This Land is Ours!

Essential Question: During westward expansion, did the impact of federal policy toward the buffalo soldiers and native Americans match the intent?

During our history class, we have been doing small, one week units. We are now on our second unit which is the Buffalo Soldiers and native Americans. To learn about the former American soil dwellers, we watched quite a few videos and read some interesting documents in our small groups. One document was Helen Hunt Jackson's Century of Dishonor 1881, and the other document was Excerpts from Dawes Act 1887. These documents help us understand the issue of land rights. On the last day we finally took some time and came up with an essential question as a class. The question that we came up with is "During westward expansion, did the impact of federal policy toward the buffalo soldiers and native Americans match the intent?" This weeks essential question is very open ended. You could answer it from a few different viewpoints and ideas.

To put the essential question in straight forward terms, you could think of it as "When the government were taking over the west, did they fulfill the promises that they give the Buffalo Soldiers and the Native Americans" In the 1868, the government created the Second Treaty of Fort Laramie. This promised the Native Americans land that was west of the Mississippi and in the Dakota territory. This lasted for a year, but then there was a major gold rush. Thousands of white gold hunters stormed into the territory that they had promised the Native Americans. This is a great example of how the government did not fulfill their promises towards the Native Americans. The government also walked right into the Great Plains, the area where the natives lived. They expected to just receive all the land that they had. The natives did not accept that kind of actions so they decided to fight back. This gave the Americans the opportunity to go in and rip apart the natives. The Americans got the upper hand in taking over the western front. When talking about Indian Land rights, it is very important to put the Dawes act into play. The Dawes act is also known as the General Allotment Act. The act's main focus was to make the natives live lifestyles like the Americans. The government would then take the excess land and sell it into the free market. To clearly answer the essential question, the impact of the federal policy did not match the intent and the Americans did not fulfill the promises that they promised the Native Americans and the Buffalo Soldiers. The Americans used force and demanded their land which was not part of the original policy.

(this clever drawing shows the "Dawes Act" eating away at the indian land)

http://indiancountrytodaymedianetwork.com/2012/02/08/animation-marty-two-bulls-125th-anniversary-infamous-dawes-act-96740

America is in the Palm of our Hands

Essential Question: Are the captains of industry a positive or negative impact to the public?

In class this week, we learned a lot about Carnegie and Rockefeller. Carnegie and Rockefeller were big businessmen during the late 1800's which was the age of industry. We read two documents about both of those men and how they came to power with such wealth. We read the documents in our groups as usual and then we analysed a couple pictures that represented the two men. One painting was of a octopus with a oil tank on top of it. The octopus has its tentacles around a state house, the capitol, shipping industries and copper and coal industries. The picture is obviously showing how much control the oil industry has. As a class we went around and shared our opinions on the painting. Finally we could come up with an essential that made sense. After a couple of attempts we came up with the question "are the captains of industry of a positive or negative impact to the public?" We used evidence from the videos and documents to come up with the essential question.

My opinion is that the captains of industry had a fairly positive impact on the public. The big captains of industry were John D. Rockefeller and Andrew Carnegie. Rockefeller made his wealth off of oil and Carnegie made his off of steel. Rockefeller's goals when he was younger was to make 100,000 dollars and to live to 100 years old. His peak earnings got up to 313,000,000,000 billion dollars based on today's dollar. So he blew his first goal out of the water. He did not complete his second goal though, he died soon before his 98th birthday. The massive companies made by Carnegie and Rockefeller were able to keep the prices low for consumers of America. They were able to buy the businesses product for a low amount of money. The companies also created a new, more efficient way of industry and transportation. The companies also had the money that the government did not have so they payed for modernizing the industry. John Rockefeller donated a lot of his money. He donated 500 million dollars to charity and education. Many schools were built because of Rockefeller's non greediness. He was also to keep the shipping rates down so that the country could ship goods for less cost. The title that was given to Rockefeller was “Greatest business leader in American History.” He also helped eradicate the Yellow Fever with his charity work. Andrew Carnegie made his fortune of the production of steel. He helped create the Bessemer process which made making steel more quickly and cheaply. The point of this process was to remove the impurities from the iron by oxidation with air being blown through the molten iron. This helped the public because more steel was available for purchase, and since it was cheaper to produce, Carnegie was able to put a lower price tag. The cheaper price of steel put his competitors out of sight, but it was better for the consumers. Carnegie also helped build schools which lead to a better education in many states. The two captains of industry Carnegie and Rockefeller both helped America in advancing their government and their industry. They both didn’t do only great things though. Rockefeller was known for taking down small businesses so his business could be a monopoly. He usually bought out the companies or used cheap tactics to take them out. The industry moguls did do more good things than bad things to the public during their time of rule.  

This drawing shows how John D Rockefeller was the “king of the world”. He is sitting on top of a barrel of oil and money bags next to it.