Discrimination against Buffalo Soldiers and Native Americans

Essential Question:  Was the discrimination that the Buffalo soldiers and Native Americans faced intentional or did the White settlers and federal government actually believe that what they were doing was just?

       For the last few weeks of school, the class has adapted to a new procedure than that of our usual.  It begins with someone creating a Google Doc and then sharing it with everyone in the class.  Then we create an essential question, analyze the given primary and secondary sources on the topic, and watch videos.  All the while we take notes on our assigned section for everyone to then learn the information.  

      We began last week with learning about the Buffalo soldiers and Native Americans who were discriminated against greatly.  The government thought that it would be best to allow Americans to expand westward into Native American territory, enforcing them to evacuate by using total war tactics against them.  Also, Shaman flooded the area with troops in attempt to wipe the remaining Native Americans out.  This meant that they had to leave their homes where they had lived their entire lives in comfort and tradition to go farther west and into other unknown territories.  




                                     
Image of the Buffalo soldiers.   http://www.buffalosoldiersw.com/id7.html





      After this arrangement of forcing them out of their territories, new laws were enforced upon the Native Americans and Buffalo soldiers.  Carlyle schools were created to educate the Native Americans and Indians were encouraged to leave behind their roots and to blend in with the Americans.  Everybody believed that the Natives should be assimilated into society.  The Native American's land was split up and sold for use.  

     The discrimination toward the buffalo soldiers and Native Americans was intentional because the white settlers and government knew that "assimilating" an entire ethnicity of people and their way of life was wrong, but proceeded to do so.  They did this because they wanted everyone to be the same and for there to not be any differences.  Also, because they wanted to extend the boundaries for more civilization and make use of the land for themselves.


    

Essential Question: Were Carnegie and Rockefeller robber barons or captains of industry?

To learn about Carnegie and Rockefeller's roles in the 19th century of America, we began class differently than our usual process. The class was broken up into the small separate groups and we all had to create an essential question together and then get it approved by Mrs. Gallagher. This was very interesting because normally we are given the essential question upon introduction of the unit. We came to find that the definitions of the terms mentioned in the essential question were... a.) Robber Baron- seen as corrupt, unsportsmanlike, bribed government officials, bought out or destroyed rivals, created giant monopolies and trusts, citizens had a love hate relationship with them, and b.) Captains of Industry-business leaders.  

This is an image of Carnegie and Rockefeller.

http://sites.psu.edu/rcldiacont/2013/09/20/billionaire-anomalies-the-robber-barons/

Next, as a class we viewed the multiple ABC-Clio videos to provide us with information on the two men and their roles during the 19th century. Each group had the responsibility of taking notes on a certain topic that was frequently mentioned throughout the videos. These topics include main ideas, key people, important events/key dates, and essential terms. As a class, we created a google doc with everyone on it to share our notes. This made it easier for everyone to enjoy the videos and learn all of the information without having to scramble down all sorts of notes the whole time.

After gathering all of the evidence and information on Carnegie and Rockefeller, it seems most appropriate to remember them as captains of industry. They both made tons of accomplishments that helped America to grow. For instance, Andrew Carnegie built hundreds of libraries which helped to educate the public and offer different sources for people to read. He was also known for his huge production of steel in the U.S. which was very important since steel was so widely used. Carnegie used vertical integration which controlled transportation, manufacturing and sales. All of these things helped to rebuild America which makes Carnegie a captain of industry.

Rockefeller was also a captain of industry for similar reasons to Carnegie. Rockefeller had a standard oil company and with this he helped to advance the economy by buying rival companies. He also helped the consumer and supported education. Both of these men helped improve America economically and industrially which made them captains of industry, not robber barons.