Native America: Understanding the Past through Things

Lesson Plans

Lesson Plan One: American Progress

Objectives:

• Students will analyze the effects of territorial expansion (NCSCOS 2.01).
• Students will trace patterns of westward migration.
• Students will identify push-pull westward migration factors.
• Students will describe the concept of Manifest Destiny.

Materials

Projectable image of John Gast's "American Progress." Make this as large as possible

Warm-up

Have students discuss what it is like to move to a new town or how they feel when a new family moves in the neighborhood.

Steps

1. After warm-up, project image.
2. Ask spiraling questions.
   Samples: What do you see in this painting? What kinds of people do you see? What types of transportation exist? Where is this suppose to be? Provide evidence. What is this suppose to depict? Provide evidence. Is this a realistic scene? Provide evidence. What represents progress in the image? Provide evidence. What is an allegory? Who is the woman suppose to represent? Explain your answer. Why is the light different on the sides of the painting. Explain your answer. What would you name this painting? Why?
3. Act-It Out.
   Select four students to pose in the painting. Interview them. For settlers ask about their motives in moving west and expectations. For Native Americans ask about their feelings and why they are fleeing instead of fighting.
4. Explanation.
   Define Manifest Destiny. Discuss different elements of the image as it relates to Manifest Destiny. Stress the Euro-American view of progress in relation to the scene.

Wrap-up.

The students will create a visual metaphor. The prompts for the metaphor are: "From the perspective of Euro-Americans, Manifest Destiny is like. . .;" and "From the perspective of Native Americans, Manifest Destiny is like. . ."

Lesson Plan Two: Pigeon Egg and Treaties

Objectives:

• Students will evaluate the impact that settlement in the West had upon different groups of people and the environment. (NCSCOS 4.02)
• Students will describe the impact of U.S. government policy had upon Native Americans.
• Students will practice negotiation skills.

Materials

"Pigeon's Egg Head (The Light) Going and Returning from Washington"

Outline map of an area. (I use North Carolina and would suggest using an area local to the students.)

Warm-up

Students will list types of advertisements that use before and after shots. Discuss if this is a good advertising technique and why. Discuss the positive and negative impacts of these techniques.

Steps

1. Project the image as large as possible.
2. Have the students analyze the painting using PERSIA. Discuss the lists.
3. Use the Venn Diagram to compare and contrast the two versions of Pigeon Egg Head. Discuss what might have caused him to change, and how his tribe might have reacted to the change.
4. Explain U.S. government treaty policy with various Indian nations. Discuss Supreme Court cases in relation to this. Tell the story of Pigeon Egg Head after his visit to Washington, DC.
5. Divide the class into four groups. Two groups will represent the U.S. Government. One group will represent Native Americans who have not been to Washington, DC; and the last group will represent Native Americans who have been to Washington, DC. If the class is large, you may want to have six or even eight groups.

Allow the groups time to with the outline maps. The Native Americans must decide what they want from a treaty, and so does the U.S. Government. The groups must take into account their history, who they represent and natural resources.

Pair a Native American group with a government group. The groups must negotiate a treaty. The treaty is to be written and signed by the participants.

Present treaties to the class. Discuss similarities and differences in the treaties and how the terms were reached.

Wrap-up.

Students will write a letter to the editor of the local paper explaining how the U.S. Government has the best interests of the Native American in mind when they negotiated treaties. They need to have three supporting reasons for this position and reference two historical figures of the nineteenth century—one Euro-American and one Native American.