The first supporting question, “What can we learn about the transition from Dakota Territory to statehood from studying maps?” helps students use sources to unwrap the context of the time and topic being examined.
Formative Performance Task 1
Working individually or in groups, have students study Featured Sources A-B. What do these maps depict? What can be inferred from the sources? Create a graphic organizer that identifies what is significant about these maps and/or the information they represent.
Featured Sources 1
The sources featured below are examples of primary sources. Primary sources are the raw materials of history—original documents, personal records, photographs, maps, and other materials. Primary sources the first evidence of what happened, what was thought, and what was said by people living through a moment in time. These sources are the evidence by which historians and other researchers build and defend their historical arguments, or thesis statements. When using primary sources in your lessons, invite students to use all their senses to observe, describe, and analyze the materials. What can they see, hear, feel, smell, and even taste? Draw on students’ knowledge to classify the sources into groups, to make connections between what they observe and what they already know, and to help them make logical claims about the materials that can be supported by evidence. Further research of materials and sources can either prove or disprove the students’ argument.
| Source A |
Political Map of the U.S. (1845)
Source: SHSND 973.6 A8873 1850 This map was created by William C. Woodbridge of New York and engraved by M. Atwood. It reflects the political changes and military conquests that took place between 1848 and 1850. The map measures 12 by 18 ½ inches. As a political map it shows the state boundaries, capitals and major cities, and territorial boundaries. Because its purpose is to show political boundaries, it contains fewer topographical details such as rivers, lakes, and mountain ranges. However, the map does fill in portion of the unorganized territories of the west with some information about a few Indian tribes and some military forts. Note that the southern boundary of the United States does not have its current location. Dakota Territory has not yet been organized; what we know today as North Dakota is part of Missouri Territory on this map. |
| Source B |
Source: SHSND 978.02 R724t 1857 This map was drawn by Professor H. D. Rogers and A. Keith Johnston and engraved by W. and A. K. Johnston of Edinburgh, Scotland. It was copyrighted in both London and Massachusetts in 1857, and measures 14 ½ by 17 7/8 inches. The map shows western North Dakota as part of Nebraska Territory. At the time, the eastern portion of North Dakota was part of Minnesota Territory. In 1858, when Minnesota became a state, the eastern portion of North Dakota was left without any territorial status for a couple of years. The map includes several proposed routes for transcontinental railroads. In the 1850s railroad technology had improved. California had been admitted to the Union, and many pioneers were undertaking a dangerous six-month long journey in wagons to California and Oregon. Railroads could diminish the time, the cost, and the danger of the journey as well as connect California’s gold fields to the eastern states where the gold would be used particularly in the growing cities and industries. The purple line that follows the Platte River to South Pass and Bridger’s Fort became the route of the Union Pacific Railroad in 1862 (completed in 1869), but in 1858 the sectional quarreling that led to the Civil War prevented Congress from reaching a decision on the route. |
Learn more about the history of North Dakota by visiting the North Dakota Heritage Center & State Museum.