Curated OER
Settlement Search
For this North Dakota Heritage Center worksheet, students explore the settlement of North Dakota through its statehood as they read several brief selections and respond to 24 question as they look at exhibits.
Curated OER
The Land Promised: African-American Homesteaders
Students explore the story of African Americans with agricultural backgrounds who migrated west following the Civil War and availed themselves of the opportunity to homestead. They access a multi-media narrative imbedded in this plan.
Virtual Museum of Canada
Virtual Museum of Canada: Community Stories: The Roots and Birth of Mirror 1870 to 1930
Looking at the history of the community of Mirror, Alberta, shows how this part of Western Canada gained population.
University of Virginia
Uva Electronic Library: Letters of a Woman Homesteader
This site offers the full text of "Letters of a Woman Homesteader," by Elinore Pruitt Stewart. The work is a compilation of letters written by a young woman who was a homesteader in Wyoming.
Smithsonian Institution
National Museum of American History: Our Story: Life in a Sod House
Imagine moving into a house made out of sod that you and your family had to build in the middle of a prairie! Find great information and activities that will help you understand how it felt to live on the prairie.
Curated OER
National Park Service: Adeline Hornbeck and the Homestead Act
This Teaching with Historic Places instructional activity effectively depicts the life of a pioneer woman and ways in which the Homestead Act impacted her life. The site includes lesson plans, inquiry questions, and photos that may be...
Nebraska Studies
Nebraska Studies: Building a Sod House
Here's great information on building sod houses. You can even watch a video of a famous two-story sod house that stood until 1967.
Other
Native American Documents Project
This scholarly project from California State University analyzes the effect of the Dawes Act, or General Allotment Act, which divided Indian lands into individual holdings to promote assimilation by deliberately destroying tribal...
Khan Academy
Khan Academy: Ap Us History: 1865 1898: The Homestead Act and the Exodusters
Explains what the Homestead Act of 1862 was and what it meant for settlers, as well as the Exodus of 1879 when many African Americans became exodusters and left the South. Includes questions for students at end.
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Frontier Life
This is the accompanying website for the popular PBS reality show, The Frontier House. Includes historical essays, quotations, and illustrations. Reading level suitable for upper elementary and middle school.