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Integrated Social Studies and ELA lesson

Geography
History
Research
Writing
Art

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Original Kansas Native Americans
Santa Fe Trail
Oregon Trail
Native Americans removed to Kansas
Topography and Climate of Kansas
How People Lived

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Non-fiction Picture Book Project idea

Students will select one of the people talked about during the unit (original Kansas Natives, relocated Natives, or travelers of the Trails) to create a non-fiction picture book on using PowerPoint (Slides or other similar programs) for 2nd or 3rd graders.

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Our Epic Nonfiction Picture Book Project Take 2

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For the past few years, my students have written nonfiction picture books for younger audiences around the world. Last year, I decided to share the lesson plan to serve as inspiration for those wh…

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Information to take it from standard picture book on slides to more digital and interactive!

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Children love telling stories, and these apps will keep them creatively engaged, as well as providing means for assessing and sharing their products.

Digital storytelling is a powerful way to engage students in the writing process. Whether they are telling stories from a summer vacation or writing a persuasive essay on a community issue, technology tools can help motivate reluctant writers. Students can use their writing, audio recordings, video creations, illustrations, and images to create a digital storytelling product that demonstrates their understanding of a concept.

Enhancing Creativity

Authentic assessments are essential in order for students to develop 21st century skills. Students should be able to create products with a purpose and for an audience. We hear so much about real-world tasks, especially in discussions around Common Core English language arts. Digital storytelling can be used to connect students to local and global audiences, and provide a sense of purpose for their work.

When we think of digital storytelling, it is often connected to narrative writing. The idea of students recounting a personal experience or sharing a special moment from their lives can clearly be enhanced with multimedia content. Children might create an interactive book that includes a video reflection or photographs from a field trip. Apps like Book Creator and Book Writer give students of all ages the power to become storytellers. As they explore the other writing types (argumentative and informational), they can also create digital products that transform their writing.

Opinion or argument writing can benefit from the multimedia enhancements offered by technology tools. Students can take persuasive essays and create public service announcements, combining videos they've created with Tellagami or ChatterPix into a short clip that supports the argument outlined in their writing. Your elementary school students might use their own voice and add pictures of book covers to give a recommendation, while older students can use video clips and images that support their argument on a community issue. An informative piece of writing, like an ABC book on animal habitats or a step-by-step guide that describes a science experiment, can also benefit from the multimedia features available in a digital storytelling tool. Students can use SnapGuide to include videos and pictures as they describe different steps of a process. Explain Everything is a fantastic screencasting tool that lets students draw on an image like a map or photograph as they point out different features of the animal or ecosystem that they studied for a research report.

Digital storytelling products are all about the objective. This objective might be a similar task that you would normally give students with an expectation that they include a certain amount of multimedia in their final product. Depending on their age and ability, you can give them a choice of different apps or web tools, or walk them through one app that you've picked out for this project. All students can benefit from checklists and a rubric aligned to the task.

Stories That Get Around

The great thing about digital storytelling products is how easy they are to share. These authentic assessments showing a student's understanding of different writing types and craft skills can be made for a local or global audience. When we think about a local audience, picture something that stays inside a classroom or the walls of a school. You might decide to have students play their video creations for the class or during a celebration that family members have been invited to attend. Students can share eBooks they've created with a younger group of children, or add them to a shared set of iPads that are checked out in your media center or library.

Sharing with a global audience can motivate your students to produce something they are truly proud of while demonstrating their mastery of an objective. Many digital storytelling products include "shareable" links to a particular creation that's hosted online. This is true of videos created with Adobe Voice, animated movies made with Toontastic, or screencasts recorded with PixiClip. All of these give you a link to view student creations. With this link, you and your students can share their final products on a class Twitter account, a school Facebook page, or a teacher's blog. Products can be linked to a QR code or augmented reality trigger to be sent home in a district newsletter, or they can be attached to a bulletin board for school visitors. You can even take a student-created ebook and upload it to the iBookstore for anyone to read and enjoy anywhere.

Dedicating time to talking about audience, whether local or global, is so important when introducing a task to students. Letting them know who will benefit from their how-to guide, who might listen to their persuasive argument, or who could hear their favorite story will motivate young writers. Make sure to spread the word about your students' great work to other teachers in your school or to the world on social media. Whether the audience is large or small, students will engage in a task when they know who is listening.

