Curated OER
Native American Policy
Students examine federal policies regarding Native Americans. In this Native American assimilation and removal policies lesson, students conduct research to compare the changes in federal policy regarding Native Americans between the...
Smithsonian Institution
Borders within the United States: Indian Boarding Schools and Assimilation
Native American Nations ... sovereign entities or removable tribes? A thought-provoking lesson explores the relationship between Native American tribes and the United States, including forced assimilation and removal from their ancestral...
Anti-Defamation League
Indian/Native American Boarding Schools: Their History, Harm and Impact
Encultureate, assimilate, or eliminate? The 2021 discovery of a mass grave of over 200 children on the site of a former Canadian Indian Boarding school led to the creation of the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative. High schoolers...
University of California
Impact of the California Missions on Native Americans
While the Spanish claimed to bring civilization to California indigenous peoples, in reality, they also brought violence and forced assimilation to European values. Primary sources, such as the reports of Catholic priests and Europeans...
K20 LEARN
Surviving Assimilation: American Indian Boarding Schools
The boarding school era is "a history that all of us need to know about," says Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. Here's a instructional activity that examines that history. High schoolers examine video interviews of Native Americans...
K20 LEARN
Native American Education - Past, Present, and Future: Assimilation
To understand the history of Native American education, high schoolers examine the record of young scholars who attended the Carlisle Indian School from 1879-1918. They also examine sources that contain information about indigenous...
Global Oneness Project
Cultural Heritage: Recording a Native Language Dictionary
How do you rebuild a language that has been banned for years? A short video introduces high schoolers to Marie Wilcox, A Wukchumni Native American from Central California who, for over 20 years, worked on comprising a dictionary of the...
Curated OER
Traditions and Languages of Three Native Cultures: Tlingit, Lakota, and Cherokee
Students explore the connections between tradition and language. They examine the environment, history and culture of the Tlingit, Lakota and Cherokee tribes and identify the importance of maintaining languages for oral traditions.
Stanford University
Carlisle Indian Industrial School
How do policies aimed to help actually hurt? Native American boarding schools—an attempt at assimilating children of indigenous tribes into white culture—had a shattering effect on those who attended. With primary sources, including...
DocsTeach
Assimilation and the Native People of Metlakahtla, Alaska
Fitting in to a dominant culture comes at a price—especially for native peoples. Class members consider this concept using a photo matching game of indigenous people in Alaska. Discussion questions help them consider to what extent these...
Curated OER
Indian Removal
Students discuss how the various acts used to force Native Americans from their home. Using the Internet, they compare and contrast the policies toward the Native Americans by presidents through Jackson. They evaluate the impact of...
Curated OER
Jacksonian America and the Indian Removal Act of 1830
Students utilize primary sources to explore the national climate concerning Native American Indians during the Andrew Jackson administration. They are presented with opinions for and against the Indian Removial Act of 1830 as they...
Anti-Defamation League
Columbus Day or Indigenous Peoples Day?
"Columbus Day"? Indigenous Peoples' Day"? "Native Americans' Day"? The controversy over what to call the federal holiday celebrated on the second Monday in October is the focus of a lesson that asks high schoolers to consider various...
DocsTeach
Assimilation of American Indians
Imagine being forced to give up your culture and then being graded on how well you complied with orders to do so. Documents show young historians the price indigenous peoples paid as a result of the Dawes Act, which was essentially a...
Curated OER
Forced Assimilation
Students identify ways that a society promotes assimilation and examine areas where it still occurs in our present culture. They assess the value of assimilation.
Curated OER
The American Indian Boarding School Experience: Then and Now
Students examine cultural assimilation. In this Native American history lesson, students read and analyze "The Spirit Survives: The American Indian Boarding School Experience: Then and Now." Students identify how American Indian Boarding...
Curated OER
Plows on the Hunting Grounds
Students will examine and anaylze the assimilation of Native Americans in the US.
K20 LEARN
Transcending Boundaries - The Kiowa Six: The Legacy and Contributions of Six Kiowa Artists
The Kiowa Six, a group of Kiowa artists, are featured in the activity that asks young historians to consider the importance of art in representing a culture and contributing to a group's legacy. After examining paintings by the group and...
Curated OER
Native Americans: Customs and Conflicts
Students discover the many cultures of the Native Americans as they explore the frontier of North America in this eight lessons unit. Tribes of the Great Basin Region, the Northern and southern Plateau, the Plains, and the Pacific...
Curated OER
Native American Boarding School Choice Board
Students investigate the boarding school movement that was imposed on the American Indians from the late 1880's to the early 1900's. The assignment requires the use of primary and secondary resources to find historical information. Then...
Curated OER
Indian Removal and Forced Assimilation
It can be difficult to describe the removal and forced assimilation of indians during Andrew Jackson's presidency to a class. Reading the manuscript of the Indian Removal Act and analyzing photographs and political cartoons from the time...
Curated OER
Boarding Schools And Native American Culture
Students engage in a lesson that focuses on the influence of American values placed upon the Indians. Students use primary and secondary documents in order to explore the indoctrination. They create a project that reflects adequate...
Curated OER
Indian Removal in the Age of Jackson
Young scholars compare policies toward Native Americans that were pursued by President Jackson as well as evaluate the impact of assimilation, removal, and resettlement on Native Americans
Curated OER
Football at Carlisle Indian School: A Tool for Assimilation?
Middle schoolers become familiar with procedures for helping Indians assimilate in the 1800's. In this history lesson plan middle schoolers explore how football helped Indians to assimilate in a positive way. Middle schoolers recognize...