the Virginia affairs, And the Hon'ble Councill of State of the said Colony.
Whereas his most Sacred Ma'tie hath of his owne Royall grace and meer motion intrusted to my
care and endeavours the Renewing management and concluding a good peace with the Neighbour Indians in order whereunto with
the advice and Assistance of the hon'ble S'r John Berry Kn't and Francis Morrison Esq'r I have here caused to be drawne up
these ensueing Articles and Overtures for the firme grounding and sure establishment of a good and just Peace with the said
Indians, and that it may be a Secure and lasting one founded upon the strong Pillars of Reciprocall Justice
by confirming to them their just Rights, and by Redress of their wrongs and injuries that soe the great God who is god of
peace and Lover of Justice may uphold and prosper this our mutuall League & Amity. It is hereby Concluded, consented to
& mutually agreed as followeth:
I. That the Respective Indian Kings and Queens doe from henceforth acknowledge
to have their imediate dependancy on, and Own all Subjection to the great King of England Our now dread Soveraigne his heires
and Successors, when they pay their Tribute to the Right hon'ble his Ma'ties Govern'r for the time being.
II. That thereupon the said Indian Kings & Queens and their Subjects shall
hold their lands, and have the same confirmed to them and their posterity by Patent under the Seale of this his Magesties
Colony, without any fee gratuity or Reward for ye same, in such sort, and in as free and firme manner as others his Magesties
Liege Subjects, have and enjoye their Lands, and possessions, paying onely yearly for, and in Liew of a Quitrent or acknowledgement
for the same three Indian Arrowes.
III. That all Indians who are in amity with us, & have not land siffitient
to plant up, be upon information forthwith provided for, and land laid out, and confirmed to them as affores'd never to be
disturbed therein, or taken from them, soe long as they owne keep and maintaine the due obedience & Subjection to his
Majestie his Govern'r and Government; & amity & friendship towards the English.
IV. Whereas by the mutaull discontents, Complaints, jealousies, and feares of English
and Indians occasioned by the violent intrusions of divers English into their lands, forceing the Indians by way of Revenge,
to kill the Cattle & hoggs of the English, whereby offence, and injuries being given, and done on boeth sides, the peace
of this his Majesties Colony hath bin much disturbed, and the late unhappy Rebellion by this means in a great measure begunne
& fomented which hath involved this Country into soe much Ruine, & misery, for prevention of which injuries and evill
consequences as much as possible we may for time to come it is hereby concluded and enacted that noe English, shall seate
or plant nearer then three miles of any Indian towne, and whosoever hath made or shall make any encroachment upon their Lands
shall be removed from thence and proceeded against as by the former peace made when the Honourable Francis Morrison was Govern'r
and the act of Assembly grounded thereupon is provided & enacted.
V. That the said Indians be well Secured & defended in theire persons goods
and properties against all hurts and injuries of the English, and that upon any breach or violation thereof, that the aggrieved
Indians doe in the first place repaire and adress themselves to the Govern'r Acquainting him therew'th without rashly and
suddainly betakeing themselves to any hostile course for Satisfaction who will inflict such punishment on the wilfull infringers
hereof, as the Lawes of England or this Country permitt, and as if such hurt or injury had bin done to any Englishman, which
is but just and Reasonable they owneing themselves to be under the Allegiance of his most Sacred Majestie.
VI. That noe Indian King or Queen be imprisoned without a Special Warrant from
his Ma'ties Govern'r & two of ye Councill, and that noe other Indian be imprisoned without a warrant from a Justice of
peace, upon Suffitient cause of Committment.
VII. That the said Indians have and enjoy theire wonted conveniences of Oystering,
fishing, and gathering Tuccahoe, Curtenemmons, wild oats, rushes, Puckoone, or any thing else for their natural Support not
usefull to the English, upon the English Devidends, Alwayes provided they first repaire to some publique Magestrate of good
Repute & informe him of their number and business, whoe shall not refuse them a certificate upon this, any other Lawfull
occasion, soe that they make due returne thereof when they come back and goe directly home about their business without wearing
or carrying any manner of weapon, or lodging under any Englishman's dwelling house on night.
VIII. That noe fforreigne Indian be suffered to come to any Englishman's plantacon
without a friendly Neighbour Indian in his Company with such Certificate as aforesaid, And noe Indian King to refuse to send
a safe Conduct with the fforraigner upon any Lawfull occasion of his Comeing in And that noe Indian doe paint or disguise
themselves when they come in.
