Objectives
In my unit, Agents of Change: How American Indians Helped Change the World in Only Seven Years, I want my students to appreciate Native Americans not as helpless victims anxiously watching from the sidelines but rather as keen pragmatists who placed themselves squarely in the middle of the conflict for control of the North American continent. It is vitally important that they grasp the political and cultural implications resulting from the first major conflict, The Seven Years’ War. Subsequent units such as The March to Civil Rights and Manifest Destiny, will incorporate the voices of the disenfranchised into our national consciousness.
Central to the teaching of these issues will be to incorporate Seixas’ Historical Thinking Concepts3 which include historical significance, cause and consequence, historical perspective, primary sources, continuity and change, and ethical dimensions. Under this umbrella lay the important tenets of agency (the Indians were not passive victims but pragmatic participants, fully at the center of the struggle for control of the continent), and presentism (that historians must not judge events of the past by today’s standards.)
This curriculum unit will enable me to teach seventeenth- and eighteenth-century American Indian history at a much deeper and objective level. It is expected, even hoped for, that students will have to grapple with these issues, for the highest level of mastery comes as a result of the productive struggle, and this is subject matter with which the students will most definitely struggle. By navigating the complexities of relations between Native Americans and European settlers through close readings of particular passages from primary and secondary sources, students will analyze readings both individually and in table groups. They will also consider period paintings such as West’s The Death of General Wolfe to round out their understanding.
By the end of this unit, students will further develop their skills in historical inquiry and expository writing. Perhaps the most beneficial aspect of historical inquiry is that, because they have researched the subject in depth, students will realize that they know more about the topic than most anyone of which they can think. Armed with this assurance, they soon find their voice as they write from that confident, authoritative perspective. (See the Resources for Students and Teacher section for a more complete presentation of the historical inquiry process as well as the unit focus questions associated with this unit, and possibly, subsequent units.)
This unit, Agents of Change: How American Indians Helped Change the World in Only Seven Years, will consider the Seven Years’ War through a new lens, considering the factors affecting colonists and Native Americans that ultimately hampered peaceful cohabitation. By recasting it as a more foundational event, students will come to appreciate that it is more important than the Revolutionary War.
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