Bosque Redondo Memorial at Fort Sumner Historic Site

School Resources

Dear Educators

Welcome to the Fort Sumner Historic Site school resources page. Here you can access free lessons for students all about the Long Walk and internment of Native Americans at Bosque Redondo. You can schedule tours and soon be able to schedule live interactive remote tours in which we bring the museum to you and your students. You may also access our Navajo language activies.  Please visit this page often as we are adding new lessons and features as our exhibits change and new activities are added. 

In addition to lessons on this page, the New Mexico Historic Sites launched a Virtual Classroom program during the closure due to Covid 19.  There are more lessons about our site by clicking here and to see what other sites offer in their Virtual Classroom, click here to the main page of Virtual Classroom.

Lessons

Click on each link below to download a free lesson plan exploring the history of Bosque Redondo Memorial. Each link will open a folder with an entire unit along with associated documents, primary source documents, power point presentations, video and/or audio files to support the lesson. These lessons are designed for Grades 4 through 12 and include suggestions for modifications for younger students and include extension activities.  Included are Navajo language lessons for Elementary School students or beginners of any age.

Grades 4-5

Grades 6-12

Navajo Language

Planning Your School Group Visit

Thank you for your interest in touring our site with your school group! This guide will assist you in planning your upcoming visit to the Bosque Redondo Memorial (BRM) at the Fort Sumner Historic Site.

Group Visit Experiences:

  • Guided walk through the recreation of the fort
  • Guided tour of the memorial museum
  • Explore barracks and soldier’s life at the fort
  • Hike along the Pecos River
  • Hands on activities time permitting (adobe brick making, weaving, tile art, arrow technology)

Optional Experiences

  • Glimpse of Life on the Reservation: This is a program of planned activities to provide a glimpse into life on the Reservation in the 1860s.  This program runs from the end of September through October.  For more information please click HERE.

Key Themes Covered:

  • History of the life of the Navajo and Mescalero Apache people interned at the Bosque Redondo Reservation
  • Conflict and contested space
  • Power and resistance
  • Archaeology
  • Water and other natural resources

Requirements:

  • School groups must submit a request at least two weeks prior to the date of their visit
  • Chaperones are required for all school groups to ensure attention and preserve the learning environment.
  • No cellphone use while on the tour (for cultural sensitivity)
  • Staff and docents are not disciplinarians. Teachers and chaperones are responsible for children’s behavior.

State Benchmarks and Standards:

School group visits to BRM are designed to complement the New Mexico Department of Education’s benchmarks and standards. The visits are customized to three grade groups: K-4, 5-8, 9-12. See the end of this guide for a complete list of the standards and supporting activities.

Admission Fee Waiver

Admission is free

STEP #1 Schedule Your Visit

Request a Date and Time

Send an email request to brmftsumner@gmail.com for a date and time for your school group visit. Site staff will contact you after you submit the form to confirm your spot.

Notes on Tour Dates and Times

  • School group tours are only offered at BRM on Wednesdays through Fridays
  • Tour groups may be scheduled starting as early as 10:00 am but the latest a group can be scheduled is 2:30 pm.
  • Up to two classes can be scheduled in each time slot
  • For school groups, we do have picnic areas (lunch is not provided).

STEP #2 Prepare Your Group

Required Preparation Activity (60 Minutes – In Class)

Follow the link below to download the pre-visit in class activity to prepare your students for their field trip to BRM. This activity includes the following:

Prepare your students

Classroom Visit (K-12)

We also offer in-classroom experience led by staff and docents during the school year. We can and prefer a visit before school tours to discuss the history of BRM. Send an email request to brmftsumner@gmail.com to schedule your pre-visit in-classroom experience.

                                                                                                                                                                                                             

Coming soon! We are going to be offering live interactive remote tours and live classroom visits led by BRM staff or docents. It will be just like a classroom visit but using technology to interact with students literally anywhere as long as the technology is available. It will allow students to see the exhibitions, talk with staff, and ask questions and have those questions answered live. Please check back to participate when available.

STEP #3 Visit Fort Sumner Historic Site

What Students Should Bring

  • Sack Lunch (if staying through lunch time)
  • Water Bottle
  • Sunscreen
  • Comfortable shoes

Safety Considerations

  • Have groups stay with chaperones during their visit
  • Take note of the seasonal weather and prepare accordingly
  • Do not climb on trees, buildings, rocks, cliffs, or historic structures
  • Do not remove anything from the site
  • Do not disturb wildlife
  • Immediately report injuries to a staff member

Directions

BRM is located off of Highway 60/84 on Billy the Kid Road. We are 3.5 miles once turning south onto Billy the Kid Road and on the left side of the road beyond the grave of Billy the Kid.

Arriving at BRM

The students and chaperones are to come directly into the museum front entrance to be greeted by staff member or docent. Please call the front desk at 575-355-2573 if your group is running early or late.