IX. That all Indian Kings, and Queens tributary to the English haveing notice of
any march of strange Indians neer the English quarters or plantacons doe forthwith repaire to some of the next officers of
the militia, and acquaint him of their nation number and designe, and which way they bend their Course.
X. That if necessary a convenient party be presently sent out by the next Collo.
of the Militia to aide strengthen and joyne, with our Friendly Indians, against any fforreigne Attempt, incursion, or depredacon
upon the Indian townes.
XI. That every Indian fitt to beare armes of the neighbouring Nations in peace
with us, have such quantity of powder and shott allotted him as the R't Hon'le the Govern'r shall think fitt on any occasion,
and that such members of them be ready to goe out with our forces upon any march against the enemy and to Receive such pay
for their good services, as shall be thought fitt.
XII. That each Indian King, and Queen have equall power to govern their owne people
and none to have greater power then other, except the Queen of Pomunky to whom severall scattered Indians doe now againe owne
their antient Subjection, and are agreed to come in and plant themselves under power and government, whoe with her are alsoe
hereby included into this present League and treatie of peace, & are to keep, and observe the same towards the said Queen
in all things as her Subjects, as well as towards the English.
XIII. That noe persons whatsoever shall entertaine or keep any Neighbor Indian
as Servant or otherwise, but by licence of ye Govern'r and to be upon obligation answerable for all Injuries and damages by
him of them happening to be done upon any English.
XIV. That noe English harbour or entertaine any vagrant or Runnaway Indian, but
convey him home by way of pass from Justice to Justice to his owne towne under penalty of paying soe much per day for harbouring
him as by the Lawe for entertaining Runnaways is Recoverable.
XV. That noe Indian of those in Amity with us shall serve for any longer time then
English of the like Ages should serve by act of Assembly, and shall not be sold as Slaves.
XVI. That every Indian King and Queen in the month of March every yeare with some
of theire great men tender their obedience to the R't Honourable his Majesties Govern'r at the place of his residence, wherever
it shall be, and then and there pay the accustomed rent of twentie beaver skinns, to the Govern'r and alsoe their quit rent
aforesaid, in acknowledgment that they hold their Crownes, and Lands of the great King of England.
XVII. That due care be had and taken that those Indian Kings and Queens their great
men and Attendance that come on any public business to the R't hono'ble the Governo'r Councill of Assembly may be accommodated
with provisions, and housroome at the publique charge. And that noe English Subject shall abuse revile, hurt or wrong them
at any time in word or deed.
XVIII. That upon discord or breach of Peace happening to arise between any of the
Indians in amity with the English upon the first appearance and beginning thereof, and before they enter into any open Acts
of hostility or warr one against another they shall repaire to his Majesties Governo'r by whose Justice & wisdome, it
is concluded such difference shall be made up and decided, and to whose finall determination the said Indians shall Submitt
and conforme themselves.
XIX. That for preventing the frequent mischeifes and mistakes occasioned by unfaithfull,
& corrupt interpreters, & for the more Safetie satisfaciton, and adgvantage both of the Indians, and English, that
there be one of each nation of our neighbouring Indians, that already can or may become capable of speaking of English, admitted
together with those of y'e English to be their owne interpreters.
XX. That the severall Indians concluded in this peace forthwith restore to the
Respective English parents & owners, all such children servants, and horses, which they have at any time taken from them,
and now remaining with them ye said Indians, or which they can make discovery of.
XXI. That the trade with the said Indians be continued, Limited, restrained, or
laid open, as shall make best for ye peace and quiett of the Country, upon which affaire the Govern'r will consult with the
Counsell and Assembly, and conclude thereon at their next meeting.
XXII. That it is further agreed that all Indians and English in the Province of
Maryland are inclined in these Articles of peace. And that neither partie shall offend the other without breach of his Majesties
Signe and Tribe of the Indian representatives who witnessed the signing of the treaty.
After this treaty was confirmed presents were sent to the various Chiefs
from England, together with various badges of authority. The Queen of Pamunkey received a red velvet cap to which was fastened
a silver frontlet by chains of the same metal. After remaining long in the possession of the Pamunkeys at Indiantown, Va.,
it was given or sold by them between 1840 and 1850 to Mr. Morson, of Stafford county, Va., from whose heirs the frontlet was
bought by the Association for the Preservation of Virginia Antiquities and is now deposited with the Virginia Historical Society.
the Historical Society owns a small oval medal of rude design inscribed on one side, "Ye King of" and on the other "Patomecke."
