Indian Land Tenure Curriculum > 3-5 Curriculum > Standard 2 > Lesson 5

Achievement Goal: Compare different types of maps and explain how tribes were displaced or had their territories significantly diminished.

Time: Two class periods (or more)

Core: History, Geography

Part of the reason why this happened as non-native settlers moved west across the continent was due to the belief in “Manifest Destiny”. Manifest Destiny was a phrase used by politicians in the 1840s to promote and justify US political expansion and non-native settlement over the continent. The belief was fueled by a conviction that American institutions and culture were superior to native life-ways. The early U.S. government believed that Indians did not make good use of the land, so they should yield to white people who would utilize the land for productive purposes. Believers in Manifest Destiny were convinced that Americans had a God-given right to expand into Indian Country.

While “Manifest Destiny” may be too difficult for children to understand, it is important for them to know the difficulties their ancestors braved when Indian Country began shrinking drastically due to the US westward expansion. The study of Indian displacement and land loss will help the students understand the effects of this period of history when forced relocation, broken treaties and the taking of Indian lands were common events.

Preparation:

• Examine Imre Sutton’s map “Tribal Territory & Reservations” appended to the end of this lesson. If possible, project this map onto a wall or replicate it on a larger poster board.
• Print out copies of the map showing present-day Indian reservations from Infoplease.com, http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0778676.html. (Right click on the map, select copy, and place into a Word document. Expand the map so that it fills the page as much as possible.)
• Print out copies of the map at The Bear’s Byte, http://www.thebearbyte.com/Maps/NativeAmericanLandsMaps/NATribFrontJPG.html , showing the presence of major US tribes prior to displacement and removal. Or, have this map made into a transparency you can project onto a wall, or transfer it to a large poster board.

Student Activity:

• Using Imre Sutton’s map “Tribal Territory & Resources”, explain to the children the difference between aboriginal territories and reservations. Point out that reservations were significantly smaller than reservations and sometimes, as in the case of the Cherokee pictured in the map, the reservations were not located in the tribal territory.
• Pass out copies of the Infoplease.com maps of modern reservations. Let the children select 7 colored pencils, crayons, or markers to use in modifying their map.
• List the following geographical regions and tribes on the board and pronounce them for the class:
  • Northeast – Oneida
  • Southeast – Seminole
  • Plains – Pawnee
  • Southern Plains – Comanche
  • Northwest – Nez Perce
  • Rocky Mountains – Cheyenne , Arapahoe
• Have the children assign one color for each tribe, except for the Cheyenne and Arapahoe. Explain that these are two different tribes, but in this exercise they are going to share a single color.
• Begin going through the list of the tribes on the board, asking the students to find the tribe’s modern community area or reservation on the map, one tribe at a time. Once they find the area or reservation, have the children mark that area with the color they chose to represent the tribe. During this exercise, point out Oklahoma and the insert that shows the area in greater detail. Remind students they should look there as well. As you go through the list, give the children helpful hints, such as: the Oneida have two reservations in two different states (NY and WI); that the Seminoles are also located in two states (OK and FL) and the names of some of their reservations are Brighton, Hollywood, and Big Cypress; and the Cheyenne and Arapahoe share a reservation called Wind River (located in WY).
• Once these modern tribal communities and reservations have been found, project the transparency of the Bear Byte.com map or pass out copies of the map. Go through the list of tribes again with the students, asking them to find out where the tribe was originally located before the treaties were made.
• Using the information from the Bear Byte.com map, have the children draw oval, circle, or other shapes on their modern reservation map to represent the original homelands of the tribes on the list. Remind them that they should keep the colors they chose to represent the tribes consistent.
• Once all the tribes original homelands are pictured on the modern reservation map, have the students draw arrows from the original homelands to the modern tribal community areas or reservations.
• Discuss how the tribes had homeland territories but many tribes were removed from their homelands. Broken treaties resulted in loss of land and many tribes were confined to reservation boundaries.

Evaluation:

• Review the maps the students drew and the paths of the seven tribes from their original homelands to their current homelands.

Resources:

• Sutton, Imre. Tribal Territory and Reservations [map]. In: Imre Sutton. Indian Land Tenure. 2 nd Edition. New York: Clearwater Publishing Company, 1979, 33. Also found at: http://thorpe.ou.edu/treatises/AITchptr%20pdfs/native%20geography.pdf (page 4)
• Infoplease.com
• The Bear’s Byte.com.