American West: A comprehensive encyclopedia of the American West. So far there are sections on Biographies: American (198 entries), Biographies: Native Americans (18), Events and Issues (64), Trails and Places (10), Native American Tribes (26), Forts, Towns and Cities (28), Guns, Clothes and Equipment (20), Animals and Wild Life (20). Most entries contain a narrative, illustrations and primary sources. The text within each entry is hypertexted to other relevant pages in the encyclopedia. In this way it is possible to research individual people and events in great detail.
Native American Tribes: Excellent website on Native American tribes. Each entry includes sections on the origin of the tribal name, language, history, culture and landmarks. Tribes covered include Apache, Caddo, Cherokee, Cheyenne-Arapaho, Chickasaw, Choctaw, Comanche, Creek, Delaware, Kickapoo, Kiowa, Miami, Modoc, Osage, Otoe-Missouri, Ottawa, Pawnee, Peoria, Ponca, Quapaw, Seminole, Seneca-Cayuga, Shawnee, Tonkawa, Wichita, Wyandotte and Yuchi.
The American West: In the 19th century Americans were fascinated with the stories which Harper's Weekly brought to life with articles and illustrations. The editorials and commentary describe a life which many readers could barely imagine. This website preserves a unique documentation of life west of the Mississippi. The website includes articles on the Frontier, Buffalo, Farming & Agriculture, Wagon Trains, Gold, Railroads, Life on the Plains and Indians.
The American West: Primary sources (memoirs, journals, letters and photos) and lesson plans on the American West. These materials are designed for middle and high school students, although extension suggestions may help you modify them for younger students. Each lesson plan provides objectives, standards correlations, background information, web links, procedures, extension suggestions, and assessment recommendations. Lessons include: The Transcontinental Railroad, Mark Twain and the American West, African-Americans in the American West, Images of the West, Making Myths: The West in Public and Private Writings, Water Use: Tragedy in the Owens River Valley, Infectious Disease and Natural Disasters.
Gold Fever: The 1890s in America were desperate times. Economic depression caused bank and business failures and forced millions of men and women from their jobs. When gold was discovered in the frozen unsettled territory between Canada and Alaska, 100,000 people made the treacherous journey in search of riches. This website, based on the television documentary of the same name, tells the personal stories of a handful of city dwellers who, in January 1898, traveled to the Klondike determined to strike gold.
North American Indian History: This site lists thousands of historical events (on a day-by-day basis) which happened to or affected the indigenous peoples of North America. It also has Tribal name meanings and alternative tribal names, Indian "moon" names (calendar information), almost 1,000 photos of ancient ruins, and links to over 8,000 other related sites.
Native North Americans: In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed in what Europeans called the 'New World'. Columbus 'found' a land with around two million inhabitants. He thought he had found a new route to the East, so he mistakenly called these people 'Indians'. These people, correctly known as Native North Americans, must have been shocked at the arrival of Columbus. Within a hundred years, Europeans were trying to settle in America. This website examines what happened between these early European settlers and the Native Americans. Using primary source evidence students can investigate what the early contact was like.
Navajo Code Talkers: Early in 1942 Philip Johnson, met Major General Clayton B. Vogel, the commanding general of Amphibious Corps, Pacific Fleet, and suggested that the U.S. Marines used the Navajo language as a secret code. Johnson, who had grown up on an Navajo Reservation, argued that because it of its complex syntax, tonal qualities and dialect, the Japanese cryptographers would find it impossible to decipher. He also pointed out that Navajo was not a written language and less than 30 non-Navajos understood it. Vogel was convinced by Johnson's arguments and it was decided to establish a Navajo code programme at Camp Pendleton at Oceanside, California. Over the next three years over 400 Navajos agents were trained to use the code and around 300 saw action in the field. Speaking Navajo and using an additional code within that, they were able to convey information and orders among Marine units and Navy warships and aircraft. This website provides an overview of the subject plus links to other related resources including a Navajo Code Talker Lesson, a Navajo Code Talkers' Dictionary, a Navajo Code Cipher Simulation and the Windtalkers film.
