Curriculum
Table of Contents
About the Curriculum
Building a shared future where Indigenous voices, histories, and perspectives are present in K-12 classrooms requires that Indigenous people themselves have authority over the narratives and practices that reflect their lives. From 2020 to 2024, a 25-member Advisory Group guided development of the Indigenous Chicago project components.
For more than two years, the curriculum subcommittee evaluated state standards in Illinois, selected grade levels and subject areas, brainstormed core learning objectives, drafted, and revised the curricular resources you see here. As co-chairs of the subcommittee, Meredith McCoy (Turtle Mountain Ojibwe descent) drafted initial versions of the modules and Rose Miron wrote the first versions of the History Briefs. Teagan Dreyer (Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma), Joshua Friedlein (ᏣᎳᎩᎯ ᎠᏰᎵ Cherokee Nation), Dylan Nelson, Anthony Stamilio, and Kabl Wilkerson (Citizen Band Potawatomi) provided research and content revision support for the materials.
To make sure that any Indigenous Chicago materials reflected the perspectives and priorities of Indigenous people who reside in Chicago and the Native nations who recognize Chicago as part of their traditional homelands, community members both on and beyond the curriculum team set the initial project goals and gave feedback on project progress at open community meetings at the Newberry, Chicago American Indian Community Collaborative (CAICC) convenings, and through a community-wide survey. We offer thanks to the teachers of the pilot program and to Asif Wilson, George Ironstrack (Miami Tribe of Oklahoma), Elizabeth Ellis (Peoria), and Dave Beck for their generous and thorough feedback that strengthened the final version of this curriculum.
Social studies helps students understand themselves and the world around them. As young people develop their sense of self, social studies classes offer social, cultural, economic, historical, and geographic context for the world around them. Helping students understand the Indigenous histories of the places where they live and learn is an important part of that identity development. In the Chicago area, this means coming to understand the place we now call Chicago as a place that always has been and always will be both a crossroads and a homeland for many Indigenous nations.
The communities in the graphic below are those whose ancestral homelands include what we currently consider northeastern Illinois. When talking about these nations, we encourage you to use the names these communities use for themselves. Each community has its own distinct language, and in the image below, we have included both the endonyms (names communities use for themselves) as well as exonyms (names assigned by settlers that you may be more familiar with).
Just as Indigenous people do not remain static, neither do their languages or the terms they use for themselves. The endonyms that Native Nations used to refer to themselves centuries ago may still be used alongside English endonyms that the Nation has adopted. For example, Potawatomi is an anglicization of the endonym, Bodéwadmi. When speaking Potawatomi, many people will refer to themselves as Bodéwadmi and will just as proudly refer to themselves as Potawatomi when speaking in English. By contrast, few Ojibwe people prefer the anglicization Chippewa and will instead use Ojibwe. For consistency, we worked with tribal representatives to identify a list of terms used across the Indigenous Chicago Project. The commitment to hear and use the words people use for themselves is a form of respect, and it’s helpful to explicitly name this with students. You will also hear Native people use generalized terms like “Native” or “Indigenous,” terms that, while useful in some contexts, blur distinct cultural boundaries and homogenize diverse political communities. Whenever possible, we recommend using the specific name of the Native Nation or Indigenous group about which you are speaking. This should be the name the people or Nation uses for themselves. These can often be easily found on Native Nations’ websites, and many are featured across the curriculum.
Teachers seeking to teach this history have faced an uphill battle with few resources and little guidance. As of 2015, 87% of state history standards nationwide only addressed Indigenous peoples prior to the year 1900 (Shear et al., 2015), and as of 2021, 72.5% of state civics standards failed to address tribal sovereignty or treaties (Sabzalian et al., 2021). Thankfully, the decades-long advocacy of Native families, tribal leaders, educators, and students have begun to shift the landscape for classroom teaching. Twelve states now have state-issued curricular resources for teaching Native histories (Illinois is currently developing its Inclusive History resource for Native histories), and fourteen states now have legislation encouraging or mandating that teachers share Native histories in their classrooms.
