Hueco Tanks State Historic Site [TX]

Description

Hueco Tanks State Historic Site, a 860.3-acre park, was named for the large natural rock basins or "huecos" that have furnished a supply of trapped rainwater to dwellers and travelers in this arid region of west Texas for millennia. A unique legacy of lively and fantastic rock paintings greets the visitor at the "tanks." From Archaic hunters and foragers of thousands of years ago to relatively recent Mescalero Apaches, Native Americans have drawn strange mythological designs and human and animal figures on the rocks of the area. The site's notable pictographs also include more than 200 face designs or "masks" left by the prehistoric Jornada Mogollon culture. Hueco Tanks was the site of the last Indian battle in the county. Apaches, Kiowas, and earlier Indian groups camped here and left behind pictographs telling of their adventures. These tanks also served as watering places for the Butterfield Overland Mail Route.

The site offers exhibits, tours, and occasional recreational and educational events.

Friendship Hill National Historic Site [PA]

Description

Friendship Hill is the country estate of Albert Gallatin (1761-1849), who is most notable for his thirteen year tenure as Secretary of the Treasury during the Jefferson and Madison administrations. In that time he reduced the national debt, purchased the Louisiana Territory and funded the Lewis & Clark exploration." Today, visitors to Friendship Hill can explore the restored Gallatin House as well as view several exhibits to learn more about the history of Albert Gallatin. Visitors can also enjoy a variety of outdoor activities, including picnics and hiking.

The site offers in depth historical and visitor information regarding the National Historic Site.

Tamástslikt Cultural Institute

Description

The Tamástslikt Cultural Institute is located in Pendleton, Oregon. Located on the grounds of Wildhorse Resort and Casino, the museum offers visitors a chance to celebrates the traditions of Cayuse, Umatilla and Walla Walla Tribes of the Pacific Northwest.

The site offers museum information, shopping, and teacher resources.

Bushy Run Battlefield [PA]

Description

Colonel Henry Bouquet and a force of approximately 400 British soldiers left Carlisle in July to relieve the besieged Fort Pitt and end a series of unchecked attacks against frontier outposts. The opening of western Pennsylvania to settlement was the result of a decisive victory over the Native Americans at the Battle of Bushy Run, August 5th and 6th, 1763.

The site offers exhibits, tours, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).

Fort Union Trading Post National Historic Site [ND]

Description

Fort Union Trading Post was the most important fur trading post on the upper Missouri from 1828 to 1867. At this post, the Assiniboine, Crow, Cree, Ojibway, Blackfeet, Hidatsa, and other tribes traded buffalo robes and other furs for trade goods such as beads, guns, blankets, knives, cookware, and cloth.

The site offers a short film, exhibits, demonstrations, educational programs, and occasional recreational and educational events (including living history events).

Caprock Canyons State Park and Trailway [TX]

Description

The escarpment's scenic canyons were home for Indians of several cultures, including the Folsom culture of more than 10,000 years ago. The region's historic era began when Spanish explorer Coronado traveled across the plains in 1541. After Spanish colonies were established in New Mexico around 1600, two-way trade between Plains Indians and New Mexicans began and gradually increased. The Plains Apache acquired horses and became proficient buffalo hunters. They were displaced by the Comanche, who arrived in the early 1700s and dominated northwestern Texas, until they were finally subdued in the 1870s. During the Comanche reign, trade prospered and New Mexican buffalo hunters, known as ciboleros, and traders, known as Comancheros, were frequent visitors to this area. Las Lenguas Creek, a few miles south of the park, was a major trade area, and a site excavated on Quitaque Creek has produced artifacts indicating that it may have been a cibolero camp.

The park offers tours and educational and recreational events and programs.

Fort Leaton State Historic Site [TX]

Description

Fort Leaton State Historic Site consists of 23.4 acres, five of which are the site of a pioneer trading post. In 1848, Ben Leaton built a fortified adobe trading post known as Fort Leaton. He dominated border trade with the Apache and Comanche Indians before he died in 1851.

The park is day-use only and offers picnicking areas, guided tours, plus exhibits on the history from 15th century, natural history, and archaeological history of the area. The site serves for historical study activities.

Fort Gibson [OK]

Description

Built in 1824, Fort Gibson served as a staging area for several military expeditions which explored the west and sought peace between the tribes of the region. It was occupied through most of the Indian Removal period then abandoned in 1857. The post was reactivated during the Civil War. The army stayed through the Reconstruction and Indian Wars periods, combating the problem of outlaws and squatters. In 1890, the army abandoned Fort Gibson for the last time. Visitors to the site can see a reconstruction of the early log fort as well as original buildings from the 1840s through 1870s. Exhibits detailing the history of the fort are located in the Commissary Visitors Center. The site also hosts a number of special living history events and programs throughout the year.

The fort offers exhibits, occasional living history events, and other recreational and educational programs.

Teaching Thanksgiving 2011

Date Published
Article Body

Have you finished preparing for the holiday next week? If you haven't (or even if you have), take a look at our spotlight page on Thanksgiving. From teaching ideas to online quizzes to primary and secondary sources, we've gathered all of our Thanksgiving material in one place.

If you need more materials on the holiday, its history, and the myths and facts about contact between Native peoples and Pilgrim colonists, other history resource sites have pulled together useful ideas and materials, too.

  • Download primary sources and a teacher's guide from the Library of Congress's Thanksgiving primary source set, and read up on the holiday's past with the Library's November 25 "Today in History" entry.
  • Read Thanksgiving proclamations from George Washington and Abraham Lincoln, admire photos of presidentially pardoned turkeys, and learn about the year of two Thanksgivings, courtesy of NARA's Thanksgiving post.
  • Browse a handful of Thanksgiving lesson plans from Verizon Thinkfinity, ReadWriteThink, and other sources at EDSITEment.
  • The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History relates the work of women in creating the modern Thanksgiving, and offers a lesson plan for learning more about the day.
  • For short videos on the first Thanksgiving, the history of the holiday, and other topics, try HISTORY.com's Thanksgiving page.
  • Elementary-level teachers, guide your students through the history behind the holiday with Plimoth Plantation's interactive "Investigating the First Thanksgiving: You are the Historian."

America Before Columbus

Description

From the Gilder Lehrman Institute:

Charles Mann's most recent book, 1491, won the U.S. National Academy of Sciences' Keck Award for the best book of the year. In this lecture he looks at new research on pre-Columbian America. He concludes that the Americas had actually been heavily populated and developed before the arrival of Columbus but then were rapidly depopulated by the introduction of numerous European and African diseases, giving Europeans the mistaken idea that their new land was a vast, empty wilderness.