Debating for Land

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...

How do you rebuild a language that has been banned for years? A short video introduces high schoolers to Marie Wilcox, A Wukchumni Native American from Central California who, for over 20 years, worked on comprising a dictionary of the...

Although Westward Expansion is often romanticized, its impact was devastating on Native American communities. Primary source documents, including pictures of United States troops invading indigenous lands and Native American tribes, tell...

High schoolers examine federal policies regarding Native Americans. In this Native American assimilation and removal policies lesson, students conduct research to compare the changes in federal policy regarding Native Americans between...

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....

Students analyze the different roles assumed by various Native American tribes during the American Revolution. They examine the issues involved for Native Americans in choosing the British or the American side of the conflict, such as...

After invading the land long lived on by the Native Americans, the United States government only gave them the right to citizenship in 1924 as detailed here.

Andrew Boxer traces the origins of a historical issue still as controversial and relevant today as in past centuries. At the start of the twentieth century there were approximately 250,000 Native Americans in the USA - just 0.3 per cent...

Before Christopher Columbus came to America, the expansive territory was inhabited by Native Americans. Throughout the 16th and 17th centuries, as more explorers sought to colonize their land, Native Americans responded in various...

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...