A Note About Timelines and List of Important People

While you can find this information through your Roadmap Account, you are best served to build these pages for your notebook on your own.  A good goal is to have your text reading finished by Thursday and on Friday to build your timeline and important people lists.  You may then choose to check your work against the information on the roadmap or another student.  I just want you to be wary about not doing the work on your own - a butterfly who is freed from it's cocoon without having to wiggle and force its way out is too weak to fly!  At the end of each week I will post on the blog my own versions of my timelines and important people for you to compare your list against.  (Note this will be after I have checked your notebooks.)

Notebook Checklist

We went over our notebooks rather quickly yesterday, but I thought you all did an amazing job keeping up and following instructions.  You will get more familiar with how to use your notebooks as class goes on.  I've posted a checklist of your handouts just in case there was a mixup.  If you find yourself missing a handout let me know and I will email you a copy!

History Notebook Handouts


Here is a copy of the most current syllabus (see explanation in the above document):

Honors US History Syllabus

The Life of Black Hawk

At least one of you has decided to read The Life of Black Hawk as your autobiography selection this semester.  For those of you who may be considering this one I have found an online edition that you can read for free (there is an option to read it so that it's a virtual book with pages that you can turn).  It's located here.

For those of you curious about this book Black Hawk was a Sauk Indian and fought on the side of the British during the war of 1812.  Afterwards he led a band of warriors called the British Band during what became known as the Black Hawk Wars.  He was captured and taken prisoner and on orders by Andrew Jackson shipped back to the Eastern United States with the last remaining of his warriors.  He was something of an infamous hero an attracted large gatherings.  Near the end of his captivity and life he told his story to Antoine LeClair who recorded it in this book.

Black Hawk begins by dedicating the book to the Brigadier General he fought against - L.H. Atkinson!  He says:

Sir, The changes of fortune, and vicissitudes of war, made you my conqueror. When my last resources were exhausted, my warriors worn down with long and toilsome marches, we yielded, and I became your prisoner.

The story of my life is told in the following pages ; it is intimately connected, and in some measure, identified with a part of the history of your own: I have, therefore, dedicated it to you.

The changes of many summers, have brought old age upon me, and I cannot expect to survive many moons. Before I set out on my journey to the land of my fathers, I have determined to give my motives and reasons for my former hostilities to the whites, and to vindicate my character from misrepresentation. The kindness I received from you whilst a prisoner of war, assures me that you will vouch for the facts contained in my narrative, so far as they came under your observation.

I am now an obscure member of a nation, that formerly honored and respected my opinions. The path to glory is rough, and many gloomy hours obscure it.   May the Great Spirit shed light on you and that you may never experience the humility that the power of the American government has reduced me to, is the wish of him, who, in his native forests, was once as proud and bold as yourself.

BLACK HAWK.
Moon, 1833. 

Read this sentence again:  that you may never experience the humility that the power of the American government has reduced me to, is the wish of him, who, in his native forests, was once as proud and bold as yourself -- talk about Point of View!

James Fenimore Cooper

This is for my students who are reading or considering reading Last of the Mohicans (I know I have one and perhaps two of you).  Unfortunately it does not seem to be a complete video, but I cannot locate the original source - it's just over 3 minutes long, so doesn't take too much of your time!

Meet the Author

You’ve probably heard of the Book of Virtues but did you know that it’s author and the author of America the Last Best Hope are one and the same?  William J. Bennett told us why he wrote this book in the introduction, but who is this guy anyway?  What do we know about him?

We know that he is a conservative.  Now you have to decide if you really know what that means.  He is known as a conservative pundit.  That means he is someone who likes to offer his opinion to the media about politics (well, it could be other topics, like sports, but usually it refers to politics).

He has served in official roles in our government.  He was the U.S. Secretary of Education for three years in the late 80’s.  (That combined with his conservative pundancy may underline the explanation he gave us in his introduction about why he wrote our text.)  He also served as Drug Czar under President George H. W. Bush (that’s George Herbert Walker Bush – the father of George W. Bush).  That of course wasn’t the real title of his job, but it is the popularized name for the person who directs the propaganda for drug control policy in our country.  As you can tell from the irony or sarcasm of this title there are some differences of opinion about this government position and its role.  Besides, Director of National Policy on Drug Control is not only boring – it’s too long to say!

He is also known as a political theorist.  That means he has joined the long line of thinkers from Hammurabi to Plato, from Thomas Aquinas to Martin Luther, from Francis Bacon and John Locke to Immanuel Kant and Thomas Jefferson, all the way up to Karl Marx, John Dewey and beyond.  There are hundreds of such men – many, many more whose names we won’t recognize – and some I hope that you will in the near future (one of my favorites is Wendell Berry).  So what have they done – do they do exactly?  They think – about ideas like government, and then they tell us what they think.  We get to decide if we like their ideas – if we agree with them or not!

