Northern Plains History and Cultures: How Do Native People and Nations Experience Belonging?
This online lesson provides perspectives from Native American community members, images, objects, and other sources to help students and teachers think about the significance that homelands, kinship systems, and nationhood hold for Native Peoples of the Northern Plains. Explore four case studies to learn more about the relationships that help to create a sense of belonging.
Resource Information
1: American Indian Cultures
Key Concept: There is no single American Indian culture or language.
Key Concept: For millennia, American Indians have shaped and been shaped by their culture and environment. Elders in each generation teach the next generation their values, traditions, and beliefs through their own tribal languages, social practices, arts, music, ceremonies, and customs.
Key Concept: Kinship and extended family relationships have always been and continue to be essential in the shaping of American Indian cultures.
3: Peoples, Places, and Environments
Key Concept: The story of American Indians in the Western Hemisphere is intricately intertwined with places and environments. Native knowledge systems resulted from long-term occupation of tribal homelands, and observation and interaction with places. American Indians understood and valued the relationship between local environments and cultural traditions, and recognized that human beings are part of the environment.
5: Individuals, Groups, and Institutions
Key Concept: American Indian institutions, societies, and organizations defined people's relationships and roles, and managed responsibilities in every aspect of life.
Key Concept: Native kinship systems were influential in shaping people's roles and interactions among other individuals, groups, and institutions.
Key Concept: Today, American Indian governments uphold tribal sovereignty and promote tribal culture and well-being.
6: Power, Authority, and Governance
Key Concept: Today, tribal governments operate under self-chosen traditional or constitution based governmental structures. Based on treaties, laws, and court decisions, they operate as sovereign nations within the United States, enacting and enforcing laws and managing judicial systems, social well-being, natural resources, and economic, educational, and other programs for their members. Tribal governments are also responsible for the interactions with American federal, state, and municipal governments.
Key Concept: Long before European colonization, American Indians had developed a variety of complex systems of government that embodied important principles of effective rule. American Indian governments and leaders interacted, recognized each other's sovereignty, practiced diplomacy, built strategic alliances, waged wars and negotiated peace accords.
10: Civic Ideals and Practices
Key Concept: As citizens of their tribal nations, American Indians have always had certain rights, privileges, and responsibilities that are tied to cultural values and beliefs and thus vary from culture to culture.
College, Career, & Civic Life–C3 Framework for Social Studies State Standards
D2.Geo.6.6-8
Explain how the physical and human characteristics of places and regions are connected to human identities and cultures.
D2.Geo.2.9-12
Use maps, satellite images, photographs, and other representations to explain relationships between the locations of places and regions and their political, cultural, and economic dynamics.
D2.Geo.6.9-12
Evaluate the impact of human settlement activities on the environmental and cultural characteristics of specific places and regions.
D1.5.9-12
Determine the kinds of sources that will be helpful in answering compelling and supporting questions, taking into consideration multiple points of view represented in the sources, the types of sources available, and the potential uses of the sources.
D2.Geo.4.9-12
Analyze relationships and interactions within and between human and physical systems to explain reciprocal influences that occur among them.
D3.3.9-12
Identify evidence that draws information directly and substantively from multiple sources to detect inconsistencies in evidence in order to revise or strengthen claims
D2.Civ.6.9-12
Critique relationships among governments, civil societies, and economic markets.
D4.4.9-12
Critique the use of claims and evidence in arguments for credibility.
D4.7.9-12
Assess options for individual and collective action to address local, regional, and global problems by engaging in self-reflection, strategy identification, and complex causal reasoning.
D4.6.9-12
Use disciplinary and interdisciplinary lenses to understand the characteristics and causes of local, regional, and global problems; instances of such problems in multiple contexts; and challenges and opportunities faced by those trying to address these problems over time and place
Common Core State Standards
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.1
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
9-10 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.1
Write [construct] arguments focused on discipline-specific content.
11-12 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.11-12.1
Write [construct] arguments focused on discipline-specific content.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.2
Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
9-10 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text
11-12 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.2
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.2
Determine central ideas or themes of a text and analyze their development; summarize the key supporting details and ideas.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.9
Draw evidence from literary or informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research
9-10 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.2:
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary of how key events or ideas develop over the course of the text.
9-10 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.9
Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
11-12 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.2
Determine the central ideas or information of a primary or secondary source; provide an accurate summary that makes clear the relationships among the key details and ideas
11-12 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.11-12.9
Draw evidence from informational texts to support analysis, reflection, and research.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.1
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
9-10 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.1.A
Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among the claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
11-12 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.11-12.1.A
Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences the claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.1
Read closely to determine what the text says explicitly and to make logical inferences from it; cite specific textual evidence when writing or speaking to support conclusions drawn from the text.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.1
Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.
9-10 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.1
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, attending to such features as the date and origin of the information.
9-10 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.1.A
Introduce precise claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that establishes clear relationships among the claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence
11-12 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.1
Cite specific textual evidence to support analysis of primary and secondary sources, connecting insights gained from specific details to an understanding of the text as a whole.
11-12 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.11-12.1.A
Introduce precise, knowledgeable claim(s), establish the significance of the claim(s), distinguish the claim(s) from alternate or opposing claims, and create an organization that logically sequences the claim(s), counterclaims, reasons, and evidence.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.R.9
Analyze how two or more texts address similar themes or topics in order to build knowledge or to compare the approaches the authors take.
9-10 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.9-10.9
Compare and contrast treatments of the same topic in several primary and secondary sources.
11-12 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.11-12.9
Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.CCRA.W.2
Write informative/explanatory texts to examine and convey complex ideas and information clearly and accurately through the effective selection, organization, and analysis of content.
9-10 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.9-10.2:
Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/experiments, or technical processes.
11-12 Grade
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.WHST.11-12.2
Write informative/explanatory texts, including the narration of historical events, scientific procedures/experiments, or technical processes.
