Fort Snelling: A Contentious Ground

FAIN: BH-50111-06

Historical Society of Minnesota (St. Paul, MN 55102-1903)
Nancy O'Brien Wagner (Project Director: August 2005 to December 2005)
Erik Holland (Project Director: December 2005 to April 2007)

Two one-week workshops for 100 school teachers to study the early years of historic Fort Snelling as a representative military post in the context of Indian relations, economic growth, and westward expansion.

The Minnesota Historical Society (MHS)is requesting funds to offer two five day workshops tentatively scheduled for July 2006. The teachers will study the early years of historic Fort Snelling as a representative military post in the broader national narrative of Indian relations, economic growth, and westward expansion. By analyzing key moments in Minnesota’s history, teachers will gain the techniques they need to illuminate analogous experiences in their states and to understand the national policies and events that framed them. The workshops will provide classroom tools to illustrate the consequences of territorial expansion in the nineteenth century United States.