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Digital Storytelling and Authentic Assessments

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Children love telling stories, and these apps will keep them creatively engaged, as well as providing means for assessing and sharing their products. Digital storytelling is a powerful way to engage students in the writing process. Whether they are telling stories from a summer vacation or writing a persuasive essay on a community issue, technology tools can help motivate reluctant writers.

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Introduce project overview. Lay background by examining the topography of Kansas

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Create the maps on day 1. Paint and finish maps on day 2.

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Mommy Crusader and Her Knights and Ladies

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Creating a State Topography Map - Mommy Crusader and Her Knights and Ladies

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During our spring break, we got to visit with some cousins who live far away from us (in a different state). We had a lot of fun together, and one of the things we did was make topography maps of the two states.

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Wrapping up Topography and examine climate of Kansas

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U.S Climate Zones

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Temperature

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Precipitation

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Who were the First Kansans? Research

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Using the resources on the Wakelet or other resources, small groups will research one of the original Kansas Native American Tribes and create a poster about that tribe. Posters will include English name, Tribe's name (with pronunciation if available), where they lived, what their homes were like, what they ate, and other information about how they lived and interacted with other tribes or the U.S..

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Who were the First Kansans? Presentations

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Posters from Day 3 will be displayed and either the 1 Stay, Others Stray method or Graffiti method will be used for students to walk around and view all posters.

1 Stay, Others Stray: 1 person stays to be available to answer questions others have. Others walk around the room and view each poster.

Graffiti: Students walk around and view each poster, leaving comments or marks on it (either actually on it or via sticky notes).

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Santa Fe Trail, movement of people through Kansas

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Field Trip to Visit Ralph's Ruts (visible wagon ruts from the Santa Fe Trail)

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Great for classroom lessons on the Oregon Trail and Westward Expansion!

In 1853, the Larkin family loaded up their wagons and headed west in search of a new life. But how did they do it? What did they eat? How did they survive sickness, and attacks from cattle thieves? Drawing on diaries and letters, and illustrated with photographs of actual object from the past, Daily Life in a Covered Wagon explored what life was really like on the wagon trail.

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Daily Life in a Covered Wagon [Erickson, Paul] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. Daily Life in a Covered Wagon

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Field Trip to the Kansas Museum of History with a guided tour about the Santa Fe and Oregon Trails.

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Guided tour - Kansas Museum of History, Topeka

Grades - 4th

During the mid-1800s, thousands of families traveled through Kansas in covered wagons. Most were heading west in search of land, gold, or a more healthful climate in which to settle. This tour invites students to learn about the history of westward expansion, focusing on experiences from the Santa Fe and Oregon-California trails. The tour visits the Trails portion of the gallery, where students see the full-size covered wagon, the prairie diorama, and exhibits about the items families used on the Oregon Trail and the goods transported on the Santa Fe Trail. In the hands-on museum classroom, students see reproductions of items used and carried on the trails and try on clothes that would have been worn by 19th century travelers.

Teachers may also be interested in two Read Kansas! lessons--I-6 " Trade and Travel on Overland Trails" and I-7 "Life on the Trails" to extend this guided tour.

Standards addressed:

Kansas History, Government and Social Studies

Standard #1: Choices have consequences

1.2: The student will analyze the context under which choices are made and draw conclusions about the motivations and goals of the decision-makers.

Kansas College and Career Ready Standards

SL 3.3: The student will ask and answer questions about information from a speaker, offering appropriate elaboration and detail.

SL 4.3: The student will identify the reasons and evidence a speaker provides to support particular points.

W 4.3 (a-e): The student will write a narrative to develop real or imagined experiences or events using effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences.

See admission fees.

Length of tour: approximately one hour.

Number of students in a group: for the best experience, we recommend no more than 20 students per tour. For large groups, a maximum of 40 students can be accommodated on the tour during any given hour.

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During the mid-1800s, thousands of families traveled through Kansas in covered wagons. Most were heading west in search of land, gold, or a more healthful climate in which to settle. This tour invites students to learn about the history of westward expansion, focusing on experiences from the Santa Fe and Oregon-California trails.

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Oregon-California Trail, movement of people through Kansas

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Play the Oregon Trail game to experience life as a 19th century pioneer.