In 2023, Illinois joined this list through the passage of SB 1633. The new law requires a minimum of one unit of instruction about Midwest Native experiences and histories in all elementary and high school American history or government social studies courses. The unit of instruction must specifically expose students to the contributions of Native people to the development of their own nations and of the United States with attention to economics, culture, politics, and other social issues. It must also include Native contributions to the arts, humanities, and sciences, and government. Recognizing that Chicago has one of the largest intertribal Native communities in the United States today, the unit must also account for urban Native experiences and the contemporary experiences of Native people living in Illinois today. High school classrooms must also address historical and contemporary genocide and discrimination against Native people, land theft and dispossession through Removal and Relocation, tribal sovereignty, and treaties between Native nations and the United States.
Native nations, museums, libraries, and institutions of higher education across Illinois are currently preparing curricular resources that will be of great use to teachers across grade levels and content areas in teaching this history. Among these, the Newberry Library and faculty at Carleton College have prepared this Indigenous Chicago curriculum alongside the Indigenous Chicago project’s digital mapping, oral history, public programming, and exhibition components. The curriculum focuses particularly on 10th grade social studies classrooms and primarily uses materials from the Newberry Library’s American Indian and Indigenous Studies Collection to help teachers and students recognize the long and ongoing histories of Chicago as a Native space.
Like the other components of the project, the goals of the Indigenous Chicago curriculum include making the invisible visible; advancing the priorities of the Chicago Native community; situating Chicago as a Native place since time immemorial; growing a community archiving practice; serving a broad, multi-generational audience that includes schools, the Native community, and the broader public; and supporting the growth of CAICC.
Teachers have often not been sufficiently prepared to teach Native histories in their classrooms. As teachers across Illinois prepare to implement the new state mandate, we understand teacher concerns about needing additional content support and wondering if it is their place to teach this history. However, helping the next generation understand the full histories of the places we share is a responsibility we all carry. As teachers, you are in a position to ensure future leaders, teachers, and community members have access to knowledge that was not made readily available to you. We are relying on you to unlearn / relearn the histories of Chicago to tell a more full, accurate narrative of this place, and we are also committing to work alongside you as you grow your practice for teaching Native histories. As you work through this document, if you have further questions, please reach out to the staff of the D’Arcy McNickle Center at the Newberry Library.
You may feel at a loss for what words to use as you work with your students to learn these histories together. Each module has embedded vocabulary, and a compiled list of all vocabulary terms for the curriculum is available here. The following definitions offer a general introduction and are followed by a short list of freely available resources to help guide you:
Term | Definition |
Native American | Any individual who is a citizen or descendant of a Native Nation. However, this term can still be problematic, as the “American” part of it binds the identity of an Indigenous person to the existence of the United States and the naming of Turtle Island (North America) after the Italian mapmaker, Amerigo Vespucci. |
American Indian | This term is most often used by the federal government and is codified in federal statute. This term is problematic to many Indigenous people because of its connection to the Italian explorer, Christopher Columbus, who thought that he had discovered the subcontinent of India upon arriving in the Caribbean. In similar fashion to “Native American” (see above), this term also ties the identity and existence of Indigenous people to the existence of the United States. Finally, American Indian is an incomplete term, because it often does not include Alaska Native or Native Hawaiian people. |
Indigenous | This term pushes back against the American centrality by emphasizing the connection between Indigenous People and land since time immemorial–or since long before settler colonists imposed the names America and the United States of America upon these lands. “Indigenous” also connects the struggles of Indigenous peoples here in the United States with the struggles of Indigenous peoples fighting colonialism and resource extraction across the globe, and aligns with language used by the United Nations in the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples (UNDRIP), of which the United States is not a signatory. The term “Indigenous” does generalize the unique political status and cultural distinctions that exist between specific Native nations, but its generalization also can speak to shared experience with settler colonialism that exist across Native nations.
