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UNIT 12: Federal Indian Policy Series

Treaty-Making Era

From 1778 to 1871, the United States signed more than 370 treaties with Tribal nations. Every one of them was a legal agreement between sovereign governments. This unit, you'll research that era and build a website to publish what you find.

📜 7 Stages
ðŸŠķ Intermediate
⏱ïļ 45-60 min per stage
1778 - 1871

Federal Indian Policy Series: Unit 12 of 19

This unit is part of an eight-era series. Each era gets its own research website. When all eight are complete, you will combine them into one multi-page site in Unit 20.

Unit 12 · Treaty-Making Unit 13 · Removal Unit 14 · Reservation System Unit 15 · Allotment & Assimilation Unit 16 · Reorganization Unit 17 · Termination Unit 18 · Self-Determination Unit 19 · Nation Rebuilding

The Big Idea

Treaties aren't ancient history. They are still legally binding documents. Courts still cite them. Tribes still enforce them. Understanding what was promised, what was taken, and what was broken is foundational to understanding federal Indian law today.

This is your first era research unit. You'll build a professional archival website about the Treaty-Making Era from scratch - dark Prussian blue design, Playfair Display headings, timeline events, and key cases. Each stage adds a new section and a new CSS skill.

You do the research. You write the content. You publish it as a real website. By the end of this series, you'll have built an eight-unit digital publication about the history of federal Indian policy.

By the end of this unit, you'll be able to say "I can..."

  • Build a professional archival website using a custom design system
  • Create 3D flip cards that show a law or case on the front and its impact on the back
  • Build a timeline section with year-anchored event cards
  • Research the Treaty-Making Era and write your own analysis
  • Publish your research as a real, shareable webpage

What You'll Build

A research website about the Treaty-Making Era (1778-1871) - six sections, professional archival design.

Key cases and treaties on flip cards. A year-by-year timeline. A section about what was happening in the U.S. that drove federal policy. And a section in your own words - your research, your analysis, your voice.

This site is yours to keep. When you finish the full series, you'll have eight of them.

This era is where the legal relationship between the U.S. and Tribal nations began. Understanding it changes how you see everything that comes after.

Your learning path

The 7 Stages

Stage 1 Foundation Design system + hero Stage 2 Flip Cards Marshall Trilogy cases Stage 3 Timeline Year-anchored events Stage 4 U.S. Context Expansion + policy Stage 5 My Research Live writing section Stage 6 Today Era's living impact Stage 7 Polish & Publish Responsive CSS + go live
Let's Begin

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Sources

The historical and legal content in this unit draws from peer-reviewed academic work, official government archives, and Indigenous-led organizations. The case summaries in the flip cards and timeline events are sourced from the primary legal records listed below. When you complete your own research for the My Research section, use the vetted resources linked in each stage's instruction panel.

Primary Legal & Historical Sources

Academic & Scholarly Sources

Timeline Reference

  • American Indian History Timeline. Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community, 2018. Comprehensive chronological reference used for era timeline events.

Student Research Resources

Educational Standards

This unit aligns with computer science, social studies, and Indigenous education standards across MN, ND, and SD. Click a panel to expand.

