Native Americans and Westward Expansion: Cultures and Conflicts is a single volume divided into two separate sections (corresponding to Unit 12 and Unit 13 for schools using the CKHG series in Sequence grade-level order):

• Westward Expansion After the Civil War continues the story begun in an earlier book (Westward Expansion Before the Civil War), focusing on the causes and effects of the westward movement of Americans in the later 1800s. Students learn how westward expansion was spurred by the lure of gold and silver, the passage of the Homestead Act, and the building of transcontinental railroads. Students explore the myths and realities of cowboy life and the “Wild West.” Students also learn how the United States purchased Alaska from Russia, and consider the late-nineteenth century idea of the “closing of the American frontier.”
• Native Americans: Cultures and Conflicts explores the ways of life of diverse Native American peoples, and goes on to examine how their cultures were disrupted, displaced, and profoundly altered by westward expansion and American government policies and practices in the 1800s. Students learn about the diverse ways of life of Native American peoples in the Great Basin and Plateau regions, the Northern and Southern Plains, and the Pacific Northwest. Students explore how the lives of Plains dwellers were changed by the introduction of the horse and the near extinction of bison. Students consider how various American government policies and actions displaced Native Americans from their lands onto reservations, broke down tribal life, and compelled assimilation. Students also learn how the Sioux, Nez Perce, and other Native Americans fought to maintain their lands, their independence, and their ways of life.

Some of the content of this unit is tied to the “Pathway to Citizenship,” an array of civics-focused knowledge, questions, and activities.