California State History

Introduce your students to the rich heritage of California, from pre-history to the 100th anniversary of statehood, with this exciting primary source portfolio. Students will learn about California's Native Americans; its early years as a Spanish territory; how it became a state; and its ethnic, cultural, agricultural, and industrial diversity by holding and reading primary sources. This portfolio includes Reproducible Student Activities, which offer vocabulary, writing, research, and creative thinking exercises, as well as a teacher's response key. A timeline from prehistory to 1950 gives students a full view of important Californian events. 3 Explanatory Maps: * California Native American Tribal Groups * Overland Routes to California * California Missions, Presidios and Pueblos 5 Illustrated Broadsheet Essays: * California: The Land and Early People * The Spanish in California * The Period of Mexican Rule * Gold! * One Hundred Years of Statehood 16 Primary Source Documents: * The Drake plate of brass, 1579 * Map of California as an island, about 1650 * Statement of provisions, tools, religious items, and other supplies for the Spanish expedition to San Diego and Monterey, 1769 * Map of Rancho San Miguel, Sonoma County, c. 1840 * Excerpts from The Emigrants’ Guide to Oregon and California, by Lansford W. Hastings, 1845 * Reproduction of the original Bear Flag raised over Sonoma, June 14, 1846 * Article 1, Section 1-6 of the first Constitution of the State of California, handwritten in English and Spanish, 1849 * California Emigration Society broadside, 1849 * Hutchings’ pictorial lettersheet: “Methods of Mining,” about 1855 * California Indian scenes, from Hutchings’ pictorial lettersheet,1854, and Hutchings’ California Magazine, 1859 * Central Pacific Railroad emigrant railway ticket, Chicago to San Francisco, c. 1870 * “Regular Workingmen’s Ticket,” an anti-Chinese election broadside, 1878 * “Unique Map of California,” 1888 * Proclamation by the Mayor of San Francisco, April 18, 1906 * Photo-poster: Migrants and Immigrants, From the Gold Rush to World War II * Photo-poster: Japanese-American Internment Camps