Indigenous People’s Journal Indigenous People’s Journal: An APES Biomes Project
The phrase indigenous peoples refers to any ethnic group of people who inhabit a geographic region with
which they have the earliest known historical connection, alongside more recent immigrants (non-natives from
other places) who have also populated the region.
Other related terms for indigenous peoples include aborigines. Aboriginal people, native people, first
people, and autochthonous, which has Greek roots, and means “sprung from the earth”. It is for that reason, that
technically, even we, who have been here for centuries, cannot be officially classified as “indigenous” peoples of
this country. Indeed, that honor would befall the Native Americans, whose populations were decimated in the
middle and late 19th Century by Europeans.
We are starting our biomes of the world unit, and in an attempt to gain perspective that we may not
obtain another way, you will be creating an “Indigenous People’s Journal”, in which you will be writing your thoughts
and daily rituals as if you were indigenous to the biomes you’re learning about. We will be discovering the
characteristic richness and diversity of 12 terrestrial biomes, and the aquatic biomes as well…which of course you
will not have to enter into your Indigenous People’s Journal. The Indigenous People’s Journal will be collected and
graded twice, each time for a summative grade. You will have time in class to work on it occasionally, but you may
have to take it home once in awhile. The 8 terrestrial biomes we will be visiting in our journals are:
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Polar ice caps
Tundra
Taiga (Boreal/Coniferous Forest)
Temperate Deciduous Forest/Temperate Rain Forest
Grasslands (your choice)
 Temperate Grassland
 Tropical Grassland/Savanna
Desert
Rain Forest (Your choice)
 Tropical
 Temperate
Small-Scale Terrestrial Biomes (Your choice)
 Tropical Deciduous Forest
 Tropical Scrub Forest
 Mountain Alpine
 Chaparral
You may start your research now, into the natives or indigenous peoples of these terrestrial areas. That way,
there will be less time wasted in class.
Formatting your Journal:
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You will build your IPJ in class. It will have an appropriately decorated cover, and 28 pages, one of which
will be the first page dedicated to a table of contents. After that, every page should be numbered in the
bottom right hand corner.
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Your first entry should be to begin by writing a brief paragraph naming and describing the biogeography
of the area your indigenous person is from. You may even want to include a small map of the area (cut and
paste of course). Tell what time of year it is in your journal entry. You may even want to date your entry.
Please note…it doesn’t have to correspond to the date you are actually making your entry. Describe what
your climate is like this time of year.
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Design a climograph of the specific location where your indigenous person is from. Please do this BY
HAND.
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Create a complete journal entry in which you have become one of the indigenous people from the biome
we are studying. If you are a male, your gender will be female…if you are female, your gender will be
male! You will describe a day in your life. May include: depicting cultural adaptations your indigenous
group has made to its biome. Tell about the types of foods you eat, and how you obtain them; tell about
the native species you rely on; describe how you obtain other resources you may need (such as for
shelter, transportation, energy…etc.); tell about your family structure, and a little about how your culture
has adapted to the biome: describe your role in your family (ie hunter, provider, gatherer, child-rearing).
Indigenous People’s Journal Indigenous People’s Journal: An APES Biomes Project
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Remember, this is a journal, so put some personal things in it that are of relevance. (if you are the
hunter, you may have a lot of time for leisure…if you are mainly responsible for child rearing and home
maintenance, you may have very little time for leisure. What do you do with your leisure?)
Create a thinking map appropriately depicting or organizing ANY information you wish to about your
biome. (PLEASE NOTE: Choose a different thinking map with each entry! Challenge yourself to avoid using
bubble and double bubble ALL THE TIME!)
Create a COLORFUL sketch or drawing depicting your daily life, or routine within your biome. You have
your choice of media (markers, colored pencils, crayons…etc) I am NOT an art critic…however I am an
expert at assessing effort. Stick figures are fine, as long as they took you some time!
That will be it for each entry. Please look at the rubric to find out how much each section is worth out of 100
points.