# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
hear
from the
historian:

Dr. Mark Hirsh National Museum of the
American Indian

American Indian Removal

President Thomas Jefferson was one of the first advocates for Indian removal. The Louisiana Purchase of 1803 gave the United States the opportunity to explore and buy vast lands west of the Mississippi River from American Indian Nations that owned them. President Jefferson then hoped to persuade the eastern Indian Nations to sign treaties and exchange their lands for territory west of the Mississippi.

Land-hungry Americans saw economic opportunity in American Indian lands, and the pressure to remove Indians grew. Americans tried to justify their actions by saying that Indians were uncivilized people who made little use of their vast tribal lands. They believed that the United States somehow had a "manifest destiny" to occupy the entire continent from coast to coast. Most American Indian Nations flatly rejected the idea of removal, and they tried every strategy they could imagine to avoid it.

Indians were not alone in opposing removal. The country was deeply divided about the idea. Thousands of citizens signed petitions against it. Newspaper articles depicted removal as a threat to the American value of justice. Some lawmakers denounced removal as an immoral violation of the government's previous treaty promises to Indian Nations. Even Chief Justice John Marshall wrote an opinion in an 1832 legal case, Worcester v. Georgia, finding that the state of Georgia had violated the Cherokee Nation's rights to self-government.

Eventually, the pro-removal forces won, and in 1830 Congress passed the Indian Removal Act by a slim margin. The legislation granted the president authority to negotiate Indian removal treaties, and American Indian removal was now an official U.S. policy.

American Indians continued the fight to keep their lands. But from about 1830 to 1850, the U.S. government used treaties, fraud, intimidation, and violence to remove about 100,000 American Indians west of the Mississippi. Thousands of Native men, women, and children died on the difficult trek to a strange new land that became known as Indian Territory (modern-day Oklahoma).

The tragedy and darkness of American Indian removal should not hide the remarkable story that followed. After resettling in Indian Territory, Native Peoples rebuilt their lives and cultures, and continued their struggle for self-government under their own laws on their new lands in the West.

But that is another story. For now, we hope this lesson shines a spotlight on the ways Native Peoples faced the crisis of removal. Their thoughts and actions reveal much about human strength in the face of adversity-a universal issue that is as relevant today as it was in the 1800s.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Native Knowledge 360°-American Indian Removal Digital Lesson

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
What does it mean to remove a people? This inquiry-based lesson for grades 7-12 explores the scope and effects of American Indian removal. Native American perspectives, documents, images, and digital activities help students and teachers understand an important chapter in US history. #NK360

# data[].attributes.body
(Radio extract)

# data[].attributes.body
Groupe 1

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Standing Rock resistance and our fight for Indigenous rights

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Still invisible and often an afterthought, Indigenous peoples are uniting to protect the world’s water, lands and history -- while trying to heal from genocide and ongoing inequality. Tribal attorney and Couchiching First Nation citizen Tara Houska chronicles the history of attempts by government and industry to eradicate the legitimacy of Indigenous peoples’ land and culture, including the months-long standoff at Standing Rock which rallied thousands around the world. “It’s incredible what you can do when you stand together,” Houska says. “Stand with us -- empathize, learn, grow, change the conversation.”

# data[].attributes.body
groupe 2

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Justin Trudeau offers apology on behalf of Canada for N.L. residential schools

# data[].attributes.headline
How the US Government suppressed Native America Identity

# data[].attributes.subject
How the US Government suppressed Native America Identity

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How The US Suppressed Native American Identity

# data[].attributes.body
Native Americans : Time line.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Harper Lee's Only Recorded Interview About 'To Kill A Mockingbird' [AUDIO]

# data[].attributes.body
The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time

# data[].attributes.body
How did the Westward expansion affect Native Americans ?

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How did Westward Expansion affect the Native Americans

# data[].attributes.headline
How to recognize a dystopia - Alex Gendler | TED-Ed

# data[].attributes.subject
How to recognize a dystopia - Alex Gendler | TED-Ed

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
How to recognize a dystopia - Alex Gendler

