To the Native American people living on the plains, the buffalo represented culture, art, sustenance, and survival. Explore the history of the buffalo with a social studies lesson, in which learners create a buffalo hide painting in the...

Students explore Native American cultures. In this cultural comparisons lesson, students participate in several activities that compare and contrast the culture of the Hopi and Comanche Tribes.

Students complete a unit of study about Native American visual art. In this visual art lesson, students complete five lessons to study Native American art.

Students create short oral presentations describing how Native American tribes use dance, poetry, music, art and other expressions to make a dedication to a physical concept or thing.

Learners explore the history of Montana's Native Americans by reading James Welch's Fools Crow. Set shortly after the Civil War, the novel focuses on a young Blackfoot Indian and his tribe. Over the course of several weeks, class members...

Students make an Indian craft. In this Native American culture lesson, students view pictures of tepees and then create a tepee of their own. Students learn about buckskin paper and use it to make an Indian craft.

Students explore methods of written communication. In this Plains Indian lesson, students create pictographs representing everyday modern life after observing the pictographs used by the Plains Indians. Pictograph stories are written on...

Seventh graders examine how the Plains Indians vied with white commercial buffalo hunters for the millions of Great Plains buffalo. They create an illustrated broadside supporting the interests of either the Indians or the commercial...

Students study about the Native American practice of writing stories on buffalo skins. They study about pictographs and use symbols to write their own stories using "buffalo hides" they have created.

First graders explore culture by researching U.S. history. In this American Indian lesson, 1st graders discuss the geography of Kansas and the different Native American tribes that inhabited the state and the types of homes they lived...

Pupils research historic and contemporary information about the cultures of Native American Plains Indians such as Sioux or Blackfoot. They investigate patterns used on parfleches or rawhide. They choose a pattern to duplicate. They...

Students invite an elderly person to come talk about the significance of the buffalo in their Native American community. They record and videotape all the activities and create a visual presentation of the day.

Student complete a month-long unit on the symbolic and practical reasons for American Indian artwork. They explore websites, discuss elements of design, create an Indian backpack, Kachina Doll, weaving, sand painting, and totem pole.

Dividing the art of the Antebellum period into several different genres, this vibrant presentation is sure to get your students' attention. It takes your students on a walk through an art museum with famous paintings, architecture, and...

Imagine you are a Plains Indian, a nomad getting ready to follow a herd of buffalo. Now imagine what you would have to pack for your trip. Little ones examine images of a traditional parfleche (packing box), and then create packing lists...

Young scholars discover archaeology by investigating the history of Native Americans in Georgia.  In this U.S. history lesson, students participate in a mock archaeological excavation in their classroom by recovering artifacts and...

Students explore U.S. history by researching a historic map. In this westward expansion lesson, students discuss the mystery of the western U.S. in the early 1800's and the impact expansion had on Native Americans and agriculture....

Young scholars discover how bison were hunted by the Native Americans and compare it to the buffalo. Using construction paper, they trace a bison outline given to them and use coffee grounds to fill in the space where the fur would be. ...

Fourth graders discover the significance of the Oregon Trail in Idaho history. In addition, 4th graders conceptualize the Oregon Trail in relation to their own lives. They engage in a wide variety of curricular activities, culminating in...

Learners identify and interpret the life of the Indians on the Plains during the 1800's through artworks of George Catlin and others during this time period. Students examine life of the Pawnee Indians and interpret conditions that...

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...

Four paintings that may be enlarged, and the text offers a good description of Catlin's life and artwork.

This excellent site provides a biography, personal quotes and a gallery of images of American artist George Catlin.

Twelve teacher-tested lesson plans to integrate art from around the world into your classroom. Each activity comes with a list of materials you'll need, easy-to-follow explanations, and examples.