THE AMERICAN WEST

Reading and Source Guide

Access note: the OER and primary-source links are open. Scholarship selections require the instructor and library to verify lawful access and choose excerpt length. No copyrighted chapters are embedded in this package.
WeekOER spinePrimary-source portalScholarship lens
1American Yawp introduction and relevant map materialsFrederick Jackson Turner, “The Significance of the Frontier in American History” (1893), excerpt
Library of Congress Primary Source Analysis Tool
Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America (2023), introduction or library-reserve excerpt.
2American Yawp, chapters 2–4 selected sectionsNative Knowledge 360° teaching resources
Library of Congress Indigenous Peoples of the Americas collections
Pekka Hämäläinen, Indigenous Continent (2022), selected excerpt; Anne F. Hyde, Born of Lakes and Plains (2022), selected excerpt.
3American Yawp, chapter 7 selected sectionsNorthwest Missouri State University Archives
Missouri Digital Heritage
Platte Purchase Treaty copy, St. Joseph Museums
Anne F. Hyde, Born of Lakes and Plains (2022), selected chapter or excerpt.
4American Yawp, chapters 10 and 11 selected sectionsNMAI Native Knowledge 360°: American Indian Removal
NMAI Native Knowledge 360°: Horse Creek Treaty
Ned Blackhawk, The Rediscovery of America (2023), selected excerpt.
5American Yawp, chapter 12Library of Congress: Westward Expansion—Encounters at a Cultural Crossroads
National Archives: Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo
Kevin Waite, West of Slavery (2021), selected excerpt.
6American Yawp, chapter 12 selected sectionsLibrary of Congress westward-expansion collections
Oregon-California Trails Association educational resources
Sarah Keyes, American Burial Ground (2023), selected excerpt.
7American Yawp, chapters 13–15 selected sectionsNMAI Native Knowledge 360°: The Long Walk
National Park Service Civil War in the West resources
Elliott West, Continental Reckoning (2023), selected excerpt.
8American Yawp, chapter 16 selected sectionsLibrary of Congress: The American West, 1865–1900
Chinese Railroad Workers in North America Project
Manu Karuka, Empire’s Tracks (2019), selected excerpt.
9American Yawp, chapter 17 selected sectionsCarlisle Indian School Digital Resource Center
National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition Digital Map
Katrina Phillips, Staging Indigeneity (2021), selected excerpt.
10American Yawp, chapters 18–20 selected sectionsChronicling America historic newspapers
Refusing to Forget educational resources
Kelly Lytle Hernández, Bad Mexicans (2022), or Monica Muñoz Martinez, The Injustice Never Leaves You (2018), selected excerpt.
11American Yawp, chapters 17 and 20 selected sectionsNational Park Service: Honoring Tribal Legacies
Bureau of Reclamation History Program
Megan Black, The Global Interior (2018), or Katrina Phillips, Staging Indigeneity (2021), selected excerpt.
12American Yawp, chapters 22–24 selected sectionsLibrary of Congress: Dust Bowl Migration
Farm Security Administration/Office of War Information photographs
Densho Digital Repository
Densho teaching resources
Bracero History Archive
Sarah Deutsch, Making a Modern U.S. West (2022), selected excerpt; pair with a Densho or Bracero oral history.
13American Yawp, chapters 25–28 selected sectionsNational Park Service: Occupation of Alcatraz
Atomic Heritage Foundation oral histories
Megan Black, The Global Interior (2018), selected excerpt; recent Western Historical Quarterly article chosen for local relevance.
14No new reading assignedNo new scholarship assigned
15Instructor-selected current public sources; verify immediately before teachingWestern Historical Quarterly, current research
Northwest Missouri State University Archives
One recent Western Historical Quarterly article selected to match student capstone themes.

Links and current-affairs materials should be rechecked immediately before the course begins.