Reading and Writing Workshop
Native Americans and the Westward Expansion of the United States
Session 1: Indian Removal Act of 1830 — Understanding the Forced Relocation of Native Americans
Historical Focus:
Explore the origins, implementation, and effects of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, focusing on the Trail of Tears and its impact on the Cherokee and other southeastern tribes.
Primary Public Domain Readings:
Writing Activity:
Creative Response: Write a first-person narrative from the perspective of a Cherokee elder or youth forced to leave their homeland during the Trail of Tears. Incorporate historical details from the readings.
Analytical Option: Compare Andrew Jackson’s justification of the Indian Removal Act with John Ross’s response. What arguments are made, and whose voice resonates more with you?
Session 2: Manifest Destiny and the Impact on Native Peoples
Historical Focus:
Analyze the ideology of Manifest Destiny and its role in the displacement, marginalization, and cultural disruption of Native American tribes as settlers moved westward.
Primary Public Domain Readings:
Writing Activity:
Creative Response: Imagine you are a Native American witnessing settlers arrive on your ancestral lands. Write a diary entry or poem reflecting your fears, observations, and hopes.
Analytical Option: Discuss how Manifest Destiny was used to justify the expansion into Native lands. Use O’Sullivan’s text and contrast it with Chief Joseph’s speech and Sarah Winnemucca’s experiences.
Session 3: The U.S. Government’s Policy of Assimilation
Historical Focus:
Examine assimilation policies including the Dawes Act and Indian Boarding Schools, which aimed to erase Native American cultures and force integration into Euro-American society.
Primary Public Domain Readings:
Writing Activity:
Creative Response: Write a letter from a student at a boarding school to their family, expressing their feelings about the school’s efforts to assimilate them.
Analytical Option: Evaluate the language and tone in the Dawes Act and compare it to the experiences reflected in “The Indian Helper.” How did policy translate into daily life for Native children?
Workshop Wrap-Up Project:Choose a theme across all three sessions--displacement, identity, or resilience—and create a short story, poem collection, or essay that integrates historical detail with personal or fictionalized experience. Include a bibliography citing the sources used.
Session 1: Indian Removal Act of 1830 — Understanding the Forced Relocation of Native Americans
Historical Focus:
Explore the origins, implementation, and effects of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, focusing on the Trail of Tears and its impact on the Cherokee and other southeastern tribes.
Primary Public Domain Readings:
- Andrew Jackson’s Second Annual Message to Congress (1830)
Source: U.S. Government Archives
URL: https://www.presidency.ucsb.edu/documents/second-annual-message-1 - John Ross’s Letter Protesting Removal (1836)
Source: Library of Congress
URL: https://www.loc.gov/resource/maj.01046_0130_0142/?sp=1 - "The Removal of the Cherokee Indians" — Excerpt from A Century of Dishonor by Helen Hunt Jackson (1881)
Source: Project Gutenberg
URL: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/13597/13597-h/13597-h.htm#CHAPTER_IV
Writing Activity:
Creative Response: Write a first-person narrative from the perspective of a Cherokee elder or youth forced to leave their homeland during the Trail of Tears. Incorporate historical details from the readings.
Analytical Option: Compare Andrew Jackson’s justification of the Indian Removal Act with John Ross’s response. What arguments are made, and whose voice resonates more with you?
Session 2: Manifest Destiny and the Impact on Native Peoples
Historical Focus:
Analyze the ideology of Manifest Destiny and its role in the displacement, marginalization, and cultural disruption of Native American tribes as settlers moved westward.
Primary Public Domain Readings:
- John L. O’Sullivan’s “Annexation” (1845) — Coining the term “Manifest Destiny”
Source: TeachingAmericanHistory.org
URL: https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/annexation/ - Chief Joseph’s Speech: “I Will Fight No More Forever” (1877)
Source: Library of Congress
URL: https://www.loc.gov/item/90713562/ - "Life Among the Piutes" by Sarah Winnemucca (1883) — Selections on Westward Expansion
Source: Project Gutenberg
URL: https://www.gutenberg.org/files/15433/15433-h/15433-h.htm
Writing Activity:
Creative Response: Imagine you are a Native American witnessing settlers arrive on your ancestral lands. Write a diary entry or poem reflecting your fears, observations, and hopes.
Analytical Option: Discuss how Manifest Destiny was used to justify the expansion into Native lands. Use O’Sullivan’s text and contrast it with Chief Joseph’s speech and Sarah Winnemucca’s experiences.
Session 3: The U.S. Government’s Policy of Assimilation
Historical Focus:
Examine assimilation policies including the Dawes Act and Indian Boarding Schools, which aimed to erase Native American cultures and force integration into Euro-American society.
Primary Public Domain Readings:
- The Dawes Act (1887) — Full Text
Source: Our Documents (National Archives)
URL: https://www.ourdocuments.gov/doc.php?flash=false&doc=50&page=transcript - "The Indian Helper" — Student Writings from Carlisle Indian Industrial School (1880s)
Source: Dickinson College Digital Collections
URL: https://carlisleindian.dickinson.edu/publications/indian-helper - "Stiya: A Carlisle Indian Girl at Home" (1894) by Marianna Burgess — Fictionalized Boarding School Account
Source: Internet Archive
URL: https://archive.org/details/stiyacarlisleind00burg
Writing Activity:
Creative Response: Write a letter from a student at a boarding school to their family, expressing their feelings about the school’s efforts to assimilate them.
Analytical Option: Evaluate the language and tone in the Dawes Act and compare it to the experiences reflected in “The Indian Helper.” How did policy translate into daily life for Native children?
Workshop Wrap-Up Project:Choose a theme across all three sessions--displacement, identity, or resilience—and create a short story, poem collection, or essay that integrates historical detail with personal or fictionalized experience. Include a bibliography citing the sources used.