Friday, April 11, 2008
Tuesday, April 8, 2008
9 Step Lesson Plan
Lesson Plan Title:
Indian Removal
Concept/Topic to Teach:
Andrew Jackson, Trail of Tears, and Indian Removal Act
Essential Question of Lesson:
Did Andrew Jackson's Indian Removal Act and Trail of Tears have a positive or negative effect on the United States? What were the pros and cons?
Connection:
Have you ever been judged because of your race, hair color, clothes etc.?
Write how you felt and how you dealt with the situation
Racism relates to the Trail of Tears because the Native Americans were forced out of their land, due to their unfamiliar culture and skin color. The Native American wore different clothes, spoke a different language and utilized nature in a different way than white people. This made them wrong and unacceptable in the white society.
Direct Teaching: We created a power point that the students will take notes on.
Step-by-Step Explanation:
Pair up with a partner
Write a journal entry from the perspective of someone involved in the Trail of Tears
Choose between a Native American who was forced off their land or a soldier who removed them
Include details about where they were from and how they were treated based on the information we gave you
Your journal should be at least half a page
Students will create a journal from the perspective of someone involved with the Trail of Tears.
Closure:
Who was the leader of The Cherokees?
Can you describe the Trail of Tears? How did it affect the Native Americans?
Who was Andrew Jackson? How was he involved in the Trail Of Tears?
When was The Indian Removal Act passed? Why was it passed?
Friday, April 4, 2008
Trail of Tears
There were ten million Native Americans on this continent when the first non-Indians arrived. Over the next 300 years, 90% of all Native American population was wiped out by disease, famine, or slaves imported by the whites.
By 1840 all eastern tribes had moved or had been forcibly removed to Indian Territory west of the Mississippi river. European’s caused endless problems for the American Indians. The Natives homelands were gradually taken from them and their cultures were dramatically altered if not destroyed.
The French bought Native American Louisiana Territory, so the Natives had to go. In 1825 the government formally adopted a removal policy, which was carried out in 1830 by president Andrew Jackson. The five tribes that were forced out of their homes were the Cherokee, Chickasaws, Choctaws, Creeks and Seminoles. Only some of these tribes moved with their own will. The Cherokees did not.
The Cherokees were taken from their homes, herded into camps, and moved forcefully to a strange and unknown land. Along their journey 4,00 out of 15,000 Native Americans died of hunger, disease and exhaustion.
This unfortunate event is now referred to as the Trail of Tears. We found a dairy entry (below) of a young Native American girl who was forced from her home.
December 15, 1838,
I watched as my helpless family and friends were dragged from their homes, and driven away. And in the heat of a summer morning I saw them loaded like cattle or sheep into hundreds of wagons that started toward the west. I was one of those sheep. We were treated and looked upon as animals. I will never forget that day.
We had converted to the ways of the Europeans. We created a written language, a newspaper and our own constitution. Apparently taking our traditions and the ways of our ancestors wasn’t enough. They had to take our land, lives and dignities.
One man refused to go with them, and they killed him right there and then. I watched as his crimson blood spilled out onto the invaded soil. From then on no one has argued their decisions, I know I never will.
Right now I am sitting in the freezing snow. There is a brutal snowstorm, and many of my people don’t have shoes or blankets. I can hear the cries of pained children in the harsh wind. The red snow screams at me in a desperate attempt to live. I look out amongst the vast amount of graves, in which pneumonia infested corpses lay crying.
Will I become one of those people? Will I soon be underground in unknown soil? Will we all?
The sharp wind whips me in the face and burns my eyes. The snot under my nose has hardened. My legs are so sore; I don’t think I can walk much longer. My toes are slowly becoming frost bitten and I’m afraid what might happen if this weather continues.
I can see people as far as the eye can see. Stretched out among deserted land, waiting for morning to come, and the tortuous walk to continue.
I feel horrible for the mothers with small children. I have been switching off taking care of my younger brother with my mother. My only hope is that I will be strong enough to care for him and my mother, who is having a very hard time facing the endless march towards depression.
What happened to everyone is created equal? Do only whites have rights? They have treated as much less that human, and thus forth, should be taken under law.
I hope that the actions of these soldiers will be realized and they will be punished. I hope that they will live in agony and regret of the innocent lives they took from the earth.
Thursday, April 3, 2008
Summary
The North consisted of the rocky shores of Maine to the rolling plains of Iowa. Beginning in the late 1700's an industrial shift began, known as the industrial revolution. During this time inventors started making machines that produced products faster and cheaper. But to operate the machinery they needed many laborers who were overworked and underpaid. By 1860, 20,000 miles of rail linked northern factories to cities hundreds of miles away, making it double the amount of rail in the south. The majority of the people in the North were neither wealthy nor poor; they were mostly middle-class. After the American Revolution, slavery in the North began to slowly die away. Although African Americans were not treated as slaves, they were still not considered equal to whites. They could not vote, serve in juries or attend white churches and schools.
The Southern states extended from Maryland south to the tip of Florida and from the Atlantic coast to Louisiana and Texas. Their long summers and mild winters made these states perfect for agriculture. In 1793, Eli Whitney created the cotton gin. The “cotton gin” was a hand-operated machine that cleans seeds and unwanted material from cotton. Within ten years it was the South's most important crop. Because agriculture was the base of the south's economy and with the rise in cotton, the number of slaves between 1790-1850 rose from 500,000 to more then 3 million. The highest ranking southerners were plantation owners and the lowest ranking were enslaved African Americans. These wealthy white southerners lived in large mansions and owned many slaves. However, 10% of white southerners were too poor to own land and only one in four owned even one slave. A small minority of African Americans were free from slavery but not from discriminatory treatment. They were forced to wear special badges and had to pay extra taxes. Although the steamboat was invented in the North, it was used mostly in the south due to the flat rivers dispersed between states.
The conflict between the United States and the Native Americans began after the election of 1828 when Andrew Jackson was elected President of the United States. Andrew Jackson was a loyal democrat who was popular amongst farmers and middle class citizens. But was disliked by the wealthy and educated because he believed in equal rights for all. He was born in 1767 in South Carolina and was the first frontier president. He also created the spoils system was the practice of rewarding political supporters with government jobs.
Nullification is adding extra taxes or tarrifs on imported goods. The Nullification crisis was a conflict between the supporters and the opponents of the extra taxing. Because the South relied on imported goods for their economy to function they opposed the new law. Most remember Jackson because of his involvement with the battle with bank of the U.S. The bank was a private business and the government owned one fifth of it. Jackson distrusted the bank he called it “an unconstitutional monopoly that only makes the rich richer.”
Most of the eastern Indians lived in the South, including the Creek, Cherokee, Chickasaw, Choctaw, and Seminole. They called these tribes the five civilized tribes because they modeled their society based on the U.S. Although Native Americans tried to be accepted by whites, they were treated poorly. In 1830, President Jackson urged Congress to pass the Indian Removal Act. This law allowed the president to make treaties in which the Native Americans in the East traded their land for territory in the Great Plains. Some groups agreed to move, while others resisted. Jackson didn’t approve of their unwillingness to move and forced them to go by either taking off in chains or slaughtering them. More then 17,000 Cherokee were taken out of their homes in Georgia and headed west. They were treated like animals and four thousand Native Americans died on the way to the new Indian Territory. We refer to this tragic journey as the Trail of Tears.
These years in history greatly affected the westward expansion and the future of the United States. Without the actions made by President Jackson, we would be a different country today.