This medal was probably given soon after the treaty of 1677.
© Copyright 1997, WHRO.
About the Mattaponi Legacy Plan
As the Mattaponi people seek to rebuild their society in their traditional lands, they are constrained
by the diminution of their reservation over the past two centuries. The Reservation today consists of only 150 acres that
overlook the Mattaponi River, and much of that land is designated wetlands. Clearly, the people need additional space to realize
The Mattaponi Tribal Legacy Plan is designed to further those dreams. The plan calls for the
expansion of the Reservation to about one thousand acres. Proposed use of the land includes the following:
- Cultural and Exhibition Center
- Nature Interpretative Trail
- Traditional Mattaponi Village
- Pottery and Craft Workshop & Classrooms
- Fish Cannery
- Residential Areas for Tribal Members
- Center for Native American Studies
- Center for Study of Mattaponi River Ecology
- Center for Indigenous Knowledge Preservation
|Scientific and cultural tourism along with a renewed interest in Native American culture in
general, makes the development of the Mattaponi Indian Reservation a critical component of the broader vision for developing
Virginia's Middle Peninsula. Along with Colonial History, historic buildings, river plantations, courthouses, churches, steamship
ports-of-call, Native American encampments and Cultural Centers such as the one proposed by the Mattaponi Legacy Plan will
do much to attract the kinds of low environmental impact and sustainable economic activity that is desired for the Commonwealth
and the people of the Region.
Increase the land base of the Mattaponi Reservation
Provide relief for the impoverished and unemployed members
of the Tribe
Enhance the art and culture of the Mattaponi People
Foster communication of Mattaponi history and heritage
Assist the Tribe in achieving federal recognition
Preserve the natural resources of the Reservation while developing
an economically sustainable community
Work with other organizations and other Tribes to develop
and market a Cultural Heritage Corridor in King William County
Work with the Mattaponi and Pamunkey Rivers Association for
the preservation of the quality of these marine systems
The Mattaponi Connection
to River and Bay
Across rural Virginia, citizens are searching for ways to create sustainable
communities and economies while preserving the quality and character of the landscape, their small towns and villages, and
the life styles they love. For thousands of years the Mattaponi People managed to do just that. Today, with all the challenges
to environmental quality, the Mattaponi Heritage Foundation and the Mattaponi People have launched an ambitious program to
build an economically and environmentally sustainable community on their traditional lands along the Mattaponi River.
Beginning with a grant from the Virginia Marine Resources Commission to establish
and operate a fish hatchery near West Point, Virginia, the Mattaponi Heritage Foundation will seek other support to allow
them to extend their land holdings along the Mattaponi watershed in King William County. Activities on the Reservation supported
through the Mattaponi Heritage Foundation will enable them to develop an economic base for their community through scientific
and cultural tourism and as a center for Native American studies.
Combining modern science with indigenous knowledge about the ecology of the river
and bay, the Mattaponi people seek to show all of mankind how to live in harmony with the natural world while sustaining the
highest quality of life.
The success of the Mattaponi Heritage Foundation will provide benefits to all
of Tidewater Virginia, as the development of cultural and scientific tourism and educational resources around Native American
knowledge and culture add to the critical mass of attractions that bring visitors to Tidewater.
Mission of the Mattaponi
Build a sustainable community on the Mattaponi River, a tributary of the Chesapeake Bay, that
will extend the thousands of years of Mattaponi history and heritage and, in doing so, demonstrate to all people how they
may live successful and rewarding lives in harmony with the earth.
April 7, 1997
Indian tribe cites 320-year-old treaty to thwart reservoir plans
BY ROBERT LITTLE,
The Virginian-Pilot Copyright 1997,
Landmark Communications Inc.
You can read the years in Webster Custalow's crooked fingers like lines in a tree trunk.
Time was he
struck a formidable pose, Custalow will tell you, hauling railroad ties off the saw mill or hoisting 100-pound bags of
salt around the cucumber-pickling plant during the Great Depression. Now he stands about chest-high to a door knob, coiled
under as if all 85 of his birthdays were in a sack tied around
Even the shad and the terrapin
in the river out back don't fear him much anymore. These days, Custalow says, strength comes from his family.
family is Virginia's Mattaponi tribe of American Indians, of which he is chief. And it's so strong that a $200 million
development project could derail because of it, thwarting the King William County government and the Newport News
Citing a 1677 treaty, the Indians who live on Virginia's Mattaponi reservation are challenging
plans for a 1,400-acre reservoir nearby. They say it would kill the fish spawning in tribal waters and violate a
guarantee from England's King Charles II that nothing would be built within three miles of their land.
officials are investigating the claim, and they aren't sure what to make of it.The treaty had always made for nice Thanksgiving
Day storytelling, but no one has ever tried to enforce it as a matter of law. The courts might ultimately have to decide whether
it can still be enforced.
