Other
Ethnological Museum: Native Americans of the Plains
Part of a larger exhibition about Native Americans, this page gives visitors an up-close look at the Hidatsa and the Mandan, Native Americans of the Plains. Viewable are a decorated a buffalo skin and color etchings of tribal chiefs...
BBC
Bbc: Nature Wildfacts: American Bison
Use this site to learn some amazing facts about the American Bison and their close brush with extinction.
Other
Postbellum African American Society and Culture: Black Migration
From the Encyclopedia of American Social History. Read about the black migration to the West, primarily Kansas and Oklahoma after the end of Reconstruction and the institution of black codes in the South.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Our Story: Life in a Sod House
Imagine moving into a house made out of sod that you and your family had to build in the middle of a prairie! Find great information and activities that will help you understand how it felt to live on the prairie.
Library of Congress
Loc: American Memory: Prairie Settlement, 1862 1912
Read letters from homesteaders in Nebraska and view photographs of prairie life in Nebraska. Visitors can browse by topic, date, or keyword.
Other
Trans Mississippi and International Exposition: The Arapaho Tribe
Provides general information on the Arapaho tribe, the buffalo hunters of the Great Plains.
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Eastern Shoshone: Hide Painting of the Sun Dance
Painting on animal hides is a longstanding tradition of the Great Basin and Great Plains people of the United States. Painting, in tandem with oral traditions, functioned to record history.Cotsiogo, a member of the Eastern Shoshone...
Annenberg Foundation
Annenberg Learner: United States History Map: Indians
An interactive site showing the Native American culture areas and the major tribes living in those areas before the arrival of the Europeans. Click to find out more about Indians living in those area and find a game that challenges you...
Ducksters
Ducksters: Native American History for Kids: Sioux Nation and Tribe
Kids learn about Native American Indian tribe the Sioux Nation from the Great Plains of the United States on this site. Explore where the Sioux live, eat, and more on this website.
Curated OER
Ed Site Ment: Great Plains Settlers
1880s photo of an African-American family posing in front of their sod house.
PBS
Frontier House: The Extermination of the American Buffalo
The reign of the buffalo across the plains ended in great slaughter by the end of the 19th century. This companion essay to the PBS series, Frontier House, recounts how the decimation of the buffalo occurred, hastened by both white and...
Polk Brothers Foundation Center for Urban Education at DePaul University
De Paul University: Center for Urban Education: A Great Digger a Fable [Pdf]
"A Great Digger: A North American Fable" is a one-page fable about Benny the Badger who dug holes for all the other animals in the plains. It is followed by constructed-response questions which require students to provide evidence from...
Other
North Dakota Museum of Art
This is the website of the North Dakota Museum of Art. The museum focuses on contemporary art and art that shows the visual history of the region, including a focus on Native American art. Collections and exhibitions can be viewed...
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of Us: Whose Land Is This? Webisode 8
From Joy Hakim's marvelous set of books, A History of US, this webisode offers narrative, pictures, and teaching guides for the settling of the West after the Civil War.
The History Cat
The History Cat: Us History: Louisiana Purchase
Covers two topics related to the growth of the new United States - the Louisiana Purchase and the settling of the Great Plains. How the Louisiana Purchase came about as a result of a decision by Napoleon is explained. The Great Plains...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Prairie Shrew
The Prairie Shrew is small, weighing only 2-5 g, brown, and relatively short-tailed. This species inhabits the northern Great Plains in Canada and the United States. Learn more about the Sorex haydeni, more commonly known as a Prairie...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Ord's Kangaroo Rat
By occupying the short grass prairie of the Great Plains, and a variety of habitats where there are fine-textured, sandy soils, Ord's Kangaroo Rat has managed a truly enormous geographic distribution. The varied habitats that it occupies...
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of Natural History: American Mammals: Elliot's Short Tailed Shrew
Elliot's Short-tailed Shrew occurs in much of the central Great Plains. Its fur is a nearly uniform brownish-gray, often with brown tips. Learn more about the Blarina hylophaga, more commonly known as Elliot's Short-tailed Shrew, in this...
Ibis Communications
Eye Witness to History: Buffalo Hunt, 1846
Before the European settlers almost wiped out the buffalo, there were huge herds roaming the Plains.The buffalo hunts by Native Americans were essential for the survival of the tribes, and were fine tuned challenges between man and...
Library of Congress
Loc: America's Story: Westward Expansion and Reform
Part of a longer time line describing the history of the American West, this section covers the period 1829 to 1859 with hyperlinks to stories and people of this time period.
Nebraska Studies
Nebraska Studies: Building a Sod House
Here's great information on building sod houses. You can even watch a video of a famous two-story sod house that stood until 1967.
University of Groningen
American History: Outlines: Machines Help Farmers
Read about the advances made in agriculture during the last part of the 19th century which allowed for the increase in production of farm products.
Other
Blackfoot Nation
An official site of the Blackfoot Nation in Montana. Gives a look into their history, culture, and government.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Harcourt: School Publishers: Carving a Memorial to Chief Crazy Horse
This Harcourt Publishing site is all about the memorial carved in the Black Hills of South Dakota in honor of Chief Crazy Horse.