Developed in collaboration with Dr. Katrina Phillips, a member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Ojibwe and associate professor of Native American history at Macalester College, PebbleGo Next Indigenous People’s History ensures educators have the essential resources needed to deliver thoughtful, accurate, and engaging lessons on this important topic. The digital collection for learners in grades 3-5 includes more than 50 content articles with:

• Indigenous nations today, including cultural practices, government, and federally images for a balanced depiction of historical and modern Indigenous peoples
• The treatment of Indigenous people, including forced removals and broken treaty promises
• Critical thinking questions, a timeline, video, citation tool, and guide to important terminology

Author Andrea L. Rogers shares helpful ideas for educators to guide students in learning about the forced removal and displacement of Native Americans on the Trail of Tears. First and foremost, she urges to question everything you think you know about the Trail of Tears.

“When I began researching, I had little understanding of the logistics of moving the entire Cherokee Nation equaling about 16,000 people. I didn’t know about the internment camps. I didn’t know that many Cherokees died from preventable deaths because of their imprisonment. I didn’t know it was a time of drought and I hadn’t thought about how access to water would impact people being marched across a continent. In my book, I tried to distill years of historic information into a story that was accurate and that children could understand. In doing this work, I had to unlearn some things I grew up believing.”