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Tribe / Tribal | The term “Tribe” has specific legal meaning and associations that come from definitions in the United States Code. It is closely related to “Native nation” in that a tribe or Native nation is a distinct legal political entity. Tribes have an inherent right to self-governance. There are many factors that affect a Tribe’s sovereign legal status and its relationship with governments at the federal, state, and local level. These factors include treaties, recognition at the federal or state level, and 20th century federal policies like termination and restoration. |
There are 574 federally-recognized Native nations that exist as political sovereigns within the borders of the United States. Each of these Native nations has a government-to-government relationship with the U.S. federal government, and each Native nation “has the inherent power to govern all matters involving their members, as well as a range of issues in Indian Country.” | |
The term “Indian Country” is defined by the United States Code (18 USC § 1151) as all land within the limits of an Indian reservation, all dependent Indian communities within the borders of the United States, and all Indian allotments whose titles have not been extinguished. Historically, this term has also been used to refer to territory that was unceded and controlled by Indigenous people. More casually, you will also hear Native people use the term “Indian Country” when talking about issues affecting Native communities broadly across the United States. | |
The Native American Rights Fund defines tribal sovereignty as “the right of federally recognized tribes to govern themselves, their lands, and their people. It also includes the existence of a government-to-government relationship with the United States.” Native nations have the right to decide legal cases, charge taxes, set criteria for citizenship, and establish programs for the well-being of their people. | |
Trust Responsibility | The “trust responsibility” is the legal obligation held by the U.S. federal government to protect tribal lands, assets, resources, and treaty rights. The “trust responsibility” has been repeatedly upheld by the U.S. Court system. |
A legal agreement between the sovereign government of a Native nation and the sovereign government of the United States. This was the primary method of interaction between Native nations and the United States prior to the end of treaty-making in 1871. Just like the United States negotiates treaties with foreign nations, all treaties were negotiated and then approved by the U.S. Senate. The Constitution calls ratified treaties “the supreme Law of the Land.” | |
Federal Recognition | This term refers to the legal relationship between a Native nation and the U.S. federal government. Native nations are “recognized” or “acknowledged” through one of three methods: treaty, an act of Congress, or executive order. In 1871, Congress voted to end treaty-making with Native nations. Today, the Office of Federal Acknowledgement processes requests for federal recognition. It is a lengthy, bureaucratic, and political process. |
While not a scientific description of time, the term “time immemorial” has become a common descriptor for Indigenous peoples’ rights to their lands and customs. It reinforces Indigenous peoples’ connections to these lands and waters and affirms that those connections long predate colonial presence (often by millenia). Terminology like “time immemorial” affirms Native rights to their history and culture, while beginning to reverse the erasure of Native people from conversations about the past.
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Additional resources include:
- What’s in a name? provides an overview of the terms “Native American,” “American Indian,” “Indigenous,” “Tribe/Tribal,” “Native Hawaiian,” “Alaska Native,” and the specific names of Native nations
- The Native American Rights Fund’s FAQs defines core terms like “tribal sovereignty” and also answers commonly asked questions
- The Smithsonian’s Native Knowledge 360 has a one-page introduction to the importance of specificity in the words we use for Indigenous people
Indigenous ways of teaching have long centered around stories, oral tradition, and oral histories. In Indigenous contexts, stories are complex teaching tools. In hearing the stories, listeners can pull out lessons that help them figure out how to live sustainably with each other and with lands and waters. Such stories contain information about ecology and ethnobotany, medicine, language, arts, history, and politics, among others. They often also teach us about civics – how we should treat one another to build sustainable, balanced, interrelated societies. We can look to Indigenous stories as historical texts that teach us about Native nations’ long-standing connections to the Chicago area.
Most of the stories in this curriculum do not reflect the kinds of oral traditions that have sustained Native people for generations; however, throughout this curriculum, you will find the stories of specific people, places, and events that demonstrate long histories of Indigenous presence and life in the Chicago area. Rather than regurgitative information for students to repeat back to you, cultivate these stories as a shared practice of deep listening and learning from the examples of people in the past. Listen for the big themes and ideas that emerge from these stories – ideas about resistance, collective organizing, and relations with land and with each other, among others. In increasing the visibility of Native histories in Chicago, the goal is not only for students to develop specific knowledge of certain historical moments but also that they develop a habit of seeing Native people as relevant to all moments of US, Illinois, and Chicago history. They might develop an accurate habit of seeing the US, Illinois, and Chicago as part of the longer histories of Native people and nations!
