Do you need help teaching about Native American history? You know that this information is important. After all, how can we accurately portray American History without understanding the contributions and culture of Indigenous Americans?
You certainly want to include this information in your curriculum! But figuring out what to cover can be challenging.
With thousands of years and numerous cultures, how can you help your students remember Native American key events? That’s why I created this Native American History Timeline for kids. This free timeline will help your students understand the unique history of America’s Indigenous peoples.
Why Use A Native American History Timeline?
A timeline is a simple but powerful tool that helps students connect key events and learn about Native American cultures.
Timelines help students:
- view events as part of a larger movement
- sequence events in order
- activate prior knowledge
- identify cause and effect
- deepen their understanding of a historical period
- trace the origins and growth of Native American cultures
My Best Tips for Teaching with Timelines
Why Many Students Don’t “Get” Timelines
As teachers, we often teach important events one at a time, assuming that students are connecting the events in their minds. After all, these connections may seem abundantly clear to us! But this “bits and pieces” approach to history often leaves students unclear about the larger historical context. As a result, they cannot connect the individual details and grasp larger historical themes.
The solution?
Students need regular practice creating and interpreting timelines.
My Favorite Timeline Activities
Using a timeline doesn’t mean your lesson will be boring! There are so many fun and engaging ways to incorporate timelines into your history instruction. Here are a few of my favorite timeline activities that could be used with the Native American History Timeline for Kids.
Illustrated Timeline
Students work together to construct an illustrated timeline of historical events. This can be done in many ways! For example:
- First, roll out a long strip of butcher paper for your students. You can do this horizontally or vertically.
- Next, use a bold marker to place dates on the paper.
- Then, have students cover the timeline in student drawings, index cards, and/or primary sources that represent historical events.
Table Top Timeline
Students create a timeline across a table in the classroom. First, label sections of the table with dates using index cards. Next, students add objects, artifacts, and framed photographs to the table. They place these items next to the correct year on the timeline.
Digital Timeline
Have students create a timeline digitally. Don’t expect students to know how to use these digital resources on their own. Be sure to model several times – and even do a few altogether!
- ReadWriteThink Interactive Timeline – This program provides an easy-to-use digital timeline for students to fill in! In this timeline, students can enter a date, description, and image.
- Google Slides – Students can create a simple timeline using this editable timeline. Before sharing this with students, you can adjust it to fit your specific timeline needs!
- Sutori – Using Sutori, your students can create incredible timelines that include both text and images. You can even assign students to create a Sutori timeline through Google Classroom!
Human Timeline
One of my favorite timeline activities is the Human Timeline from Facing History. In this activity, students teach their peers about one event from the timeline. Then, they build a human timeline by lining up in the order of the events. I’ve used a variation of this activity in my Early Republic and Westward Expansion units. Learn more about this activity here!
Analyze Timelines
Go beyond creating timelines. Analyze them! Here are some ideas for helping students analyze timelines.
- Compare a timeline with another from history.
- Identify the time period covered by each timeline.
- Determine how each timeline has been divided.
- Study the timelines to see how events in one are related to events in the other.
- Identify a turning point in the timeline.
- Identify a problem and give advice to people from that time period.
- Create a new ending!
20 Key Events for Your Native American History Timeline
It is challenging to narrow down events and know which to include and which to leave out. I’ve spent hours analyzing historical sources, so you don’t have to! In the timeline, I included events from eight cultural regions: Eastern Woodlands, Great Plains, Southwest, Pacific Northwest, Plateau, Great Basin, California, and Southeast.
Here are 20 Native American key events to include in your Native American history timeline.
- Approx. 13,000 BC – Humans paddle small boats from East Asia to Alaska and down the Western coast to present-day Chile (Coastal Route Theory or Kelp Highway Theory).
- Approx. 12,000 BC-11,000 BC – Humans cross the Bering Land Bridge from present-day Siberia into North America (Bering Land Bridge Theory).
- 8000 BC – Tlingit people settle near the mouths of the Skeena and Nass Rivers in the Pacific Northwest.
- Approx. 900 – The Mayan Empire is at its height in Central America. This empire includes about 40 cities and up to 2 million people.
- 980 – Indigenous Americans and Europeans may have had their first contact. Scandinavian Vikings, led by Erik the Red, probably sailed to Canada and encountered the Thule Indigenous people.
- 1142 – The Haudenosaunee (Iroquois) Confederacy was formed in the Eastern Woodlands of the present-day United States. They passed the Great Law of Peace, an oral constitution that may have influenced the U.S. Constitution of 1787.
- 1300s – Present-day Shoshone ancestors settle in the Great Basin region. Their people are famous for their woven baskets and painted pottery.
- 1492 – Christopher Columbus arrives in the Americas. His arrival, and the arrival of future European colonizers, introduced foreign diseases that killed millions of Native Americans.
- Around 1500 – The Incan Empire is at its height in South America. The empire included up to 12 million people and 25,000 miles of roadways.
- 1519 – The Aztec Empire is at its height in central Mexico. This empire Included 500 small states and up to 6 million people.
- 1572 – Spanish conquistadors demolish the Incan Empire to create present-day Peru and claim the land for Spain. This victory led to future wars in present-day Chile and Columbia and battles in the Amazon Rainforest.
- 1607 – English colonists arrive in present-day Virginia and settle Jamestown Colony, the first permanent English settlement in the Americas. Jamestown settlers and the local Powhatan people have both peaceful and violent interactions.
- 1621 – Pilgrims celebrate the First Thanksgiving in Plymouth after arriving the year before. Local Wampanoag members helped the early settlers learn to grow crops and survive the harsh winter.
- 1754-1763 – The French and Indian War is fought between France and Great Britain over territory in North America. Some Indigenous groups support the French while others support the British.
- 1805 or 1806 – The Yakama tribe from the Columbia River Plateau, known for hunting, gathering, and trading salmon, encounter Lewis and Clark on their Westward Expedition.
- 1830 – President Andrew Jackson signs the Indian Removal Act, forcing Native American tribes east of the Mississippi to relocate to reservations in the west.
- 1830-1850 – The U.S. Government forcibly removes the Cherokee, Muscogee (Creek), Seminole, Chickasaw, and Choctaw nations from the Southeast U.S. to reservations in what is now Oklahoma. This is called the Trail of Tears.
- 1849-1870 – The California Gold Rush leads to frequent conflicts between hopeful miners and local California Native American tribes.
- 1854-1890 – Sioux Wars: Multiple wars are fought between the U.S. government and the Sioux people, including the Dakota and Lakota tribes of the Great Plains.
- 1942– During World War II, Navajo men use their knowledge of the Navajo language to pass coded messages for the United States Marine Corps. Their code was never broken by the Japanese.
Get the Free Native American History Timeline
I hope this curated Native American history timeline saves you time so you can focus on what you love – teaching!
Download the free Native American History Timeline for Kids HERE.
Need more help teaching Native American history?
Do you need more resources to help you teach about Native American history thoughtfully and respectfully?
- 3-Week Native American History Unit: This all-inclusive unit provides interactive lesson plans about Indigenous groups from eight cultural regions: Eastern Woodlands, Great Plains, Southwest, Pacific Northwest, Plateau, Great Basin, California, and Southeast.
- Native American Regions Map Worksheets: 5 high-quality Native American regions maps for students to analyze and reflect on.
I believe it was Leif Erikson, Erik the Reds son, who set foot in Canada c.1000.