Bringing Native American Legal History to Life: Developing a New, Interactive Timeline for Educators

November marks Native American Heritage Month, an important time to honor the significant contributions of Native Americans to the fabric of American history, law, and culture.

At Street Law, we are proud to celebrate this month by introducing a new resource: the Native American Legal History timeline, now available on LegalTimelines.org.

This innovative educational tool, developed under the Library of Congress’ Teaching with Primary Sources partner program, highlights key legal milestones and pivotal moments in Native American history through an interactive visual timeline enriched with primary sources.

Far more than a mere collection of dates, this timeline presents a dynamic narrative that allows educators and students to explore Native American legal history in a meaningful, interactive way.

By linking crucial historical events to overarching themes such as resistance, resilience, reconciliation, multiculturalism, and tribal sovereignty, the timeline invites students to engage deeply with the past and critically reflect on its lasting impact today.

The Street Law Approach: Building a Thoughtful and Inclusive Resource

When we set out to develop LegalTimelines.org, our goal was to create a resource that classroom teachers actually used. To achieve this, we surveyed over 500 teachers about the timeline topics they wanted to see, and Native American legal history emerged as a top priority.

“We chose to develop the Native American timeline because while it’s often included in school standards, it deserves a much stronger presence in classrooms,” said Jen Wheeler, Street Law’s senior program director who oversees the LegalTimelines.org project. “Native American history, especially post-Civil War, is rarely taught in depth. We wanted to create a resource that ensures teachers have access to this critical history—one that brings these important legal and cultural moments to life for their students.”

As with most Street Law materials, the Native American Legal History timeline was developed in collaboration with outside experts to ensure accuracy, inclusivity, and educational value.

We assembled a Teacher Amicus Group composed of classroom teachers, including several with Native American ancestry or who teach Native American students. This advisory group played a vital role in guiding the development of the timeline, piloting it in their classrooms, and providing feedback to Street Law.

We also consulted with Matthew Fletcher, a law professor at the University of Michigan School of Law and an expert in Native American tribal law, who provided critical feedback on the technical aspects of the timeline.

“This timeline will show how American Indian people and tribal nations have been integral to the shaping of the American Republic, in good and bad ways,” Fletcher explained. “This history helps to explain why tribal nations have their own lands, laws, and cultures within the broader American polity.”

The combination of expert insights and the efforts of Street Law’s curriculum development team ensured that the timeline and accompanying curricular materials were ready for classroom use.

Showcasing Native American Resistance, Resilience, and Reconciliation

“If you want to know America—if you want to see it for what it was and what it is—you need to look at Indian history and at the Indian present… To ignore the history of Indians in America is to miss how power itself works.”

_{– David treuer, author of “The Heartbeat of Wounded Knee: Native America from 1890 to the Present,” and a member of the Ojibwe tribe}

Historian David Treuer emphasizes that to fully understand American history, one must know Native American history. However, fully understanding Native American history requires recognizing the essential themes of resistance, resilience, and reconciliation that run throughout.

In some (incomplete) accounts of history, Native Americans are portrayed as passive observers of their own lives, subject to the acts of colonists and the U.S. government, without being shown taking actions of their own. Our Teacher Amicus Group identified a pressing need to highlight Native American’s agency in their own history. In response, Street Law expanded the timeline and developed additional resources, including the “Resistance, Resilience, and Reconciliation Inquiry Pack.”

A set of curricular inquiry packs accompany each timeline, facilitating students to take a deeper dive into important timeline themes and events. The packs include background readings, primary sources from the Library of Congress and others, and inquiry questions to spark deeper discussion.

The principal question in the Resistance, Resilience, and Reconciliation Inquiry Pack draws from Treuer’s quote, asking: “How does the history of Native American resistance, resilience, and reconciliation help us ‘know America’?”

Using this guiding question, the timeline and inquiry pack work together to provide students with a more comprehensive understanding of Native American history, showcasing the diverse ways in which Native Americans have asserted their rights and shaped their own futures throughout history. 

Bringing Native American History to Life

The Native American Legal History Timeline is not just a static tool—it is an immersive, interactive experience designed to engage students and educators on a deeper level. To bring the timeline to life, we incorporated a diverse array of media, including historical documents, photographs, illustrations, and videos.

Our first step involved combing through thousands of pages in the Library of Congress’ extensive archives to identify the best primary sources to highlight key moments in Native American legal history. Here we found maps of tribal lands, treaties between Native American tribes and the federal government, Supreme Court decisions, and congressional documents that are woven throughout the timeline.

However, the true essence of this narrative lies in the voices of Native Americans themselves.

That is why we included a short essay by Nyché Andrew, a Yup’ik and Inupiaq Alaska Native student and Native American rights activist.

For years, she has championed policies that support Native students in her community, including initiatives to allow tribal clothing to be worn during graduation ceremonies. In 2022, Andrew penned her “What is Resilience?” essay for the Center for Native American Youth, focusing on the theme of Native American resilience.

“Resilience is a word that is often used in the history of Native America,” said Andrews. “I wrote that piece intending to place more of a concrete meaning to the word and place myself as an Alaska Native in the framework of resilience. I come from a lineage of people who have struggled in immeasurable ways so that I may struggle in simpler ways. My Indigeneity fuels my fire and makes me brave enough to be resilient.”

We also included witnesses of Native American history, such as German-born photographer Ilka Hartmann who documented the 1970s occupation of Alcatraz Island by Native American students protesting U.S. government policies that threatened their culture. Hartmann captured numerous photographs of this historic event, including an iconic image of the “Declaration of the Return of Indian Land,” a humorous statement by the protesting students.

Additionally, the timeline features secondary sources, including documentaries from RetroReport, further enhancing the educational experience.

Looking Ahead

Looking forward, Street Law is committed to making all six timelines on LegalTimelines.org more accessible to a wide range of learners.

We will continue to build out the Teacher Resource Page and improve the accessibility of site materials, particularly for middle school students and students with special educational needs.  This will provide teachers with the tools they need to help every student engage meaningfully with these vital historical themes.

We encourage educators to dive into the timelines, explore the inquiry packs, and bring these important lessons into their classrooms. These resources provide unique opportunities for students to engage in thoughtful discussions about Native American legal history, the complexities of power, and the ongoing struggles for sovereignty and justice.

By recognizing the contributions, challenges, and resilience of Native peoples, we gain a richer understanding of what it means to be American—and we equip the next generation with the knowledge and perspective needed to foster a more just future.