History of the Cherokee: This outstanding website has been created by Ken Martin, a Cherokee of mixed-blood and a tribal member of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma. There are sections on: Before the Europeans (In the Beginning, The Legend of the Keetoowahs, A View of Traditional Cherokee Law); First Contacts with Europeans (Fire in the Mountains, First European Contact, Initial Contacts with English Colonists, 1700 through the Revolutionary War); The New United States (The Chickamauga, The Arkansas Cherokee, Pictures of Our Nobler Selves) The Removal (The Trail of Tears); Between Two Fires (From Neutrality to the Alliance with the Confederate States of America, Physical Appearance, Medical Personnel for Cherokee Troops, The Thomas Legion of North Carolina).
Donner Party Online: The Donner Party wagon train of some twenty vehicles and about 100 men, women and children, left Independence, Missouri in April 1846. Badly organized, with overloaded wagons and a late start, they struggled over the Oregon Trial to Fort Bridger, where they decided to take the little-known Hastings Cutoff route. The party was caught by early snowfalls in the Sierra Nevada mountains and forced to camp at Truckee Lake. By the time the ordeal was finally over more than half the Donner Party had perished. Tom March's excellent website provides some good ideas of how to use the Internet to study this dramatic subject in the classroom.
Eyewitnesses to History: The Old West: This website, produced by Ibis Communications, provides what it calls a "ringside seat to history" by publishing eyewitness accounts of past events. The Old West section includes Buffalo Hunt (1846), Crossing the Plains (1865), Battle with the Apache (1872), Custer's Last Stand (1876), Death of Billy the Kid (1881), A Cowboy in Dodge City (1882), Massacre at Wounded Knee (1890), Dalton Gang's Last Raid (1892) and Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid (1899).
Native American Rhymes: The main motivation behind this website is to promote a series of books about Native Americans by Sam Rhodes. However the website also includes sections on Native American Regions and the Great Chiefs. Native American Fun is a collection of games, crossword and word search puzzles that can be used in the classroom.
Billy the Kid: Legend says that Billy the Kid killed twenty-one men in his twenty-one years of life. That is probably an exaggeration but he was sentenced to death for killing Sheriff Brady. Before the planned execution on 15th July 1881, Billy escaped by shooting dead the two deputies guarding him. Despite his violent record Billy was said to be a likeable youth. This website provides the testimony of 15 people who knew Billy the Kid.
Gunfight at the OK Corral: On 26th October, 1881, Marshal Virgil Earp and his brothers Wyatt and Morgan, joined by Doc Holliday, exchanged gunfire with four local cowboys. The gunfight lasted about thirty seconds and when the shooting finished Billy Clanton, Tom McLaury and Frank McLaury were dead and Virgil and Morgan Earp were seriously wounded. This website looks at the background of these events in Tombstone, Arizona and explores the consequences for all the main figures involved in the most notorious shoot-out in the history of the West.
Old Wild West: This ever-growing site features stories of the Old West gleaned from Abilene Reporter-News archives, the Grady McWhiney Research Foundation resources and other historical documents. The website includes material on the Alamo, Sam Houston, Yellow Rose of Texas, Fort Phantom Hill, Dale Evans and the Texas Rangers. The Legends section includes articles on Billy the Kid, Pancho Villa and Davy Crockett.
First Nations Histories: Brief descriptions of different Native American groups. This includes the following: Abenaki, Acolapissa, Algonkin, Bayougoula, Beothuk, Catawba, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Chitimacha, Comanche, Delaware, Houma, Huron, Illinois, Iroquois, Kickapoo, Mahican, Mascouten, Massachusett, Mattabesic, Menominee, Metoac, Miami, Micmac, Mohegan, Montagnais, Narragansett, Nauset, Neutrals, Niantic, Nipissing, Nipmuc, Ojibwe, Ottawa, Pennacook, Pequot, Pocumtuc, Potawatomi, Sauk and Fox, Shawnee, Susquehannock, Tionontati, Tsalagi, Wampanoag, Wappinger and Winnebago.
