Brianna's US History Blog

The Great Railroad Strike territory in NY, PA, WV and OH During class, we were asked to browse through the Library of Congress's newspaper archive to read primary sources from 1870-1890. First I searched, "The Great Railroad Strike." In The New York herald , I read about how intense the strike was by just reading the short blurbs down the right hand side of the paper. I was shocked by the severity of the situation compared to the readings in class, "A day and night of blood and horror at Pittsburg." and "The Great Railroad Strike becomes a savage war." They even included the casualties as if the headlines did not convey the strike clearly enough, "ninety-one lives lost and 149 persons wounded in various struggles." As I continue to read through the newspaper, moving away from the headlines into the content, I see immediately the editors comparing The Great Railroad Strike to the Civil War, "Not since the dark and threatening hours of...

Opportunity Luck Hard Work Skill Success Iceberg I think that opportunity is the most important factor in terms of economic success. Opportunity is defined as "a set of circumstances that makes it possible to do something." Without opportunities, becoming or creating anything is extremely difficult. One was be rewarded with opportunities in order to be successful. The next important factor is luck. Luck is success brought by chance rather than one's own actions. Once one has the opportunity to be successful they must also have the luck to turn opportunities into something real. Hard work is important. I believe that hard work can get you halfway to success, but it is not the most important for economic success. Lastly is skill. I strongly believe that skill is important. Without opportunities, luck, or hard work, no amount of skill will make you economically successful.

In  Smoke Signals , Chris Eyre illustrates how Thomas and Victor are simultaneously burdened and empowered by their Native American roots. They are burdened by Christopher Columbus and his discovery of the New World which brought diseases to the Native Americans wiping out 90% of their population causing them to continuously defend themselves. In addition, Victor struggles with the stereotype of people thinking that all Native Americans are alcoholics. Although they are burdened tremendously by their Native American heritage, Thomas and Victor are able to feel empowered. Victor finds power and meaning through the history of Native American warriors while Thomas finds it through the Native American tradition of storytelling. He shares his stories and experience with others to show what it means to be a Native American to him. Through storytelling, Thomas is able to empower others to be true to themselves. The movie  Smoke Signals  illustrates how Native Americans are bur...

In Smoke Signals , Chris Eyre illustrates how Thomas and Victor are simultaneously burdened and empowered by their Native American roots. They are burdened by Christopher Columbus and his discovery of the New World which brought diseases to the Native Americans wiping out 90% of their population causing them to continuously defend themselves. In addition, Victor struggles with the stereotype of people thinking that all Native Americans are alcoholics. Although they are burdened tremendously by their Native American heritage, Thomas and Victor are able to feel empowered. Victor finds power and meaning through the history of Native American warriors while Thomas finds it through the Native American tradition of storytelling. He shares his stories and experience with others to show what it means to be a Native American to him. Through storytelling, Thomas is able to empower others to be true to themselves.

Image from Matika's We Emerge collection Matika Wilbur is the founder of Project 562 . Her mission was to create a foundation of images that serve to change the perspective others might have about Native Americans. Matika has travelled to all 50 states in the United States to capture the lives of all 562 plus tribes and illustrate their rich and diverse experiences. On her website, matikawilbur.com , Matika describes her hopes for Project 562, "My goal is to unveil the contemporary true essence of contemporary Native issues, the beauty of Native culture, the magnitude of tradition, and expose her vitality." Project 562 aims to give a voice to those who have been silenced by the media and accurately represent their history without the stereotypes. Many tribes have welcomed Matika into their communities because they too are hoping for a change in the way people view them. A blog post from Project562.com , brought to my attention the almost 40 year old tradition of run...

In the first part of Chapter 16, we learned that nearly 90% of Native American deaths were disease-related deaths caused by the Europeans. Similar to their lack of resistance to disease during the Westward Expansion, Native Americans were very unfamiliar with alcohol.  Pacific Standard  put out an article, "What's Behind the Myth of Native American Alcoholism?" which brings the reader's attention to the real truth about the consumption of alcohol with regards to Native Americans. Authors, Dunbar-Ortiz and Gilio-Whitaker discuss that Native Americans were first introduced to alcohol by the Europeans who would use it as an "instrument of trade and diplomacy." Both authors explain that Europeans typically always used alcohol as a bargaining chip. They briefly touch on the new emerging research that suggests that genetics is the answer to the unexplained alcoholism among Native Americans. Whiteclay, NE: men from Pine Ridge Reservation where drinking is banne...

For homework, I was tasked to find a primary source which gave insight into the lives of those who settled in the West. I came across a collection of letters exchanged between the Oblinger family on the Library of Congress's American Memory page. In the summary of the collection, I was able to learn the main topics about this specific family's letters. They were mostly about land, work, neighbors and financial problems as well as the Easter Blizzard of 1873. Uriah, a Civil War veteran, is seen expressing his personal insight into the hardship and struggles of moving to the prairie while also highlighting the joy, despair, and determination that came along with starting fresh. In a letter to his wife, Mattie Oblinger , Uriah opens by giving her an update on how the journey is going. He writes that he is currently in Forest Livingston County, Illinois and he's headed toward Fillmore County, Nebraska. He continues by informing her of the weather there, how it rained for a wh...