Click on each of the links below to understand more about the context of the event.

These are some of the sources available to inform us about the events at Bear River. Click on each source below to read about the massacre from different perspectives. All accounts include the original version and a version simplified for student use.

7th Grade:

UT Standard 2.4: Students will research multiple perspectives to explain one or more of the political, social, cultural, religious conflicts of this period, including the U.S. Civil War and more localized conflicts such as the Utah War, the Mountain Meadows Massacre, the Bear River Massacre, the Black Hawk War, or other Federal-Mormon conflicts. (history)

11th Grade:

U.S. II Standard 8.2: Students will apply historical perspective and historical thinking skills to propose a viable solution to a pressing economic, environmental, or social issue, such as failing social security, economic inequalities, the national debt, oil dependence, water shortages, global climate change, pandemics, pollution, global terrorism, poverty, and immigration.

Instructions for Graphic Organizer

Teachers: You may need to simplify, adjust, or scaffold these instructions for students, depending on grade level/ability. This is just a general outline.

1. Choose 6 sources from the archive page to analyze. (Teachers: you can add or remove rows from the table if you want students to look at more/fewer sources)

2. In the first column, write the name of the source, the author, the date it was published, and the type of source it is.

3. In the next two columns list the perspective of the source compared to your perspective of the information.

4. Compare worksheets with the people around you, make sure a variety of sources have been analyzed by the people in your group. Pay attention to trends such as which responses were more commonly seen in the sources.

5. Discuss your opinion with your group, and then answer the questions on your worksheet individually.