Lesson Ideas from the National Archives

From Richard Byrne at Free Technology 4 Teachers:

The US National Archives is a great resource for history teachers to keep in their books.

I've written about some of their services in the past (here and here) and today I'd like to remind 

you of the National Archives Today's Document feed. On a daily basis Today's Document features

a new image or document from the United States' National archives. The documents are usually 

accompanied by some additional research links and lesson plan resources.

One of the documents that I have used from the Today's Document feed was a

petition to the US Government signed by Hopi (Moqui) Chiefs. One of the interesting things about 

this document is the way that the document was signed with the symbol of each family in the tribe.

Applications for Education
This document could be used with a wide range of grade levels. At the middle school or high school

level the petition could be part of a lesson on the way the US Government redistributed land to Native 

Americans following the Dawes Act. The symbol-signature aspect of the document could be used in an 

elementary school lesson about cultural differences between European-Americans and Native Americans.