The National Archives and the Yeti

The U.S. National Archives has a great feature called Today's Document. Today's Document features one historical document (almost always a primary source) per day. Sometimes the documents are serious while other times the documents are not so serious.

Sunday's featured document was a perfect example of a not-so-serious document. On Sunday Today's Document was Regulations Governing Mountain Climbing Expeditions in Nepal - Relating to Yeti. The document came from the Agency for International Development at the American Embassy in Kathmandu, Nepal.

Applications for Education
There is usually a good lesson plan connected to the documents featured in Today's Document. That wasn't the case with the Yeti document. But you could certainly create one using the document analysis tools of DocsTeach. One prompt that I would give to my students concerning this document is, "why would a government agency need to draft a formal policy about searching for the Yeti?"

The National Archives' Today's Document Offers Good Lesson Ideas

The US National Archives is a great resource for history teachers to keep in their books. I've written about some of their services in the past (here and here) and today I'd like to remind you of the National Archives Today's Document feed. On a daily basis Today's Document features a new image or document from the United States' National archives. The documents are usually accompanied by some additional research links and lesson plan resources.

One of the documents that I have used from the Today's Document feed was a petition to the US Government signed by Hopi (Moqui) Chiefs. One of the interesting things about this document is the way that the document was signed with the symbol of each family in the tribe.

Applications for Education
This document could be used with a wide range of grade levels. At the middle school or high school level the petition could be part of a lesson on the way the US Government redistributed land to Native Americans following the Dawes Act. The symbol-signature aspect of the document could be used in an elementary school lesson about cultural differences between European-Americans and Native Americans.