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Visit Oregon | Oregon Travel & Vacation Guide

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It wouldn't make much sense to have a website like Visit Oregon and not have one of the most iconic Oregon video games ever made. If you grew up in Oregon during the 70's and 80's, you will remember The Oregon trail (1971 video game).

Above is a free version you can play right here for as long as you like. Be sure to bookmark it or share it with friends and family as well.

History & Game Walk Through Of The Oregon Trail

The Oregon Trail is an older, very popular computer game that was developed by Bill Heinemann, Don Rawitsch, and Paul Dillenberger back in 1971. It was then put out on the market in 1974 by MECC. The game is simple and was created to teach school children about the life of a 19th century pioneer on the Oregon Trail. You get to play the role of a wagon leaderand guide your group of chosen settlers from Independence, Missouri, to the Willamette Valley in Oregon while traveling along the Oregon Trail in 1848. The game has since been released multiple time on multiple platforms by various game makers and publishers who acquired the rights.
Hunting
One of the most important aspects in the game is hunting. Using a pixelated pioneer with a gun, you must purchase bullets either in the beginning or over throughout the game. As you travel along, you may stop and select the option to hunt. You are then able to hunt wild animals (deer, elk, bears, bison, squirrels, and rabbits) to get more food reserves. In the early release original version of the game, there wasn't any graphics like the version above. You were basically timed on how quickly you could type out "WHAM", "BANG",or "POW" with misspelled words leading to a failed hunt. In the newer version as seen above, you are able to control a little man who can point his rifle in eight different directions and fire a single shot at the fast moving animals. In other later versions of the game, you are able to hunt with crosshairs that you control by a mouse. Bison are the slowest targets to hit but they offer the most weight in food. Squirrels and Rabbits are super fast yet give you very small weight of food. Elk (western section) and Deer (eastern section) are in the middle in terms of size, speed, and weight of food. Bear are somewhere between deer & bison in all three categories. You can only shoot as many times as the amount of bullets you purchase or trade for in settlements. Keep this in mind when starting off as it is VERY necessary to last through the game. The most bullets you can carry in the wagon is 100 pounds of ammo in the earlier versions of the game. In the later versions, 200 pounds could be carried so long as there were at least 2 living members left. It is normal for players to have to kill several thousand pounds of animals, throughout the game, only to be able to carry 100 lbs of it back to the wagon after each hunt. This is to be considered a realistic representation of what the wild west really was. In the later versions of the game, you are able to hunt in different environments as well. One example is when you hunt during the winter, it would grass covered in snow.

Death
While playing the game, people in your party can suddenly fall ill and die from multiple causes, such as a snakebite, measles, dysentery, cholera, typhoid, and even just exhaustion. You can also die from a simple broken leg or just drowning in a river you may be crossing. Your oxen are also likely to illness or death along your journey. When someone in your party dies, you hold a brief funeral. At the funeral, you are able write an epitaph, then simply continue on down the trail.

Scoring
At the end of the path and game, points are awarded according to survivors, remaining possessions, cash in hand, and by the profession chosen at the beginning of the game (banker, carpenter, farmer). The points at the end of the game are doubled if you chose a carpenter & tripled if you chose a farmer.

The Oregon Trail Card Game

If you haven't gotten enough of the Oregon Trail fun here, you can have even more fun at home with the new card game. You and the family can now play at home with the all new card game made by the same makers!
Get The Oregon Trail Card Game Here
Below is a video walking through the game. The way he puts it sounds gruesome, but it really is a lot of fun:

Check out our Oregon Trail Game T-shirt "You have died from dysentery" in our store:
Get The Oregon Trail Game T-shirt Here
Some Really Great Oregon Trail Books:

History Of The Real Oregon Trail

Most people believe that it's dead and long-forgotten. However, we see a glimpse of it every time an entrepreneur takes a risk to bring an innovative product to market. It's the pioneer spirit that helped to establish the contiguous United States. Nowhere was that spirit on display the most than on the Oregon Trail. Let's trace the steps of those determined men and women who conquered the American West.

What Is the Oregon Trail?

The Oregon Trail was an early-American wagon thoroughfare that spanned over 2,100 miles. The eastern starting point of the Oregon Trail was in Independence, Missouri, and it ended in Oregon's Willamette Valley. The Oregon Trail went through portions of these states.

