Donald L. Miller, with Pauline Maier; Waldo E. Martin, Jr.; Virginia Scharff; Louis P. Masur; and Douglas Brinkley, discusses the social environment at the bicentennial of the United States, 1876. Using the 1876 World Exposition as a hub, the presentation examines issues including the situations of Native Americans, women, and African Americans following the Civil War; the emphasis on industrialism and progress; and the trend towards individualism and self-improvement.

In 11 short video clips, Smithsonian curator Barbara Clark Smith analyzes John Smith's 1612 map of Virginia.

Eighth-grade American history educator Eric Langhorst discusses the PBS American Experience series We Shall Remain, which describes the Native American story within the context of American history. He offers thoughts on how educators might use clips from the series in the classroom.

To navigate the Kansas River in the 1820s, you needed the right equipment—a keelboat. Curators and experts at the Kansas Museum of History look at the history behind a steering oar which helped a fur trader's keelboat stay the course on the mighty Kaw.

This presentation, narrated partially from the perspective of Oglala Lakota Sioux medicine man Black Elk, describes the Battle of the Little Bighorn and the seizing of Native American land and the forcing of Native Americans onto reservations that followed.

This presentation, told partially from the perspective of a prospector's wife, Annie Tallent, looks at the push of prospectors into the American West to find gold, focusing on the expedition of Tallent, her husband, and several other prospectors into the South Dakota Black Hills and on the tension between prospectors, the military, and Native Americans.

This presentation, narrated partially from the perspectives of Uriah and Mattie Oblinger, 1872 homesteaders, describes the efforts of pioneers to settle the Great Plains and their belief in Manifest Destiny and personal ownership.

This presentation, narrated partially from the perspective of Sallie Hester, a young girl heading across the U.S. to California with her family, looks at the journey of settlers across the American West.

This presentation, narrated partially from the perspective of historian and explorer Francis Parkman (1823-1893), looks at the lifestyle of the Oglala and Parker's perception of it.

Narrated from the perspective of Black Elk, a holy man of the Lakota Sioux, in the 1930s, this presentation describes contact between his people and white explorers, settlers, and soldiers. It also examines life on the Pine Ridge reservation today.