Using memorable stories to help build this habit of awareness is part of the approach you will find within this curriculum. To that end, this curriculum is not comprehensive. It does not cover all there is to know about Native people in the Chicago area, nor does it seek to give students information about every person, place, event, or development in Chicago Native life over time. Doing so within the context of your other teaching on U.S. and Illinois history would be impossible, and giving students the impression that this is all there is to know would shortchange the vastness of Native histories. Rather, grounding your teaching in these specific stories while contextualizing them within broader themes can help students learn to look for Native history, building a habit of expecting Native presence and visibility over time.
Each module includes a history brief that introduces core concepts and historical developments. In addition, Indigenous authors, scholars, artists, museum staff, and community leaders have produced dozens of books, curricula, podcasts, and other resources that might be useful to you in your classroom. Start with one or more of the following books and guides:
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Treuer, A. (2023). Everything you wanted to know about Indians but were afraid to ask. Second edition. St. Paul, MN: Minnesota Historical Society. This book is now available in an edition for young people as well. |
Turtle Island Social Studies Collective. (2022). Insurgence Must Be Red: Connecting Indigenous Studies and Social Studies Education for Anticolonial Praxis. In S. B. Shear, N. H. Merchant, & W. Au (Eds.), Insurgent Social Studies: Scholar-Educators Disrupting Erasure & Marginality. Myers Education Press. |
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Dunbar-Ortiz, R., Mendoza, J., & Reese, D. (2019). An Indigenous peoples’ history of the United States for young people. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. |
Sabzalian, L. (2019). Indigenous Children’s Survivance in Public Schools. Routledge. |
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Dunbar-Ortiz, R. & Gilio-Whitaker, D. (2016). “All the real Indians died off” and 20 other myths about Native Americans. Boston, MA: Beacon Press. |
Mihesuah, D. A. (2005). So you want to write about American Indians?: A guide for writers, students, and scholars. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. |
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National Museum of the American Indian (2018). Do all Indians live in tipis? Questions and answers from the National Museum of the American Indian (Second edition). Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. |
Smith, Paul Chaat. Everything You Know about Indians Is Wrong. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009. |
We encourage your schools to use these texts as we collectively grow our ability to name and teach honest, accurate, and robust histories of Indigenous peoples today. We also encourage you and your school to consult other widely available resources available for free online, including the National Museum of the American Indian’s Native Knowledge 360° modules and resources.
The Newberry Library is making the content in this curriculum and any links to its Digital Collection freely available for educational and research purposes. All materials that are not drawn from the Newberry’s collections are presented in accordance with fair use under United States copyright law. If you are the copyright holder of any material on this website and believe you have not been properly identified, or you do not wish for your materials to be available in this curriculum, please contact us to complete a takedown request.
For other users, many of the images in this curriculum are protected by copyright. If you would like to use any of the materials in this curriculum beyond the classroom, you are responsible for determining whether any further publication of the materials in this curriculum is legal and securing any permissions needed.
How and When to Teach the Curriculum
The modules in this curriculum are organized thematically rather than chronologically. They can be used in the sequence in which they occur in the curriculum or they can be taught individually when it aligns with your class content. Each module identifies common US History topics that align with Indigenous Chicago, and you can additionally reference this AP US History crosswalk guide (also located further down on this page). Whether you teach chronologically or thematically, it is essential that you spiral content about Indigenous history throughout the year rather than siloing Native people to the first unit of the year or the month of November. These approaches, while common, communicate to students that Native people are only worth thinking about during certain moments of the year (Thanksgiving, for example). Instead, help students see Native people as relevant members of the Chicago community, past, present, and future, all year long. We recommend that you spread the modules out over the year. This reflects how we are all walking, living, and learning on Native land, all the time!
Module | Content focus / story | When to teach it |
Premodule | This module familiarizes students with the sources historians use to learn about the past. | This module is best positioned at the start of the school year when you and your students are building shared expectations and foundations for later learning. |
Modules 1-4 | The remaining modules explore specific themes in Native Chicago history. Within each module, content spans multiple decades (if not centuries). | You might choose to teach these modules in any order. You can excerpt individual lessons within each module, though we have designed each module to contain a hook, three supporting question inquiries, and a wrap-up / extension exercise. |
Each module is divided into several 20-40 minute sessions, which can be examined over the course of a week or several weeks. The modules follow an Inquiry Design Model (IDM) which prioritizes a cyclical model of learning in which students ask questions, learn to apply new tools and concepts, evaluate evidence, share their conclusions and apply their learning, all of which then prompts new questions (Grant, Swan, & Lee 2023). Sources for the modules are primarily from the Newberry Library’s collections, including historical texts and maps as well as newly commissioned art pieces. In the years to come, new oral histories conducted with the Chicago Native community will join parts of the curriculum.