While fur traders made their own rudimentary routes in the Pacific Northwest throughout the 1700s, the formal Oregon Trail was mostly used between 1840 and 1870. It became nearly obsolete with the completion of the first Transcontinental Railroad in 1869. By taking the train, settlers from the East could arrive in the Pacific Northwest in one week versus six months.

Reasons for Its Establishment

The fur trade was a major source of commerce in the U.S. and Canadian Pacific Northwest. Beaver pelts were traded for useful supplies and durable goods and sold to merchants across Europe. The fur trade was the primary driver of the establishment of the Oregon Trail, which was to be used for other commercial trade purposes later. As the Oregon Trail was just beginning to be established, the Hudson's Bay Company acquired most of the independent fur trapping and trading companies. The British-sponsored agency had a monopoly on the fur trade and simply made use of established trade routes along the Oregon Trail.

Many settlers continued south of Oregon to seek their fortunes during the California Gold Rush. They followed the same Oregon Trail between 1848 and 1855 to get to mines in California after gold nuggets were found in the Sacramento Valley.

Hazards of the Oregon Trail

Harsh Natural Environment

Oregon Trail travel was well documented by government surveyors and amateur journalists. According to the statistics, there were 10 graves for every 1 mile of trail. The cause of death for some was simply the harsh environment that they had to pass through. Wagon train members helped each other out, and they usually had plenty of provisions. However, wagons and livestock had to pass through rivers as well as overland. There were many accidental drownings as people attempted to cross rivers.

Pestilence

The Pacific Northwest was looked upon by many as clean and unspoiled. However, the settlers from the East brought diseases with them that spread via unhygienic practices. Some settlers also had difficulty finding clean water sources along certain portions of the Oregon Trail. Many people died of cholera, smallpox, and dysentery before reaching Oregon. The cholera epidemic of 1849 left thousands dead in the Nebraska and Kansas portions of the Oregon Trail.
War
While early-American settlers looked upon the Pacific Northwest as a land of opportunity, several Native American tribes already considered the region to be their home. As the settlers encroached upon hunting grounds and carried strange diseases to the area, conflict inevitably ensued. Tribes within the Sioux Nation such as the Blackfoot, Oglala, and Santee were hostile to pushy settlers. However, other Native American tribes such as the Arapaho and Cheyenne were friendly to the new settlers and helped them as guides and trading partners.

Besides skirmishes with the Native American tribes, the early settlers were caught in the middle of a war between the U.S. government and the British. The United States wanted to expand its territory to the north and west, but the British still had interests in those North American regions. The United States managed to defend itself against the British and their Canadian and Native American hired guns even as the British captured Washington D.C. for a time. The War of 1812 ended in 1815, and colonization of the Pacific Northwest resumed sporadically after the ratification of the Treaty of Ghent.

Oregon Trail Memoirs
Explorers and Farmers
John Fremont was an explorer who was paid by the government to finish mapping out the region. He joined a wagon party that was on its way to Oregon in 1843. Fremont saw the beginnings of a civilized Pacific Northwest on the journey with the wagon train. He described the campfires blazing warmly and the women cooking delicious suppers. Cattle grazed on the surrounding grass while children frolicked among them. After observing these sights, he said that the remote wilderness valley felt strangely like home.

Farmers were the new fur traders of the Pacific Northwest during the 1850s. The fur trade had slowed dramatically due to changes in men's fashion in Europe. Farmers such as J.T. Kern set out on the Oregon Trail to escape droughts in the Midwest and to take advantage of fertile lands in and around Bear River Valley. He wrote in his journal in 1852 about a country with rich, fertile valleys, streams that were full of fish, and mountains that contained an abundance of timber.

Enoch Conyers was on the Oregon Trail the same year as J.T. Kearns. Conyers was also a farmer and was impressed by the abundance of grazing land in the Bear River Valley.
Pioneer Women
The Pacific Northwest had always been attractive to men who sought adventure and fortune as fur traders. The average man's wages during the early 1800s was $1 per day. Fur traders made $4 per beaver pelt, and beavers were plentiful in the Pacific Northwest. To women, the uncivilized West was far less enticing. The lack of amenities such as stores and cultivated farms meant that their workload multiplied considerably. However, most met the challenges of the journey and subsequent frontier life with gusto. As they said goodbye to friends and relatives and headed west, we can get a glimpse of their feelings about the new environment in which they found themselves immersed by reading their journals and diaries.

