Curated OER
Native Americans and Natural Resources
North American Indian civilizations had already been in place for over 10,000 years before the arrival of European settlers. Introduce your young historians to Indian tribes that lived in the Chesapeake region in the early seventeenth...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
American Indians and their Environment
People could take a page in ingenuity and survival from the Powhatans. Deer skins became clothes, and the members of the Native American group farmed the rich Virginia soil and hunted in its forests for food. Using images of artifacts...
DocsTeach
Analyzing a Letter About American Indian Voting Rights
An informative activity focuses on the law preventing Native Americans from voting until 1947. Scholars read documents from the Office of Indian Affairs, complete an online worksheet, and participate in group discussion. Academics learn...
DocsTeach
American Indian Voting Rights through History
Vote ... it's your right! An enlightening lesson examines the history of voting rights for Native Americans. Leaners analyze primary documents and place them in chronological order. Academics also create a list of other events that took...
DocsTeach
Analyzing a Photograph of a Young American Indian
A true glimpse of the past, Angelic La Moose smiles back from more than 100 years ago. Young learners examine the picture of a young girl on a Montana Native American reservation from 1913 to comb it for historical details. A form, which...
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 lesson plan that examines that history. High schoolers examine video interviews of Native Americans who detail...
National Woman's History Museum
Red Power Prevails : The Activism, Spirit, and Resistance of Native American Women
Native American women powered the American Indian Movement and other social changes, but they are often forgotten by history books. Examining a series of resources, including a documentary film, photographs, secondary sources, and social...
Curated OER
The First North Americans
Students identify and interpret the different North American Indian groups, by region, and the type and impact of their interaction with Europeans.
Then they complete an overview of one main Native American group during the age of...
Curated OER
American Indians
Eighth graders discuss their country of origin and form work groups based on their answers. In this American Indian lesson, 8th graders locate their country of origin to the lifestyle, products and living arrangements there. Students...
Curated OER
AIH-14: Changes to American Indian Cultures
Students explore American Indian cultures and changes caused by European exploration in North America.
Curated OER
AIH-16: Effect of Revolutionary War on American Indians
Students examine how American Indian cultures changed as a result of the Revolutionary War.
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...
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
Indian Nations vs. Settlers on the American Frontier: 1786–1788
Once Americans won the Revolutionary War, their quest to gain land did not end. An interesting activity focuses on Americans' expansion into the frontier following the war and how it conflicted with Native Americans living in the area....
Curated OER
Lesson 1: English-Indian Encounters
What did the English settlers think of the Native Americans inhabiting the Chesapeake region of the United States? Learners analyze a series of documents and images to determine the English perception of the local inhabitants. A great...
US Citizenship and Immigration Services
Thanksgiving 1—Pilgrims and American Indians
The Pilgrims first arrived in America in order to gain religious freedom. Here is a instructional activity that takes the class on this journey with the Pilgrims, stopping to look at how they got here, who they met when they arrived, and...
Smithsonian Institution
Native Resistance: Native Resistance Then and Now
Native Americans lost so much—and gained so little in return. Scholars explore Native Americans' resistance to the United States government. The lesson plan uses primary sources to explore the different forms of protest and gives a voice...
Stanford University
Native American Rights
It's time for scholars to put their knowledge of primary sources to the test. A helpful assessment uses photos to test pupils' knowledge of how to analyze primary sources and determine their time periods. High school social studies...
Curated OER
Native Americans of the Chesapeake Bay: Using Primary vs. Secondary Sources
Discover the rich Native American culture that existed at the time of early European exploration into the Chesapeake region through analysis of several primary and secondary sources.
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...
National Museum of the American Indian
To Honor & Comfort Native Quilting Traditions
"Native American history leaps boldly off the colorful quilts and patchwork designs." Learners discuss Native American identity and symbolism by reading about a variety of Native quilters and their unique art process, and participate in...
Curated OER
Pre-Colonial Native American Groups
Students investigate U.S. history by researching the Internet and taking a test. In this American Indian group lesson plan, students identify the many specific Native American tribes and their geographic locations. Students research the...
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...
K20 LEARN
Many Trails of Tears: The Era of Indian Removal
Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Creek, and Seminole. All were forced off their ancestral lands in the southeastern United States as part of the Indian Removal Act of 1830. Young historians research the tribes' reactions to this removal and...