High School Unit 5 US History

Office of Native Education Branding

Download Curriculum

Level 1 | Level 2 | Level 3

Corresponding Videos

Contemporary Voices Along the Lewis and Clark Trail - Chapter 5

Movements and Issues at Home: Indian Civil Rights and Self-Determination

Historical Era

1945 - 1991 Termination to Self-Determination

STI Unit Overview

Level 1

By the end of Level 1 instruction, students will:

  • Recognize that the Civil Rights Era also included a civil rights era for tribal people
  • Summarize an interactive timeline of the Indian occupation of Alcatraz
  • Read an article on Indian activism and complete a dialectic journal

Level 2

By the end of Level 2 instruction, students will:

  • Understand the political and social aims of American Indian activism and the self-determination era
  • Understand at least two pieces of legislation that effectively began the self-determination era
  • Work in groups to create themed timelines on:
    • Indian Activism: AIM
    • Indian Activism: non-AIM
    • American Indian Women's Service League
    • Fort Lawton Occupation
    • Tribal Self-Determination Legislation & Events
    • Summarize three tribal self-determination legislation, events, and executive orders

Level 3

By the end of Level 3 instruction, students will:

  • Use oral history to compare the termination and self-determination eras and understand American Indian activism as an agent of change between the eras
  • Analyze and evaluate the aims and effects of at least one piece of federal self-determination legislation on a local tribe
  • Review oral history and strategies for conducting meaningful interviews.
  • Formulate interview questions and watch video interviews of the following subjects:
    • Indian Occupation of Alcatraz
    • American Indian Women's Service League
    • Fort Lawton Occupation
    • Tribal Self-Determination Legislation & Events
  • Interview a community member or panel with memory of the Termination Era, American Indian activism, and the Self- Determination Era
  • Evaluate their interview, publish a report of the interview, and present their findings
  • Reflect on how American Indian activism affected a transition in federal policy towards American Indians from Termination to Self-Determination
  • Recognize landmark court decision and legislation that affected and continues to affect tribal sovereignty and understand that tribal sovereignty enables tribes to protect their ways of life and the development of their nations
  • Analyze and evaluate how people in the US have addressed issues involved with the distribution of resources and sustainability in the past or present
  • Analyze cultural interactions
  • Analyze how local tribes used the court system to regain their sovereign rights

STI Essential Questions

  1. What do local tribes do to meet the challenges of reservation life? What do tribes, as sovereign nations, do to meet the economic and cultural needs of their tribal communities?

Common Core Standards for English/Language Arts

This unit has not yet been aligned with CCSS.

OSPI-Developed Assessments for Social Studies

Dig Deep - Analyzing Sources

Unit Developed By

Elese Washines (Yakama)

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Except where otherwise noted, "Since Time Immemorial: Tribal Sovereignty in Washington State" by Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction in partnership with the Federally Recognized Tribes in Washington State is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. All logos are property of their respective owners.