NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 Homestead Act Signed: The Challenges of The Plains
Start a whole new life in a land known as the Wild Wild West! Learners analyze maps, personal accounts, the Kansas-Nebraska Act, songs, and video clips to uncover life under the Homestead Act. Using their new skills, class members role...
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 Homestead Act Signed: Who were the Settlers?
Life in the great, wide-open spaces of the West! Scholars analyze the reasons behind the vast movement to the Great Plains after the passing of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Homestead Act. Using photographic, document, map, video, and...
Stanford University
Great Plains Homesteaders
"Westward, ho!" may have been their cry in spite of the hardships. Using a series of photographs by Solomon D. Butcher of those who ventured west, class members consider what life was like in the 1800s for those who embarked on the...
Curated OER
The Railroads and Settlement of the Great Plains
Enhance your American literature unit with this resource, in which readers access the Nebraska Studies website and read about "Railroads and Settlement." They search for a photograph of some aspect of the railroad from the Prairie...
Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media
The Homestead Act
To understand how the Homestead Act of 1862 changed the US and the lives of the people during that time, class members examine primary source materials including letters, broadsides, and images. They then assume the voice of a...
Curated OER
Native American's Of the Great Plains
In this social studies worksheet, students find the words that are related to the Great Plains Indians and the answers are found at the bottom of the page.
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 Railroads and Settlement
Have you ever wondered how your town was placed where it is? Scholars research the impact the advancement of the railroad due to the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act had on the formation of civilization in the Great Plains. Map...
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 Beef Moves to Nebraska
Just how long was the Long Drive? Learners investigate the movement of cattle in the Great Plains during the mid-1800s. They incorporate photographic, newspaper, video, and primary source evidence into their posters, artwork, and written...
Curated OER
Uncle Sam is Rich Enough to Give Us All a Farm:
Students examine websites and video clips to become familiar with tenets of the Homestead Act, challenges faced by settlers and misconceptions about settlers. They role-play colonists on the Planet XR-38 and make choices similar to...
NET Foundation for Television
1850-1874 Notable Nebraskan: J. Sterling Morton
What are the characteristics of an outstanding citizen? Nebraskan J. Sterling Morton contributed to the formation of societal and family values in his state. Learners gather information on Morton's life accomplishments from primary...
Curated OER
Manifest Destiny
In these manifest destiny worksheets, students read the definition for manifest destiny and its appearance in America in the 1840s. Students learn about the Homestead Act and study a painting of a depiction of manifest destiny.
Curated OER
Letters from the Plains
Eighth graders read and analyze primary source documents dealing with Nebraska history. In a role-play, they present the information they gathered to their classmates. They examine what live was like for people settling in Nebraska.
Curated OER
Watermelons
Students discover the origins and different uses of watermelons. Using the internet, they find photographs of the fruit and reading about them in primary source documents. As a class, they plan a community activity in which they use a...
Curated OER
Has the Look of Nebraska Changed from 1819 to the 21st Century?
Eighth graders examine and analyze maps of early Nebraska. Using the maps, they compare and contrast them to those of today and identifying how the area has changed over time. They complete a worksheet over the differences in the maps...
Nebraska Studies
Nebraska Studies: Homestead Act: Searching for Water: Windmills
A description of how watermills work and how they were used on the Great Plains.
Independence Hall Association
U.s. History: Life on the Farm
With the passage of the Homestead Act, settlers could own 160 acres for free. Read about the problems that faced the new farmers both economically and from Mother Nature.
Nebraska Studies
Nebraska Studies: Tribes in Nebraska Give Up Lands in Treaties
Review this discourse of the many treaties enacted between the settlers and Native Americans during the development of the Great Plains, the problems that arose, and the creation of reservations.
PBS
Pbs: New Perspectives on the West
This in-depth resource presents a history of the American West from pre-Columbian times until World War I with profiles, documents, and images. It encourages visitors to link these into patterns of historical meaning for themselves....
Curated OER
National Park Service: Stories of the Westward Expansion: Exodus to Freedom
Contains an article written on the African American exodus to Kansas to farm in the late 19th century.
![National Park Service: National Historic Landmark Nomination: Bonanza Farm [Pdf] Primary](https://d15y2dacu3jp90.cloudfront.net/images/attachment_defaults/resource/large/FPO-knovation.png "National Park Service: National Historic Landmark Nomination: Bonanza Farm [Pdf] Primary")
Curated OER
National Park Service: National Historic Landmark Nomination: Bonanza Farm [Pdf]
On this site you will find the application to the National Park Service to include the Bagg Bonanza Farm as a National Landmark. The first part describes what is found on the land now, but if you'll scroll through the history of...
PBS
Wnet: Thirteen: Freedom: A History of Us: Whose Land Is This? Webisode 8
From Joy Hakim's marvelous set of books, A History of US, this webisode offers narrative, pictures, and teaching guides for the settling of the West after the Civil War.