I created a Webquest designed to help High School history students better understand westward expansion by taking a more detailed look at the diverse perspectives of various groups of people from the many different cultures involved. Students will be divided into groups of seven, each person taking a different role and answering questions from that point of view. The diverse perspectives that students will study are those of the Spanish, British, French fur trappers, Lewis & Clark, Native Americans, pioneers, and missionaries.
Below are articles that students will use to complete the Webquest. Most of the articles came from North Dakota's State Historical Society Lewis and Clark Online Exhibit, National Geographic News Online, PBS's Inside the Corps of Discovery, US Genealogy Network's Clackamas County: End of the Trail, Idaho State University's Oregon Trail Online Exhibit, and Oregon City's End of the Oregon Trail Interpretive Center.
This article tells what the interactions were like between the pioneers and the Native Americans, between different tribes, between the American federal government and Native Americans, and between missionaries and Native Americans.
This article discusses the British role in the Fur industry in the Pacific Northwest. Specifically it describes the history of the Northwest Company and Hudson Bay Company that were under John McLoughlin’s leadership.
“Jason Lee’s Mission to Oregon”
This article discusses the goals and experiences of the protestant missionaries that moved west. It also describes the missionaries’ interactions with fur traders and the Native Americans.
This article gives a specific account of an interaction between the Methodist missionaries and Native Americans. It talks about the challenges that the missionaries faced in trying to convert the tribes.
This article talks about the impact that the missionaries had on Oregon, specifically the schools and colleges that they started. It also addresses some of the beliefs of the missionaries, from their perspectives and tells accounts of the struggles that they endured.
This site has several links that describe the lives of many different families that moved west on the Oregon Trail.
This article discusses the important role that diaries, journals, and reminiscences have for being primary resources that tell history from first-person points of view.
This article discusses the several land acts that congress passed to encourage people to move, settle, and farm in the west.
“Life and Death on the Oregon Trail”
This article describes what circumstances were like for people who traveled on the Oregon Trail.
“Trading Posts and Forts on the Oregon Trail”
This article discusses the encounters between missionaries, pioneers, fur traders, and Native Americans at trading posts and forts.
This webpage has several links to articles about the people who moved westward, the fur traders, and the Native Americans.
This site is organized into a question-answer format that gives a general overview of the history of the Oregon Trail.
This webpage has several links to articles about what life was like for the pioneers on the Oregon trail.
This webpage has links to nine different diaries written by pioneers emigrating west.
“Native Americans, Fur Traders, Missionaries, and Intermarriage”
This website has links to articles that describe the customs of several tribes native to Oregon, the culture of fur traders and missionaries.
This website has links that describe the culture of the tribes who met Lewis and Clark, and it talks about them meeting from the Native Americans’ perspectives.
This webpage has an interview with two people, asking about the perspectives from the Native Americans and Lewis and Clark when they met each other.
“Reliving Lewis and Clark: Louisiana Purchase Ceremony”
This article teaches the history about the Louisiana Purchase, and it describes how the French, British, and Spanish felt about America buying the land.
“Spanish Contributions to North America (1492-1898)”
This article summarizes the long history that the Spanish empire had in North America, including its authority over Louisiana, colonizing Mexico and the southern US, and trying to intercept Louis and Clark’s Corps of Discovery.
“How Tribes Fared in the Wake of the Corps of Discovery”
This article discusses how the Native American tribes were affected by the Westward Expansion.
“Long Term Results of the Lewis and Clark Expedition”
This article discusses how Native American Tribes, the Fur Traders, the military, and the population were affected by the Corps of Discovery.
This article tells some detailed stories about the challenges that Lewis and Clark faced on their expedition.
This article introduces how Lewis and Clark prepared to meet the Native Americans, and it also has several links that give diary entries that describe their meetings with several different tribes.
