Westward Expansion

This picture is of our first GeoCivics Cohort and mentors at Northeastern University, in Tahlequah, Oklahoma. This first Academy explored the Westward Expansion through the lens of Indigenous peoples. The statue is of Sequoyah, a polymath of the Cherokee Nation who created the Cherokee syllabary. The statue is located on the Northeastern University campus in Tahlequah, OK. The Cohort included teachers from Florida, Michigan, Virginia, Puerto Rico, New Mexico, Oklahoma, and Arizona.

Westward Expansion through the lens of the Indigenous People

K-12 5E Lessons created by Teachers for Teachers!

The following lessons were written by our first GeoCivics Academy participants in 2022. Lessons are based on the Academy place-based experiences of Westward Expansion through the lens of indigenous people. Through an exploration of important historical sites and museums, and meetings with content experts, and leaders and members from various indigenous nations, teachers deepened and broadened their knowledge of Western Expansion through the lens of indigenous peoples.

You can be a water protector too!
Author: Ashley Alarcon, Grade 4

This lesson focuses on water usage and preservation while exploring cultural differences between the Indigenous perspectives and today’s mainstream cultural perspective on water. This 5E lesson tells the story of how Indigenous people utilized water as well as the land for many things they needed to survive without necessarily changing it. During westward expansion, the treatment of land and water changed dramatically. However, the Indigenous perspective on natural resources has always stayed the same; we see the land as a relative and water as life.

5E Lesson
Vocabulary Presentation (PPT)
Worksheets & Assessments

Native American Boarding Schools in the US
Author: Melissa Mercado, Grade 5

The purpose of this 5E lesson is to help students understand the impacts of Native American Boarding Schools on Native American tribes’ cultures and languages, through maps, first person accounts, and examining intergenerational trauma from different Indigenous and Native American peoples. This lesson will also identify how a tribe is reclaiming and sustaining their culture through language revitalization.

This Land, Our Land
Author: Nedre White, Grade 2

Students will gain an understanding about what happened to Indigenous People and how they were removed from their lands as a result of Westward Expansion. They will learn how the land where they are now once belonged to Indigenous People and will learn how to develop a land acknowledgment to show honor and respect for Indigenous People and their lands.

Additional Teaching Resources

Teacher's Guides and Analysis Tool - Library of Congress
Frontier Museum Virtual Field Trip. Visit the museum from the classroom and explore life in the old world.
Library of Congress. Firsthand accounts from Americans as they traveled west from 1750 to 1920. Great for providing primary sources to students!
National Park Service. A resource article titled, The Expedition’s Impact on Indigenous Americans.
National Gallery of Art. A resource that looks into the role that artists played when it came to shaping the publics’ understanding of the western part of the United States.
PBS Interactive Westward Expansion map. A resource that allows you to view native tribes, geologic features, and precipitation from 1790 to 1850.
History Channel. A resource with various articles on the western Expansion from different perspectives.
National Archives. Primary resources for teaching Westward Expansion.
National Geographic Western map. Maps, articles, and encyclopedic entries for all grade levels!
PBS Interactive Westward Expansion map. A resource that allows you to view native tribes, geologic features, and precipitation from 1860 to 1890.
Library of Congress. Student discovery set of free eBooks on the Industrial Revolution.
National Gallery of Art. A classroom activity focusing on the multiple viewpoints of the Industrial Revolution.
The Ohio State University, History Teaching Institute. Classroom activities on teaching the Industrial Revolution.
C3 Teachers. A high school level lesson on Industrialization.
PBS Learning Media. Teaching instruction, activities, and videos for 3rd -12th grade.
Cherokee Phoenix and Indian’s Advocate Newspaper 1800s.Primary sources resource of newspaper articles from the 1830s.
Sequoyah Research Center, American Native Press Archives. A primary source that shares accounts of families and family members who either experienced the Trail of Tears or are passing on the stories from their elders.
Native American Rights Fund. “Since 1970, the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) has provided legal assistance to Indian tribes, organizations, and individuals nationwide who might otherwise have gone without adequate representation.”
Library of Congress. A resource that provides additional information on Native American Boarding Schools.
Bureau of Indian Affairs. An interactive map that displays the land areas of Federally-Recognized Tribes.
How to Address Native American Issues as a Non-Native: A Resource for Allies.

Rules of Acknowledgement: Criteria Used by the Federal Government to Recognize Indigenous Tribes
Author: Pedro DeJesus, Grade 12

In this lesson students will learn how today the Federal Government requires indigenous groups to meet certain set of criteria in order to be recognized by the government as an indigenous group. Through research students will learn about the Tainos tribe and determine whether they meet the criteria and should be recognized by the Federal Government as an indigenous group.