As you move through the curriculum, each module has both teacher-facing and student-facing history briefs. Please note that content from these sections repeats across the modules in varied form. If you are teaching multiple modules, you can revisit repeated content with your students or skip the repeated sections (please note that the sections might not be identical, so please check over each module’s history briefs carefully before deciding which sections to repeat or skip).
Given that you may choose to spread the modules out across the entire school year, you might choose to build in some form of continuity for your students. This might be, for example, a specific interactive notebook or H.I.T. book just for Indigenous Chicago-related lessons. You might create a designated space in your classroom where students keep their Indigenous Chicago-related materials or a specific wall display where you keep key resources and ideas from Indigenous Chicago posted and visible. This can help students remember that these ideas are applicable all year long. You might also create a recurring, predictable structure that indicates to students that they’re transitioning into and out of an Indigenous Chicago modules. For example, you might start each module with a wondering walk or a focused walk to help students re-ground themselves in place and conclude with an examination of contemporary news developments (either those listed in the curriculum or some that you find on your own!) to help students build a habit of awareness of contemporary issues for Native people.
As you engage with the inquiry modules here, remember that good inquiry texts can be any source of information that allows us to meaningfully interpret the past. While many students might first think of historical documents in colonial archives, sources for inquiry for Indigenous histories also include oral traditions, oral histories, community knowledge keepers, and artwork, among others. You will see examples of these sources throughout the Indigenous Chicago modules.
If the inquiry design model is new to you, begin with this overview from the C3 Teachers Framework below. Click on each image to expand.
The Indigenous Chicago modules complement the ISBE high school social science standards for civics, history, geography, and inquiry. They also can help teachers meet the new Illinois history mandate as passed in SB 1633 that all elementary and high school courses that teach US history or US government will include a unit of study about Indigenous histories and experiences in the Midwest since time immemorial starting with the 2024-2025 school year.
Each of the five core content modules aligns with the inquiry process outlined in the following ISBE inquiry standards:
ISBE Inquiry Standards to integrate across all Indigenous Chicago modules |
SS.9-12.IS.3. Develop new supporting and essential questions by primary and secondary investigation, collaboration, and use sources that reflect diverse perspectives (e.g., political, cultural, socioeconomic, race, religious, gender). |
SS.9-12.S.4. Determine the kinds of sources that will be helpful in answering compelling and supporting questions, taking into consideration multiple points of view represented in the sources, the types of sources available, and the potential uses of the sources. |
SS.9-12.IS.5. Gather and evaluate information from multiple primary and secondary sources that reflect the perspectives and experiences of multiple groups, including marginalized groups. |
SS.9-12.IS.8. Evaluate evidence to construct arguments and claims that use reasoning and account for multiple perspectives and value systems. |
In addition, each of the modules can help students build historical literacy skills through their structured engagement with primary source materials. Among the other standards specifically named within each module, you can anticipate working with students to:
ISBE Disciplinary Concept Standards to integrate across all Indigenous Chicago modules |
SS.9-12.H.5. Analyze the factors and historical context… that influenced the perspectives of people during different historical eras. |
SS.9-12.H.8. Analyze key historical events and contributions of individuals through a variety of perspectives, including those of historically underrepresented groups. |
SS.9-12.H.10. Identify and analyze ways in which marginalized communities are represented in historical sources and seek out sources created by historically oppressed peoples. |
SS.9-12.H.11. Analyze primary and secondary historical sources from multiple vantage points and perspectives to identify and explain dominant narratives and counter narratives of historical events. |
SS.9-12.H.13. Analyze multiple and complex causes and effects of events in the past. |
Indigenous Chicago modules engage a wide array of primary source materials, including textual documents, photographs, oral histories, maps, artwork, videos, and images of physical items, among others. A number of resources can support students in building their skills for primary source analysis. We recommend consulting the Library of Congress’s how-to guides for different types of sources as well as the National Archives’ educator resources for document analysis. Help your students assess each document for its basic information (what is it, who created it, for what purpose), analyze the content of the item, corroborate or question content in the source using other sources, look for hidden meanings or significance not immediately apparent at first reading, and connect what they learn from the item to the broader historical questions they are asking.
