Website
Curated OER

National Park Service: Stories of the Westward Expansion: Exodus to Freedom

For Students 9th - 10th
Contains an article written on the African American exodus to Kansas to farm in the late 19th century.
Website
Other

Western History Genealogy: Digital Images: Native American Women

For Students 9th - 10th
A picture gallery with information about the roles that Native American women played in everyday life in the late 19th century in the West.
Handout
PBS

Pbs: American Experience: The Orphan Trains

For Students 9th - 10th
A site telling of the trains during the late 1800s that took orphans and unwanted children from the cities and transported them to the West to work on farms and hopefully be adopted.
Unit Plan
PBS

Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of Us: Whose Land Is This? Webisode 8

For Students 9th - 10th
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.
Lesson Plan
Library of Congress

Loc: Primary Source Set: Westward Expansion Teacher's Guide [Pdf]

For Teachers 9th - 10th
As the United States expanded westward, many cultural groups came into contact with one another, such as Native American tribes, Chinese, and various Europeans. For this set of exercises, students use primary source documents to explore...
Handout
Utah Education Network

Uen: Utah History Encyclopedia: Outlaws in Utah

For Students 9th - 10th
This site discusses the cultural icon of the western "outlaw" in the context of the state of Utah.
Website
Curated OER

National Park Service: Homestead National Monument: Exodusters

For Students 9th - 10th
Read about the reasons for the extensive black migration to Kansas, especially in the 1870s. These emigrants were called Exodusters. From the National Park Service.
Handout
Other

Women in History: Mary Fields

For Students 3rd - 8th
This site contains facts about the life of Stagecoach Mary Fields (1832-1913).
Handout
Oklahoma State University

Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture: All Black Towns

For Students 9th - 10th
Read about the all-black towns that were settled in Oklahoma Territory and Indian Territory in the mid-19th century.
Lesson Plan
US National Archives

Docsteach: Reasons for Westward Expansion

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Students will examine a variety of documents that reference reasons why Americans living in the East migrated west of the Mississippi immediately before, during, and right after the Civil War. Documents cover the mining industry, new...
Handout
Legends of America

Legends of Kansas: Exodusters of Kansas

For Students 9th - 10th
A look at the exodusters and the reasons the blacks left the South and migrated to Kansas after the Civil War.
Graphic
Curated OER

Etc: American Rev War Operations in the West, 1775 1782

For Students 9th - 10th
A map of the Northwest Territory between the Allegheny Mountains and the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes to the Tennessee River showing the military operations and extent of settlement in the area during the American Revolutionary...
Website
Library of Congress

Loc: National Expansion and Reform 1815 1880

For Students 9th - 10th
Follow the territorial and westward expansion of the newly formed United States. Learn about the thriving slave trade of that era and the spread of reform efforts across the country.
Primary
Yale University

Yale Law School: Proclamation of 1763 by King George Iii

For Students 9th - 10th
Primary text of the Proclamation of 1763 ordered by King George III. The colonists' main objection was to a reserved area west of the Appalachian Mountains. American colonists were forbidden to settle in this area, and many colonies...
Website
Curated OER

National Park Service: Nicodemus National Historic Site

For Students 9th - 10th
This site from the National Park Service provides the history of Nidodemus, Kansas, first western town planned by and for African-Americans. Settled by exodusters, the town served as a symbol as a land of opportunity for blacks escaping...
Graphic
Curated OER

Owen Wister

For Students 9th - 10th
Three chapters from Owen Wister's fiction, The Virginian, that establish the protagonist as a representative American hero in the newly settled West.
Graphic
Curated OER

Educational Technology Clearinghouse: Maps Etc: Utah, 1898

For Students 9th - 10th
A map from 1898 of Utah showing the capital at Salt Lake City, principal cities and towns, railroads, mountains, lakes, rivers, and the Great American Desert to the west of Salt Lake. "Settled 1848 at Salt Lake by Mormons from Illinois,...