What Shall We Do With These Native Americans?
By John Riemenschneider (jriemenschneider@hpschools.org)
8th Grade
Social Studies Teacher at
“There,
(
INTRODUCTION:
The year is 1830 and you are an editor
of the Atlanta Gazette. Your
Editor-in-chief assigned you to give an opinion piece on a bill that is before
Congress entitled Indian Removal. This
is the end result of years of conflict between Native Americans east of the
TASK:
1. Complete web quest graphic organizer while completing
process
2. Write a two-page opinion piece for your newspaper with your
opinion on the proposed law. Discuss the
problem, evidence and causes. Discuss
the option of passing this law with benefits and problems to this law. This of alternatives to this law that might
be better to all parties involved.
PROCESS: (Click
here to print)
You will
use a four step process called the American History Public Policy Analyst (AHPPA). This is very similar to Science class. You
will: 1.
Identify the
Problem – What is the problem/issue? 2.
Gather the Evidence
– How do we know about this? 3.
Determine the
Causes – Why is this problem happening? 4.
Evaluate the Policy
– What did the government do? Did the
results outweigh the costs? Were there
alternatives? |
Step 1 - Identify
the Problem
Explore
the situation of
·
Overview
of issues with at hand
·
A
brief history of the Cherokee and Trail of Tears
Step 2 - Gather the evidence of the Problem
Now that you have identified the problem, what was
the validity (truth) of it? Did it seem
like the Native Americans and white settlers could come up with a solution
without the help of the federal government?
What did the state of
·
Cherokee Nation
v. Georgia (1831)
·
Andrew Jackson
calls for the Indian Removal
Step 3 -
Determine the Causes
Go through and
try to determine why you think this conflict was not going to end. Some lawmakers thought that if the Cherokee
nation adapted to white culture they did not need to be removed. Is this a good alternative to removal? Did the Cherokee try to achieve this?
·
Opinion piece
by Cherokee about becoming civilized
·
Cherokee
Develop a written language
Step 4- Evaluate the Policy
President Andrew
Jackson and Congress decided to pass the Indian Removal Act in
1830 to deal with the Native American issue. What were the effects of this decision in
terms of costs and benefits? The costs
would include both economic and social issues and the benefits would be related
to the achievement of the objective.
Consider how these two relate.
Here are some scenarios:
-
Benefits
obtained at reasonable cost. (Did the
-
Benefits
obtained at too high of a cost. (Did the
-
Benefits
not obtained (Did the
-
Benefits
not obtained and costs were still too high (Did
the
Also you need to
brainstorm alternatives to the law. What
law could Congress have passed differently?
Come up with at least two alternatives to this law.
·
Picture
of Cherokee on the Trail of Tears
·
Major
General Scott’s ultimatum
· Andrew Jackson’s defense of the Removal Law
Evaluation
Below is a rubric that I will use to grade
your completed graphic organizer and opinion writing piece. Consult it first to determine the various
criteria:
|
4 |
3 |
2 |
1 |
Total |
Time on Task |
Was totally focused and on task throughout
project |
Was mostly focused and on task during
project |
Was distracted easily, had a hard time
finishing during class time. |
Was not on task at all, had to be refocused
by teacher constantly |
_____/4 |
Completed Graphic
Organizer |
Organizer was completely filled out with
lots of details |
Organizer was mostly filled out. |
Organizer was missing some points. |
Organizer was unclear, not fully filled out. |
_____/4 |
Paper-Opinion |
Paper fully answers task given |
Paper mostly answers task given |
Paper somewhat answers task given |
Paper does not answers task, is unfocused |
____/4 |
Paper- Organization |
Paper is fully organized and flows easily.
Opinion is clearly stated. |
Paper is somewhat organized but can still be
easily followed |
Paper is hard to follow and does not stay on
topic. Opinion is vague. |
Paper is not organized with no paragraphs. No opinion present. |
____/4 |
Paper – Spelling
& Grammar |
There is not spelling or grammar mistakes |
There are a few mistakes, but does not take
away from the paper |
There are numerous mistakes and it makes it
hard to follow |
There are many mistakes and paper is
impossible to follow |
____/4 |
Total_____/20
Conclusion
This
web quest was designed to determine the conditions and motives for passing the
Indian Removal Act and to have students stop and think if there could have been
other means to end this conflict between Native Americans and white
settlers/government. This will relate to
the later unit while discussing the impact of the settlement of the West and
how the American government dealt with Native tribes out West.
Standards
– Common Core
English Language Arts Standards »
·
RI.7.1.
Cite several pieces of textual evidence to support analysis of what the text
says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text.
·
RI.7.2.
Determine two or more central ideas in a text and analyze their development
over the course of the text; provide an objective summary of the text.
RI.7.3. Analyze the interactions between
individuals, events, and ideas in a text (e.g., how ideas influence individuals
or events, or how individuals influence ideas
or
events).
·
RI.7.8.
Trace and evaluate the argument and specific claims in a text, assessing
whether the reasoning is sound and the evidence is relevant and sufficient to
·
support the
claims.