Objectives
“Everyone now judges the westward removal of eastern Indians as one of the great injustices in United States history.”3
Through engagement with this curriculum unit, the students will fulfill several learning objectives. The curriculum unit is to be integrated within the 8th grade Civics and Economics course, as provided by the Virginia Department of Education. Likewise, the unit will have heavy influences from English, media, and technology.
Students will think critically about the continuing impact of US Supreme Court decisions, specifically upon present day American Indians. Not only will my students be introduced to American Indians as a contemporary people, but students will analyze the hypocrisy of fundamental political principles as applied to American Indians. The unit will also be designed to introduce the Constitution as the composite of fundamental political principles, but also the product of human beings with biases. Students will reconcile the concept of American Indian nations as “domestic, dependent nations.”
Ultimately, students will investigate and analyze the manner in which American Indians are governed to determine whether this minority group’s rights were and are currently protected under the Constitution. Students will analyze in-depth whether or not the system of checks and balances set up by the US Constitution, given President Jackson’s abuse of power, is effective and sustainable. Students will be charged with speaking out and engaging in civil action to fight injustice. Students will question whether the actual document of the Constitution is the source of injustice or whether it is the people who are carrying it out that are the problem. Finally, students will be able to answer the following questions: 1) What are the constitutional origins of Federal Indian law and policy? 2) How did Andrew Jackson’s Indian Removal Act and Marshall’s Indian Law Trilogy landmark cases shape Indian Land law? 3) If recognized as distinct according to the Constitution and by Marshall, how does the United States’ presently deal with Indian Nations? The students will write a culminating essay answering the questions of “Are the fundamental political principles, on which our Constitution was founded, afforded to American Indians in the United States? Why or why not? What does it for further American Indian/US relations? Create possible legislative solutions that could help solve our broken relationship?”
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