Indian Land Tenure Curriculum > 6-8 Curriculum > Standard 2 > Curriculum Summary

Standard Two Curriculum Summary

Grades: Six through Eight

Standard Two Goal: Students will demonstrate knowledge of key events in American Indian history and how these events relate to the current land tenure of American Indian tribes and individuals.

Rationale: Modern Indian land tenure is a result of centuries-long history between natives and their colonizers. Huge native land losses were a result of warfare, displacement, assimilation, broken treaties, tax lien foreclosures, congressional diminishment, executive orders, forced evictions, illegal settlement by non-natives and illegitimate sales. Furthermore, highly complex relationships between federal government, tribal governments, and state governments have evolved, created by treaties, legislation, executive orders and court decisions. All of this has had an enormous impact on modern Indian land tenure, which cannot be fully understood without an understanding of the history of American Indian colonization. In addition to exploring the history of domestic colonization and subsequent changes in land tenure, principles of European colonization are further explored in relation to indigenous homeland losses in Canada , Australia , New Zealand , Africa and South America.

Lesson 1
Achievement Goal: Study the arrival of Europeans on the North American continent and the period of their early settlement from 1585-1763. Study the European colonization of other areas of the world such as Canada , South America , Australia , New Zealand , and Africa .

When Europeans explored the globe during the “Age of Discovery” and began to colonize the countries they had “discovered” and claimed, they did so for a number of reasons: to spread Christianity, to reap wealth through trade and exploitation of other countries’ peoples and natural resources, to increase geopolitical power over other European countries, and to acquire land. This lesson will introduce students to colonialism and the European nations that began the colonization of the “ New World ”. European colonization was not limited to North America . European states colonized lands and peoples in South America , Africa , Asia , Australia and New Zealand . As in North America , the colonization of these places had an enormous impact on the lives of the peoples indigenous to these areas. This lesson will ask students to research the colonization of indigenous peoples in six other countries: Canada , Brazil , Australia , New Zealand , India , and South Africa . Their research will focus on the indigenous peoples of these areas, the impact colonization had on these peoples, how colonization affected the use and ownership of land in these areas, and the political situation of these native groups today.

Lesson 2: Study the arrival of Europeans on the North American continent and the colonization of the “New World ”.
Achievement Goal: Study and how treaties between the U.S. government and tribal nations were considered nation-to-nation dealings that recognized the sovereignty of Indian tribes.

This lesson also seeks convey to students the complexities of the history between Native Americans and the early US government. This lesson will do so by examining the period of 1763 to 1868, focusing on the origins of modern tribal sovereignty and how treaty-making changed over time.

Lesson 3:
Achievement Goal: Describe the different ways in which European settlers and Native North Americans viewed land and land use.

Due to these vast differences in native and non-Native cultures and conceptions of land, land disputes began almost immediately after non-Natives arrived in North America . This lesson will enable students to explore these conflicts by examining further the differences between native and non-native conceptions of land.

Lesson 4: Develop knowledge of how land “ownership” and native land tenure began to change through the allotment of Indian lands.
Achievement Goal: Learn about and research a tribe’s land tenure history, focusing on the allotment and assimilation era in American Indian federal policy.

Originally, treaties were made to reduce animosities between settler governments and tribes or to establish relations of trade, peace and war, and delimited non-native settlement. Gradually, however, as non-natives became much more numerous and gained military advantages over Indians, treaties became a means by which tribes attempted to retain portions of their original territories or self-governance in the face of an overwhelming number of settlers and soldiers encroaching on their lands. In this lesson, students read portions of and compare treaties. They will also make a treaty of their own with fellow classmates.

Lesson 5:
Achievement Goal: Learn the motivations and beliefs behind the passage of the Dawes Act and the allotment of Indian Lands.

 The lesson teaches students about the idealism and motivation behind the Dawes act and the reaction of Indian peoples to the carving-up of their lands. In doing so, the lesson also teaches students how to think critically and analyze primary resources.