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Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: America's History in the Making: Taming the American West

For Students 9th - 10th
Comprehensive teaching unit that explores the settling of the American West in the late 1800s and the challenges these settlers faced. Contains video and text materials, web interactives, student oriented activities, and a timeline of...
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Unit Plan
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: America's History in the Making: Contested Territories

For Students 9th - 10th
This site highlights the westward expansion of settlers in North America and the effects this expansion had on Native Americans between the Revolutionary and Civil Wars.
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Website
Nebraska Studies

Nebraska Studies: Tribes in Nebraska Give Up Lands in Treaties

For Students 9th - 10th
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.
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Primary
Curated OER

National Park Service: National Historic Landmark Nomination: Bonanza Farm [Pdf]

For Students 9th - 10th
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...
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Graphic
PBS

Pbs: American Experience: Timeline of Farming in the u.s.

For Students 9th - 10th
Presents a timeline of the history of farming in the U.S. between 1850 and 1933. Highlights include the Homestead Act of 1862, the Agricultural Act of May 1933, Emergency Farm Mortgage Act, and The Federal Surplus Relief Corporation.
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Lesson Plan
US National Archives

Docsteach: Reasons for Westward Expansion

For Teachers 9th - 10th
Learners will examine a variety of documents that reference reasons why Americans living in the East migrated west of the Mississippi immediately before, during, and right after the Civil War. Documents cover the mining industry, new...
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Graphic
Curated OER

Wikipedia: National Historic Landmarks in Vermont: Justin S. Morrill Homestead

For Students 9th - 10th
Gothic Revival home of Justin Smith Morrill, Vermont representative and senator known for the 1862 and 1890 Morrill Land-Grant Colleges Acts.
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Handout
Other

Native American Documents Project

For Students 9th - 10th
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...
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Handout
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Ap Us History: 1865 1898: Labor Battles in the Gilded Age

For Students 9th - 10th
Discusses the Homestead Strike of 1892 and the Pullman Strike of 1894 and how these ended, as well as responses of the federal government to the labor movement. Includes questions for students at end.
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Handout
Legends of America

Legends of Kansas: Exodusters of Kansas

For Students 9th - 10th
A look at the exodusters and the reasons the blacks left the South and migrated to Kansas after the Civil War.
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Website
PBS

Wnet: Thirteen: Frontier Life: "The Little Old Shanty on the Claim"

For Students 9th - 10th
An essay provided as part of the PBS series, Frontier House, describes the housing options of pioneers on the prairies in eastern Montana.
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Website
PBS

Wnet: Thirteen: Frontier Life: Frontier Education and the One Room Schoolhouse

For Students 9th - 10th
See how much public education has changed from the one-room schoolhouse days of the frontier. From a companion essay to the PBS series, Frontier House.
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Handout
Oklahoma State University

Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture: Oklahoma Territory

For Students 9th - 10th
A description of the Oklahoma Territory and its rapid growth in the late 19th century.
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Study Guide
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Ap Us History: Period 6: 1865 1898

For Students 11th - 12th
This Khan Academy resource provides a table of contents with notes for several sections of AP US History: Period 6: 1865-1898.
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Handout
Other

Impeachment of Andrew Johnson: Andrew Johnson

For Students 9th - 10th
Brief biography of Andrew Johnson followed by details of how Radical Republicans tried to take over the reconstruction by forcing Johnson out of office.
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Handout
The History Cat

The History Cat: Pioneers on the Plains: Pioneer Living

For Students 9th - 10th
Describes the struggles that pioneer settlers who established farms on the Plains faced. Without trees, they had to build homes using sod and cow dung. Temperatures were extreme and farms were isolated, making life lonely.
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Website
Independence Hall Association

U.s. History: The End of Resistance

For Students 5th - 8th
Find a brief recounting of resistance by several Indian tribes in an attempt to maintain their territory. See how the settlers participating in the Oklahoma land rush stole land set aside for several Indian tribes.
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Unit Plan
The Best Notes

The Best Notes: Shane by Jack Schaefer

For Students 9th - 10th
This is an online study guide for the western novel Shane by Jack Schaefer including author information, literary elements, chapter-by-chapter summaries/notes, study questions, and analysis.
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Website
Curated OER

National Park Service: Stories of the Westward Expansion: Exodus to Freedom

For Students 9th - 10th
Contains an article written on the African American exodus to Kansas to farm in the late 19th century.
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Website
The History Cat

The History Cat: Westward Expansion

For Students 9th - 10th
Here you can learn about the Oregon Trail, Donner Party, the California Gold Rush, and life as a pioneer through text, images, video, and quotes.
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Handout
The History Cat

The History Cat: The Great American Dust Bowl

For Students 9th - 10th
Describes the causes and the events of the Great American Dust Bowl, when farmland was destroyed through misguided practices, famine set in, and dust storms drove people to desperation.
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Unknown Type
Khan Academy

Khan Academy: Us History: 1865 1898: Quiz 1

For Students 9th - 10th
A five-question quiz mainly over westward expansion in the late 1800s.
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Article
Siteseen

Siteseen: American Historama: Racial Segregation History in the United States

For Students 9th - 10th
This article contains numerous facts about black segregation history in the United States from the Civil War through the end of the Civil Rights Movement.
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Professional Doc
Annenberg Foundation

Annenberg Learner: Balancing Sources

For Teachers 9th - 10th Standards
This is from an American history course designed for teachers to enrich their knowledge and their teaching practice. This interactive is a set of nine exercises where teachers evaluate primary resources related to a specific event in...