In 1862, Congress passed and President Lincoln signed the Pacific Railroad Bill, which granted public land and funds to build a transcontinental railroad. The Central Pacific Railroad would lay tracks from California heading east, and the Union Pacific Railroad would lay tracks from the Missouri River west. The photograph taken in Placer County, "Grading the Central Pacific Railroad," shows some of the construction. Work on the railroad was physically difficult and at times dangerous, and attracting workers was a challenge. The majority of the Central Pacific's laborers were Chinese. A Chinese worker is shown in the image "Heading (top cut) of East Portal, Tunnel No. 8." Both railroad companies actively recruited Chinese laborers because they were regarded as hard workers and were willing to accept a lower wage than white workers, mostly Irish immigrants. As construction progressed, the Central Pacific and the Union Pacific competed to see which could lay the most track each day. A photograph of a sign near Promontory Park, Utah, commemorates the day that Central Pacific crews laid an unprecedented 10 miles of track. The meeting of the two sets of tracks ? the "gold spike" ceremony ? took place on May 10, 1869. Several photographs and drawings depict this historic moment. Now the country was connected as never before: a journey between San Francisco and New York that previously took up to six months now took only days. The photograph "High Bridge in Loop," from Views from a Trip to California, shows a train passing quickly through a mountain pass. The transcontinental railroad allowed people to travel more, farther, and in pleasant conditions, as reflected in the photograph "Commissary Car, 'Elkhorn Club.'" The photograph "Knights of Pythias at the Santa Fe Railway Station, Anaheim" shows an example of the popularity of trains. Even as the transcontinental railroad brought the new country together, it brought change to the world of Native Americans. The tracks ran through a number of tribal territories, bringing into conflict cultures that held very different views of the land and how it might be used and lived on. The painting The First Train, by Herbert Schuyler, depicts three Indians pointing past their encampment at a train in the far distance. The railroad also brought an increasing number of European Americans west. One consequence of this influx was the depletion of the buffalo herds, a major food source for Plains Indians. European Americans would often shoot buffalo for sport from the train; by 1880, the buffalo were mostly gone and Plains Indians had been gathered onto reservations. Millions of acres of open grassland were being settled by the people moving west. Eventually, much of this land became the farmland that fed a growing nation. The transcontinental railroad opened up the West to the rest of the country, even if they never made the trip themselves. A Currier & Ives hand-colored lithograph depicts a train running along the Truckee River in Northern California. The San Francisco publishing firm of Lawrence & Houseworth hired photographers and published photographic tourist catalogs containing views of the West, which they sold commercially. The railroad took hold in popular culture, as shown by sheet music for the song "New Express Galop [sic]." There was even a railroad board game illustrating "Railroads Between New York and San Francisco, California, with Scenes on the Way."

The corrupting influence of slavery on marriage and the family is a predominant theme in Solomon Northup's narrative Twelve Years a Slave. In this lesson, students are asked to identify and analyze narrative passages that provide evidence for how slavery undermined and perverted these social institutions. Northup collaborated with a white ghostwriter, David Wilson. Students will read the preface and identify and analyze statements Wilson makes to prove the narrative is true.

Learn how and when the Eastern Shoshone came to Wyoming, what are the Shoshone values, and what are the people of the Eastern Shoshone like? In the accompanying lessons plans (found in the Support Materials), students will gain an understanding of the Fort Bridger Treaty of 1868 including its importance to the state of Wyoming and the Eastern Shoshone Tribe in 1868 and today. The American Bison, or Buffalo as preferred by most tribes, has a significant existence among the Native American people. For thousands of years, the great American Buffalo roamed the Great Plains, migrating from north to south, searching for areas on which to thrive. The Shoshone people depended on the buffalo for many things that included food, clothing, and shelter. Every part of the buffalo was used and provided for the people.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will study (Highlight, paraphrase and report) the Treaty of 1868 between the Eastern Shoshone Tribe and the United States Government.
Students will learn about the Eastern Shoshone people through the use of research and technology.
Students will understand that the history of the Shoshone people in the Wind River Mountains dates back thousands of years.
Students will understand that the circle of life continues in a perpetual cycle and is passed on through oral tradition. These stories often taught a lesson to young people.
Students will understand the indigenous perspective of interconnectedness. Students will understand how bison populations were devastated by western expansion.
Students will learn how to construct, read, compare and analyze different population graphs.
Students will understand how the diets of the Shoshone people varied depending on the areas in which they lived.
Students will acquire knowledge of the Wind River Reservation communities and be able to identify these locations on a map.
Students will be able to further describe how their culture has shaped them.
Students will be able to define the concept of culture.
Students will be able to explain some of the attributes of culture.

Students will gain an understanding of the Northern Arapaho people located on the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. In the accompanying lessons plans (found in the Support Materials), students will learn how the Northern Arapaho come to Wyoming, what are the Arapaho values, and why were Arapaho tribal names changed?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will be able to evaluate what geographical places were used by the Arapaho people and understand how historical events changed the future for the Arapaho people.
Students will compare and contrast between their social and ceremonial structures.
Students will understand the hierarchy of the Arapaho Tribe.
Students will analyze how their social and ceremonial structures contribute to their cultural identity.

Learn about the treaty that estbalished the Wind River Reservation and the two tribes that inhabit it, the Northern Arapaho and Eastern Shoshone.

In the accompanying lesson plans (found in the Support Materials), students will watch a video about the Wind River Reservation and learn how the reservation came to exist, How the two tribes, the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho, come to share the reservation, and what are the people on the reservation like?

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will demonstrate an understanding about the 1868 Fort Bridger Treaty.
Students will create a map of the sacred sites fo the Shoshone and Araphaho Tribes.
Students will analyze the different pre and post reservation events for the Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho tribes and evaluate why it is important for Wyoming state citizens to learn the history of the people of the Wind River Reservation
Students will gain an understanding of three spiritual sites in Wyoming.