The following lesson is designed to help students explore the emergence of the American Indian Movement (c.1968 and beyond) in the context of the push for self-determination by native people, and within the broader movement for Civil Rights in American Society.

This resource would be appropriate for high school students, during a study of the Civil Rights Movement. It provides primary source materials for students to analyze using the APPARTS process.

This aligns to WI AIS Enduring Understanding #9 "American Indians and U.S. Citizenship".

(From the Stanford History Education Website)
In the decades following the Civil War, the US military clashed with Native Americans in the West.  The Battle of Little Bighorn was one of the Native Americans most famous victories. In this lesson, students explore causes of the battle by comparing two primary documents with a textbook account.

Bias is defined as a particular tendency, trend, inclination, feeling, or opinion, especially one that is preconceived or unreasoned. All people have bias in favor of some things and against some things. That is alright as long as it doesn’t lead to prejudice or discrimination against people that have different beliefs. Bias against Native American people in the United States has been a very harmful aspect of our history and has had a negative impact upon Native Americans. This lesson focuses on the concept of bias and helps students to analyze materials to look for examples of bias in today’s world.

When the United States Government’s land grabs put his people in harm’s way, this Menominee leader pushed back and proposed a new plan to protect their homeland and way of life.

Resources available for exploring this story include:
- A short animated video with captions and transcripts in English and Spanish
- A short biography book accessible as a slide deck, with per-page audio for listening along, and maps of key locations in the story
- Questions that can be used for conversation, reflection, and connection with the story
- A historical image gallery full of primary and secondary sources to explore
- A guide for activating the media with learners that includes story stats, extension activity ideas, and standards supported

This story is part of Wisconsin Biographies, a collection of educational media resources for grades 3-6. Explore the full collection at pbswisconsineducation.org/biographies.

First Nations communities are part of the fabric of our state, our country and our world. The contemporary video stories, maps and questions to consider in The Ways can be woven into many experiences you create with students in your learning space. Educator guides for each story offer supplemental essays and Wisconsin state standards alignment.

Guidelines for Choosing Culturally Appropriate Literature About Native American People Mike Mestelle from Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua, WI and Carol Amour from Lac du Flambeau, WI discuss guidelines to help classroom teachers choose literature written by Native American authors or about Native American people that would be appropriate for use in school classrooms. Carol Amour represents the First Nations Traveling Resource Center, she works with the Indian Community School of Milwaukee in Franklin, WI, and has worked with the George W. Brown Museum in Lac du Flambeau, WI.

Students read and listen to biographies. Students will conduct a research project on a biography of their choosing, make a timeline, write a report and use it to create a seven slide presentation in Google Slides about the Native American person of their choosing.

The cultural children's story project allows students to explore Native American culture through a new lens by authoring and illustrating children's stories that teach children between the ages of four and six a lesson or tale unique to Native cultural traditions. The exemplar stories are laminated, bound, and given as gifts to an area elementary school with a primarily Native student body. Student authors read the stories to the children, and the books become part of the children's classroom library. The children learn cultural traditions from a young age and see their mentors (often Native students as well) as role models and writers. The authors learn the skills to develop their stories from conception to publication to presentation.Cultural Children's Story Video Lesson

"This lesson plan will be submitted for inclusion into an on-line database of curricular projects for the NEH program 'Teaching Native American Histories'." The essential questions explored include the following:

- What were the goals of Native American boarding schools?
- How were students at boarding schools separated from their culture?
- What are the most effective means of cultural reclamation?

This lesson focuses on Native doll makers and how their work is keeping old traditions and developing new ones.  Students are encouraged to examine photographs of dolls from the museum's collections and to connect them to the diverse cultures, communities, and environments they represent.

I include this assignment in my 11-12 Grade Native American Literature class. I usually introduce this unit after students have read the short story "This is What it Means to Say Phoenix, Arizona," by Sherman Alexie (Form his book The Lone Ranger and Tonto Fistfight in Heaven). The story (along with pieces of his other short stories) was the inspiration for the 1998 film Smoke Signals, one of the first authentic films to examine the humor, pain, loss and struggle of reservation life.After reading the story and watching the film, students write about what makes the film authentic and how forgiveness plays into the ability to move on.We then watch the documentary film Reel Injun (2009), chronicling the evolution of Native American portrayals in film. Next, students have the opportunity to discuss the attributes of authentic Native American depictions in film and what aspects of Native culture they would like to see in film.Finally, we finish the unit by looking at the impact of stereotypes in film, especially children's films, and students watch the Disney film Pocahantas (2005) through the lens of a movie critic and write a movie review based on the film, focusing on the authenticity of racial and cultural portrayals.Video Lesson: The Evolution of Native American Representations in Film

Native American Literature for High School Grades Mike Mestelle from Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua, WI and Carol Amour from Lac du Flambeau, WI discuss literature written by Native American authors or about Native American people that would be appropriate for use in the high school grade classrooms for grades 9-12. Carol Amour represents the First Nations Traveling Resource Center, she works with the Indian Community School of Milwaukee in Franklin, WI, and has worked with the George W. Brown Museum in Lac du Flambeau, WI.

Native American Literature for Middle School Grades Mike Mestelle from Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua, WI and Carol Amour from Lac du Flambeau, WI discuss literature written by Native American authors or about Native American people that would be appropriate for use in the Middle School grade classrooms for grades 6, 7, and 8. Carol Amour represents the First Nations Traveling Resource Center, she works with the Indian Community School of Milwaukee in Franklin, WI, and has worked with the George W. Brown Museum in Lac du Flambeau, WI.

Native American Literature for Primary Grades

Mike Mestelle from Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua, WI and Carol Amour from Lac du Flambeau, WI discuss literature written by Native American authors or about Native American people that would be appropriate for use in primary grade classrooms. Carol Amour represents the Traveling Resource Center, she works with the Indian Community School of Milwaukee in Franklin, WI, and has worked with the George W. Brown Museum in Lac du Flambeau, WI.

Native American Literature for the Intermediate Grades Mike Mestelle from Lakeland Union High School in Minocqua, WI and Carol Amour from Lac du Flambeau, WI discuss literature written by Native American authors or about Native American people that would be appropriate for use in the intermediate grade classrooms for grades 3, 4, and 5. Carol Amour represents the First Nations Traveling Resource Center, she works with the Indian Community School of Milwaukee in Franklin, WI, and has worked with the George W. Brown Museum in Lac du Flambeau, WI.

Every weekend somewhere in North American, Native Americans are gathering for a Pow Wow.

It’s not very often that students get a chance to see Native American culture up close and personal. Yes, we have the history books and the museums – yet rarely do we get an opportunity to learn and explore the celebration, life, and history of Native American culture live.

Bring Native American culture and history to life through our Pow Wow lesson plans.

The freedom to resist authority and government in the United States has been a very important right throughout our history. Resistance of the government of Great Britain is what founded our country with the signing of the Declaration of Independence and the winning of the Revolutionary War. Native American people have resisted the U.S. government’s attempts to assimilate them into mainstream culture, the termination of reservations, and to exterminate them as a race of people. That isn’t a process that is confined only to history, it still occurs in many instances in today’s world. This lesson is meant to teach students several historical examples of Native American Resistance and then to investigate recent examples on their own through research and presentation.

The Native American Veterans Tribute is a slideshow project in Native American Literature class that corresponds with the Veterans Day Assembly at our high school. Veterans who are invited to the assembly are served breakfast and watch the slideshow in the Commons. Our class slideshow is incorporated into the presentation that day. It allows students to recognize relatives or or other Native military veterans and pay tribute to them.