Homestead Act 1862, Mormon Migration, Women on Overland Trails — Multi-Perspective (Trauma-Informed for Enslaved-People-Brought-West)

Sovereignty Promise + Truth-and-Resilience Promise. Confirm caregiver letter received. Recall: lessons 6-15 named multiple communities affected by westward expansion. Today: 3 more — homesteaders, Mormons, women, AND enslaved peoples brought west.

• Recite Promises
• Confirm opt-outs (light protocol)
• Set tone for multi-thread lesson

Direct teach 3 threads. THREAD A: Homestead Act 1862 signed by President Lincoln. Granted up to 160 acres of federal land (quarter section, 1/4 × 640 acres) to settlers who file claim, live on land 5 years, improve it. About 270 million acres distributed over the Act's life (1862-1976). CRITICAL: this federal land was Indigenous-nation homeland; the Dawes Act 1887 (G5 entry) extended the same idea to allocating tribal lands. Math: a 640-acre section is 1 mile × 1 mile = 1 square mile. A quarter section is 1/2 mile × 1/2 mile = 160 acres. Children compute. THREAD B: Mormon Migration 1846-1869 from Nauvoo IL to Great Basin/Salt Lake Valley UT. Faith-based migration following expulsion from Missouri and Illinois. About 70,000 Mormons made the journey 1846-1869, mostly on Mormon Trail (1,300 miles). Brigham Young led the first group 1847. Mormon migration intersected with Indigenous nations of the Great Basin (Ute, Shoshone, Paiute, Goshute) — named, not erased. THREAD C: Daily life on overland trails — women's and children's labor (cooking, child-care, water-fetching, animal-care), birth and death on the trail, weather. Read Susan Magoffin (1846 Santa Fe Trail) and Catherine Haun (1849 Gold Rush overland) age-adapted excerpts. CRITICAL trauma-informed sub-thread: enslaved African Americans were ALSO brought west by enslaving settlers — including by Cherokee, Choctaw, Muscogee, Chickasaw enslavers on the Trail of Tears (a difficult intersection requiring careful framing — some Indigenous removed nations had adopted plantation-slavery practices from neighboring US states; this is named honestly without monolithic-framing of either group).

• Geography and math meet — the survey-section system structured federal land distribution.

  model 1/4 × 640 = 160 acres. A full section is 1 mile × 1 mile = 1 square mile = 640 acres. A quarter section is 1/2 mile × 1/2 mile = 160 acres. Children draw on section-grid manipulative.

  prompt How many acres in a quarter section?

• What did the Homestead Act grant?
• How many acres in a quarter section? How is that 1/4 of a full section?
• What made the Mormon migration distinct from the Gold Rush migration?

Apply MG-7 to Homestead Act 1862: WHO? Congress + Lincoln; WHEN? 1862 (during Civil War); WHY? to settle federal land with citizen claimants; CORROBORATE with Dawes Act 1887 G5 entry (extending allotment to tribal lands); CLOSE READ phrase 'any person... having filed his declaration'; WHOSE voice silent? Indigenous nations on whose land the homesteads were sited.

M-4-S-HIS-17-B Map

Map showing Mormon Trail Nauvoo IL → Council Bluffs IA (Winter Quarters 1846-1847) → Fort Bridger WY → Salt Lake Valley UT. 1,300-mile route. Translucent overlay shows Indigenous nations whose homelands the trail crossed: Pawnee, Lakota, Cheyenne, Arapaho, Shoshone, Ute. Brigham Young portrait + 'Saints' Volume 1 reference.

• Section-grid math: compute 1/4 × 640, 1/8 × 640, 1/2 × 640. Use Math G4 Spring fraction skills.

  scaffold Section-grid manipulative; teacher checks.
• Mormon Trail map task: identify Nauvoo IL terminus, Salt Lake Valley UT terminus, 4 Indigenous nations whose homelands the trail crossed.

  scaffold Map with overlay.

M-4-S-HIS-17-A Manipulative Physical / non-image

Section-grid cardstock manipulative: a 640-acre section drawn as 1 mile × 1 mile square divided into 4 quarter-sections (each 1/2 mile × 1/2 mile = 160 acres). Children use markers to identify a quarter section (160 acres), half-quarter (80 acres). Math G4 Spring fraction cross-disc.

M-4-S-HIS-17-C Chart

3 cardstock cards: (a) Susan Magoffin 1846 Santa Fe Trail diary excerpt (age-adapted) — 18-year-old bride traveling with husband to Santa Fe; (b) Catherine Haun 1849 Gold Rush overland diary excerpt (age-adapted) — describing daily labor and childbirth on trail; (c) 'York' page (continuation from Lesson 4) — naming enslaved African Americans brought west on overland trails. Each card 80-100 word excerpt + 1-sentence context note.

• How many acres in a quarter section?
• Name one Indigenous nation whose homeland the Mormon Trail crossed.
• What was distinctive about the Mormon migration?

• Compassion Circle briefly
• Preview tomorrow's review-and-synthesis lesson

• At home, find a US map. Identify the path from your state to the nearest National Historic Trail (Oregon, California, Mormon, Santa Fe, Lewis and Clark, Trail of Tears, Selma to Montgomery, etc.). Note 2 sentences.