Teaching Resources

American Indian History

Over the past fifteen years, the Gilder Lehrman Institute has worked closely with master educators across the country. Many of them have developed unique lesson plans and activities related to this historical era. These resources are included here along with pedagogical videos and other general teaching tools that can be adapted for a variety of time periods and themes in American history.

The Indians' New World: Catawbas and Their Neighbors from European Contact Through the Era of Removal

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

1607: A New Look at Jamestown

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

A map of the Louisiana Territory, 1814

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8

Ancient Maya Civilization

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Andrew Jackson to the Cherokee Tribe, 1835

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Andrew Jackson’s Message to Congress Concerning the Indian Removal Act of 1830: A Common Core Unit

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Bartolomé de Las Casas debates the subjugation of the Indians, 1550

Curriculum Subjects: Art Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Building Mount Rushmore, 1926

Curriculum Subjects: Art Grade Levels:

Cahokia: Ancient America's Great City on the Mississippi

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Colonial Traveler: A Critical Edition of Two Voyages to New-England

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Columbus reports on his first voyage, 1493

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, World History Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Conflict and Captivity in the Colonies

Curriculum Subjects: Literature Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8

Creatures of Empire: How Domestic Animals Transformed Early America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Cultural Encounters: Teaching Exploration and Encounter to Students

Curriculum Subjects: Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, World History Grade Levels: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Cultures of the Americas, 1200 BC–AD 1600

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Davy Crockett on the removal of the Cherokees, 1834

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

De Soto’s discovery of the Mississippi, 1541

Curriculum Subjects: Art, Geography, World History Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Deadly Medicine: Indians and Alcohol in Early America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Democracy in Early America: Servitude and the Treatment of Native Americans and Africans prior to 1740

Curriculum Subjects: World History Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Differing Views of Pilgrims and Native Americans in Seventeenth-Century New England

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5

Early American Indian Tribes

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Early Contacts: Native American and European Women in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Early Encounters between Native Americans and Europeans

Curriculum Subjects: Art Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Early Latin America: A History of Colonial Spanish America and Brazil

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Essential Questions in Teaching American History

Curriculum Subjects: Art, Economics, Foreign Languages, Geography, Government and Civics, Literature, Religion and Philosophy, Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, World History Grade Levels: K, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Events at Sand Creek, 1864

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Everyday Life in Early America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Expansion and American Indian Policy, 1783-1812

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Exploration and Conquest: The Americas After Columbus: 1500-1620

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

First Generations: Women in Colonial America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

First Generations: Women in Colonial America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Florida 1513-1821

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Foundations of the Portuguese Empire, 1415–1580

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

From Coastal Wilderness to Fruited Plain: A History of Environmental Change in Temperate North America, 1500 to the Present

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Go West ... and grow up with the country

Curriculum Subjects: Geography Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Guided Readings: Indian Removal

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Historic Jamestowne

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Indian Policy

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, Government and Civics, Religion and Philosophy Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Indian Wars: The Battle of Washita, 1868

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Jamestown Settlement & Yorktown Victory Center

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

John Winthrop describes life in Boston, 1634

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

June 25, 1876: An Interpretation of an Historical Event

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8

Landing of Columbus, 1492

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, World History Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Landing of Henrick Hudson, 1609

Curriculum Subjects: Geography Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Letter from Christopher Columbus: A Common Core Unit

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, World History Grade Levels: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12

Lewis and Clark among the Indians

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Manifest Destiny: American Expansionism and the Empire of Right

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Map of the New World, with European settlements and American Indian tribes, 1730

Curriculum Subjects: Geography Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Native American Housing

Curriculum Subjects: Geography Grade Levels: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8

Native American Policy

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10

Native Carolinians: The Indians of North Carolina

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Natives and Newcomers: The Cultural Origins of North America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

New Amsterdam: The Center of the Dutch Settlement

Curriculum Subjects: Geography Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

New Worlds for All: Indians, Europeans, and the Remaking of Early America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Nineteenth-Century Native American Viewpoints

Curriculum Subjects: Geography Grade Levels: 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Perspectives on the Trail of Tears

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Prehistory of the Americas

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Proclamation of 1763

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Secotan, an Algonquian village, ca. 1585

Curriculum Subjects: Art Grade Levels: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Slavery and the Law in Seventeenth-Century Virginia

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12

Struggle for a Continent: The French and Indian Wars: 1689-1763

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

Study Aid: Great Society Legislation

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

Subject Matter: Technology, the Body, and Science on the Anglo-American Frontier, 1500–1676.

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American Communities

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Cherokee Nation

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Cherokees

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Columbian Exchange: Biological and Cultural Consequences of 1492

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Conquest of Mexico: Past and Present Views

Curriculum Subjects: World History Grade Levels: 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The Doctrine of Discovery, 1493

Curriculum Subjects: Geography, Religion and Philosophy, World History Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The European Discovery of America

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The First Thanksgiving Celebration

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: K, 1, 2, 3, 4

The Great Journey: The Peopling of Ancient America

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The Innu Nation

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The Louisiana Purchase and Its Aftermath

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The Massacre of American Indian allies, 1818

Curriculum Subjects: Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The New Americans: Colonial Times: 1620-1689

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

The Province of Massachusetts Bay requests aid from Queen Anne, 1708

Curriculum Subjects: Economics, Government and Civics Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

The Trail of Tears

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 5, 6, 7, 8

This Affair of Louisiana

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels:

William T. Sherman on the western railroads, 1878

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: 9, 10, 11, 12, 13+

“It’s Your Misfortune and None of My Own”: A New History of the American West

Curriculum Subjects: Grade Levels: