American Indians offer fascinating possibilities to study non-European civilisations, something Ofsted reports suggest history teachers could do more of. An ideal starting point is the National Museum of the American Indian (www.nmai.si.edu).

KS3

Students could look at the relationship between the British Crown and its American Indian subjects. The National Archives Learning Curve website has an exhibition on the British Empire (www.learningcurve.gov.ukempiredefault.htm).

Most students come across the American Indians as part of the Schools History Project GCSE course. An interesting issue raised in the article is the way in which the story of the Indians has been manipulated in the past and is being reshaped, partly by new evidence, but more by historians looking at the history of the period in different ways. The relationship between the native American and the US government is charted in the US National Records Administration’s Digital Classroom resources (www.archives.govdigital_classroomteaching_with_documents.html).