Riley US History

Irene Bedard, the voice of Pocahontas, shared her view of President Donald Trump in nativenewsonline.net . She is offended by the fact that Trump is name calling Elizabeth Warren "Pocahontas," because she thinks that he is disrespecting Native Americans while doing this. She says, "His name calling is sophomoric and only contributes to the frightening prospect of trickle down racism, xenophobia and misogyny. Does he really think it be complimentary in any way? Of course it isn't. It is an insult." nativenewsonline.net She probably finds this offensive because she is very proud of her Native American heritage. I learned at aw.com  that Bedard's parents are Inupiat Eskimo and Cree-French Canadians, and also grew up learning about her ancestors and hearing their stories. She has accomplishes many things such as being an actor and producer.  Indian Country Today  asked Bedard how it feels to be a representation of what a Native American can accomplish, and...

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.

The movie 12 Years a Slave , directed by Steve McQueen, opposes the idea that history cannot be learned from a film. I read part of  Solomon Northup’s Narrative: 12 Years a Slave , and the movie displayed what Solomon had to say very well. In his narrative, Northup describes the transition of being a free man to suddenly being a slave with a master to answer to instead of himself. He expresses the struggle of being treated terribly, along with telling the stories of other slaves as well. The scene that captured me the most was when Solomon is almost hanged and just left there with people walking by, not even giving him a second look. This is definitely the most powerful scene to me, and teaches history to the audience because it shows how horribly slaves were treated. It really brings the reality of slavery into perspective. In Solomon's narrative, he tells us about this time where he was almost hanged, and also tells us what Chapin, the overseer, has to say to the people trying to...

I read the beginning of  Solomon Northup’s Narrative:  12 Years a Slave , and I learned in detail about how Solomon got kidnapped and taken away. He gave a lot of detail explaining his family's background and how he is a free black man. He talks about how he knows now that the people who took him are guilty, but he had no idea back then. Were his kidnappers just very good at lying? Did they take him just for the money? Why didn't he write a letter to his wife about where he was going?