The First Strawberries: A Cherokee Story by Joseph Bruchac

    In this Native American legend, readers will learn of the Cherokee tale of how berries were founded, and discover a lesson of respect and love for nature. A man and woman live happily together in peace, until one day the man speaks in an angry tone to the woman, they argue, and she leaves him. The man becomes regretful of the way he acted towards her, and ventures out to catch her in her path with help from the sun. On the path appears berries of sorts, including strawberries! The woman stops to taste one, she had never seen such a fruit before, and the sweetness of the berry reminds her of the happiness she felt with her husband and she wants to share the fruit with him. 

    When deciding whether this legend is a quality piece of folklore, I took into account the rich and natural language used. The rhythm of the story had a great flow to it. The text was able to encapsulate what we would imagine the story to be told if done so orally. The culture presented in this story is done so in a very intriguing manner, with the text and beautiful illustrations working together to create an engaging and enjoyable piece of literature, representing the Cherokee culture! The illustrations in themselves compliment the story, and give a wonderful look into authentic Cherokee culture. These factors is what makes this story a quality folklore! Children will love this story, and there is a lot of room for activities and lessons to be used that go along with the book. 

Possible activities: 

I loved trying to think up ideas for activities to go along with this book! You could have students plant their own fruit seeds and connect this activity to science. Students could be able to document the growth progress using science journals, draw pictures of the process, and eventually hopefully be able to enjoy their own grown fruit! Students also could do research on different fruit origins, compare and contrast different plants and explore the basic needs plants need to grow. Math could also be tied into this story depending on the age group in which you are teaching. You could take a class survey of what kinds of fruits everyone in the class likes the best, then use that data to create different graphs! Then once students have the hang of it, you could have them survey another class, or survey family members / friends, and have them collect their own data to create their own graphs! Another fun activity could be having a berry festival in the classroom. Students could create art work that depicts the Cherokee culture to decorate the room, have native music playing, and enjoy some sweet and delicious fruit and treats! 

Some examples of questions that could be asked to students:

  1. Why does the sun play an important role in this story?
  2. How is culture shared throughout this story?
  3. Why is the strawberry so important in this story?
  4. Why do you think it was important for the woman to share the fruit she found with her husband?
  5. What is a lesson or theme you can gather from the story after reading?

Personal response:

I think this is a very good example of a way to share Native American culture with young learners. The illustrations in the story are wonderful and support engagement with the text, children are able to be drawn in with the visually appealing art work. The theme here is a reflection of the Cherokee and their way of life. The plot is very direct, the conflict is identified early on, and the theme is a direct representation of the values of the people who have created them (Galda et al., 2016). I think that using this story in a unit or lesson about Native American culture would be a perfect fit! This book could fit into any of the subjects. Exploring the history and background of the legend, inspiration for art projects, science, math, you could work up activities for just about any content area! I think students of all ages would enjoy this read, especially as a read aloud where you could construct class discussions based on the content. It is a sweet and simple tale that can get students thinking and learning about a different culture they may not be familiar with, or representing a culture that they are a part of! Either way, I really enjoyed this story and think it is a good option when thinking about how to implement multicultural literature in the classroom! 



References:

Galda, L., Liang, L. A., & Cullinan, B. E. (2016). Literature and the Child. Cengage Learning.


The Cherokee Legend of the First Strawberry. (2020). NORTHERN CHEROKEE NATION. http://www.northerncherokeenation.com/the-cherokee-legend-of-the-first-strawberry.html


The First Strawberries “A Cherokee Story” - read by Mr. Biblio. (2020, June 1). YouTube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKuY7BW7s50








Comments

  1. Amanda JennemannMay 6, 2022 at 8:52 AM

    The book fits into the folklore genre as a fable because it includes obvious ethical statements that are meant to guide behavior (Galda et al., 2017). This is evident when the characters argue and then the man is regretful. One activity is to have students discuss what other ways Native Americans used fruit other than eating. This could be followed with another activity where students paint a picture using the dye from the fruits they discussed.

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