That’s what I want you to know most about the author of our text – that he’s a man.  That just because he wrote the book we are reading does not mean that you necessarily need agree with him.  I wouldn’t have chosen his book if I didn’t think it was a good book for us to use (our book is just one of many that we could read – you can find many more at the library to compare ours with), but that doesn’t mean that I think his opinions – his political theories need necessarily be your own.  Look at the Guide to Reading hand out that I gave you.  Ask those questions as you read your text.  Don’t buy everything you read hook, line and sinker just because the words are on the page.  Test his ideas and decide for yourself if they will hold water.  (But first you have to find his ideas and decide what they mean!!  That’s part of becoming a good reader.  And learning to take into account Point of View when you are making decisions about meaning is one of the next steps toward become a good reader.)  Hopefully now that you’ve read the introduction and this short post you know a bit more about Bennett’s point of view.

Understanding American Indian Nations

One of the themes that we will be exploring over the next two years is American Diversity.  We are going to be exploring the culture, history, and struggles of many people groups, but it only makes sense that in the beginning we begin at the beginning - with the American Indian.



You have already been learning and exploring the various peoples that populated the Americas before European exploration.  You know a bit about how their ways of life varied from region to region, you know a bit (I hope) about their beliefs, their governments, their arts.  As our year begins you will meet tribe after tribe, nation after nation, people after people - but almost always through conflict.  That was why I felt it so important that you begin the summer by studying who these people were before Europeans arrived.  I didn't want you to only meet them through conflict.

But now as you are nearing completion of your first chapter the conflicts have already begun.  As we study history, I think it is important that we don't take our eyes off of current events.  History has not stopped being made, and the conflicts between American Indian nations, tribes and peoples and the government of the United States of America has not come to an end.  One of the things we need to try and grasp is exactly what a reservation is.  What does that mean - a reservation?  How can we have a soverign nation inside the United States of America?  How does that work?



(Photgraph from the Buffalo Post Blog by photographer Heather Ainsworth)



In the news today I heard of an ongoing struggle between the State of New York and the Seneca Nation.  Do you know anything about the Senecas?  I know that they were one of the Iroquois tribes, but I'm going to try and learn a bit more.  On All Things  Considered I heard a news story about the Seneca Nation trying to gain control of a hydroelectric power plant operated from the Kinzua dam built in the 1960's.  The building of that dam flooded Seneca land and the U.S. Government seized land and burned their homes in order to make that project happen.  The Seneca Nation did receive a monetary compensation, but they fought against this in court for 20 years.  Now the contract for the management of the dam is up for bid and the Seneca Nation is trying to compete in the bid for the management of the dam.  And it's not just the dam - there are disputes about a highway that crosses Seneca land (they want to charge rent for it), and also they are contesting being taxed on the sales of tobacco made in their nation.  There are many more questions than answers, but I think we should begin by trying to understand reservations, soverign American Indian nations who have their own governments and constitutions, and the interraction between their governments and ours.  How does it all work?

To listen to the All Things Considered episode go here.

To read an article in the NY Times about the dispute over the highway go here.

 And it's not just electricity, tobacco, and highways.  There are also oil deposits that were found on Seneca lands which have been drilled.  In fact, the first oil wells in the world were drilled there just north of Pittsburg, PA.  You can read a bit about that in a Washington Post article here.

You can see maps of Seneca territories here.

And if you would like to look at a list of Seneca treaties you can visit this page on their website here.

I'm going to try and learn a bit more about reservations and also about the Seneca people.  In particular I'm going to read some about Ely Parker who was a Seneca Chief during the Civil War.  I read that he was a Civil War hero who fought in the front lines with General Grant, but his story seems to be a complicated one.  PBS filmed a documentary about him called Warrior in Two Worlds.

If you hear of any American Indian issues in the news - make note of them in your 'Current Events' tab so that you can share during some of our class discussions.

 

Analytical Reading

I just put the finishing touches on a Guide to Reading for this class that I will be handing out on Tuesday.  The guide is based on two books How To Read A Book by Mortimer J. Adler and How To Read Slowly by James W. Sire.  I greatly simplified their writing and used only parts that are most applicable to my class.  I just wanted to say that these two books are great books to add to your students reading lists begining in 10th or 11th grade or so.  If some of you are interested in a more detailed guide than mine without acutally reading the books I found a great one on Justin Taylor's blog here.

I also came across a DVD of some videos that Mortimer J. Adler recorded for Encyclopedia Britannica that look excellent.  I think our students would grasp some of the main ideas and get inspiration to do the work of ACTIVE reading from these videos since they aren't quite ready yet to wade through his book.  How To Read A Book is a challenging book to read!  Have your students watch the sample video.

Happy reading!