The Status of Native Americans in the Eyes of the US Government

You should provide background on Native American groups and their relationships with the colonists and eventually US Government between the Seven Years War (French and Indian War). How does it compare to the relationship the British Government had originally established and the maintained through the Revolution with these groups? Discuss the impacts of racial discrimination and how they may play into decision making processes by people (statistical discrimination). How could the Native Americans and Americans benefit economically together?

Additional connections you can make or encourage the students to think about is how do they think this may impact other disenfranchised groups? Review the years of the documents, what else is happening (or about to happen) in the United States? What connections can you make to sharecropping post Civil War? Another connection you can make later on is the impact of the Dawes Act on Native American groups. Does the Dawes Act perpetuate or change the impact(s) of the Indian Removal Act? Another connection question could be how does the impact of the Indian Removal Act (and later the Dawes Act) compare to the effects of sharecropping for black citizens after the Reconstruction Amendments are passed?

I encourage you to take your time with this, stretch it out over a few days/periods if you can. Really encourage conversation between your students on what they think with this. The way I recommend approaching this is to have students either answer the questions individually first document by document and then discuss in small groups or pairs about their findings, or have them discuss first then answer the questions. Get the students to really think about the impact of these documents and take the time to dive into each document and think about the implications it has on the different groups within the US and adjacent territories.