About Unit 1

💭 Essential Question: How do primary and secondary sources help historians understand the past and explain the diverse ways of life of Indigenous societies in North America, including their interactions with the natural environment?

Through this driving concept, students will analyze the scientific and cultural innovations of diverse, Indigenous societies across the Americas, with particular attention to the 15th, 16th, and 17th centuries. Using historical evidence, students will interrogate the origins of the idea that the Americas were a lightly populated wilderness prior to European contact by studying the complex and highly organized societies of Indigenous communities and nations of the Eastern Coast of North America along with the chiefdoms of the Southeast. Students will review primary and secondary sources – including both Indigenous and European accounts – to analyze the geographical, political and social impact of early interactions, with themes of both conquest and resilience.