The Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation will conduct workshops for Wyoming educators on how to teach using primary sources. These workshops are funded in part by a grant form the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Great Plains program, managed by the National Council for History Education.
The $25,000 grant will pay for two one-day workshops, serving 30 teachers from Park, Big Horn, Washakie, Hot Springs, and Fremont counties. This project’s objective is to equip educators with the knowledge, resources, and confidence to effectively teach the history of the Japanese American incarceration with a focus on the Heart Mountain camp.
Teachers will learn how to use Library of Congress resources and primary sources, including the Heart Mountain Sentinel newspaper, photographs taken by legendary journalist Dorothea Lange and photographersworking for the War Relocation Authority. Other primary source documents include the War Relocation Authority files of the Heart Mountain draft resisters, incarceree records kept by the National Archives and other family history documents.
Participants will also engage with a former incarceree, providing a valuable firsthand account that deepens understanding and enriches primary source analysis. In addition to historical content, the workshops will emphasize place-based learning. Educators will explore the historical connections between their communities and Heart Mountain by examining both archival documents and lived experiences.
These latest workshops, which will be offered July 10 and 11, follow Heart Mountain’s successful participation in the National Endowment for the Humanities’ Landmarks of American History and Culture workshop series for four straight years. Museum Educator Sybil Tubbs, a veteran of the NEH workshop program, will direct the primary sources workshops. Content created and featured in partnership with the TPS program does not indicate an endorsement by the Library of Congress.