To understand the full history of the United States, it is essential that students build a solid understanding of this history as viewed from Indigenous perspectives. To that end, the materials and historical briefs within each unit prioritize Indigenous voices and Indigenous-created resources. Indigenous people are not monolithic, and the perspectives in the curriculum represent many distinct Native nations, experiences, and priorities. As a supplement to your general curriculum, these inquiry modules provide some of the many Native voices too often excluded or erased from existing K-12 classroom resources. They do not attempt to provide a “balanced” representation that accounts for the dominant historical perspectives of policy makers and authority figures, as such perspectives are more robustly represented within existing K-12 classroom resources.
That being said, in certain cases, the best available resource for understanding Native histories at a particular historical moment may be a colonial map or resource. With these documents, we encourage students to read carefully against the grain to push back against dominant narratives and reveal experiences hidden between the lines. “Reading against the grain” refers to how we analyze a text to pull out the messages that might not be readily visible on the surface. For more on the practice of reading against the grain, see this Learning for Justice educator guide.
Students will be looking across a wide timespan within each module, which will require them to synthesize ideas across multiple contexts. As you facilitate your students’ engagement with these materials, help them think about not just what the documents tell us about the people, places, and events but also what they reveal about broader historical and ongoing power dynamics relative to resource extraction, land dispossession, erasure within popular narratives, and labor exploitation. We encourage engagement with these documents not only for what they tell us about the past but also for the mindsets, habits of inquiry, and ethical commitments that students can develop through the process of learning from these documents. Such approaches are critical for our students to develop a more just, interconnected, and shared future.
Indigenous knowledges bridge content areas, and this curriculum therefore incorporates connections with the sciences, arts, and English. Helping your students see Indigenous peoples’ histories, presents, and futures as a fundamental part of Chicago life is about more than reciting place names, people, dates, and events. Rather, if we are to walk together towards more sustainable shared futures, particularly in the face of climate change and global pandemics, we must think about how Indigenous histories and experiences allow us to re-imagine our relationships with each other, with our lands and waters, and with the animals and plants who share those spaces with us. While the vast majority of the resources come directly from the Newberry archives, you will notice some additional materials that facilitate interdisciplinary connections.
Indigenous knowledges emerge from place and from intergenerational relationships with our languages and teachings. This curriculum does not draw from the specific teachings or languages of any one nation, as it reflects a place that has long been a crossroads for many Indigenous peoples. Moreover, it is inappropriate for teachers to share traditional knowledges without the explicit instruction and permission of community knowledge keepers and without deep community relationships. What this curriculum does offer is an accounting of Chicago histories that prioritizes Indigenous perspectives. Throughout the modules, Indigenous-created sources speak to how Indigenous peoples have always seen themselves in mutually interdependent relationships with the lands and waters we currently call Chicago and with one another in it. In addition, the modules’ connections with Indigenous Chicago’s maps and original Indigenous-created artwork reflect Indigenous ideas about responsibilities, relationships, shared pasts, and future priorities.
As you engage these pieces and perspectives, highlight Indigenous peoples’ diversity; rigorous ecological, technological, and intellectual traditions; artistry; and political savvy. Work with students to think about their own histories for each of these areas, and help them imagine their own place within thriving futures for human beings, non-humans, and lands and waters.
As you think about how to build additional space for Indigenous content in your classroom, be wary of approaches that jump straight to asking Indigenous peoples for additional labor. Instead, think about the many Indigenous-created resources throughout this curriculum that Indigenous artists, knowledge keepers, community members, and scholars have already made available. If your school is ready to commit to meaningful relationships with Indigenous elders, knowledge keepers, or community leaders, ensure that such relationship-building is mutually beneficial and appropriately compensated in light of Indigenous expertise.