  • OSEU.SS.H.1, Treaty History and Sovereignty (All Grades): Students will understand the history of treaty-making between the United States and Tribal nations, including the significance and ongoing legal force of those treaties. (This unit centers on the Treaty-Making Era as its primary historical subject. Students read vetted primary sources before writing a single line of code, research specific treaties and court cases for the My Research section, and build a "Today" section that connects 1778-1871 treaty law to current federal litigation. The treaties are not presented as historical artifacts, they are framed throughout as active federal law.)
  • OSEU.SS.H.2, Federal Policy and Self-Determination (All Grades): Students will analyze how federal policies affected the sovereignty, land base, and self-determination of Tribal nations over time. (The U.S. Context section students build in Stage 4 explicitly connects federal expansion policy, Manifest Destiny, the Louisiana Purchase, transcontinental railroad development, post-Civil War military buildup, to the treaty-making and treaty-breaking of the same period. Students are asked to write a paragraph drawing that connection in their own words, which requires genuine analytical thinking about cause and policy.)
  • OSEU.SS.C.1, Supreme Court and Tribal Sovereignty (All Grades): Students will examine the role of the U.S. Supreme Court in defining the legal status of Tribal nations, including the Marshall Trilogy. (The Marshall Trilogy is the structural core of Stage 2. Students read the background on all three cases, Johnson v. McIntosh (1823), Cherokee Nation v. Georgia (1831), and Worcester v. Georgia (1832), before building the flip card section that presents each case in detail. The "Today" section in Stage 6 asks students to identify whether each Marshall Trilogy ruling has been overturned, limited, or reaffirmed in current federal Indian law.)
  • OSEU.ELA.W.1, Research Writing (All Grades): Students will produce clear and coherent writing appropriate to task and purpose, including research-based summaries of historical events. (The My Research section built in Stage 5 is a live-rendering writing environment: students type or paste their research writing and see it rendered in real time on the right half of the screen. They are writing for a public audience, the section is styled as a published article on their website, not a homework submission, which naturally pushes students toward clearer, more considered writing.)
  • CSTA 2-AP-11 (Grades 6-8): Create clearly named variables that represent different data types and perform operations on their values. (Stage 1 introduces CSS custom properties as a variable system, students learn that --gold: #778DA9 is a named variable storing a color value, and that changing one line at the top of the file changes every element that references it across the entire site. This is the curriculum's clearest demonstration that variables in programming are not abstract: they are a design tool with immediate visual consequences.)
  • CSTA 2-AP-13 (Grades 6-8): Decompose problems and subproblems into parts to facilitate the design, implementation, and review of increasingly complex programs. (The unit is structured so that each stage is a fully working version of the site with one new section added. Students do not attempt to build everything at once, they build the design system first, then the hero, then flip cards, then the timeline, then context, then research, then the responsive finish. Each stage is a complete artifact, which means students can pause and return at any stage without losing their work or their context.)
  • ISTE 1c, Empowered Learner: Students use technology to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways. (The finished site is a research artifact, not a quiz, worksheet, or report, but a published multi-section website that presents the Treaty-Making Era through the student's own research and writing. The flip cards, timeline, U.S. Context section, and My Research section each ask students to demonstrate historical understanding through a different format, making the site a multi-modal demonstration of what they know.)
  • ISTE 3b, Knowledge Constructor: Students evaluate the accuracy, perspective, credibility, and relevance of information, media, data, or other resources. (Every stage's instruction panel includes vetted primary and secondary sources, National Archives treaty records, the Marshall Trilogy cases, Smithsonian NMAI, the Native American Rights Fund, before students write any code. The My Research section explicitly asks students to cite their own sources at the bottom of their published page, building source evaluation into the act of building the website itself.)
  • MN Social Studies 8.4.4.18.1 (Grade 8): Describe the origin, development, and impact of major federal policies affecting American Indian people in Minnesota and the United States, including treaty-making and treaty rights. (Treaty-making is the foundational federal Indian policy era, and this unit covers it in full, from the first treaty in 1778 through the end of treaty-making in 1871. Minnesota's Ojibwe and Dakota nations were directly involved in many of the era's most significant treaties, including the 1837 White Pine Treaty (which established usufructuary rights still in litigation today) and the 1851 treaties of Traverse des Sioux and Mendota. Students encounter these treaties in the timeline section and are encouraged to research them in the My Research section.)
