A Historic Gamble

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...

Native Americans lost so much—and gained so little in return. Scholars explore Native Americans' resistance to the United States government. The instructional activity uses primary sources to explore the different forms of protest and...

Did Western settlers receiving free land from the Homestead Act realize it wasn't really free at all? Scholars investigate the impact Western expansion had on Native American culture in the mid-1800s. They use documents, timelines, and...

Introduce your middle schoolers to the lives of past Native Americans. First, learners work together to put photographs in a sequence. Then, using their sequence, they create stories to share with the whole class. No matter how old your...

Students examine how American Indians are represented in today's society. They read stories, analyze maps, and complete a chart and create an illustration about a specific tribe.

An informative video sets the context for a lesson that asks young historians to consider how cultural values influence perspective. Groups compare the attitudes reflected in a journal entry of a member of the Plymouth Colony to those of...

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....

What do you know about American Indians? Upper graders compose an informational essay based on the research they conduct. They choose a Native American group to study and, using the provided list of web links, gather information and...

Although popular culture tells the story of the American West simplistically, its reality is far more complex. Native American tribes—while already on the land—didn't have the same interests, and conflicts between white settlers and...

Students interpret historical evidence presented in primary resources. In this civil rights lesson, students examine the civil rights struggle from a Native American perspective. Students analyze documents and write journal entries that...