While we encourage teachers to implement the Indigenous Chicago curriculum in full, this document provides points of intersection between common topics covered in U.S. History courses and lessons within the Indigenous Chicago Curriculum. These points of intersection may include direct reference to the topics in the left column or topics that would pair well with those topics. You will notice that many of the suggested topics to pair with the Indigenous Chicago curriculum are unrelated to Chicago or happen at different time periods than what is covered in our modules. This is because settler-colonial violence and dispossession have occurred across many decades and a wide geographical area. While many of the topics below tend to focus on colonial America on the east coast or the American West, students can connect these events to earlier and later moments in local Chicago history. The information here is meant to serve as an at-a-glance guide and is thus brief. However, the teacher-facing “History Briefs” in each module provide more guidance and background information about the connections between the topics covered in Indigenous Chicago and larger events and themes in U.S. History. Teachers should feel free to teach these lessons individually as they are able to fit it into their existing curriculum.
The topics listed below were taken from the College Board’s AP U.S. History Course Content page with sub-topic suggestions and timeline points from the Gilder Lehrman Institute AP U.S. History Study Guide.
Topic | Indigenous Chicago Curriculum Sections |
Period 1: 1491-1607 | |
Native American societies before European contact | Direct Reference: Premodule, SQ1 Direct Reference: Premodule, SQ3 Direct Reference: Module 1, SQ1 Direct Reference: Module 2, Hook Direct Reference: Module 3, SQ1 |
European exploration in the New World | Direct Reference: Module 3, SQ1 Pair: Module 2, SQ1 |
| Direct Reference: Module 5 (coming soon) |
Period 2: 1607-1754 | |
How different European colonies developed and expanded | Direct Reference: Module 1, SQ2 Direct Reference: Module 3, SQ1 Direct Reference: Module 4, SQ1 Pair: Module 2, SQ1 |
Interactions between American Indians and Europeans | Direct Reference: Module 1, SQ2 Direct Reference: Module 3, SQ1 Direct Reference: Module 4, SQ1 |
Period 3: 1754-1800 | |
Immigration and migration within America | |
| Pair: Module 1, SQ2 Pair: Module 4, SQ1 |
| Direct Reference: Module 1, SQ3 Direct Reference: Module 2, SQ1 Direct Reference: Module 2, SQ2 Direct Reference: Module 2, SQ3 |
Period 4: 1800-1848 | |
The rise of political parties | |
| Pair: Module 1, SQ2 Pair: Module 4, SQ1 |
American foreign policy | |
| Pair: Module 4, SQ1 |
| Direct Reference: Module 4, SQ1 |
| Direct Reference: Module 4, SQ1 |
Innovations in technology, agriculture, and business | Pair: Module 2, Hook Pair: Module 2, SQ3 |
The Indian Removal Act | Direct Reference: Module 2, SQ3 |
| Pair: Module 2, SQ3 |
| Pair: Module 2, SQ3 |
| Pair: Module 4, SQ1 |
Period 5: 1844-1877 | |
Manifest Destiny | Pair: Module 1, SQ2 Pair: Module 2, SQ1 Pair: Module 4, SQ1 |
| Pair: Module 1, SQ2 |
| Pair: Module 2, SQ3 |
Reconstruction | |
| Direct Reference: Module 5 (coming soon) |
Period 6: 1865-1898 | |
The settlement of the West | Pair: Module 2, SQ1 Pair: Module 3, SQ1 Pair: Module 4, SQ1 |
| Pair: Module 4, SQ1 |
| Pair: Module 4, SQ1 |
| Pair: Module 4, SQ1 |
Debates about the role of government | |
| Direct Reference: Module 5 (coming soon) |
| Direct Reference: Module 5 (coming soon) |
Period 7: 1890-1945 | |
Debates over imperialism | Pair: Module 5 (coming soon) |
The Progressive movement | Direct Reference: Module 4, SQ2 |
Period 8: 1945-1980 | |
The African American Civil Rights Movement | Pair: Module 3, SQ2 Pair: Module 3, SQ3 Pair: Module 4, Hook Pair: Module 4, SQ3 Pair: Module 5 (coming soon) |
Period 9: 1980-Present | |
Challenges of the 21st century | Direct Reference: Module 1, Hook Direct Reference: Module 1, SQ3 Direct Reference: Module 2, Wrap-Ups and Extensions Direct Reference: Module 3, Hook Direct Reference: Module 4, Wrap-Ups and Extensions Direct Reference: Module 5 (coming soon) |
Common Pitfalls and How to Avoid Them
Native people most commonly receive attention in US History classrooms at three specific moments: during the first unit of the year as a pre-contact focus on hunters and gatherers, on Indigenous Peoples’ Day, and on Thanksgiving or during the month of November. This gives students the impression that Native people are not relevant to the rest of the content or year. Further, many of the stories taught at these moments reinforce narratives that Native people are “uncivilized” or are now extinct. Teaching Native histories all year and in ways that include contemporary stories of Native life helps students gain a more realistic view of our shared pasts, presents, and futures.