Mountain Men and the Fur Trade: The primary purpose this website is to provide a virtual research center for Western Fur Trade History. The emphasis is on the Mountain Men in the United States Rocky Mountain region in the period from 1800-50. The first priority has been to provide an e-text collection of the most important historical source materials available. This includes the writings of William Ashley, Thomas Beall, William Becknell, Henry Brackenridge, George Catlin, James Clyman, Anthony Dudgeon, Warren Ferris, Washington Irving, Zenas Leonard, Stephen Meek, Robert Newell, Peter Ogden, Daniel Potts, Eliza Spalding and Nathaniel Wyeth.
Wild Bill Hickok: By the 1860s Wild Bill Hickok had developed a reputation as a cold-blooded killer. Apparently, he became concerned that these stories would get back to his mother in Illinois. He therefore persuaded a journalist, George Ward Nichols, to write an article about him. The article appeared in the February, 1867, edition of Harper's New Monthly Magazine. Newspapers such as the Leavenworth Daily Conservative, Kansas Daily Commonwealth, Springfield Patriot and the Atchison Daily Champion quickly pointed out that the article was full of inaccuracies and that Hickok was lying when he claimed he had killed "hundreds of men". This website includes extracts from these articles and might make a good case-study on the creation of a myth in history.
NativeWeb is an international, nonprofit, educational organization dedicated to using telecommunications including computer technology and the Internet to disseminate information from and about indigenous nations, peoples, and organizations around the world; to foster communication between native and non-native peoples; to conduct research involving indigenous peoples' usage of technology and the Internet; and to provide resources, mentoring, and services to facilitate indigenous peoples' use of this technology. NativeWeb is concerned with indigenous literature and art, legal and economic issues, land claims and new ventures in self-determination.
Kansas Gunfighters: This website is concerned with gunfighters who operated in Kansas during the second-half of the 19th century. This includes short biographies of Sam Bass, William Bonney (Billy the Kid), William "Billy" L. Brooks, Henry Brown, Henderson Brumley, William F. Cody, the Dalton Gang, William "Bill" M. Doolin, Wyatt Earp, Pat Garrett, John Wesley Hardin, Wild Bill Hickok, John "Doc" Holliday, Tom Horn, the Jesse James Gang, Bat Masterson, George Newcomb, Jim Riley, Luke Short, Ben Thompson, Henry Clay White and the Younger Gang.
Trail of Tears: The Cherokees originally occupied vast areas of what are now the states of North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. In 1835 a minority of the Cherokee tribe, ceded all their traditional lands to the United States and provided land for them in what became known as the Indian Territory. The majority of Cherokees opposed this policy but were forced to make the trek West by General Winfield Scott and his soldiers. This website tells the story of what happened to the 15,000 Cherokees who took this 800 mile journey in the winter of 1838.
Oregon Trail Archive: The Trail archive is our growing collection of full-text period documents. This includes Diaries (firsthand accounts of the Trail experience written during the journey); Memoirs (firsthand accounts of the Oregon Trail journey written many years after the fact) and Period Books (full-text of books written during the overland period). Most of the books included were guides designed to help future travelers.
The Oregon Trail: Francis Parkman is one of America's most important historians. Parkman suffered from poor health and gradually lost his sight. It is said that he was only able to write for a few minutes at a time. Parkman once wrote: "Faithfulness to the truth of history involves far more than a research, however patient and scrupulous, into special facts. The narrator must seek to imbue himself with the life and spirit of the time." This is reflected in his work and this website provides you with the full text of the book The Oregon Trial (1849).
