Cole's US History Blog

Native American; Poverty           Native American have a very high percent of poverty. Their percentage of poverty is the highest out of any ethnicity in the U.S. according to Pew Research Center.   Not only is their poverty percentage rate very high, so is their unemployment rate. I find this interesting since our class just talked about how from the first books mentioning Indians they described them as lazy. Maybe Native Erik Stegman , there is still 70% of native adults who are under the poverty line. Native Americans being unemployed could relate back to their stereotype. Their poverty and unemployment rate are both high but most have access to education. I thought there could be something wrong with the education. Only 19% do not complete high school and there is a 58% graduation rate, according to Erik.                    The graduation rate is not high, but since there is more peopl...

I read an autobiography of James Addison Bushnell. This autobiography explained how he and his family were moving to Oregon to see if it would help his father heal since the weather would be different. A lot of the same things happened to them as did the other people moving to the west I have researched about. The Bushnell's family had a long hard journey to reach the west. There was a lot of bad weather they had to travel through. Although I have only learned about people traveling on land, this family also traveled by water. They sent their stock and wagons over water to reach to Oregon, and the family ferried while their stock was being "shipped". Also on their journey they had no idea what would happen and how exactly they were going to get to Oregon. They had many surprises along the way like running into some Indians. Also once they reached Oregon they of course mined for gold. While trying to mine they ran into problems with the weather like it snowing and being v...

            People who were traveling into the West had many hardships. It was long journeys, lots of miles, and lots of walking. All wanted to move to have a new start. According to letters of Westward Expansion , people moved westward to escape the inability to have a good life, "difficult time  making an honest living in the towns, cities and farms of the east coast." They all moved westward to escape these things, but of course there was still trouble. Many had to leave their families unknowingly if they would see them again. Two girls who were missionaries moved to Washington to spread their belief. While there she often wrote to her family. One of the letters said how she was missing her family and they were in her thoughts, she thought of when she had to say goodbye to them, and how she might never be able to see them again in this lifetime. Not only were there hardships with leaving families but there was lots of death. When some...

I researched a newspaper from Great Falls, Montana. Great Falls, Montana was founded in 1883 with a territory admission to statehood who returned with a friend and they built a  permanent settlement. Great Falls' population was about 1,200 in 1883 and was about 22,26 square miles. The semiweekly newspaper was published on May 18, 1887. This newspaper had news about people being executed and attorneys coming to town, but not much about political issues. Socialists were mentioned and someone was making a democratic newspaper. More issues, arrests, injured, and deaths were discussed in this paper rather than big political issues. Throughout the whole newspaper crime and scandal were discussed. Many people died from illness, being run over by cars, train crashes, buildings catching on fire, and lot jumping (people going on others property trying to destroy it to  hopefully get ownership over it). This newspaper was helpful to learn about the Great F...