New ReviewIn our increasingly multi-ethnic society, many students find it difficult to identify themselves as belonging to any one ethnicity. Gene Tagaban, a Tlingit, Cherokee, Filipino offers his personal experiences with these questions in his...

New ReviewThe Inca and Aztecs created vast economic empires in South America, but how did economics play a role? A simulation activity and reading help scholars evaluate the kinds of markets these great civilizations created. They then consider...

New ReviewThere was a time when the Comanche controlled an empire in North America, and the heart and soul of that empire was the horse. Scholars use the installment of the larger Native American Sacred Stories series to explore how the Spanish...

We all know about Christopher Columbus, but who else explored the Americas, and specifically, the future United States of America? Learners find out these answers and more in a resource that includes four different reading sections,...

Redesign your holiday celebrations with the aid of a lesson plan booklet packed with facts, images, maps, activities, and readings about the three-day feast that marked the English settlers' first successful harvest.

What was life like in America before Christopher Columbus discovered the New World? Scholars investigate life in the Americas through the eyes of Native Americans in the first lesson of a 22-part series covering America's history. Using...

Did you know there are 567 federally recognized American Indian and Native Alaskan tribes and villages in the United States alone? The resource helps break down the complexities of many different tribal societies to explain the concept...

Take on the roles of two very different individuals living together during the same time: a pilgrim and a member from the Wampanoag Tribe. As learners navigate through the interactive, each click takes them to a part of each village to...

Is the story of the First Thanksgiving actually all it's said to have been? Watch a video that sheds light on the event, who Samoset and Massasoit were, and what the First Thanksgiving was really all about.

How did the environment and natural resources found on the Channel islands influence the culture of the Chumash? Archaeology meets technology in an activity designed for middle schoolers. After viewing West of The West's documentary Once...

What was the most significant tool used by the Chumash? How did the environment make the tool possible? What group behaviors allowed the Chumash be be successful for thousands of years? After watching West of the West's documentary Once...

What tools do archaeologists and anthropologist use to learned about what life was like in the past. After watching West of The West's documentary Once Upon a Time that details how scientists use artifacts to establish a history of the...

As part of a study of the history of the Chumash on California's Channel Island chain, class members view the documentary Once Upon a Time, respond to discussion questions, and create a timeline for the different waves of migration.

The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island documents the story of Juana Maria (the name given her by the padres of the Santa Barbara mission) who spent 18 years alone on the most remote island of the Channel Islands chain.

After watching West of the West's documentary The Lone Woman of San Nicolas Island, class members imagine how Juana Maria/Karana may have felt about living alone on the island for 18 years and craft a blackout poem or a narrative in her...

After viewing two documentaries about the history of the Channel islands, individuals craft an essay in which they compare the lives of Juana Maria, the Lone Woman San Nicolar Island, to Lester Holt and his family featured in the...

Should the excavation of what is believed to be the cave of the Lone Woman of San Nicholas Island be allowed to continue? As a practice exercise designed to prepare pupils for a timed writing exam, individuals read two Los Angeles Times...

Class members will dig this activity that has them trying their hand at recovering artifacts. Groups are assigned a section of a sandbox, carefully uncover the artifacts in their section, and then develop theories about who might have...

Archaeologists have discovered a cache of Native American relics. They want to preserve these relics by removing them from the rapidly eroding site to a lab where they can be studied. Native American traditions demand that the items be...

The excavation of a cache of artifacts found on San Nicolas Island, a part of the Channel Island chain, is the focus of a documentary that shows how archaeologists uncover artifacts and use these finds to attempt to understand the past....

A discussion of bioluminescence launches an investigation of animal adaptations. After re-watching the opening minutes of Dark Water, class members listen to a reading of What Do You Do with a Tail Like This, and then create a new animal...

As part of their study of the history of the Channel Islands, class members craft an informational article to post on a bulletin board that features the Chumash ancestral tradition of tomol paddling.

Dark Water, a documentary about a traditional Chumash ceremony, launches a series of lessons about this tribal nation that inhabited the Channel Islands. The focus of the film is on the recreation of the Tomol Crossing Ceremony where...

After watching and discussing a video on the Voyage of Cabrillo, individuals craft their own origin story and design and build an artifact they feel best represents their history.