The Three P's Collide #4

              During class, students gathered in groups based on their topic to create a final project to present to the class. Group members discussed the key terms and enduring understandings that they felt were important, and then decided which ones were the most valuable. Each group created about 3 to 4 introduction slides that explained their topic’s background information and the key terms for their topic. Groups wrote the main points on each slide, but then explained in detail the concept of the slides in order to teach the class about their topics. After presenting the background slides, groups showed the Videolicious videos that they created. Each video was no more than 60 seconds longs with 6 images per video. For each picture in the video, students recorded the explanations of how each image relates to the People, Power, and Places theme. After the information slides, the groups created a bibliography and pictography that cited any readings or images that were used for the project. Following the video and information slideshow, students in the audience took a survey on SurveyMonkey.com that the group presenting created. The survey asked questions that required the students to use the information that the group just presented, with a variety of multiple choice and short answer questions. When students completed the survey, the group presenting discussed the questions and answers of the survey. Students learned how each topic relates to the People, Places and Power theme from each group’s presentations.

Imperialism in America:

                America defeated Spain in the Spanish American War, which was ended by the Treaty of Paris, and because of this defeat, America had power over Spanish countries. The United States invaded Cuba because the U.S. wanted more fertile land to boost the economy, to gain naval bases outside of the U.S., to unite America with patriotism, and to protect American soldiers that were in Cuba who the U.S. thought were in danger. America was able to dominate Cuba because it had more power.

European Imperialism in Africa:

                The European belief that they had power over Africans because of their evolution, called Social Darwinism, gave the idea to Europeans that they had the right to divide Africa among themselves. King Leopold II was greedy since he had power, and therefore exploited the Congo Free State. Under his control, Leopold manipulated the citizens of the Congo Free State to convince them to work for him under harsh conditions.

Labor vs. Big Business:

                People who created big businesses, like Rockefeller, Morgan, Carnegie, and Pullman, were powerful. The amount of money gained by large corporations led to power in small numbers of people. People without power who worked in the same place would join together in groups to gain power in order to fight against the powerful people who controlled them.

Immigration from Asia:

                In 1920, over 200,000 Japanese came to America, but there were many laws that restricted immigrants from coming into the country. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 stopped Chinese laborers from entering America, the Webb Alien Law prohibited foreigners without citizenship in America from owning land in 1913, and immigration laws prevented immigrants from achieving the American dream. Angel Island was the main immigration center in California that was made in 1910 where immigrants went through physical exams to see if they were healthy enough to enter America.

European Immigration:

                European immigrants who arrived in America were restricted to becoming a citizen easily by people who were in power. Pogrom organized the persecution of Jews and restrictive covenants limited the sale of property to immigrants.

Link to my group's Videolicious: http://video.videolicious.com/36ab0599-03be-41b5-9984-8c607659400e

The Three P's Collide #3

I was able to learn many new things about Native Americans in the West by chatting with my group about our research. I was exposed to more enduring understandings and key terms by working with my peers. For one example, I never considered that even though people in power were causing harm to others, they may have thought of themselves as doing the right thing. Craig enlightened me on this enduring understanding, as well as the understanding that General George Armstrong Custer was harmful to the Indians, even though he sympathized for them. Discussing the topic with my group made me realize that many of the people who were in power of the Native Americans treated the Native Americans poorly, even if not on purpose. Also, I was reminded by my group members that some people would do drastic things to be in power or to maintain their home. For example, Easterners killed many Indians, including women, children and chief Sitting Bull, in order to gain territory and power in the West. I gained a better understanding of the effects that people in power had and the views of the people in power from conversation within my group.

In general, this project was an enjoyable way to learn about our topic, but my group had a few glitches along the way.When we first began making our Videolicious, my group was concerned about the timing. Since we only had about six seconds per image to record our caption, we were afraid that either we would not be able to fit all of the captions in or that we would need to talk too fast. After a few trial runs, we found the right pace to speak in order to fit all of the captions in, and even with two seconds remaining to record! Even though our photo essay turned out to be a success, our introduction slides needed some tweaking right at the end of class, which was frustrating. We learned to only write the major points on each slide instead of paragraphs to read off of. I wish I had the opportunity to help more with the Videolicious App because I spent a majority of the class time creating the introduction slides. Overall I enjoyed creating this project because it was an interesting way to show to the class what we have learned about our topics.

