On March 6, 1857, the Supreme Court of the United States issued its infamous Dred Scott decision, which fundamentally denied the legitimacy of Black American citizenship. The coincidence of the date, one day after the anniversary of the Boston Massacre, caught the attention of William Cooper Nell, a free man of color, historian, and influential abolitionist. On March 5, 1858, antislavery activists celebrated Crispus Attucks Day at Faneuil Hall, where Attucks’s body had awaited burial in 1770. Such efforts to commemorate Attucks helped shape the field of African American history. This lesson examines the ways historians, civil rights activists, and cultural institutions renewed the memory of an otherwise enigmatic figure.The Woodson Center's Black History and Excellence curriculum is based on the Woodson Principles and tells the stories of Black Americans whose tenacity and resilience enabled them to overcome adversity and make invaluable contributions to our country. It also teaches character and decision-making skills that equip students to take charge of their futures. These lessons in Black American excellence are free and publicly available for all.

Where are the significant places, regions, and people in the Pacific Northwest?This fourth grade unit for Drumbeats in Time was produced by a team of teachers from Thorp School District, Washington in consultation with members of the Kittitas Band of the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakama Nation

The K-5 Classroom Resource list is intended for use by educators with students. Background texts and resources for professional development are also available. Please contact Social Science Specialist Amit.Koborowski@state.or.us for more information.

Four lesson plans developed by the Coquille Tribe of Oregon for fourth-grade students.
Lessons include:
1) People Groups - This lesson will give students a foundational aware- ness of the Indigenous, sovereign people groups who live in what is now known as Oregon—their history, their culture, and the issues that continue to impact them today. When undertaking the study of Indigenous people, it is important to begin with their long history on the land. Indige- nous people have lived in Oregon for thousands of years, in established communities, with estab- lished social structures, languages, and cultures. They were—and are—deeply and inextricably connected to the land.
2) Sea Otters - In this lesson, students will learn about the import- ant role of the sea otter in the history and tradi- tional life of the Coquille Indian Tribe. They will also learn about the long-term impact the European fur trade had on the population of this magnificent creature and how the sea otter’s virtual extinction damaged the ecosystem of the Oregon Coast. Stu- dents will then learn how to identify and diagram the sea otter’s internal and external structures (i.e., the organization of the inside and outside body parts that form a living thing) and describe how the purpose of these structures supports sea otter survival. Finally, students will create an educational poster or pamphlet that provides an overview of the sea otter and its impact on the traditional life of the Coquille Indian Tribe.
3) History of the Coquille Indian Tribe - This lesson will give students a general knowl- edge of the history, ancestral territory, and traditional lifeways of the Coquille Indian Tribe. Working in groups, students will use maps, make predictions, and participate in a close reading of
a written text that allows them to check their pre- dictions. The text provides other interesting facts about the Tribe, which should provide informa- tion and generate questions that can guide their learning in subsequent lessons about the Coquille Indian Tribe.
4) Coastal Lifeways - The Coquille Indian Tribe flourished on Oregon’s southwestern coast for thousands of years in a homeland encompassing more than a million acres. The Tribe’s ancestral and modern lands of interest include significant portions of Oregon’s Coos, Curry, Douglas, Jackson, Josephine, and Lane counties. The Coquille traditional lifeways are deeply tied to the coastal environment. This lesson provides students with the opportunity to gain specific knowledge about important elements of the Coquille coastal lifeways.

From Communication Apprehension to Relaxation and Emotion: How Including Indian Content in Speeches Facilitates Delivery

This OER will describe the journey of students taking the Public Speaking class at Aaniiih Nakoda College during the 2006-2014 period. In this OER, I share lesson plans as well as best practices learned, and how the inclusion of Indian content helped students to conquer their fear of public speaking and to share their sentiments about topics that mattered to them.

This resource will provide multiple primary source documents of photographs for an initial activity and extension activities as well as secondary source article and teacher resource documents. Students will conduct inquiry into the federal policies of assimilation of Native Americans in the late 1800s and early 1900s and the imipact of these policies on Native American communities, in particular the people of the Wind River Reservation in Wyoming. 

Each spring semester at Montana State University – Northern, a few American Indian students quietly participate in their required Sex Education course. Often reluctant to engage in discussions related to sexual behaviors and diversity, American Indian students may fail to engage in the course. Offering a lesson about two-spirited people early in the sex education course improves instructional conversation and generates course engagement for American Indian students. This proposal serves to further develop the two-spirited people lesson and include a guest presentation from a two-spirit person.

The unit from Central Valley School District in Washington, is focused on the examination of geography in terms of “place.” Students dive into inquiry to answer the compelling question, What is unique about living in Washington? Through this question students will understand where and why people live in Washington State. Students will dive into the regions of Washington State and define it through many characteristics. Students will ultimately choose a region to become an expert on and communicate what makes that region unique. Each student’s performance task product will reflect choice and build upon student strengths according to their skill set.

