Title: Week 7 Overview and Inquiry
Course: The American West: Power, Place, and Memory > Section: Week 7 · October 5–9, 2026: Civil War and Continental State-Building

WEEK 7 · INQUIRY MODULE

Week 7: Civil War and Continental State-Building

How did the Civil War extend into the West, and whose freedom did wartime state-building secure?

Dates: October 5–9, 2026

Focus

- Civil War in Missouri, Indian Territory, New Mexico, and the Pacific
- Dakota War and the Long Walk
- Federal military power and emancipation’s uneven geography

Before class

1. Read: American Yawp, chapters 13–15 selected sections.
2. Open and inspect the linked primary-source collection(s). Record one source, one context question, and one limitation.
3. Scholarship lens: Elliott West, Continental Reckoning (2023), selected excerpt.

Primary-source portals

- NMAI Native Knowledge 360°: The Long Walk
- National Park Service Civil War in the West resources

Tuesday/Thursday meeting plan

Date | Status | Plan
Tuesday, October 6 | Class | Civil War in Missouri, Indian Territory, New Mexico, and the Pacific.
Thursday, October 8 | Class | Dakota War, the Long Walk, emancipation, Greater Reconstruction, and capstone scope conferences.

Capstone Question and Scope due Friday, October 9.

After class

Deliverable: Capstone Question and Scope Conference and Reading & Reasoning Check 5.

- I can answer the weekly inquiry with a contestable claim.
- I can name at least two pieces of evidence and explain their limits.
- I can identify an interpretation that my evidence supports, complicates, or challenges.