Margaret Frink took to the Oregon Trail with her husband in 1850, which was well after the first fur traders carved out their rustic routes. By 1850, previous travelers had already set up feed supply stores, mercantile shops, and high-yield farms. Even with these advantages, Margaret describes a physically difficult journey.

She described fording rivers and climbing steep mountainous terrain with wagons in tow. She said that part of the climb was done on horseback and the rest of it was accomplished on foot. After setting up camp, she reflected on the beauty of the scenery that surrounded her.

One evening in early July, her party was greeted with overnight rain. When she woke the next day, the surrounding mountain ranges were snow-capped. She mentioned that Bear River Valley, the site of their encampment, was stunning and that it would be quite an appealing area after settlers established more towns and farms there.

Abigail Scott was a young woman who traveled the Oregon Trail with her parents and nine siblings. Her father assigned her to be the scribe for their family journal. The girl arrived in the Bear River Valley in mid-July. She described a land of great beauty. Mountains were covered in lush grass and dense groves of fir trees accented their summits. Her wagon party stopped at plenty of streams that provided them with water that was clear, cold, and fresh tasting.

Famous People Who Helped to Blaze the Oregon Trail

While fur trappers laid crude routes throughout the western frontier, it was Thomas Jefferson, America's third president, who was credited with attempting to map out a formal route from the East that led to the Pacific Northwest. He commissioned Lewis and Clark in 1803 to discover a practical, direct route to Oregon to expand America's commercial interests. Lewis and Clark's findings were a disappointment to Jefferson as passing over land through the Rocky Mountains was a difficult feat for covered wagons. However, the pair succeeded in mapping out a key area along the Oregon Trail that was helpful for fur trappers and other trades people.

John Jacob Astor was a well-known businessman, and his family made significant contributions to Industrial Age America. We see that his family name lives on at places such as the Waldorf Astoria hotel. In 1810, Astor owned a fur trading company that operated in the Oregon Territory. He hired people to scout out the surrounding area to discover better trading routes. They established an outpost that was called Fort Astoria. Astor's company, the Pacific Fur Company, weathered deadly Native American attacks and the War of 1812. He finally sold his fur trading company because of feared political opposition from the British who gained temporary control of the area via treaty after the war.

The Oregon Trail has many on and off ramps, and thousands of Mormon migrants took to those routes in 1848. They helped to establish the Oregon Trail by putting down roots along the trail with thriving farms, ranches, and towns. Other travelers who came after them benefited from their efforts. By 1860, a large group of them left those settlements to others and followed Brigham Young to Utah to start one of the most well-known Mormon communities in the world.

Conclusion

Today, Washington, Oregon, and California are known for their cozy coffee shops and overly commercialized retail scenes. It's hard to believe that such posh surroundings came at the cost of such extreme hardship and struggle. I guess it's good to remember the trailblazers of the Oregon Trail the next time that your favorite barista gets your latte order wrong or you have to wait a month for a sought-after designer handbag that's on backorder. Be inspired and count your blessings!

https://www.history.com/topics/war-of-1812/war-of-1812

https://www.history.com/topics/westward-expansion/oregon-trail

https://historicoregoncity.org/2019/04/02/disrupting-the-natives/

https://www.oregon.com/attractions/end-oregon-trail

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The Oregon Trail Game Online | Visit Oregon

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The Oregon Trail Game It wouldn't make much sense to have a website like Visit Oregon and not have one of the most iconic Oregon video games ever made. If you grew up in Oregon during the 70's and 80's, you will remember The Oregon trail (1971 video game).

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Information about the Trail of Tears: Cherokee Legacy documentary that details the forced removable and march of the Cherokee to western lands.

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Rich-Heape Films, Inc., a Dallas-based Native American-owned corporation, released this month "The Trail of Tears: Cherokee Legacy." The two-hour, high-definition feature documents the forced removal in 1838 of the Cherokee Nation from the southeastern United States to Oklahoma.

