Montana: Stories of the Land

Chapter 7 - Two Worlds Collide, 1850 - 1887

Educational Trunks

Cavalry and Infantry: The U.S. Military on the Montana Frontier from the Montana Historical Society.  This trunk explores the role of the U.S. military and the life of an enlisted man on Montana's frontier, 1860 to 1890.

Websites and Online Lesson Plans

"Blood on the Marias: Understanding Different Points of View Related to the Baker Massacre of 1870" is a flexible one- to three-day learning activity designed to challenge students to grapple with historical evidence and to better recognize the complexity of native-white encounters. 

"Hearing Native Voices: Analyzing Differing Tribal Perspectives in the Oratory of Sitting Bull and Plenty Coups" is a flexible one- to three-day activity that focuses on excerpts from a number of speeches and addresses given by two well-known tribal leaders. Comparing and contrasting these speeches will help students recognize that great diversity existed in the way individual American Indian leaders responded to changing circumstances during the late nineteenth century.

"The Treaty Trail: U.S. - Indian Treaty Councils in the Northwest" includes information on 10 treaties negotiated by Territorial Governor Isaac Stevens, including the Hellgate Treaty and the 1855 Treaty (also known as Lame Bull's Treaty). The site includes complete texts of the treaty, lesson plans, maps, and much more information.

Full text of the 1851 and 1868 Fort Laramie treaties are available online.

The Gilder Lehrman Institute has posted an interesting high school lesson plan, “June 25, 1876: An Interpretation of an Historical Event,” by Bruce Lesh. Focusing on the debate over naming the Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, the lesson plan asks students to analyze images, primary and secondary sources to consider how events from the Indian Wars be commemorated by the federal government.

"Federal Indian Policy-Treaty Period" is an IEFA Model lesson plan from OPI. 

The National Archives has posted this Teaching with Documents lesson plan on the Fort Laramie Treaty of 1868.

The American Memory Project has put up maps that document the Indian Land Cessions from 1784-1894 (U.S. Serial Set 4015). You can browse by tribe or by state/territory.

Montana The Magazine of Western History created discussion guides for articles in its winter 1999 transportation issue, including "The Crow Indians and the Bozeman Trail," by Frank Rzeczkowski. They also posted the text of the article online. 

Good background information on the Bozeman Trail is available through the Fort Phil Kearny/Bozeman Trail Association.

OPI has a model IEFA lesson plan that asks students to analyze John Gast's 1872 print, American Progress (reproduced on page 132 of the textbook).

Explore multiple perspectives on the Battle of the Little Bighorn with OPI's IEFA model lesson plan focused on the battle: "Point of View, Misconceptions, and Errors of Omission - Perspectives on the Battle of the Little Big Horn." 

PBS created several lesson plans associated with its documentary The West, including "Nez Perce and the Dawes Act" (which, despite its title, includes a lesson on the Nez Perce War). 

The CBC's website, "Rethinking Riel," includes streaming video and audio and associated lesson plans on the Riel Rebellion (or Insurgence). 

The "Learning Resources" produced by the Gabriel Dumont Institute of Native Studies and Applied Research offers lesson plans including "La Mishow Wayayshhaywuk: The Big Rip Off," which investigates the events leading up to the Metis Resistance (or Riel Rebellion) of 1885. 

The National Park Service has digitized Nez Perce Summer, 1877, by Jerome A. Greene, the definitive book on the Nez Perce War.

As part of its unit on the Gilded Age, the Stanford History Education Group has created a primary source based lesson plan on the Battle of the Little Bighorn. The guiding question of the lesson, which asks students to analyze an American history textbook description of the battle, along with two primary source documents (J.D. Cameron, Letter to President Ulysses S. Grant, July 8, 1876 and Kate Bighead, Interview with Dr. Thomas Marquis, 1922), is "Who was responsible for the Battle of Little Bighorn?"

Videos or DVDs

The Bicycle Corps: America's Black Army on Wheels, PBS - 60 minutes.

"Fight No More Forever," Episode 6 of the PBS series The West - 84 minutes.

How the West Was Lost, a Discovery Channel Series (each episode is 58 minutes). Available for purchase via an internet search.

Sitting Bull: A Stone in My Heart, produced by Lillimar Pictures - 83 minutes.

The American Experience: Last Stand at Little Big Horn - 60 minutes.

Possible Fieldtrips

Bear Paw National Battlefield, near Chinook

Big Hole National Battlefield, near Wisdom

Council Grove State Park, near Missoula  (Related IEFA lesson plans are available.)

Fort Assinniboine, near Havre

Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, near Hardin

Rosebud Battlefield State Park, near Hardin (Related IEFA lesson plans are available.)
 

Alignment to Content Standards and Essential Understandings Regarding Montana Indians (EU)

Tests and Answer Keys