Museum of Sutter's Fort: In 1841 John Sutter purchasing 49,000 acres in California. This site dominated three important routes: the inland waterways from San Francisco, the trail to California across the Sierra Nevada and the Oregon-California road. Sutter now decided to build a frontier trading post. Completed in 1843 Sutter Fort had adobe walls eighteen feet high. The fort had shops, houses, mills and warehouses. This Virtual Museum of Sutter's Fort was developed for the Schools of California Online Resources for Educators (SCORE) Project, funded by the California Technology Assistance Program (CTAP). This virtual museum is to acquaint students with John Sutter and his fort and the part both played in history.
The Indian Project has been written by Susan Liening and Judy Schurman for Germantown Elementary Third Grade Social Studies. The website has sections on Native Americans, the Northwest Culture, the Five Cultures, the California-Intermountain Culture, Indian Shelters, the Plains Culture, Indian Legends, the Southwest Culture and the Woodlands Culture.
Woman Spirit: Julia C. White was born in North Carolina of Cherokee/Sioux heritage and is a contributing writer for the international magazine, Connecting Link, with a column of historical information on Native American Nations. On her website she has produced a series of biographies of Native American women. This includes Hanging Cloud (Ojibwa), Dahteste (Mescalero Apache), Nancy Ward (Cherokee); Juana Maria (Chumash), Coosaponakeesa (Creek), Kateri Tekakwitha (Mohawk), Tocmetone (Paiute), Sacajawea (Shoshoni), Pocahontas (Powhatan), Susan La Flesche (Omaha) and Kaitchkona Winema (Modoc).
American Art: This website provides details of artists working in America between 1750 and 1865. This includes Karl Bodmer, Gilbert Stuart, George Catlin, Thomas Cole, Fitz Hugh Lane, William Sydney Mount, John Trumbull, John Vanderlyn, John Faed, George Inness, Thomas Sully, George Caleb Bingham, John Frederick Kensett, John James Audubon, Samuel Finley Breese Morse, Asher Brown Durand, Charles Willson Peale, Raphael Peale and Rembrandt Peale.
American West Text Archive: The History Text Archive publishes high quality articles, books, essays, documents, historical photos, and links, screened for content, for a broad range of historical subjects. This site is dynamic with regular additions to its contents and its link collection. The site is divided into three sections: articles, e-books, and links. The article section contains the articles, documents, essays, and photographs. This section deals with the American West.
Native American Chiefs: This website produced by Marie Thiers in Sweden includes photographs and articles about Native American Chiefs. People covered include Chief Joseph (Nez Percé), Sitting Bull (Hunkpapa Sioux), Quanah Parker (Kwahadi Comanche), Kicking Bear (Minniconjou Sioux), Red Cloud (Lakota), American Horse (Oglala Sioux), Spotted Tail (Brulé Sioux) and Turning Bear (Brulé Sioux).
Texas Online: The Handbook of Texas Online is a joint project of The General Libraries at the University of Texas at Austin and the Texas State Historical Association. The online Handbook offers a full-text searchable version of the complete text of the six-volume print edition, all corrections incorporated in the second printing, and approximately 400 articles not included in the print edition due to space limitations. Subsequent developments will include additional corrections and updates, new articles, illustrations, and audio-video media.
Texas Rangers: When Stephen Austin was colonizing the Spanish province of Texas with Anglo-Americans, he hired a band of horsemen to range over the country to scout the movements of hostile Native Americans. In 1835 this band of men became known as the Texas Rangers. They wore no uniform, never drilled or saluted their officers, and accepted a leader only if he proved the best during combat. This website provides a detailed history of the Texas Rangers.