In addition to specific moments, Native histories are often taught only using certain people (Pocahontas, Sacajawea, etc.). These stories tend to focus on Native “heroes” who in some way worked with settlers. Not only are these stories more complicated than lessons generally show, but they also represent a small sliver of the vast diversity of Native histories. Instead of focusing on a few “heroes,” integrate a wide range of stories that reflect the array of Native nations with ties to the Chicago area (note: if you are reading this beyond Chicago, tailor your teaching to reflect the nations of your region).
In some states, most notably Oklahoma and California, reenactments form a core part of how Native histories are taught and remembered. A number of problems permeate these approaches, including forcing students to reenact colonial violence, centering settler perspectives and erasing Indigenous voices, and in some cases asking students to “play Indian.” We discourage any reenactments or simulations. Instead, consider other ways to help students think about complex issues of power and perspective such as those in Module 4.
For decades, American schools have turned to a consistent set of school arts and crafts activities to evoke Indigenous cultures. These activities (mask-making, pony beads, Thanksgiving grocery bag vests, etc.) often draw from a narrow set of stereotypes that caricature Plains or Southwest Indigenous artistry. In the process, they undermine centuries of Indigenous artistic innovation closely linked to Indigenous science, math, and history. Rather than recreating this model, you can teach about contemporary Native artists, including those featured in the Indigenous Chicago curriculum. Use artists’ work and authorial statements to help students think about complex histories of colonial suppression of Indigenous art and the vibrant movement of Indigenous people reclaiming and innovating the art forms of their communities. For more, visit local Native-owned galleries like the Center for Native Futures or look into the online exhibitions of the National Museum of the American Indian.
Dominant narratives in American society regularly erase Native people. According to IllumiNative and the Tulalip psychologist Stephanie Fryberg, “Invisibility is the modern form of racism against Native people.” You can push back on this erasure in your classroom.
First, you can assume that you likely have Native students in your class, school, or neighborhood, whether or not you recognize them as visibly Native. More than 644,000 Native students attend schools in the United States today, 93% of whom attend public schools. While some attend Native-majority schools, many attend schools where they are among a small number of Native students. Stereotypes about what Native people look, sound, and act like impact what non-Native people expect of Native people, but Indigenous people represent a wide array of diverse families and life experiences. Remember, too, that Native identity in the US is a political status, reflective of individuals’ citizenship in or descent from Native nations, as well as a racialized category.
Second, you can assume Native people are relevant to the history you’re teaching. Rather than siloing Native people to certain historical topics, you can look for the meaningful ways that Native people shape a significant portion of the content regularly taught in US History classes. Moreover, see the 2015 edited volume Why You Can’t Teach United States History without American Indians.
Stereotypes of Native people as violent, infantile, uncivilized, stoic or silent, and/or hyper-romanticized, hyper-ecological, and hyper-sexualized all have their roots in colonialism. Each represents its own way of undermining Indigenous lives, and many have been used to rationalize or justify violence against Indigenous children and families. These stereotypes manifest in and form the foundation of many school practices and policies today. As a teacher, you can ensure your class policies, practices, and materials respect Indigenous lives. Vet your class resources carefully, especially if they come from non-Native authors (for help vetting resources, see Nambé Pueblo scholar Debbie Reese’s excellent blog and this resource from Understand Native Minnesota). Be cautious about pulling AI-generated content, as it can reproduce stereotypes about Native people. We encourage you to use class materials from a wide range of Indigenous authors and content creators to give your students a holistic, accurate sense of Native people, today and in the past.