Buffalo Soldiers and Native Americans

This lesson, we have continued creating questions about the material which will appear on our final.  Like the last lesson, we are learning about events after the Civil War, but now we are focusing on Buffalo Soldiers and Native Americans.  My class analyzed documents and watched educational videos which underlined the important aspects of this time period.  (Link to videos) Just like last week, we formed an essential question based on our research.  the question we had to answer is: During westward expansion, did the impact of federal policy towards Buffalo Soldiers and Native Americans match the intent?

This is a picture of a native american tribe from 1872.
http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2012/05/25/article-2149899-134A66FD000005DC-372_964x668.jpg

 I think that the intent of the U.S. Government with Buffalo Soldier and Native Americans did match their federal policies that they passed during this time period. For a while the Native Americans had both been mistreated by the U.S. Government, and they had been forced onto increasingly smaller pieces of land as the Americans moved westward. When the Dawes Act was passed, many Native tribes decided they couldn't handle the federal policies any more and fought back. The intent of the Dawes Act was to "provide for the allotment of lands in severalty to Indians on the various reservations, and to extend the protection of the laws of the United States and the Territories over the Indians." This means that the Natives had to follow American culture and had to live amongst them.  This policy was not accepted by many of the Native tribes, and several battles resulted.  The Battle of Little Bighorn in 1876 was a fight between the Sioux and the U.S. Army, and many Nez Percé died in the Long March of the Nez Percé.  The Revolts ended with the Wounded Knee Massacre in 1890, in which 150 Sioux were killed.  The intent of the U.S. Government was to get more land, and the federal policies they passed in order to achieve this hurt may Native Americans' lives.

This is an image of buffalo soldiers from after the Civil War.
http://www.trbimg.com/img-51c0b493/turbine/la-yosemite-buffalo-soldiers-slated-for-nation-001/600/600x453

As with the Native Americans, the Buffalo Soldiers were affected by the U.S. government's laws, but in a different way.  Buffalo soldiers are African American soldiers who were in the Union army during the Civil War, and were put into the U.S. army afterwards.  Although they should have been treated with the same respect as the white soldiers, they weren't.  Their job, after the Native Americans were forced off reservations, was to map new land and repaired forts.  They had different jobs than the U.S. army, who were less affected by the Dawes Act and other acts involving the Natives.  The U.S. government intended to get more land with the release of their federal policies after the Civil War, and got what they wanted.  However, they also ruined the lives of Buffalo Soldiers and Native Americans by forcing them to do tasks they wouldn't normally have chosen to do.

Quote from the Dawes Act: http://www.edline.net/files/_FFJNJ_/43d7d72dda670f923745a49013852ec4/Excerpts_from_Dawes_Act.pdf

Carnegie and Rockefeller

John D Rockefeller
http://www.empireonline.com/images/uploaded/John-D_-Rockefeller.jpg

As this was one of the final units of the school year, my history class learned the material differently than usual.  Instead of having the lesson taught to us, we used the notes and sources my history teacher put on our Edline page to create our own essential question for the lesson and answer it ourselves.  We spent two days learning about industrialists Andrew Carnegie and John D. Rockefeller by watching informative videos, analyzing sources, and sharing information with everyone through a google document.  Next, we formed the question, "Were the captains of industry a positive or negative impact on the public?"  After constructing the essential question, my class began to create 40 questions about Carnegie and Rockefeller, which will eventually be questions on our final exam in two weeks.  Eventually, we will create similar questions for our other lessons within the next couple of weeks, which will also be on our final.  From my in-class research, I believe that Carnegie and Rockefeller, who were important captains of industry, both had mainly positive impacts on the public.

This image represents Rockefeller's hold on the oil industry.
http://www.edline.net/files/_EfHIe_/ce3d2a1e75332f203745a49013852ec4/Doug_Ernst-Inquiry_Lesson-Robber_or_Captain.pdf

John D. Rockefeller was considered one of the most important business men in history, and he had a mostly positive impact on the public.  Early in his career, he decided that he wanted to be on of the richest men in the world, and this eventually became true.  Before he had worldwide fame though, he grew up with his father, who owned a farm.  He went to Cleveland High School, and he listened to his father, who wanted him to start a business career instead of attending college.  Rockefeller originally gained the money needed to become a business mogul by supporting the Union army during the Civil War.  He started his business career by working in the American Petroleum Industry. In 1870, he founded the Standard Oil Company of Ohio, and with this company the public started to believe that he was an "underhand businessman." He created a monopoly on natural fossil fuels in the United States, and bought many oil companies with his own.  However, he had a bad public reputation, which was mainly attributed to the thought that his actions were driven by greed, and the fact that he bought some companies unfairly. The image above depicts an octopus with its tentacles around different buildings, which represents how Rockefeller's oil company had control of all the other oil companies.  He did give over 50 million dollars of his money to education and charity groups, which proves that Rockefeller was not greedy, and his business skills show that he was a great model. Rockefeller may not have been the best person, but he was a great captain of industry, so his impact on society was mostly positive.

Andrew Carnegie
http://greatimmigrants.carnegie.org/images/1835_ac.jpg

Andrew Carnegie, another important captain of industry, had a better reputation than Rockefeller, and he also had a positive impact on the public.  Carnegie, an immigrant from Ireland, worked as a bobbin boy in a textile mill and was fairly poor before he worked his way up to the top of society.  His first work as a businessman, after working for Eastern Telegraph Lines, was with the steel industry.  The methods of his steel manufacturing business were derived from Great Britain's, whose methods he had previously studied.  He invested most of his money into the steel industry, and started work with Bessemer, who taught him a cheaper way to make steel.  This meant that his company was able to produce a higher quality steel at a lower price than his competitors.  He is well-known for expanding his steel company during financially depressing times while other businesses were downsizing, and became the second richest man in the world in 1900.  However, Carnegie's plan to destroy the Iron and Steelmakers Union was revealed in a strike; the United States became angry with him and his company.  He sold his company to J. P. Morgan in 1901, and gave much of his money to education, like Rockefeller did.  Carnegie was, generally, more popular amongst the public than Rockefeller, but his success career in industry gave him a positive impact on America.  Both Carnegie and Rockefeller, successful captains of industry, had a mostly positive impact on the public.