National History Day 2018 Theme: Conflict and Compromise in History
The following are a few potential topics for a 2018 "Conflict and Compromise in History" National History Day project based on Montana's state or local history. Click on any topic to find a brief description linking it to the theme and a list of a few primary and secondary sources related to the topic and interesting relevant resources available on the internet.
Please note that these lists are designed just to get you started. Some of these topics will need to be further narrowed down to make good history day projects. In addition, as you research, we are certain you will find many other sources. For example, newspaper articles are rarely listed in these bibliographies--and many of these topics received on-going newspaper coverage. The Montana Historical Society will interlibrary loan microfilm reels of its extensive newspaper collection. The Society is actively digitizing parts of its newspaper collection and is offering a $500 prize for the project that makes best use of newspapers digitized as part of the Chronicling America Project and/or the Montana Historical Society website MontanaNewspapers.org.
National History Day projects and presentations must be built around a thesis, not just a list of dates or facts. So, use this list of potential topics and resources only as inspiration to consider what particular position or thesis you want to present based on historical events, people, places, and information.
In addition to the topics outlined below, there are many other relevant Montana history topics. Especially consider local events and local historical figures. Leaders in your own community may have left significant legacies that illustrate topics of state and national significance based on an event or a situation that involved conflict and compromise.
Mining
Chinese Boycott
Gov Joseph Dixon and the Mining Tax
Environmental Issues and Actions
Fire Policy
Lee Metcalf
Sustained Yield Forestry
Women's History: In 2014, on the 100th anniversary of women's suffrage in Montana, the Montana Historical Society created the Women's History Matters website. We recommend that you browse through the more than 100 essays on that page and the bibliographies that accompany them. You will find information about women and women's groups who faced conflict in their efforts to participate fully in their communities, the state, and the region--and responded with both strong actions and skilled compromise. You will be able to learn about the skills and strategies they employed as they took positions and defended them: using words, examples, research, politics and much more. The WHM website really is one of the richest sources of Montana topics and ideas that you'll find as you explore "Conflict and Compromise in History."
Elouise Cobell: The Blackfeet Banker Who Took on the Federal Government
Hazel Hunkins
Jeannette Rankin
Montana Women's Suffrage Movement
Ella Knowles: Fight to Become Montana's First Female Lawyer
Civil Rights/Social History
Immigrant Rights and the Chinese Experience
"Not In Our Town": Combating Hate Crimes in Billings
Prohibition
1909 Missoula Free Speech Fight
Economic/Labor History
Frank Little
Non-Partisan League: Revolution, Reaction, Reform in Eastern Montana
Hogan's Army
Montana Labor Unions
Populists, Progressives, and the Eight-hour Day
Political History
Gov. Joseph Dixon and the Mining Tax
1972 Constitutional Convention
Mike Mansfield
Lee Metcalf
Indians & European American Exploration, Encounter, and Exchange
Allotment and The Opening of Indian Land to Homesteaders
Creation of Rocky Boy's Reservation
Chief Plenty Coups of the Crow
Elouise Cobell: The Blackfeet Banker Who Took on the Federal Government
Salish Attempts to Retain the Bitterroot
1868 Fort Laramie Treaty
Robert Yellowtail, Crow Negotiator
1855 Hellgate Treaty
War and Resistance
Louis Riel: Metis Revolutionary
Montana Sedition Act-Montana Council of Defense (World War I)
Montana's World War II Conscientious Objector Camps
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