Site Stewardship

While visiting Bosque Redondo Memorial there are two rules that are paramount:

  • Visitors are not to disturb or photograph the Traveler’s Shrine or Apache Prayer Circle
  • Visitors are not to pick up or remove anything from the ground

By following these rules visitors will comply with State and Federal laws protecting archaeological sites.

ADA Compliance

Our main trail loop, museum building, and restrooms are all ADA compliant. We also offer courtesy wheelchairs.

Tours

Each class will be led on a two-hour tour through the museum, along the fort grounds, and nature trail. If two classes are booked, they will rotate through stations around the site. A restroom break is included halfway through the tour. When weather is extremely hot or cold, more time will be spent in the Visitor Center and other climate-controlled areas of the site. If time needs to be adjusted for either shorter or longer, please let us know so that we can accommodate your schedule.

Lunch

At noon, school groups that desire to eat lunch on the site, will be directed to picnic areas. After lunch, groups are expected to clean up after themselves and throw away all trash and food remnants.

Departing BRM

The walk to the parking lot is fairly long so it is advisable that chaperones escort the students to and from the museum to the parking lot.

 

New Mexico State Benchmarks Addressed in a Visit to Fort Sumner Historic Site

I-History       II-Geography          III-Government      IV-Economics

Grades K-4:

I-A: Describe how contemporary and historical people and events have influenced New Mexico communities and regions.

  • I- D: Understand time passage and
  • II- A: Understand the concept of location by using and constructing maps, globes, and other geographic tools to identify and derive information about people, places, and

II-B: Distinguish between natural and human characteristics of places and use this knowledge to define regions, their relationships with other regions, and patterns of change.

II-C: Be familiar with aspects of human behavior and man-made and natural environments in order to recognize their impact on the past and present.

II-E: Describe how economic, political, cultural, and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations, and their interdependence, cooperation, and conflict.

  • II- F: Describe how natural and man-made changes affect the meaning, use, distribution, and value of resources.
  • III- B: Identify and describe the symbols, icons, songs, traditions, and leaders of local, state, tribal, and national levels that exemplify ideals and provide continuity and a sense of community across

Grades 5-8:

I-A: Explore and explain how people and events have influenced the development of New Mexico up to the present day.

I-B: Analyze and interpret major eras, events and individuals from the periods of exploration and colonization through the civil war and reconstruction in United States history.

I-C: Compare and contrast major historical eras, events and figures from ancient civilizations to the age of exploration.

  • I- D: Research historical events and people from a variety of perspectives:
  • II- A: Analyze and evaluate the characteristics and purposes of geographic tools, knowledge, skills and perspectives and apply them to explain the past, present and future in terms of patterns, events and issues.

II-B: Explain the physical and human characteristics of places and use this knowledge to define regions, their relationships with other regions, and their patterns of change.

II-C: understand how human behavior impacts man-made and natural environments, recognize past and present results and predict potential changes:

II-E: Explain how economic, political, cultural and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations and their interdependence, cooperation and conflict.

  • II- F: Understand the effects of interactions between human and natural systems in terms of changes in meaning, use, distribution and relative importance of
  • III- B: Explain the significance of symbols, icons, songs, traditions and leaders of New Mexico and the United States that exemplify ideals and provide continuity and a sense of
  • IV- C: describe the patterns of trade and exchange in early societies and civilizations and explore the extent of their continuation in today’s

Grades 9-12

I-C: World: analyze and interpret the major eras and important turning points in world history from the age of enlightenment to the present, to develop an understanding of the complexity of the human experience.

  • I- D: Use critical thinking skills to understand and communicate perspectives of individuals, groups and societies from multiple contexts.
  • II- A: Analyze and evaluate the characteristics and purposes of geographic tools, knowledge, skills, and perspectives and apply them to explain the past, present and future in terms of patterns, events and issues.

II-B: Analyze natural and man-made characteristics of worldwide locales; describe regions, their interrelationships and patterns of change.

II-C: Analyze the impact of people, places and natural environments upon the past and present in terms of our ability to plan for the future.

II-E: Analyze and evaluate how economic, political, cultural and social processes interact to shape patterns of human populations and their interdependence, cooperation and conflict.

  • II- F: Analyze and evaluate the effects of human and natural interactions in terms of changes in the meaning, use, distribution and importance of resources in order to predict our global capacity to support human
  • III- A: Compare and analyze the structure, power and purpose of government at the local, state, tribal and national levels as set forth in their respective constitutions or governance
  • III- B: Analyze how the symbols, icons, songs, traditions and leaders of New Mexico and the United States exemplify ideals and provide continuity and a sense of
  • IV- B: Analyze and evaluate how economic systems impact the way individuals, households, businesses, governments and societies make decisions about resources and the production and distribution of goods and services.

Bosque Redondo Memorial at Fort Sumner Historic Site


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