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Cherokee relocation

Using primary sources from the Documenting the American South collection, students will investigate the boundaries of the Cherokee lands set for North Carolina after the Revolutionary War.

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Social Studies)

By Donna Hernandez.

Cape Hatteras Lighthouse

North Carolina's most famous lighthouse is open for tours. Learn about this history of this guardian of the “graveyard of the Atlantic”.

Format: article/field trip opportunity

Mrs. Naguchi and two children, Manzanar Relocation Center

Format: image/photograph

Along the Trail of Tears

A part of history is often forgotten when teaching younger students. This is the relocation of the Cherokee Indians when the white settlers wanted their property. The US Government moved whole groups of Indians under harsh conditions. This trip became known as the Trail of Tears. Using this as a background students will explore and experiment with persuasive writing as they try to express the position of Cherokee leaders.

Format: lesson plan (grade 4 English Language Arts and Social Studies)

By Glenda Bullard.

Japanese-American Grocery Store

A large sign reading "I AM AN AMERICAN," hangs over the storefront windows of a Japanese-American grocery store in San Francisco, California. The day after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, the owner hung this sign. Later, the store was closed and the owner...

Format: image

The remains of a foundation of a building in historic Brunswick Town

These are the remains of a foundation of a building in historic Brunswick Town, in Brunswick County, North Carolina. In the mid-1700s, this town was a bustling shipping and political center. It was known for exporting tar, pitch, and turpentine, essential...

Format: image/photograph

Reading photographs

A picture is worth a thousand words — but which words? Questions can help students decode, interpret, and understand photographs thoughtfully and meaningfully.

Format: article

By Melissa Thibault and David Walbert.

The removal of the Cherokee Indians

This lesson allows students to assess the influence of the Trail of Tears. Students will read a brief history of the Cherokee Indians, past and present. They will watch the Unto These Hills video and read excerpts from Native Americans and government officials during the Indian Removal. Students will write an essay supporting or opposing the Indian Removal Act.

Format: lesson plan (grade 9–12 Social Studies)

By Amy Oxendine.

Minting gold into coins

In North Carolina in the New Nation, page 6.4

Brief histories of the Bechtler Mint, a private mint in Charlotte, and the Charlotte branch of the U.S. mint, both of which operated in the middle of the nineteenth century.

Format: article

Sanitariums

In North Carolina in the New South, page 5.8

In the late nineteenth century, sanitariums were built to house patients with tuberculosis, which was the leading cause of death in the United States. Western North Carolina's climate made it the perfect location for sanitariums.

Format: article

The Indian Removal Act of 1830

In North Carolina in the New Nation, page 10.5

Act of Congress, passed in 1830, authorizing President Andrew Jackson to transfer Eastern Indian tribes to the territories west of the Mississippi River. Includes historical commentary.

Format: legislation

Commentary and sidebar notes by Kathryn Walbert, L. Maren Wood, and David Walbert.

North Carolina

“Tarheels”, “the Old North State”, “the Land of the Longleaf Pine”, all mean North Carolina. Here you will find a sampling of instructional resources to teach your students about the history, people and places, government, and economy of the state you live in - North Carolina!

Format: bibliography/help

"We have unexpectedly become civilized"

In North Carolina in the New Nation, page 10.4

Letter from citizens of Turkey Town in the Cherokee Phoenix and Indians' Advocate, 1829, opposing relocation. The authors pointed out the irony that even after becoming "civilized" as white people had claimed to want, they were nevertheless being pushed off their land. Includes historical commentary.

Format: newspaper

Commentary and sidebar notes by David Walbert and L. Maren Wood.

The Cherokee and the Trail of Tears

In North Carolina in the New Nation, page 10.1

In 1836, years of increasing tension between Cherokees in the southeastern U.S. and white settlers eager to encroach on Cherokee land culminated in the Treaty of New Echota, which called for the forcible removal of Cherokees to the western Indian Territory. Two years later, federal troops and state militias enforced the treaty, sending large groups of Indians west with inadequate supplies. Many died along the way. The forced removal of the Indians from their land has become known as the Trail of Tears.

Format: article

American Indians

A guide to some of the best resources for teaching about American Indians, including lesson plans, articles, websites, and field trip opportunities.

Format: bibliography/help

Resources on the web

Invasive species

In this Xpeditions lesson, students investigate species relocation and the effect it has on the environment. They then outline arguments for and against human manipulation of other species. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 6 Science)

Provided by: National Geographic

Ansel Adams’s Photographs of Japanese-American Internment at Manzanar

Contains photographs taken during World War II by noted photographer Ansel Adams documenting life at the Manzanar War Relocation Center, a Japanese American internment camp, in California (Learn more)

Format: website/general

Provided by: Library of Congress

Japanese American Relocation Digital Archives

This digital archive brings together the collections of 8 different California depositories which document the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II. (Learn more)

Format: website/general

Provided by: California Digital Library

The relocation of the Cherokee in North Carolina

In this eighth grade social studies lesson, students explore the movement of the Cherokee population in North Carolina using historical maps and primary source documents. (Learn more)

Format: lesson plan (grade 8 Social Studies)

Provided by: UNC Libraries

Who Stole the Tee Pee? An online exhibit of the National Museum of the American Indian

Historical artifacts from the National Museum of the American Indian and art by contemporary Native Americans is utilized to explore changes and the causes of changes in Native American cultures since the 1900s. This website asks what happened to the traditions... (Learn more)

Format: website/general

Provided by: Smithsonian Institution - National Museum of American History