This paper explores the American Girl book series and its relation to the history of American education and the school's role in the creation of the ideal American girl. Focused on the Kirsten Larson series of American Girl books, this paper explores how the settler grammars that characterize Kirsten's encounters with an "Indian girl"…

The idea of a shared place in the universe--a shared history--was embodied in 2019. The heft of the Smithsonian--its unparalleled collections, its diverse and deep-rooted expertise, and its outsized ability to connect with millions of people--is being brought to bear on the most critical issues of all time: conversations about democracy, identity,…

History teachers may well feel challenged with the task of bringing women into their American West curriculums due to the great diversity of women in the West during the nineteenth century. At the same time, the past thirty years or so have produced a plethora of monographs, articles, and primary source collections on women in the American West.…

In August 1676 Nathaniel Bacon brought his campaign to "ruin and extirpate all Indians in general" to the Green Dragon Swamp on the upper Pamunkey River. While there, he attacked and massacred nearly fifty Pamunkey Indians, who had been at peace with the government of Virginia for thirty years. Having once formed the backbone of the…

A few days into the new school year, the author's female students invariably beg, plead, and cajole her in the hopes of watching Disney's "Pocahontas" in class. Toddlers when the film was released in 1995, doubtless they have seen it already dozens of times; more importantly, the author cringes at the ethnic and gender stereotypes sometimes…

In this article, the author aims to "discover" the actual Sacajawea. She intends to produce work that critiques colonialism in history and museums and to return the focus of the colonial gaze back to the colonizer. In this article, she talks about how colonial narratives of Sacajawea in popular culture justify conquest, heteropatriarchy, and the…

The purpose of this study was to describe and explain the portrayal of American Indians in U.S. textbooks selected for review in Hillsborough County, Florida's 2012 textbook adoption. The study identified which of the textbooks under consideration contained the greatest amount of information dedicated to American Indians. The study then analyzed…

Americans in the East were great fans of Black Hawk, whose popularity on tour overtook that of Andrew Jackson's parallel tour of the Northeast. Undoubtedly, then, Black Hawk was a celebrity. He remained popular even in 1837, when he attended Catlin's gallery opening in New York, which included his 1832 painting of Black Hawk. Black Hawk may also…

This article discusses how archival documents reveal early nineteenth-century Cherokee purposes for English-language literacy. In spite of Euro-American efforts to depoliticize Cherokee women's roles, Cherokee female students adapted the literacy tools of an outsider patriarchal society to retain public, political power. Their writing served…

This article presents an overview of the ongoing colonial context that perpetuates and supports violence against First Nations women. This context must be recognized and changed as a prerequisite to eliminating or reducing this violence. The article includes a discussion of how gender roles have changed under colonization, the extent of violence,…

Mary Coombs Greenleaf sought to take her place among the many frontier teachers who preceded her in 1800s. However, her destination--Indian Territory--was distinctive from previous American frontiers in that it was the geographical solution to a long record of Indian eradication policy. Mary Greenleaf was fifty-six years old, having just lost her…

This article traces the history of Native American women clubs from 1899-1955. In its heyday in the early 1900s, the women's club movement attracted about two million participants nationwide. Excluded from higher education at the time, women were moved to create their own opportunities to learn, meeting regularly in small groups to study such…

The author presents five classroom activities that involve students in the settlement at Jamestown. Activity 1 simulates the problems encountered on the "Godspeed," a fifty-two-foot foot boat with fifty-two passengers traveling across the Atlantic in 1607 for three slow months. In Activity 2, students plot their route, ocean currents,…

Twenty-four units which focus on the contribution of women and minority group members to the development of the Pacific Northwest provide supplementary material for high school social studies classes. The lives of 12 women are treated in separate units. Other topics include the Pacific Northwest 100 years ago, the temperance movement, oral history…

Designed for high school students, this unit provides library activities for six topics in Pacific Northwest history. Although the references are located in the Renton High School (Olympia, Washington) library, the lessons are appropriate for anyone with access to the materials. The six topics are natural environment, Indians, western frontier,…