In the 1870’s, the United States Government began a system of education for Native Americans in the U.S. Richard Pratt, a military veteran of the Civil War, was chosen to lead a school intended to assimilate Native American children into white American culture. Students there would be forced to cut their hair, speak the English language, change their names to Christian names, and change from their traditional religious beliefs to Christianity. Pratt founded the Carlisle Indian School in Carlisle, PA in 1873. The boarding schools would have a profoundly negative impact upon generations of Native Americans and forced many to lose contact with their traditional culture. Several boarding schools were operated in Wisconsin, including one in Lac du Flambeau, WI.

(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.

The National Humanities center presents reading guides with primary source materials for the study of the British Atlantic Colonies 1690-1763: Becoming American. Primary source materials include letters, pamphlets, journals, newspapers, maps, paintings, poems, and more. Resources are divided into the topics: Growth, Peoples, Economies, Ideas, and American.

This module ensures that students read, write, listen and speak to learn the history and contributions of Native Americans in New York State, particularly the Iroquois Confederacy. It focuses on reading and listening to primary and secondary sources to gather specific details and determine central ideas, and to reinforce reading fluency and paragraph writing. Students will read literature to develop an understanding of setting, characterization and theme, and informational writing.

This lesson considers how Europeans interpreted the New World through some of their earliest visual depictions. America in Class Lessons are tailored to meet the Common Core State Standards. The Lessons present challenging primary resources in a classroom-ready format, with background information and analytical strategies that enable teachers and students to subject texts and images to the close reading called for in the Standards.

This lesson considers why many European attempts to establish colonies in the New World failed. America in Class Lessons are tailored to meet the Common Core State Standards. The Lessons present challenging primary resources in a classroom-ready format, with background information and analytical strategies that enable teachers and students to subject texts and images to the close reading called for in the Standards.

The National Humanities center presents reading guides with primary source materials for the study of America in 1870 - 1912: The Gilded and the Gritty. Primary source materials include poems, paintings, essays, stories, articles, speeches, court cases, cartoons, and more. Resources are divided into the topics: Memory, Progress, People, Power, and Empire.

The National Humanities center presents reading guides with primary source materials for the study of America 1789-1820: Living the Revolution. Primary source materials include autobiographies, plays, essays, orations, addresses, political documents, letters, poems, cartoons, and more. Resources are divided into the topics: Predicament, Religion, Politics, Expansion, and Equality.

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.

The National Humanities center presents this collection of essays by leading scholars on the topic ŇNature Transformed: The Environment in American HistoryÓ. The essays are grouped into three categories: Native Americans and the Land; Wilderness and American Identity; and The Use of the Land. Topics include Paleoindians, the origins of the American Wilderness movement, environmental justice, and more.

The Treaty of 1837 signed between the United States Government and the Ojibwe Tribe called for annuity payments to be made at Madeline Island. This video features the movement of the annuity payment location from Madeline Island to Sandy Lake, Minnesota in 1850, the difficult travel of the Ojibwe and the death of 400 tribal members, the trip of Chief Buffalo to Washington, D.C., and the decision to move the payment location back to Madeline Island.

The Treaty of 1837 signed between the United States Government and the Ojibwe Tribe called for annuity payments to be made at Madeline Island. This video features the movement of the annuity payment location from Madeline Island to Sandy Lake, Minnesota in 1850, the difficult travel of the Ojibwe and the death of 400 tribal members, the trip of Chief Buffalo to Washington, D.C., and the decision to move the payment location back to Madeline Island.

This lesson considers why some European attempts to establish colonies in the New World succeeded while most failed. America in Class Lessons are tailored to meet the Common Core State Standards. The Lessons present challenging primary resources in a classroom-ready format, with background information and analytical strategies that enable teachers and students to subject texts and images to the close reading called for in the Standards.

The National Humanities center presents reading guides with primary source materials for the study of America in 1815-1850: The Triumph of Nationalism/The House Dividing. Primary source materials include letters, diaries, journals, poems, paintings, maps, essays, stories, treatises, sermons, addresses, and more. Resources are divided into the topics: Culture of the Common Man, Cult of Domesticity, Religion, Expansion, and America in 1850.