US – Industrialization: Allotment
Lesson Plans – High School
2 | US – Industrialization and the Emergence of the United States as a World Power
The Allotment Act
United States History Curriculum
OSPI Tribal Sovereignty Curriculum for the Social Studies
Historical Era
1776 – 1791 Conflict and Alliance | 1890 – 1918 Assimilation | 1918 – 1939 Reorganization | 1939 – 1991 Termination to Self-Determination | 1945 – 1991 Termination to Self-Determination | 1991–Present Nation-Building
Social Studies GLEs:
Grade 9: 3.2.2, 3.3.1, 4.1.2, 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.3.1
Grade 10: 3.2.2, 3.3.1, 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.3.1
Grade 11: 1.1.2, 3.1.1, 3.2.2, 3.3.1, 4.1.2, 4.2.1, 4.2.2, 4.3.1
Corresponding CBA:
Essential Questions:
4
Common Core State Standards
Asset List
Multimedia
Video Content
Corresponding Chapters from the Regional Learning Project’s Required Curriculum Materials:
Ch. 6 – 8
DVD: Tribal Perspectives of American History in the Northwest
The DVD (75 minutes total running time) is divided into nine chapters that range from 3 to 27 minutes in length, listed here with time codes for each:
Chapter 1: Introduction (4:15 minutes)
Chapter 2: History Through Oral Tradition (7:20 min)
Chapter 3: Before Contact (6:55 min)
Chapter 4: First Contact (10:00 min)
Chapter 5: Advent of the Fur Trade and its Consequences (7:20 min)
Chapter 6: Missionaries and Early Settlers (6:50 min)
Chapter 7: The Treaties (27:00 min)
Chapter 8: Treaty Aftermath – Nez Perce Story (5:30 min)
Chapter 9: Reflections (3:55 min)
Corresponding Chapters from the Regional Learning Project’s Required Curriculum Materials:
Ch. 2 and 3
DVD: Contemporary Voices Along the Lewis and Clark Trail
The DVD (28 minutes running time) is divided into five chapters that range from 3 to 10
minutes each, as follows:
Chapter 1: Introduction (9:10 minutes)
Chapter 2: Early Contact and its Consequences (3:00 min)
Chapter 3: Language (3:45 min)
Chapter 4: Respect (7:00 min)
Chapter 5: Continuity (5:00 min)
Corresponding Chapters from the Regional Learning Project’s Required Curriculum Materials:
Ch. 5 – 9
DVD: Native Homelands Along The Lewis and Clark Trail
The DVD (35 minutes) is divided into nine chapters that range from 2 to 8 minutes each, as follows:
• Chapter 1: Introduction (2:00 minutes)
• Chapter 2: Homelands of the Mandan-Hidatsa (4:10 min)
• Chapter 3: Homeland of the Blackfeet (3:05 min)
• Chapter 4: Homeland of the Shoshone (3:05 min)
• Chapter 5: Homeland of the Salish (3:10 min)
• Chapter 6: Homelands of the Sahaptin-speaking Tribes of the Columbia River (8:10 min)
• Chapter 7: Homelands of the Upper Chinookan Tribes (3:30 min)
• Chapter 8: Homelands of the Lower Chinookan Tribes (5:00 min)
• Chapter 9: Close (0:45 min)
Primary/Docs
Lesson Outline
Materials
This unit examines how the General Allotment Act of 1887 divided Indian lands and paved the way for further development of the United States. Students will learn how the Allotment Act was almost universally applied to all tribes as a large effort to assimilate tribal members, but affected each tribe in different ways. They will compare and contrast the economic success, current political status, and social conditions affecting tribes. Students will discuss whether tribes greatly affected by the Allotment Act fare better than tribes whose land base has been relatively undivided.
US History Industrialization and the Emergence of the United States as a World Power (1890 – 1918)
THE ALLOTMENT ACT & CULTURAL INTERACTIONS
Level 1: Students will review policies towards Indians and land from Treaty negotiations, creations of reservations, and Indian removal and recall that the Dawes Act created checkerboard reservations.
Time commitment: 1 hour
Day 1
- Students read the newsletter “How do you Shrink Land?”
- Students visit the Indian Land tenure website for:
- Introduction to the History of Allotment
http://www.indianlandtenure.org/ILTFallotment/introduction/introI.htm
- and Glossary of Allotment terms
http://www.indianlandtenure.org/ILTFallotment/glossary/terms.htm
- Student defines and recalls important terms and ideas from Allotment and attempted assimilation (1887-1934) by using clues to complete a word search: “Scramble of Ownership”
US History Industrialization and the Emergence of the United States as a World Power (1890 – 1918)
The Allotment Act & Cultural Interactions
Level 2:
- Students will understand that allotment was the next logical step to further the expansion and industrialization of the US,
- understand the role “Friends of the Indians” had in passing the Dawes Act, and
- differentiate between the purpose of Allotment and the results
Time Commitment: 2 hours
Day 1-2
- Students will use the hand-out “Reading Between the Lines: The Allotment Act of 1887” both as an introduction to level 2 activities and as a graphic organizer to compare quotes.
- Summarize the role “Friends of the Indians” like Henry Dawes had in passing the Dawes Act
- Use the internet to find quotes about the Allotment/Dawes Act. Classifies the quotes using a graphic organizer according to the underlying assumption represented in the quote.
- Read “What were the Results of Allotment” and discuss the author’s main points as a class.
US History Industrialization and the Emergence of the United States as a World Power (1890 – 1918)
The Allotment Act & Cultural Interactions
Level 3: Students will analyze how land was lost both during the allotment process and after the 25 year “trust period” and
analyze information from geographic tools to consider how dividing lands (allotment) contributed to limitation of tribal sovereignty
Time Commitment: 5 – 7 hours
Day 1
- Students will use internet research to understand how the Allotment Act of 1887 affected the political success of local tribes by answering four questions:
- How did the Allotment Act contribute to the loss of land of a local Indian tribe?
- How did tribes continue to lose land after Allotment?
- How does “checkerboarding” affect jurisdiction within reservation boundaries?
- When does a tribe have jurisdiction within the reservation bounds? The State? The federal government?
Day 2
- Students will use internet research to answer two questions about how the Allotment Act of 1887 affected the economic and social success of local tribes:
- Did Indians become self-supporting farmers as a result of Allotment? Explain.
- Was the Dawes Act successful as a reformation movement to “civilize” the Indian?
Day 3
- Students will synthesize their response to each question using the writing prompt:
Write a letter to the “Friends of the Indians” describing the political, economic, and social impacts of the Allotment Act on Indians.
