Oklahoma Social Studies OKH.C.1.4
The Standard
- OKH.C.1
- Describe the state’s geography and the historic foundations laid by American Indian, European, and American cultures.
Describe the Caddo and Wichita cultures, once active in the production and trading of goods using extensive transcontinental, intertribal trade routes prior to European contact.
Oklahoma Academic Standards for Social Studies (2026) · OKH.C.1
Teacher's field guide
What This Standard Means
What Students Need to Do
- Describe how Caddo villages produced pottery and salt, while Wichita communities farmed and hunted bison. Explain how Native nations exchanged goods along routes that reached across the continent before Europeans arrived.
What Mastery Looks Like
- A student can identify goods associated with each nation and locate both on a map. They can explain how an item reached a distant community through several exchanges, without one trader making the whole trip.
Common Misconceptions
- Students may think trade began when Europeans arrived or that every trader crossed the continent. They may also picture both nations as always on the move, overlooking their farming villages.
How to Assess It
- Give students a map showing Caddo and Wichita homelands. Ask them to name one good associated with each and explain how a good could reach a distant community through several exchanges.
Lesson moves
Ways to Teach It
Give pairs a map and cards labeled Caddo pottery, Caddo salt, Wichita bison hides, and Gulf shells; have them trace possible exchanges.
Ask: How could a Gulf shell reach a Caddo village without a Caddo trader visiting the coast? Have students write a three-step explanation.
Play a trade relay: groups pass labeled good cards between mapped villages, then name the producer and each exchange point.
Compare a grocery banana's supply chain with a mapped Gulf shell trade route, listing who handles each item along the way.
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Printable OKH.C.1.4 Worksheet
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