Trails of Understanding: The Earliest Immigrants

Introduce middle schoolers to Poet Laureate Joy Harjo with a lesson that not only explains the role and duties of the Poet Laureate but also contains a video in which Harjo explains what she sees as her responsibility as a Native...

Pastoralists and agrarians, livestock raisers and farmers. Using the conflict in Darfur as a lens, class members investigate the conflicts that arise when these groups are forced to migrate from one area to another.

Native Americans lost so much—and gained so little in return. Scholars explore Native Americans' resistance to the United States government. The lesson uses primary sources to explore the different forms of protest and gives a voice to...

What was America like in the year 1492? Discover and share basic information regarding the various Native American tribes during this time period. Several tribes are clustered by region and described by their economies and lifestyles....

Students explore what they thought they knew about "Indians." They examine the Hopi, Abeneki and Kwatiutl tribes in a game-like activity using archival documents.

Young citizens consider the American civil rights movement as part of the global struggle for human rights. After using a timeline activity to learn about the major events in the civil rights movement, class members study...

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....

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...

Middle schoolers examine how American Indians are represented in today's society. They read stories, analyze maps, and complete a chart and create an illustration about a specific tribe.

Where do anti-immigrants myths come from, and how can they be refuted? Learners critically analyze media reports and how to identify reliable sources. After studying a timeline that details the history of US nativism, groups research the...