The Western landscape which George Catlin encountered on his travels was dominated by the great expanse of the tall and short grass prairies. Home to countless species of plant and animal life, the great prairies once spanned millions of acres across North America. Today less than ten percent of the complex ecosystem remains, largely under the protection of parks and nature preserves. In this lesson students will gain an understanding of the interdependence of living organisms on the prairie and the fragility of their existence by investigating life on the prairie and relating their findings to their own experience.

This is a creative approach to teaching basic skills involved in the formal visual analysis of works of art. Students will learn how to interpret artworks in cultural and historical contexts by becoming "art detectives." Students will analyze Catlin's formal compositions to learn about the Native American leaders he painted. They will examine visual clues and write a final "case summary" in which they "crack Catlin's code."

In the 1830s, George Catlin (1796–1872) packed his paintbrushes and trekked through remote Indian country in the Great Plains. Committed to documenting traditional Native culture, he visited more than 140 tribes and painted more than 325 portraits and 200 scenes of American Indian life. Catlin's prolific works, both his art and his writings, illustrate Indian cultures on the precipice of radical change—change that would come with U.S. expansion into tribal territories.
In this lesson, students will be asked to examine Catlin's life and to determine how various decisions he made affected its outcome. Students will be asked to interpret, elaborate on, and reenact events occurring in Catlin's lifetime by writing, drawing, and role-playing.

Studying leadership qualities is highly important for students of all ages so that they can identify and develop their own. In this lesson, students will be introduced to several Native American leaders, both past and present, and will be asked to examine their different styles of leadership.
Catlin painted Indians who were famous in American Indian history—men such as Black Hawk, the Sac and Fox chief, and vanquished leader of the so-called Black Hawk War; Kee-o-kúk, who replaced Black Hawk as chief of the Sac and Fox; Os-ce-o-lá, war leader of the Seminoles; the Mandan chief Four Bears; the Hidatsa chief Black Moccasin; Buffalo Bull's Backfat, head chief of the Blood Indians, and the Grand Pawnee leader, Horse Chief. In his Letters and Notes, Catlin described their generosity, hospitality, and politeness and their positions as chiefs and leaders with honor and integrity. Wilma Mankiller and W. Richard West are among the contemporary Indian leaders speaking in the campfire stories on this web site. Identifying past and present leadership qualities promotes understanding of leaders in traditional and contemporary societies. At the same time, it fosters development of personal leadership qualities.

By immersing themselves in primary sources (George Catlin's letters), students will learn the difference between objective and subjective writing styles. They will draw facts out of the letters to create newspaper articles in Activity 1, and write their own letters as if they were members of the Catlin family in Activity 2. These activities are designed to enliven historical figures, to connect the "current events" of the past with the current events of the present, and to help students read and interpret historical documents.

In this lesson students will be exposed to the cultural and artistic importance of wampum belts to the Native American tribes that George Catlin encountered on his travels, and the importance of the belts in American history as markers of relations between tribes and the U.S. Government between 1776 and 1878. Students will gain insight into the differing ways in which these cultures expressed ideas, values, and policy through objects, written documents, and oral traditions.

In this lesson students will familiarize themselves with the Western landscape through both Native American folklore and George Catlin's paintings of the prairie. After reading several Native American legends, students will compose and illustrate their own legend.

This lesson is designed to emphasize how individuals' worldviews affect their method of expressing themselves and of telling stories. People describing the same thing will convey very different things depending on their worldviews (composed of their personal philosophy, religion, and even their job or discipline). Students will compare primary documents and analyze the motives of the speaker, and the author's intended audience. They will respond to these comparisons in writing and then by creating a representation of what they studied for a timeline.

Native Americans responded to U.S. expansion policy in different ways. By incorporating Internet resources and working in groups, students will participate in a game show to share the information they have uncovered in a fast-paced, competitive environment. At the end of the game, the winning team receives a prize.

Power shirts, often made of tanned animal hides and adorned with objects such as fur, beads, and locks of hair, were highly important in the culture of many Native Americans. These shirts, which were associated very closely with the identity of their wearer, contained various symbols representing success in war, spirituality, special abilities, and outstanding achievements. After studying these shirts, learning to understand their significance to Native Americans, and discussing the symbols they contain; students will identify achievements in their own lives that reflect leadership and power. They will document these achievements in symbolic form on shirts that they create.