Wes Studi, the best known Cherokee actor, presents the documentary film, speaking on camera in his native tongue (with subtitles). Noted actor James Earl Jones, who is of blended African and Cherokee heritage, narrates in his customary and convincing tones. They are supported by the celebrity voices of actor James Garner, singer Crystal Gayle, actor John Buttram and former Virginia Gov. Douglas Wilder reading diary excerpts, and a host of historical experts from major universities.

"Uniquely, a Cherokee is recounting this shameful chapter in American history," said Steven R. Heape, Executive Producer and a Citizen of the Cherokee Nation. "This is no 'Hollywoodization' of an American holocaust. The Trail of Tears actually drove the Five Civilized Tribes -- Cherokee, Choctaw, Seminole, Chickasaw and Muscogee Creek -- from their native lands."

Heape and his partner, Chip Richie, who co-produced and directed the film, spent seven years researching and developing the story. It took another three years to raise funding to produce the stunning visual chronicle of an event often referred to as "America's darkest hour."

"The Jacksonian policy led to a brutal, cross country trek in which nearly a quarter of the tribal citizens, died from hunger, exposure, disease and sheer exhaustion," Richie noted. "And these were primarily peaceful farming families who lived in houses, owned businesses, had their own newspapers and abided by their own constitution."

Scenes and segments were filmed in and around Andersonville, Lumpkin and Westville, GA; Hopkinsville, KY; Littleton, ME; Cherokee, NC; Bismarck, ND; Tahlequah, OK, and in Nashville, TN.

Commenting in the film on the "Cherokee Tragedy" are authors and historians Robert J. Conley; Dr. Brett Riggs and Dr. Theda Purdue, both of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill; Dr. Daniel Littlefield, University of Arkansas; John B. Finger, head of Native American Studies at the University of Tennessee at Knoxville; Dr. Duane King, Executive Director of the Southwest Museum of the American Indian, and Wilma Mankiller, the first female chief of the Cherokee Nation.

"My reason for wanting to accurately tell this story goes back to the day in 1985 when I received my tribal citizenship. My Uncle Gene Heape of Dallas sat me down and told me the story of the Trail of Tears. In proper Cherokee culture, this was his responsibility and is 'the way' in which younger Cherokees learn the true story of our people."

The documentary is endorsed by the Cherokee Nation, headquartered in Tahlequah, and the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, based in Cherokee, NC. "The Trail of Tears: Cherokee Legacy" DVD can be ordered online at http://www.richheape.com or by calling toll free 888-600-2922. (MC, V, D, AE, Purchase Orders at Fax 214-696-6306, check or money order.) UPC# 652645680033

Natives, Actors, Re-enactors

Wes Studi, best remembered for his role in the movie "Last of the Mohicans," is a "compelling and knowledgeable native actor," emphasized Heape, himself a descendant of Nancy Ward, the Cherokee Chieftainess who survived the Bell's Route journey. "Another eloquent voice in the film is Gayle Ross, great-great-great granddaughter of John Ross, the principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation at the time of the forced march."

James Earl Jones helped explore the fusion and unique ancestry of American Indian and Black heritage when he narrated "Black Indians: An American Story," a 60-minute documentary produced by Rich-Heape Films in 2000. It was the first Native American-produced documentary to air on national network television, ABC-TV, during Black History Month in February 2002.

Special acknowledgment should go to Principal Chiefs Chad Smith of the Cherokee Nation and Michelle Hicks of the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians for their vision and dedication to educating on tribal history.

"And our appreciation is manifold for hundreds of Indians, actors, military re-enactors, volunteers,, film crew members and the civil servants and citizens of dozens of towns that contributed to this movie," said the 55-year-old Long Beach, CA native. "They, too, deserve recognition for their patience and passion for this historic project."

James Neel of James Neel Music House in Dallas composed the original score with music contribution by the musical group "Walela" (Hummingbird in Cherokee) -- Rita and Priscilla Coolidge and Laura Satterfield.

Hitler Studied Indian Removal Act

"It is a distressing fact that Adolph Hitler studied President Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act of 1830 when planning the isolation and decimation of European Jews," Heape recalled. "Perhaps, that is one reason there is an abiding worldwide interest today in the ongoing relationship between the U.S. Government and its Native populace."

