Unit Seven Plans: Early American Environmental History

Learning Objectives

Oregon's Common Curriculum Goals:

Civics

• Structure, Function and Role of Government
1. Describe the organization, responsibilities and interrelationships of local, state and federal government in the United States.
• Roles, Rights and Responsibilities of U.S. Citizens
1. Describe personal, political and economic rights of citizens in the United States.
2. Describe participatory responsibilities of citizens in the community and in the political process (becoming informed about public issues and candidates, joining political parties/interest groups/associations, communicating with public officials, voting, influencing lawmaking through processes such as petitions/initiatives).

Economics

• Understand that resources are limited.
• Understand economic trade-offs and how choices result in both costs and benefits to individuals and society.
• Understand the role of government and institutions in various economic systems in regard to the allocation of resources.

History

• United States History
1. Understand and interpret events, issues and developments within and across eras of United States history.
• Historical Relationships
1. Analyze cause and effect relationships, including multiple causations.
2. Interpret and reconstruct chronological relationships.
3. Recognize and interpret change and continuity within four broad content themes: interaction of people, cultures, and ideas; economic and technological developments and their impact on society; American politics and political thought; role of the United States in the world.
4. Understand relationships among events, issues and developments that cross spheres of human activity (i.e., economic, social, political, cultural).
5. Understand how contemporary perspectives affect historical interpretations.

Geography

• Physical and Cultural Characteristics of Places and Regions
1. Understand the social, cultural and economic processes that change the characteristics of places and regions over time.
2. Compare physical and human characteristics of places and regions.
• Interaction Between Physical and Human Systems
1. Describe the consequences of humans changing the physical environment and how human changes in one place affect other places.
2. Understand how differing points of view, self interests and global distribution of natural resources play a role in conflict over territory.
3. Describe how physical charcteristics of places and regions affect human activities.
4. Understand the geographic results of resource use and management programs and policies.
• Distribution and Migration of People, Ideas and Products
1. Analyze the causes of human migration and its effects.
2. Compare and contrast one area of settlement to another.
• Maps, Charts, Graphs and Other Geographic Tools as Sources of Information
1. Locate major physical and human (cultural) features of the Earth.
2. Use maps to organize information about people, places and environments in a spatial context.

Social Science Analysis

1. Define and clarify an issue so that its dimensions are well understood.
2. Explain various perspectives on an event or issue and the reasoning behind them.
3. Identify, analyze and select a course of action to resolve an issue.

Content Goals:

• Students will identify changes in the American environment over the last 500 years.
• Students will identify the human influence which has shaped the environment.
• Students will recognize the impact of wilderness and nature artists, writers, theologians, and others on the American concept of wilderness and nature.
• Students will analyze and interpret history from multiple perspectives and use that analysis to inform their construction of a personal wilderness philosophy.

Content Resources

Readings:

• "The Wilderness of History" by Donald Worster. Wild Earth. Fall 1997. pp. 9-13.
• "First People Firsthand Knowledge" by Dennis Martinez. Sierra. November/December 1996. pp. 50-51+.
• Individual Assignment (Linguistic, Mathematical - Logical) -

Write a short essay in which you compare and contrast the Worster and Martinez articles. How do they see the role of Native Americans in shaping the environment? Are there other issues that are important to either?

• Major Problems in American Environmental History edited by Carolyn Merchant. D.C. Heath and Company. Lexington, Massachusettes. 1993.
• Small Group Assignment (Linguistic, Interpersonal, Spatial) -

After reading pp.54-63 create a pictorial diagram with labels that shows the Micmac way of life. Show the forces that impacted the Micmacs (disease, climate, etc.) and the strategies they used to survive (taboos, religious practices, etc.).

• Individual Assignment (Linguistic, Intrapersonal) -

After reading pp.83-92 write a reflective piece which discusses the feelings and ideas that struck you through the readings. Do not summarize them, but react to them. What surprises you? What do you find interesting? How do these ideas of wilderness compare to your own?

• Individual Assignment (Linguistic, Intrapersonal) -

After reading pp. 152-157 summarize the causes and effects of rising capitalism on the 19th century New England farm.

• Individual Assignment (Spatial, Linguistic, Mathematical - Logical) -

After reading pp.323-336 in Merchant's text, create two parallel storyboards to tell the ascending and descending story of the Great Plains. Let Cronon's history of the Great Plains which includes the last two paragraphs on page 324 be a middle section dividing the two storyboards. Your storyboards should reflect an understanding of Cronon's ideas of starting and ending scenes and framing the story. Try to focus on events that can clearly be told as a part of a story of progress and part of a story of declension, depending upon how it is told.

Example:

Story line of Progress - White settlerts cleared the plains of the menace of the Indians, making the plains safe for settlement.

Cronon history - "Native people moved to reservations."

Story line of Tragedy - Euro-Americans wiped out native cultures of the plains people through programs of genocide and destroyed the ecosystem in which those cultures had developed and lived in harmony.

Your storyboards should be 8-12 frames in length for each of the two story lines. Make sure to include the middle "history" which is the pivot point for the stories.

• Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists, and the Ecology of New England by William Cronon. Hill and Wang. New York. 1983.
• Wilderness and the American Mind (3rd ed.) by Roderick Nash. Yale University Press. New Haven. 1967(3rd ed. 1982).

Videos:

• Land of the Eagle: The Great Encounter (PBS)
• Land of the Eagle: Confronting the Wilderness (PBS)
• American Visions: The Wilderness and the West
• Individual Assignment (Spatial, Intrapersonal, Interpersonal, Linguistic) -

Create a piece of art which represents your relationship with wilderness. Your piece does not have to be in the Hudson River School style, but should reflect your thinking and feelings abut nature, just as the Hudson River School artists did. Consider the images and symbols you may wish to use to convey your thinking. When you have finished your artwork, write a short essay that will accompany the piece and explain your use of imagery, symbolism, thinking and feeling in the artwork. When you have completed the work and the essay, you will present your artwork to the class and explain its interpretation and meaning.

• Public Lands, Private Profits
• Individual Assignment (Linguistic, Musical) -

After watching this video and reading pp. 259-261, 270-274 in Merchant's text, write song lyrics set to a familiar tune in which you capture the essence of the miners' drive to find gold and the impact of that effort on the environment. You may include the impact and influence of the 1872 mining law on the environment. Think about the song Clementine ("Was a miner, '49er, and his daughter Clementine...") as an example of how you might tell your story. Be prepared to share your song with the class.

• The Battle for the Great Plains

Links:

• Major Problems in American Environmental History Study Guide
• American Visions Teacher's Pages
• Hudson River School of Art Page
• Individual Assignment (Linguistic, Mathematical - Logical) -

After touring through the links from this page and reading the material available during your tour, write an essay that explains the common traits, symbolism, and characteristics of the Hudson River School of Art. Be sure to explain how and why the Hudson River School began, why it became popular, and what it tried to portray. Also consult pp.178-180 and 191-198 in Merchant's text.