If the 20 families on the Mattaponi reservation succeed, they will have won
a battle their ancestors forever lost. And they will do it armed only with a 320-year-old pact with the King of
England and a few thousand years of heritage.
``I've been thinking about it a long, long time,'' Chief Custalow said
Friday, standing in a corner of the 150-acre reservation, on the banks of the Mattaponi River.
``I'm a person
that from my youngest days God always showed me visions, and I have had a vision on that reservoir. I see terrible
``I'm sure you've read in books that wind and water are the most powerful things on the face of this
Earth. We know that from living. And when you try to cage that up, man has no method of stopping what can happen.''
William County officials are planning to build the reservoir about two miles from the edge of the Mattaponi reservation.
With a peak capacity of 75 million gallons a day, the reservoir would supply the city of Newport News with drinking
water through 2040.
The benefits to the surrounding rural county of 11,000 could be enormous. Newport News would
pay $150 million or more over the next 50 years. King William could draw as much water as it needs, assess acres
of new waterfront property and get five recreation centers and boat landings for its residents.
government with annual revenue of about $20 million, the deal is like finding a diamond mine. County officials have worked on
the project since 1987, and are willing to buy all the land around the small Cohoke Creek.
They hope to have
a permit from the Department of Environmental Quality soon after the public comment period closes April 15. The Army
Corps of Engineers would be next. The new lake won't yield a glass of water until 2005 at the earliest.
involved in this project expected it to be a free ride,'' King William Administrator David Whitlow said. ``But this is
a tremendous opportunity. It's not like it's going to be an eyesore and a detriment to property values.''
Mattaponi don't care so much about eyesores. The reservoir won't flood any of their Reservation, but they dispute government claims
that increased salinity won't affect fishing on the Mattaponi River.
And property values aren't even worth discussing.
Their property has value because the Mattaponi have lived there 1,000 years or more.
``All through the
years, this is how we lost our land -- because we don't have the numbers, or the political clout,'' said Assistant Chief Carl
Custalow, Webster Custalow's son and the manager of most tribal affairs.
``But just because you're small, you
don't have to let them walk all over you. For years we've never exercised our treaty rights.
Well, now we've had enough.''
Virginia has eight recognized Indian tribes, but only the Mattaponi and the Pamunkey
have designated reservations. The Pamunkey reservation is a few miles from the Mattaponi, but its boundaries would
not be encroached by the reservoir.
The tiny Mattaponi reservation is two miles of wooded backroad from Route
30, a main artery through King William County. It is marked by a faded, plywood sign reading ``See Mattaponi Indian Museum.
Stone Age Relics 1,000 Years Old.'' The community is a cluster of old cars and picnic tables around trailers, brick
houses and rickety wooden shacks with rusty tin roofs.
The government has been consistent in honoring one
aspect of the Indians' treaty rights: Residents don't have to pay real estate tax for their land, or personal property
tax for their vehicles. But they also don't actually own their land; It's kept in trust and passed down to new generations.
The houses are modest because no one can get construction loans without a deed for collateral.
are other privileges still extended the Indians. They can hunt and fish without a license, and hook into community power
lines and phone lines tax-free.
If they make a living on the reservation they are exempt from income tax.
If they buy and sell goods among themselves, they are exempt from state sales tax, too.
life is not one of luxury. The village is nearly indistinguishable from any low-income community in eastern Virginia.
Only the scattered tepees -- largely for the tourists stand out.
Few Indians earn a living on the reservation
any more. Carl Custalow, who still makes some money fishing the river, works for an insurance agency in Mechanicsville,
for instance. His two children have moved away. He hopes they'll come back.
But the river doesn't yield
barrels of terrapin or a net full of catfish from shore to shore anymore. And the state's restrictions on shad or rockfish
make things even tougher. Some residents sell art or beadwork, a tough way to make a buck when you're milesfrom the nearest
``All my life, I've fished out there. From a little boy on up,'' said Chief Custalow. ``You had to
eat the fish, you had to get out here and dig in the earth to get what you needed to live. We couldn't go to a place
and buy fancy stuff.