Richie and Heape, who are inviting inquiries from both domestic and international film distributors and dealers, are convinced "Trail of Tears..." will find its way to PBS, the American History Channel or other cable and independent movie channels. "We know it will be well-received on the film festival circuit, but it deserves a much broader audience," they said.

"Our Circle of Life series, dealing with genealogy, health issues, music culture and history," Richie adds, "are in sharp contrast to our corporate sales and marketing projects. Sometimes it's for the reel; sometimes it's for the meal. But filmmakers live for a challenge like 'Trail'."

"Just as the Jewish holocaust victims don't want their story forgotten, neither do American Indians. As sad as the story is, it is part of our country's heritage and history," the filmmaker stated. "Just last week, the Cherokee Supreme Court formally ruled that Cherokee Freemen can now be recognized as Citizens, a right that was in limbo for 165 years. Even today the painful chapter continues."

"My ancestors suffered beyond imagination, finally arriving in Indian Territory almost devoid of children and elders," Heape lamented. "In a way, they arrived with no past and no future. "Today, however, many of the more than 400,000 enrolled Cherokees survive and thrive in American society, enriching the nation in many ways while remaining in touch with their indigenous heritage."

Rich-Heape Films, Inc.

The company, founded in 1984, produces award-winning Native American videos, films and movies dedicated to informing, educating and encouraging the awareness of the history, cultures, languages, traditions and aspirations of Native Americans and other Native Peoples. The firm has been recognized as 1999 and 2003 American Indian Business of the Year by the American Indian Chamber of Commerce of Texas. The U.S. congress has commended Heape for his extraordinary efforts to document and preserve Native American culture (108th Congressional Record - Congress, Second Session) http://richheape.com/steven-heape-congressional-record.htm In 2003 Heape was one of five Native American filmmakers invited to participate in the strategic film and video content planning for the Smithsonian's National Museum of the American Indian in Washington, DC.

NOTE TO MEDIA: Color digital images of the principals, celebrities and film scenes may be captured at http://www.richheape.com/media

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION OR INTERVIEWS:

Steven R. Heape, Executive Producer, Rich-Heape Films, Inc., Dallas, TX; 214-692-1200; http://www.richheape.com

Preston F. Kirk, APR, Kirk Public Relations, Austin, TX; 830-693-4447

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american indian chamber of commerce of texas

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university of north carolina chapel hill

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university of tennessee  knoxville; dr. duane king

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smithsonianâs national museum of american indian

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Indians, Historians, Celebrities Recount Shameful Era In New Documentary: 'Trail of Tears: Cherokee Legacy'

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Rich-Heape Films, Inc., a Dallas-based Native American-owned corporation, released this month "The Trail of Tears: Cherokee Legacy." The two-hour, high-definition feature documents the forced removal in 1838 of the Cherokee Nation from the southeastern United States to Oklahoma. Wes Studi, the best known Cherokee actor, presents the documentary film, speaking on camera in his native tongue (with subtitles).

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1-3 people will research one of the Native American Tribes that was relocated to Kansas. They'll figure out how they lived on their land and how they adapted or failed to adapt to Kansas (what are the differences between the land they lived on and the land they were moved to). This will be combined with an ELA unit on selecting sources.

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Students will get into small groups with 1 person representing each tribe. Each group will form 2 lines, with 2 people facing each other. Those pairs will teach each other about their tribe and then 1 of the lines will slide over to the next person. This will repeat until all students in each group have been paired with one another.

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Show students an example of a non-fiction book. Discuss elements of non-fiction. Select topics and begin research.

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Non-fiction Picture Book Project idea

Students will select one of the people talked about during the unit (original Kansas Natives, relocated Natives, or travelers of the Trails) to create a non-fiction picture book on using PowerPoint (Slides or other similar programs) for 2nd or 3rd graders.

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Our Epic Nonfiction Picture Book Project Take 2

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For the past few years, my students have written nonfiction picture books for younger audiences around the world. Last year, I decided to share the lesson plan to serve as inspiration for those wh…

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Finish research and begin outline

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Write rough drafts

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Draft revisions and begin illustrations (drawing and selected photographs)

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Students will draw a state map and illustrate on it the important areas for their chosen people (tribe lands - original and reservations, trail paths, etc.).

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Type final drafts and finish illustrations

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Book Read Alouds