Cranberries, oysters, lobster, deer, and cabbage were just a few of the foods found on the table at the First Thanksgiving. After reading a two-page passage about the historic meal, class members respond to 10 reading...

The settlement of the colonies in America is the focus of this article. The course of events is divided into topics and time periods, making it easier to understand. Note is made of the effects to the already present Native Americans as...

This student essay discusses the Native Americans of Maryland that helped the colonists settle the land and survive, but were, in turn, run off of the land.

In the summer of 1561, Spanish explorers abducted Opechancanough, a Powhatan Indian youth from the Chesapeake Bay tidewater region and brought him to the royal court of Spain. The kidnapping set off a chain of events that would alter the...

According to this account (elements of which continue to be debated by historians, especially regarding the presence and role of Native Americans), the historic event didn't happen on the fourth Thursday in November, as it does today,...

A brief look at the inability of Native Americans to halt the settlement of their lands by American colonists after the French and Indian War. There is a short description of Chief Pontiac and his alliance of several tribes which fought...

This site discusses the mission movement in California and its effect on the Native Americans. Timeline of the missions' founding is also provided.

An article on the Machiguenga, the native people of the Manu rainforest in Peru. This article talks about their culture, history, and their use of plants and animals.

A variety of paintings and drawings that display European images of their first encounters with the land, plants, animals, and native peoples of the western hemisphere. With questions for discussion.

A series of illustrations and accounts of Spanish conquest of Indians that reflect the fascination with and the brutality directed against native cultures.

Fifty seven primary sources-historical documents, literary texts, and visual images-and one secondary historical account that explore imperial conflict, European economic rivalry, and the impact of colonial rule on native peoples.

From a son of Benjamin Franklin to a Mohawk leader to the governor of Massachusetts, these men chose to side with the British. In a way, the American Revolution was also a civil war. By 1774, American colonists were divided into two...

Essay examining the cultural and environmental changes spanning 300 years in the pre-Revolutionary South as three worlds, Native American, European, and African collide. Site includes guiding questions for student discussion and scholars...

Essay looks at the phenomenon of religious pluralism in the middle colonies. Author discusses religious sects in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, as well as African Americans and Native Americans.

Excerpts from Narratives of New Netherland, 1609-1664, published in 1909, and available for free from Google Books. The first excerpt is from a 1644 account of Henry Hudson's descriptions of the new land he saw on his 1609 voyage. The...

In the middle of the 18th century, a series of evangelical religious revival movements swept across colonial America. Known as the First Great Awakening, the movements were characterized by emotional religious conversions from a state of...

In this lesson, students examine how the annual payment of tribute to the governor by some of Virginia's Indians attest to their continuing presence. This is a tradition that was established in 1646.

Overview and biographical facts on the life of Peter Minuit, the Dutch colonist who bought Manhattan from the Native Americans.