  • MN Social Studies 9-12.4.4.18.2 (Grades 9-12): Analyze the legal foundations of Tribal sovereignty and the federal trust relationship, including landmark Supreme Court decisions and their ongoing impact. (The Marshall Trilogy, Johnson v. McIntosh, Cherokee Nation v. Georgia, Worcester v. Georgia, established the legal doctrine of Tribal sovereignty as it exists in U.S. law today. Students do not just read about these cases: they build an interactive flip card section that requires them to understand each ruling well enough to write about it on the front and back of the card.)
  • MN CS K-12 6.2.1 (Grade 6): Use a development process to plan, design, and iteratively develop computational artifacts. (Each stage builds directly on the previous one. Stage 1 establishes the full CSS design system; Stage 2 introduces flip cards layered on top of it; Stage 3 adds the timeline on top of that. Students cannot skip stages because each pre-loaded code file is the completed version of the stage before. The site grows in complexity with every step, and students can see their full progress in the live preview at every stage.)
  • MN ELA 8.3.3.1 (Grade 8): Use technology to produce and publish writing that demonstrates command of the conventions of standard English. (The My Research section is explicitly framed as a publication, not an assignment. Students write 2-4 paragraphs about a treaty, case, or law from this era and see their writing rendered as formatted article text in real time using a JavaScript oninput event. The byline on the finished page reads the student's own name, reinforcing that they are publishing, and that published writing reflects on its author.)
  • ND Indigenous Studies, History and Government (All Grades): Understand the historical and political relationship between the United States government and Indigenous nations of North Dakota, including treaty-making, treaty rights, and federal Indian law. (North Dakota is home to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, Spirit Lake Nation, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate, Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians, Three Affiliated Tribes, and others, all of whom were directly affected by the Treaty-Making Era. The 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty, which figures in the unit's timeline, had profound implications for Lakota and Dakota nations across the Dakotas. Students are encouraged to research treaties specific to the nations in their region.)
  • ND SS 9-12.6.2 (Grades 9-12): Analyze the role of treaties and federal law in shaping the political, legal, and economic status of American Indian nations within the United States. (The unit's timeline section includes eight pre-built events organized by type, federal law, court decisions, historical events, and Tribal responses, and students add two of their own based on research. This structure requires students to distinguish between different kinds of federal action and understand how each type shaped the legal landscape for Tribal nations differently.)
  • ND CS 6.E.1 / 7.E.1 / 8.E.1 (Grades 6-8): Create artifacts by applying existing knowledge of computing concepts and practices. (Students apply CSS custom properties from Unit 08, CSS Grid layout from Unit 04, responsive design principles from Unit 10, and JavaScript event handling from Unit 09, all in service of building a complete, multi-section research website. The artifact is not a coding exercise; it is a functional published page about history that students build from a professional design system they construct themselves in Stage 1.)
  • ND CS 9-12.E.3 (Grades 9-12): Design and iteratively develop computational artifacts for practical intent, personal expression, or to address a societal need. (The finished page functions as a genuine educational resource about treaty-making that students can share with family, community members, or educators who may not know this history. The "How This Era Shapes Us Today" section in Stage 6 asks students to connect 19th-century treaties to present-day sovereignty cases, making the practical relevance of their artifact explicit.)
  • SD Social Studies 9-12.H.2 (Grades 9-12): Analyze the causes and effects of major historical events and federal policies affecting Indigenous peoples of South Dakota, including treaty-making, land loss, and the assertion of treaty rights. (The U.S. Context section built in Stage 4 asks students to explain, in writing on their own published page, how U.S. expansion policy drove treaty-making and treaty-breaking in the same period. Students build four pre-written context cards about Land Hunger, Manifest Destiny, Federal vs. State Authority, and post-Civil War military power, then write their own paragraph connecting those forces to a specific treaty or legal case.)
  • SD CS 6-8.AP.M.1 (Grades 6-8): Decompose problems and subproblems into parts to facilitate the design, implementation, and review of increasingly complex programs. (The CSS 3D flip card is introduced in Stage 2 in three layers: first the HTML structure of outer and inner containers and front/back faces, then the CSS perspective and backface-visibility properties, then the JavaScript onclick toggle. Students build each layer with understanding before the next is added, so the complexity is never overwhelming, it accumulates with their knowledge.)