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The Chaski: Official Messengers of the Inka Empire

This Teacher's Guide provides information about Chaski, relay runners in the Inka Empire, as well as other activities for students in grades 4–12 who are visiting The Great Inka Road: Engineering an Empire exhibition. Este recurso también está disponible en español.

Resource Information

grades   4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
nations
Inka Empire
subjects
English Language Arts, Social Studies
regions
Andes, South America
keywords
Chaski, chaskiwasi, colca, Cusco, Great Inka Road, khipu, khipucamayuc, Quito
Essential Understandings More Close

3: People, Places, and Environments
For thousands of years, indigenous people have studied, managed, honored, and thrived in their homelands. These foundations continue to influence American Indian relationships and interactions with the land today.

7: Production, Distribution, and Consumption
American Indians developed a variety of economic systems that reflected their cultures and managed their relationships with others. Prior to European arrival in the Americas, American Indians produced and traded goods and technologies using well-developed systems of trails and widespread transcontinental, intertribal trade routes. Today, American Indian tribes and individuals are active in economic enterprises that involve production and distribution.


LEARN MORE ABOUT ESSENTIAL UNDERSTANDINGS →

Academic Standards More Close

Common Core State Standards

CCSS.ELA-Literacy.CCRA.R.1
Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.


National Curriculum Standards for Social Studies (High School)–National Council for the Social Studies

III. People, Places, and Environments.
Knowledge–The concept of regions identifies links between people in different locations according to specific criteria (e.g. physical, economic, social, cultural, or religious).

VII. Production, Distribution, and Consumption.
Processes–Compare their own economic decisions with those of others, and consider the wider consequences of those decisions for groups, communities, the nation, and beyond.


College, Career, & Civic Life–C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards

D2.Geo.7.6-8
Explain how changes in transportation and communication technology influence the spatial connections among human settlements and affect the diffusion of ideas and cultural practices.