The attached lesson and supporting essay are a revised draft of a week long activity conducted in the spring of 2022. This lesson was originally created as a follow on to the Smithsonians American Indian Education Boldt Decision lesson for a high school US History class. Here I have rewritten for an 8th grade class as I felt after having completed it that in both rigor and content it was a better fit for an 8th grade class as a means for connecting a process that took place over 150 years ago to a modern issue. It does align with high school geography standards and if its summative activity were modified would fit well under HS.53.

This is a link to the Oregon Department of Education Indian Education Resources web page.
It includes Educator Resources, Student and Parent Resources, and Additional Helpful Links.

The documents and questions may be used for classroom investigation or as a unit assessment. Documents can be distributed and assigned as a jigsaw or as a complete set. Students read the document and apply historical investigation skills. Students should have access to prior learning about the nature of Indian and white settler contact.Updated video link for Broken Treaties

Paul Cuffe was a sea captain, entrepreneur, and philanthropist who lived through the birth and early life of the United States. As a young man, he helped smuggle goods past the British blockade during the Revolutionary War; by the early 1800s, he was perhaps the wealthiest Black man in the young republic, renowned and respected for his business sense and moral character and the first free man of color to visit The White House. An ardent abolitionist, Cuffe used his wealth to build one of the first integrated schools in America and to power his ambitious — and controversial — plans to build a new Black republic in West Africa.The Woodson Center's Black History and Excellence curriculum is based on the Woodson Principles and tells the stories of Black Americans whose tenacity and resilience enabled them to overcome adversity and make invaluable contributions to our country. It also teaches character and decision-making skills that equip students to take charge of their futures. These lessons in Black American excellence are free and publicly available for all.

Seattle Public Schools OER Grant has produced Chinese translations of The State We're In for use in Middle School Mandarin Dual Language Immersion Programs. The State We’re In: Washington is an online and printed educational publication written by Jill Severn for the League of Women Voters of Washington Education Fund. Part of a larger Civic Education Project, this instructional resource establishes the link between public participation and effective government. Colorful graphs, historical photos and thought-provoking illustrations help to describe the basics of government, and the connection between a governing authority and culture and economy. Young readers and adults alike will gain a robust sense of past and present tribal governance and their relationship to state and local government in Washington. 

Contact between Native and non-native people forever changed the landscape of North America. European exploration drove many changes to the Northwest, including trade, exploration.This is the teacher guide companion to The State We're In: Washington (Grade 3-5 Edition) Chapter 2. The resource is designed to engage students with a launch activity, focused notes, and a focused inquiry.

What has been said of Moby-Dick—that it’s the greatest novel no one ever reads—could just as well be said of any number of American “classics” like The Scarlet Letter, Uncle Tom’s Cabin, or The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. This course reconsiders a small number of nineteenth-century American novels by presenting each in a surprising context.

This course considers how the visual and material world of “nature” has been reshaped by industrial practices, ideologies, and institutions, particularly in nineteenth- and twentieth-century America. Topics include land-use patterns; the changing shape of cities and farms; the redesign of water systems; the construction of roads, dams, bridges, irrigation systems; the creation of national parks; ideas about wilderness; and the role of nature in an industrial world. From small farms to suburbia, Walden Pond to Yosemite, we will ask how technological and natural forces have interacted, and whether there is a place for nature in a technological world.
Acknowledgement
This class is based on one originally designed and taught by Prof. Deborah Fitzgerald. Her Fall 2004 version can be viewed by following the link under Archived Courses on the right side of this page.

This course explores contemporary American theatrical expression as it may be organized around issues of gender and cultural identity. This exploration will include the analysis of performances, scripts, and video documentation, as well as the invention of original documents of theatrical expression. Class lectures and discussions will analyze samples of Native American, Chicano, African American, and Asian American theater, taking into consideration the historical and political context for the creation of these works. Performance exercises will help students identify theatrical forms and techniques used by these theaters, and how these techniques contribute to the overall goals of specific theatrical expressions.

According to Professor Amy Sturgis of Lenoir-Rhyne University, the Trail of Tears shouldn’t have happened. In this video, Professor Sturgis explains both the moral and legal arguments used to protest the forced removal of the Cherokee Nation to "Indian Territory" as well as why it’s so important that we remember the Trail of Tears today.

This course focuses on the period between roughly 1550-1850. American ideas of race had taken on a certain shape by the middle of the nineteenth century, consolidated by legislation, economics, and the institution of chattel slavery. But both race and identity meant very different things three hundred years earlier, both in their dictionary definitions and in their social consequences. How did people constitute their identities in early America, and how did they speak about these identities? Texts will include travel writing, captivity narratives, orations, letters, and poems, by Native American, English, Anglo-American, African, and Afro-American writers.