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The genre of dystopia - the 'not good place'- has captured the imaginations of artists and audiences alike for centuries. But why do we bother with all this pessimism? Alex Gendler explains how dystopias act as cautionary tales - not about some particular government or technology, but the very idea that humanity can be molded into an ideal shape.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NOMADLAND | Official Trailer | Searchlight Pictures

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
NOMADLAND Q&A | BFI London Film Festival 2020

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Route 66 has mythical status in the U.S.A. and around the world. It's been immortalised in songs, novels and films. Although it's no longer a major highway, it still draws visitors keen to experience the iconic home of the road trip. Every September, enthusiasts gather in Springfield, Illinois, for the Mother Road Festival, using the nickname coined by novelist John Steinbeck for Route 66.

For a weekend, Springfield echos to the sound of vintage cars from the road's heyday , not to mention Nat King Cole urging them to "get your kicks on Route 66".

Probably the most famous road in the world, Route 66 has been in terminal decline since the 1980s. But like all good myths, it lives in the hearts and minds of people across the U.S.A. and beyond.

Route 66 ran 2,448 miles from Chicago to Los Angeles. It's always described in that direction, as if it was fundamentally linked to the country's historical expansion west. In fact Cyrus Avery, an Oklahoma businessman who had been instrumental in getting the highway built, had travelled west in a wagon train as a boy.

Avery was one of the people pushing for a decent road network to match the increase in cars on the roads. There were half a million registered motor vehicles in the U.S.A. in 1910. That rose to 10 million ten years later.

The first sections of Route 66 opened in 1926. During the Great Depression in the 1930s, it saw the hundreds of thousands of migrants fleeing the Dust Bowl in the Mid-West who were immortalised in Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath. Ironically, it was finally completely paved between 1933 and 1937 by the unemployed given work by Roosevelt's New Deal solution to the Depression.

Trucking and Tourism
In the early days of the road it was adopted by the new road cargo industry that was taking over from trains in the movement of freight. The diagonal route of Highway 66 linked agricultural producers in the Midwest with the booming urban centers of California. It avoided the northern routes that were prone to bad winter weather.

From the outset, Route 66 was a leisure and tourism destination. In 1927, just a year after it opened, the U.S. Highway 66 Association was founded to boost tourism. Soon cabin camps, motels, diners and eccentric roadside art were put up to cater to tourists.

After World War II, as prosperity to returned to the country, Americans loved to spend their hard-earned cash and leisure time on road trips. For the Beat Generation, that desire for movement seemed to become an end in itself. It was immortalised in Jack Kerouac's On The Road, published in 1957 but based on diaries of his road trips from the late 40s.

The Beginning of the End
Route 66 was born out of one technological revolution and eclipsed by another. Trucks and automobiles had become so much part of American life that they were literally destroying the highways that hadn't been designed for this enormous increase in volume.

During the Cold War, President Eisenhower advocated developing a modern highway network modeled on the German Autobahns he had seen used to great effect to move troops during World War II. He believed it was critical to be able to move troops rapidly in the event of attack. So he persuaded Congress to pass the Federal Aid Highway Act in 1956, financing a new network of four-lane Interstates. It was the death knell for Route 66 and it's like. In 1985, Highway 66 was finally decommissioned, meaning the state wouldn't ensure its continued upkeep.

Nevertheless, the road remains imprinted on the American psyche and still attracts visitors from far and wide. Various schemes are trying to protect part or all of the road. Parts of it are listed on the National Register of Historic Places, or as National Scenic Byways.

When Congress passed the Route 66 Study Act 1990, mandating the National Park Service to consider plans to preserve the road, it recognized that Route 66 had, "Become a symbol of the American people's heritage of travel and their legacy of seeking a better life."
You can download this poster for your class. Have a good trip!
You can find documents on Kerouac's On th e Road, Steinbeck's The Grapes of Wrath, Dorothea Lange's Dust Bowl migrant photos and Route 66 in Shine Bright 1re Advanced File 4: "On the Road".

Webpicks Useful websites and online tools for classroom use
> Green Book: Online Resources

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Route 66 has mythical status in the U.S.A. and around the world. It's been immortalised in songs, novels and films. Although it's no longer a major highway, it still draws visitors keen to experience the iconic home of the road trip.