WEEK 3 · INQUIRY MODULE
Week 3: Borderlands, Louisiana, and the Platte Purchase
How did distant imperial claims become local dispossession and governance?
Dates: September 7–11, 2026
Focus
- Louisiana Purchase and contested sovereignty
- Lewis and Clark as diplomacy and intelligence
- Missouri statehood, the Platte Purchase, and local archival traces
Before class
- Read: American Yawp, chapter 7 selected sections.
- Open and inspect the linked primary-source collection(s). Record one source, one context question, and one limitation.
- Scholarship lens: Anne F. Hyde, Born of Lakes and Plains (2022), selected chapter or excerpt.
Primary-source portals
Tuesday/Thursday meeting plan
| Date | Status | Plan |
|---|
| Tuesday, September 8 | Class | Louisiana Purchase claims, diplomacy, intelligence, and contested sovereignty. |
| Thursday, September 10 | Class | Platte Purchase document chain, Northwest archive orientation, and Mapping the West studio. |
Labor Day is Monday, September 7; it does not cancel a T/Th meeting. Mapping the West is due Friday, September 18.
After class
Deliverable: Mapping studio draft; major submission follows Friday, September 18.
- 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.