Andy Johnson & Vine Deloria

The first story that I read was by Andy Johnson. He was a Finnish immigrant that travelled from Finland to America by boat. When he came to America, he had to go through Ellis Island to make sure that he did not have any diseases. His dad was already living in America in a finish neighborhood which is where they met him. Johnson stated, “Coming to America was like being transferred from one century to another.” In America he saw his first African American man. He did not understand that people were different from them. He thought that the man was very dirty because he never took a shower. This is similar to when people have never met a Jewish person before. Sometimes, people hear rumors that they have horns on their heads. This is only because they have never met one before because they have never realized that there are people that are different from them. As a little boy, he did not understand the concept of slaves in America. Later, he moved to a home that they received from the Homestead Act. The Homestead Act gave land to people for free because the government had land that they took away from the Native Americans. All of the land was west of the Mississippi River. Johnson observed that there were many people that were filthy rich and had well-paying jobs while others were barely able to buy food. He thought that it was not fair and that the people are the ones that can change this, but no one has enough courage to say something about it. He said that every month he wrote at least one paper to newspapers talking about his concern towards this issue, but no one ever published it.

The other story that I read was by Vine Deloria who was a Native American author and teacher. He described his life as a boy living with his family and celebrating his culture. He lived near Wounded Knee which was where one of the battles took place. The Battle of Wounded Knee took place in 1890. The U.S. military took the Spotted Elk's tribe and walked them to Wounded Knee creek where they made a camp. One of that Native Americans accidently made a shot from their rifle and the U.S. started shooting people randomly killing men, women and children. Deloria thought it was interesting to live next to such an important landmark in his history. In school, he learned that America's government is the best and always makes decisions for the greater good and it is always loyal, but they never talked about the history of Native Americans or African Americans who were the minority. Throughout his lifetime he witnessed many Native Americans start to add more American values into their life instead of staying with their Native American traditions. He thought that "Native Americans now die whiter and don't embrace their culture." Deloria wanted people to know that only a few Native Americans have a meaningful life and enjoy everything from it.

Spanish-American War

During the War, America will be able to spread American beliefs and culture to different countries and the Philipenes. The United States influence in the Philipenes will offer commercial gain for our goods. If we help the Philipenes, the United States will lose money and will power, but in the end will gain a lot of strength in America. Another belief was taht we should help the Phillipenes because it will promote U.S. economic interests over seas. But the United States should be careful with who they chose to do business with. This idea would strengthen America only economically which would help gain money. America would lose many resources and military. If the U.S. does not help the Philipenes, it is because they do not believe America should oppose our will on a foreign country. They would want to stay clear from doing business with other countries too. The United States has unique values and if we tried to spread them to other countries, they would not take them in well. This idea would not benefit America in any way and it would not contradict our own values.

The West

During the populist era, the west side of the country had many possiblities as well as problems. During that time, people were starting to make the transcontinental railroads that would go across the whole United States for the first time. This would help with trade across the country as well as becoming connected between the east and west side. Also, moved to the west to find gold in the gold mines in California. Many people moved their family and their life to mine for gold. As more of the west was discovered, it opened new opportunities for people who wanted farmland. The government was giving some of it away to people who needed it to start a farm to support their family. In the west there were also some problems such as buffalo hunters. The Native Americans' home was in the west and the buffalo was an important symbol in their culture. The buffalo hunters were impulsivly hunting them, almost driving them to instinction. Also, while the railroads were a success in the end, it was very risky to make them and thousands of people risked their lives to make these railroads.

Progressive and Populist Era

I think the areas that were most influenced by the Progressive Movement were  the local and federal governments. In the federal government, many people wanted to choose who became the senator, instead of letting the leglislative branch vote. Also, there were some leaders that people did not necessarily like and wanted to get rid of them. As a result of all of these complaints, the government made a recall, initiative, and a referendum to meet all of the peoples' needs. In the local government, the people were not able to vote for local officials and they wanted to change that. This is why the local government came up with a manager and a commission which allowed the people to vote for public officials. I think that during the populism era, there were a lot of problems that were not solved right away. For example, there was 8 hour work days and income taxes which were not being prevented until the progressive era. In that era, people were fed up with all of the problems and were starting to have srikes and unions to show that they felt strongly regarding a certain subject. The progressive movement aimed to protect the social welfare, promote moral improvement, create a better economy and political system. During the populist era, many problems started and the progressive era helped clean them up.