Instructional Resources

Overview

The Virginia's First People: Past and Present Web site includes information, pictures, maps, lesson plans, links, and resources designed to support the Standards of Learning related to the Virginia Indians.

Resources for teachers and students to learn more about Virginia's first people are located in this section.

Beyond Jamestown: Virginia Indians Past and Present
This booklet was written as an accompaniment to the exhibit "Beyond Jamestown: Virginia Indians Yesterday and Today" and largely presents Virginia Indian history through the words of the Commonwealth's indigenous communities. Their powerful story of survival opens the door to a new understanding of today's thriving American Indian communities. CLICK HERE for a pdf file of the booklet.

Virginia Indian Heritage Trail
In a landmark publication, the Virginia Indian Heritage Trail was created by members of the Virginia tribes and reflects Virginia Indian perspectives on their own history and how that history is interpreted. The Virginia Indian Heritage Trail guides visitors to sites which have accurate, culturally sensitive interpretative content on Virginia Indians. CLICK HERE for a copy of the Virginia Indian Heritage Trail. 

More Than Arrowheads American Indian Content in the 2008 SOL
The revised 2008 History and Social Science Standards of Learning reflect new content for studying the native peoples of Virginia, past and present. Karenne Wood presented this session at the 44th Annual Conference for Social Studies Educators in October 2008. CLICK HERE for a copy of the PowerPoint presentation.

Instructional Resources for Virginia Indians Past and Present
A variety of online resources for instruction on American Indian content, past and present, is presented in this PowerPoint presentation. This was presented during a session at the 44th Annual Conference for Social Studies Educators in October 2008. CLICK HERE for a copy of the PowerPoint presentation.

Ice Age Discoveries
Recent archaeological digs have provided compelling evidence that humans inhabited Virginia at least 18,000 years ago, well before the Clovis culture and thousands of years before previously thought. For many years, evidence indicated that people arrived in North America approximately 13,500 years ago, but digs along the Nottoway River in south-central Virginia provide clues about earlier habitation in the Americas.

These two, 30-minute programs -- Ice Age Discoveries: New Evidence and Ice Age Discoveries: The Investigators -- present the most recent information about our earliest ancestors. In Ice Age Discoveries: New Evidence, learn how artifacts, charcoal, and soil, plant and animal remains have led archaeologists to reconsider the evidence and develop new ideas about where the earliest people came from and when they arrived. Ice Age Discoveries: The Investigators features the archaeologists - the "investigators" - and how they are solving history's mysteries. Learn how archaeologists use science and "lines of evidence" to piece history together.

For more information, go to http://iceage.pwnet.org/.