WEEK 6 · INQUIRY MODULE
Week 6: Overland Migration, Death, and Environment
How did migrants’ routes depend on Indigenous landscapes, family labor, and unequal exposure to risk?
Dates: September 28–October 2, 2026
Focus
- Overland trails and guidebooks
- Gender, family, and material life
- Disease, burial, and environmental limits
Before class
- Read: American Yawp, chapter 12 selected sections.
- Open and inspect the linked primary-source collection(s). Record one source, one context question, and one limitation.
- Scholarship lens: Sarah Keyes, American Burial Ground (2023), selected excerpt.
Primary-source portals
Tuesday/Thursday meeting plan
| Date | Status | Plan |
|---|
| Tuesday, September 29 | Class | Route and risk mapping from trail diaries, material traces, and quantitative evidence. |
| Thursday, October 1 | Class | Family labor, gender, Indigenous homelands, disease, mortality, and Source Lab 2 transfer. |
Source Reasoning Lab 2 due Friday, October 2.
After class
Deliverable: Source Reasoning Lab 2 and Reading & Reasoning Check 4.
- 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.