The families of most settlers originally came from Europe. There, open land was scarce—which means there was very little of it. The richest people bought up all the land, while everyone else worked for them. Most people who farmed for a landowner lived on the same small piece of land all their lives and could not easily leave.

In North America, however, a smaller population of people meant that there was much available land, with little competition for it. There was no land ownership, so people were free to use natural resources in many different regions. Some mainly stayed in one place and farmed, while others moved from place to place with the seasons.

In this lesson, you'll explore the major differences between Native Americans' and settlers' perspectives on—ideas about—land, and what happened when these two groups wanted to live in the same area.

Goals
Here are the big ideas you will learn about in this lesson:

• Problems arose between settlers and Native Americans over land in the mid-1800s
• The concept of Manifest Destiny influenced the westward expansion of the United States
• Settlers' ideas about land led to problems for Native Americans

Strategies
You will be using many reading and writing strategies to complete this lesson. The key strategies that you will focus on are:

• Comparing and contrasting ideas
• Making inferences

• perspective
• reservation
• transform

Native Americans thought of the land and all living things on it as part of their family. They believed they should coexist—live in peace together—with nature. Watch this video to learn more about how Native Americans of the Great Plains—the region between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains—lived and to explore their perspective on the land.

Click "View" on the left to watch the video.

After viewing, describe one to two conflicts that might arise if settlers moved into this land.

In 1845, the term "Manifest Destiny" was first used to describe the belief that the United States should control all the land from the Atlantic Coast to the Pacific Coast. "Manifest" means obvious, or clearly true. U.S. citizens thought it was obvious—manifest—that God had given the land to the settlers and not to the Native Americans who were already there.

Just before and after the Civil War, many settlers moved west into the Great Plains region. For them, landownership was important because they could work for themselves and earn their own money. They cleared forests, dammed rivers, and plowed grasslands to plant crops and transform the land into farms and towns .

Click "View" on the left to take a look at this 1872 painting by John Gast, called American Progress. Then write two to three sentences explaining how this painting tells the story of what happened when the settlers moved into the Great Plains.

Show what you've learned by answering these three questions. Be sure to save all your answers before you go to the next screen.

In this lesson, you have learned that Native Americans and settlers believed very different things about nature and the land. Now you will read about how these differences played out during the 1800s.

Click "View" on the left to read the passage.

Write at least one way in which Native Americans and settlers viewed the land differently.

You will now check your understanding of the vocabulary words for this lesson by placing them in sentences. Click "View" on the left to begin the activity.

Before moving to the next screen, choose two words from the vocabulary list and write a new sentence for each word.

Vocabulary words: coexist, continent, ownership, perspective, reservation, transform

As the video and the reading have shown, Native Americans and settlers had very different perspectives on how the land in the Great Plains should be used. In this activity, you will compare these opposing values.

Click "View" on the left to begin the activity. Your teacher will review the answers with you.

Then, before moving on to the final assignment, you may want to watch this lesson's video again or reread the passage.

Living with the Land

Video: 2m 09s

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Perspectives on the Land

Document

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In this lesson, you have learned about the different perspectives that Native Americans and settlers had about land. You also learned about what happened when the two groups wanted the same land in the Great Plains. You will now write an essay that demonstrates what you have learned and what you think about it.

Begin by reviewing your notes. Click "review my work" above and view or print out the screen that pops up.

Final Assignment Instructions

• Click Conflict Over Western Lands—Final Assignment (PDF).
• Choose one of the topics in the PDF and write an essay.
• Organize your response so that it includes at least three supporting details that you have learned from the reading passage, video, and other materials in this lesson.
• Use at least three vocabulary words (or form of the words) as part of your supporting details. For example, for the word jump, you could use jumps, jumped, or jumping.