A wonderful visual exercise is the Tale of Coyote and Wishpoosh. Coyote is the great "trickster" of Native American myths; the story pits him against Wishpoosh, a demonic monster beaver. Coyote transforms himself into a floating tree branch; lodged in the beaver's gullet, Coyote dismembers the beast and creates Indian tribes from his fragments. The teacher creates an already-fragmented image of a giant beaver labeled with tribal names; students move the pieces to global positions where these tribes are found. The visual associations are inescapable, and the lesson reinforces both imagery and geographic history.
One archetypal tale of the Kuna tribe of Panama depicts two children on a mythical journey down river with sugarcane husks; it evokes both "Hansel and Gretel" and "Huck Finn," but it is told in a traditional Kuna chant. This is an excellent example of evoking imagery through sound; if the teacher plays a native tribal chant such as this, having first defined the words that the chant conveys, students get a clear idea of the images of the tale, and can then discuss, write about or visually depict the images that come to mind.
A stunningly visual world-creation myth of the Iroquois is the "Earth on the Turtle's Back" tale: the Skyland Chief's wife falls from heaven into earthly waters and Turtle carries Earth on his back to house her. This is a fine tale to use with tableau, a reading strategy where students enact the turtle, the wife, the woodland and sea creatures and the Earth, all showing a cooperative spirit. Teachers stop the scene at various points and ask student players to identify images and actions, and meanings and motivations behind them.
No lesson in Native American imagery is complete without the mandala, a circular drawing that often doubles as a drum-head, covered with symbols that are significant to the artist. A teacher can have students draw symbols of what's important to them in images on round pieces of paper, then they tape the circles to their desks and "play" their stories in drum chants. This kinesthetic approach to imagery not only scaffolds previous lessons but, in post-discussion, provides students with psychological insight into their images and choices.