Open Resource
American Indian Removal: What Does It Mean to Remove a People?
This online resource provides perspectives from Native community members, documents, maps, and images to understand the history and impacts of the Indian Removal Act. How does the history of American Indian removal remain a notable lesson in understanding the importance of human rights and the consequences of certain policies and actions taken by nations?
Includes the video: American Indian Removal: Does It Make Sense?
How to Use
This resource utilizes the Inquiry Design Model (IDM) for a student-centered inquiry-based approach to teaching and learning. In addressing the compelling question, What does it mean to remove a people?, students work through a series of supporting questions, formative performance tasks, and featured sources to construct an argument supported by evidence.
While this resource is designed to be a cohesive inquiry, teachers may opt to utilize the supporting questions and tasks in ways that best fit the needs of their students and/or time constraints.
For teaching instructions:
In this Resource
- Staging the Question: Removal: Does It Make Sense?
- Video: American Indian Removal: Does It Make Sense?
- Supporting Question One: What was the Muscogee Nation’s Experience with Removal?
- Supporting Question Two: How Did the Cherokee Nation Resist Removal?
- Supporting Question Three: How Did Six Different Native Nations Try to Avoid Removal?
- Case Studies: Potawatomi Nation, Cherokee Nation, Seminole Nation, Kickapoo Nation, Shawnee Nation, Eastern Cherokee Nation
- Summative Task: Reflecting on Removal
- Contemporary Connection: What Does “Removal” Look Like Today?
Resources from the National Museum of American Indian
Consider these online resources from the National Museum of the American Indian to enrich your learning experience around this topic:
For related teaching resources, explore these Native Knowledge 360° Resources.
For Classroom Use
Type: Online Resource
Format: Inquiry Design Model (IDM)
Grade: 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12
Subject: History/Social Studies
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