Henry Flipper: The son of slaves from Georgia, Henry Flipper became the first African American to enter Went Point. In June, 1877, Flipper became the first black officer in the United States army. He fought with distinction in the Indian Wars but when Colonel William Rufus Shafter became commanding officer of Fort Davis in 1881, he was immediately sacked Flipper as quartermaster. Flipper suspected what he later called a systematic plan of persecution, and is said to have been warned by civilians at the post of a plot by white officers to force him from the army. Soon afterwards he was accused of embezzling $3,791.77 from commissary funds. A court-martial found him not guilty of embezzlement but convicted him of conduct unbecoming an officer and ordered him dismissed from the Army. In December 1976, nearly 40 years after his death, he was granted a posthumous honorable discharge. A few months later he was given a full military funeral at Thomasville, Georgia. This website provides a copy of his autobiography.
Buffalo Soldiers: During the Indian Wars the United States army established the 9th and 10th Cavalry. These were two Afro-American regiments led by white officers. Highly respected by the Native Americans these men were called Buffalo Soldiers because their short curly hair resembled that of the buffalo. They played an active role in the Indian Wars and took part in campaigns against the Sioux, Comanche and Apache. Eleven of these soldiers received the Medal of Honor. This comprehensive website provides detailed information about the Buffalo Soldiers.
Battle of Little Bighorn: On 8th July, 1876 the New York Times reported: "The facts as now understood dispose most people here to lay blame for the slaughter upon General Custer's imprudence and probably disobedience of orders. But criticism is kindly and charitable in tone, as it would not be had he not fallen with his command in the thickest of the battle." Later that year the popular novelist, Frederick Whittaker published his Life of General George A. Custer. In an attempt to portray Custer as a hero Whittaker invented interviews with so-called survivors of the battle. This website looks at the evidence to discover what really happened at the Battle of Little Bighorn.
Images of Custer: "All history is contemporary. One of the most famous moments in American history, Custer’s Last Stand, provides compelling evidence for this idea. From the moment the battle ended at the Little Big Horn, historians and poets began to retell the story for their own purposes. It is fascinating to see how the images of Custer and his Last Stand have radically changed in the last century, not because of any new historical information, but because of the contradictory needs of our national psyche. At first, Custer’s Last Stand represented the struggle of Western civilization over savagery. After the Depression, writers portrayed Custer as a rampant egomaniac. During World War II, the Last Stand was an example of courage and self-sacrifice. Since the 1960’s the Last Stand has been seen as just retribution for America’s crimes against Native Americans." So says the author of this fascinating website that began life as a research paper for the history class at the Head-Royce School.
West Point: In March 2002, the United States Military Academy at West Point, New York, celebrated 200 years of producing leaders for the United States Army - and also for American science, education, engineering, exploration, public works, business, manufacturing, communications, and transportation. This online bicentennial exhibition looks at the lives of selected West Point graduates, some famous, others less well known. All attended the Academy between 1802 and 1918. The stories of the officers and their families blend into the US Army’s major functions of 19th and early 20th century America: building the nation’s infrastructure of roads, bridges, canals, and railroads; exploring its territories from the Mississippi to the Pacific; and fighting its wars - the role of the West Pointers in engineering, exploration, and war.
Utah´s American Indians: For the most part, the histories of Utah's American Indian tribes have not been considered a viable and integral part of the history of the state of Utah. They have been treated as addenda or commentary rather than official textbook documentary. This website quotes Will Numkena, "Non-Indian authors have traditionally been the writers of Indian history. Therefore, it is their perceptions, understandings and views reflected in those writings. The reader is given a one-sided perspective without presentation of the Indian experience." In other words, until this time, Indian history has been written by the conqueror, with little or no regard for those conquered. This website attempts to redress the balance.
Diary of William Becknell: In 1821 Becknell and four other men travelled to Santa Fe with a large number of pack animals carrying cotton. The trip was a great financial success as he was able to sell the cotton at $3 a yard. The following year he headed a large wagon train carrying $5,000 in merchandise. The party, including 30 drivers, left Missouri on 4th August, 1822. Becknell followed a new route that later became known as the Sante Fe Trail. He followed the Arkansas River until reaching Fort Dodge. After crossing the Cimarron he headed for Sante Fe which the party reached on 16th November, 1822. William Becknell kept a diary of these adventures and these have now been put on the web.
