May 23, 1838: The Trail of Tears Began

Teaching Activity. By Bill Bigelow. 10 pages.
What led up to the Trail of Tears? In this lesson, students learn about the decision to remove the Cherokee and Seminole people from their lands.

We are pleased to announce that 20 teachers from across the country are receiving class sets of A People’s History of the United States. These teachers’ names were selected from the 88 who responded when we asked for stories about teaching a people’s history or “teaching outside the textbook.” The essays were full of inspiring… Read more »

For Native American Heritage Month, we highly recommend the article “‘All Indians Are Dead?’ At Least That’s What Most Schools Teach Children,” based on a study called “Manifesting Destiny: Re/presentations of Indigenous Peoples in K–12 U.S. History Standards.” The article can inspire an examination of the curriculum and books in our schools.

Picture book. By Tim Tingle. 2008. 40 pages.
A picture book that highlights rarely discussed intersections between Native Americans in the South and African Americans in bondage.

Book — Non-fiction. By Roxanne Dunbar-Ortiz. 2015. 312 pages.
Four hundred years of Native American history from a bottom-up perspective.

Film. PBS. 2009. 450 minutes.
Three hundred years of Native American history.

The Trail of Tears removed Cherokee Indians from their ancestral home in the Smoky Mountains to the Oklahoma Territory.