``A lot of that's changed, I know, but I saw something with these two eyes I hope I never
see again. I saw indian starving. Children, little ones, that looked like old indian the way the skin was hanging on
their bones. We wouldn't be here today without that river.''
The reservoir -- and whatever it does to Indian burial
grounds, campsites or to the water on the river -- is just the latest of government's indignities, tribe members
``We always look seven generations ahead,'' Carl Custalow said. ``You take somebody like Newport News,
they're looking right now -- for the business. For the dollar.'' Two months ago, the Mattaponi sent a letter to
the state attorney general's office announcing their intention to invoke colonial treaty rights to block the reservoir.
lawyers have been looking into the issue, but don't know when they'll have something to say.
on at least three areas of law and several state agencies,'' said Don Harrison, spokesman for Attorney General Jim
Gilmore. ``It deals with treaty law,historic preservation, water rights -- this is fairly complex.'' According to a peace
treaty between 12 Virginia Indian chiefs and King Charles II, signed
May 29, 1677:
shall seate or plant nearer than three miles of any Indian Towne, and whosoever hath made or shall make any encroachment
upon their lands shall be removed from thence.'' The Mattaponi and Pamunkey are descendants of the chiefs who signed
the pact. The three-mile buffer was created so colonists and Indians would stop killing each other, the treaty suggests.
return, the Indians swore allegiance to the British crown. And they promised to return the children and horses they'd
taken, to stop killing cattle and hogs and to refrain from any other injustice ``which hath involved this Country
into soe much
Ruine & misery.'' Their annual payment, ``in Liew of a Quitrent,'' would be three Indian arrows
and 20 beaver pelts.
That tradition has continued. Every Thanksgiving, members of the Mattaponi and Pamunkey
tribes leave some turkeys, some beaver pelts or a deer or two outside the governor's mansion as payment in full.
attorney general might weigh in soon, but the issue could take years to resolve if the Indians take it to court. They
have little money, but are trying to build a coalition of native Americans throughout the country to pitch in.
indian, the heritage have been there since before this country was even founded. Why would anyone want to take that away?'' asked
Thomasina Jordan, head of the state Council on Indians, a governor-appointed committee that oversees Indian affairs.
not so much the treaty that matters, it's beyond that. There's so little left of the American Indians that to take away
any more would be a real tragedy.''
SAVING THE MATTAPONI INDIANS AND THEIR HERITAGE
"The Mattaponi indian have lived on the river that bears
our name for thousands of years. We are direct descendents of the Great Chief Powhatan, Father of Pocahontas. Since the European
settlement at Jamestown, much of our history and our language have been lost because we were forced into the mainstream of
society. Despite this we still have our treaty, our Reservation and much of our culture. It is tragic that at a time when
the Mattaponi indian and other Indian indian of Virginia are working to regain our culture and traditions, Newport News would
be pushing hard for the King William Reservoir. This project threatens our traditional shad fishing and would flood Indian
cultural sites and graves; land that is sacred to us.... The Mattaponi River and the Reservation are our life. If this river
is destroyed, we have nowhere else to go. We are the indian of the river, and we have no alternative but to fight this reservoir."
Assistant Chief of the Mattaponi Indian Tribe
Eight tribes are recognized by the Commonwealth of Virginia:
- The Chickahominy
- The Eastern Chickahominy
- The Mattaponi
- The Upper Mattaponi
- The Monacan
- The Nansemond
- The Pamunkey
- The Rappahannock
The Mattaponi and Pamunkey tribes are the two tribes in Virginia that live on reservations.
They have headquarters in King William County and operate museums on the reservations.
These two tribes (which are sovereign nations) have treaties with the Commonwealth of
Virginia that predate the United States. They are the oldest reservations in the country.
Other Native Americans represented among Virginia's population:
Anishinabe, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Chippewa, Creek, Eastern Cherokee, Eno-Occaneechee, Haliwa-Saponi, Iroquois, Lumbee, Mashpee-Wampanoag,
Navajo, Pocomoke-Occahannock, Powhatan, Seneca, Shawnee, Shinacock, Sioux, St. Regis Mohawk, and Tuscarora.
Mattaponi Indian Reservation's Home Page
|Reservation's Fish Hatchery
|and Marine Science Center
I do hope you have enjoyed my tribute to Chief Webster "Little Eagle" Custalow and the Mattaponi