Donner Party: In the years between 1840 and 1848 an estimated 2,735 people migrated overland from Missouri to California. With good weather the 2,000 mile journey would take about five months. It has been estimated that in 1846 around 250 wagons and 1,500 people assembled at Independence, Missouri. This was also the year of the Donner Party, the worst disaster in wagon train history, when forty-two emigrants and two Indian guides died on the journey. This website uses the letters, diaries and memoirs of the people who took part in this journey to tell this dramatic story of heroism, murder and cannibalism.
America's Western Frontier: Bennie J. McRae, the creator of this website, quotes Art T. Burton, author of Black, Red and Deadly: "Regrettably, many of the accomplishments and sagas of African Americans, Native Americans, Mexican Americans and Asian Americans have never been told in book form. There is a need for the total history of the American West to be told so there will be a more complete picture. Members of these groups played a crucial role in the development of our nation, and the West is no exception". This website attempts to redress the balance and provides a large number of links to resources on this subject.
African-Americans and the Old West: The saga of the Old West is filled with tales of adventure with pioneers roving the plains seeking the unknown in the vast territorial lands west of the Mississippi River. Among those pioneers were identifiable contingents of African Americans who also roamed the western plains and helped to establish what we know of as the Old West. History books do trace and document the development of the United States and its territorial expansion Westward, but very little covers the inclusive part of African Americans as early pioneer dwellers of the Old West. Records are now surfacing taken from facts printed in primary resources, books, state and county documents, including verbal ancestral accounts of the many places, and faces of the early black settlers living in towns all across the Old West. This website provides links to these resources.
The Wisconsin Pioneer Experience is a digital collection of diaries, letters, reminiscences, speeches and other writings of people who settled and built Wisconsin during the 19th century. The project has been made available through the partnership of the Council of University of Wisconsin Libraries (CUWL) and the Wisconsin Historical Society (WHS). Through these documents, students and non-students alike can learn about life in the early days of Wisconsin from the words of those who lived it. Whenever both a handwritten original and a typed transcribed version were available, the project scanned both versions. The electronic text can be searched and read by switching to the electronic text version in the page-turning software used to access the document. No editing was made to the electronic text, therefore the original should always be consulted before citing the text.
Ghost Towns: Daniel Ter-Nedden and Carola Schibli are two photographers from Switzerland. However, they spend a great deal of time travelling in the United States. Their website contains over 1300 photographs of 174 ghost towns in Nevada, Utah, New Mexico, California, and Arizona. Each ghost town entry includes photographs, short captions, and a brief history of the place. The website also provides a brief history of the Gold Rush. A clickable map allows users to search different geographical areas for individual ghost towns. You can purchase high-quality prints of different photographs featured on the site.
Educational Websites
Standards Site, BBC History, PBS Online, Open Directory Project, Virtual Library,
Education Forum, History GCSE, Design & Technology, Learn History, Music Teacher Resource,
Freepedia, Teach It, Science Active, Geography IST, Brighton Photographers, Sussex Photo History,
Compton History, Universal Teacher, English Teaching, English Online, History Learning Site,
History on the Net, Black History, Greenfield History, School History, HistoryWorld, I Love History,
E-HELP, Ed Podesta Blog, Macgregorish History, Historiasiglo20, Sintermeerten, ICT4LT |
News and Search
Guardian Unlimited, Times Online, Daily Telegraph, The Independent, New York Times,
Washington Post, BBC, CNN, Yahoo News, New Scientist, Google News, Channel 4, ZDNet,
Google, Excite, Yahoo, MSN, Lycos, AOL Search, Hotbot, Metacrawler, Netscape, Ask, Search,
Go, Looksmart, Dogpile, Raging Search, All the Web, Kartoo, Search Engine Watch, About
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