Link to my Video Essay: http://video.videolicious.com/36ab0599-03be-41b5-9984-8c607659400e

The Three P's Collide #2

I have recently gained more understanding about the Native Americans in the West, and now I have added my new discoveries to this update of my previous post. In this blog post I have used information from a status report by General Sherman in 1868 and from a map of “The Long Walk” routes at http://reta.nmsu.edu/modules/longwalk/lesson/document/index.htm. These documents have taught me about how the Navajos were treated unfairly at the time. I have improved my Enduring Understandings with more information about people, power, and places.

KEY TERMS:

Push-pull factors are events that force or strongly encourage people to leave an area.

Nomads are people who travel to different places, especially to look for food sources.

Reservations were areas of land put aside for Native Americans by the federal government.

Wounded Knee was the creek that Big Foot, children and women escaped to after the Indian          Bureau in Washington shot chief Sitting Bull for leading the Ghost Dance.

The Dawes Act separated reservation land into individual plots with each Native American family with a head man getting a 160 acre plot of land.

The Pacific Railway Act of 1862 granted alternate areas of public land to the amount of five alternative sections for each mile on the side of the railroads.

The Morrill Land-Grant gave millions of acres of Western land to state governments so that the states could sell the land to collect money in order to build "land grant" colleges that were specifically agriculture and mechanical arts.

Land speculators were people who bought large plots of land to later sell to others to make money.

The Homestead Act was signed by Lincoln in 1862 so that for a small profit, the head of families, American citizens or immigrants that were filing for citizenship received 160 acres of land and small houses to live in for at least 6 months per year.

The Great Plains is a large grassland between the Mississippi River and the Rocky Mountains that provided a large number of buffalo in the 1800's.

The Massacre at Wounded Knee was the last place of violence in the Indian Wars where Sitting Bull was shot, along with over 200 Sioux killed.

Bosque Redondo was a reservation in New Mexico where Navajo Native Americans traveled to between 1863 and 1868 when they were kicked out of the West.

  Enduring Understandings:       

People have power over other people when they control certain places.

• White settlers were involved with push-pull factors because they forced Native Americans out of the West. (Prentice Hall America Pathways to the Past, page 488)
• General Sherman kept Native Americans in reservations because he believed that they were lazy and thieves so it was necessary to keep an eye on them. (Status Report)

People treat others harshly when they are in power.

• White soldiers shot Native American women and children. (The "Indian Question", page 216)
• Navajos were forced to carry heavy timber for 100 miles from Fort Sumner and wood for 25 to 35 miles to Bosque Redondo. (Status Report)
• Navajos had to dig mesquite roots and carry them on their backs for 6 to 12 miles. (Status Report)

         

Places either provide or lack resources for the people who live their.

• The Great Plains gave the Native Americans opportunities to trade with other places. The French and American fur trade allowed the Native Americans to trade their hides from buffalo for guns in order to make buffalo hunting more efficient. (Prentice Hall America Pathways to the Past, 491)
• Bosque Redondo had little fuel, dirty water, and unproductiveness in soil. (Status Report)

People at the bottom of power structures have no input on how they are controlled.

• The Navajo implored General Sherman to return to the West of the Rio Grande River, where there were more resources available. Sherman demanded to keep the Navajo near a military post to punish those who were thieves. He believed that it was necessary to contain the Navajo in a reservation in order to look after them. (Status Report)
• The Indians’ supplies were stolen when the Federal Bureau of Indian Affairs was in charge of delivering necessities to the Indian reservations. (Prentice Hall America Pathways to the Past, 492)
• Indians were paid 30 to 50 cents per day to plow, hoe corn, and dig acequias at Bosque Redondo, and that was also for their rations. (Status Report)

If I were a Native American in the West in the mid-1800’s, it would have been frustrating to be forced out of my home and onto a reservation. General Sherman trapped the Navajo in reservations to keep an eye on them because he was convinced that one-third of them were thieves and indolent. (Status Report). I would be furious to be treated poorly simply because I was on the bottom of the power structure. The Navajo had to walk from 375 to 500 miles from their homes West of the Rio Grande River to Bosque Redondo during “The Long Walk.” (Primary Routes Map). General Sherman claimed that the Indians could not survive without living under control of the government, even though they had successfully lived on their own before being forced out of the West. (Status Report). Being obligated to leave my home would be horrible, but it would be even worse to also be treated dreadfully by higher powers.

(Primary Routes Map)