Riley US History

Substance abuse in the Native American Youth is a very significant problem in their community today. From apa.org , Native Americans have a variety of health and social issues, and there are higher rates of cigarette, marijuana, and drug usage in Native American than the rest of the nation. From the National Institute on Drug Abuse , American Indian communities have been susceptible to substance abuse, which is related to their limited social and economic opportunities. Native American teens have shown disturbing alcohol and drug use patterns. They also show that they start these habits much earlier than normal for other Americans. National Institute on Drug Abuse As seen in the data above of students in school, the amount of alcohol, binge drinking, marijuana, and cocaine use is very high for 8th grade students compared to the nationwide data for non-American Indian students. The Native American students start much earlier than the rest of the students, but then they seem to rema...

I read part of a book called Across the Plains in 1844 , by Catherine Sager Pringle. I learned about her and her family's emigration from Ohio to Missouri. Many incidents occurred on the long travel, such as injuries and deaths. The head of the household, their father, died from a sickness, and so did their mother soon after, so they had to learn to continue without them even when things seemed hopeless. I found it very interesting that after the father was buried, Indians came and dug up his remains. That shows that this was a very desperate time.

The article, Letters of Western Expansion , gives examples of different people and the struggles of getting a letter to their family in that time. It talks about how families saw an opportunity to move westward, and they still tried to keep in touch with the rest of their family back home. "Anna's stipulation, 'if ever I should visit it again,' was entirely appropriate, given the difficulties of travel in the early nineteenth century." Since traveling during this time was so difficult, they did not know whether they would see their family again. This is why keeping in touch with family through letters was so important.

The Waco Evening news from Waco, Texas was a daily newspaper. This newspaper talked a lot about local and political issues, for example, I read about a national political issue called "A Sudanese Threat." I also read about local elections. The old wording of this newspaper particularly grabbed my attention, because they described horrific crimes as if it was normal and happened all the time. There were many stories of crime, such as shootings. This newspaper would be very useful for learning about the community because it gives information about crimes, local elections, and the prices of food and goods.