Developed in collaboration with the Smithsonian Center for Education and Museum Studies, this lesson plan presents the firsthand perspectives of five Native American doll makers from around the United States. Students examine full–color images of dolls from the museum's collection in order to learn more about the diverse cultures, communities, and environments the dolls represent.

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.

A study of contemporary North American theater movements and selected individual works that are organized around issues of ethnic and socio-cultural identity. Class lectures and discussions analyze samples of African-American, Chicano, Asian-American, Puerto Rican and Native American theater taking into consideration their historical and political context. Performance exercises help students identify the theatrical context and theatrical forms and techniques used by these theaters.

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.

The Wind River Reservation contains some of the most unique features in Wyoming. Visitors to the reservation usually tour burial sights of Chief Washakie and Sacagawea. However, the significant contributions of these historical figures are sometimes overlooked.

In the accompanying lessons plans (found in the Support Materials), contributions of Washakie and Sacajawea will be highlighted, and stress the importance of teaching and learning about the unique history, culture, and contemporary contributions of Wyoming’s tribes on the Wind River Reservation in a culturally responsive manner.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES:

Students will identify leadership traits.
Students will obtain an understanding of the purpose behind learning about the Arpahoho and Shoshone people.
Students will analyze how people create and change structures of power, authority, and governance to understand the continuing evolution of governments and to demonstatre civic responsibility.

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.