Valuable resources

1.  Describe how viewing things through a different perspective influences how someone sees the world around them.

2. Find a cause and effect relationship from one of the articles that you read.

3. Make a informed decision if the materials discussed can be really viewed as progress using evidence from the text.

To meet the requirements for this seminar you must answer all of the questions either in your History notebook, or on your Google drive.

• Make sure to do things in order and to read everything.  If you miss some information the questions will be very difficult to answer

• When you are finished make sure to show me or share your document with me.  My email is dpspaeth@oregonsd.net

Title Your Page: Natural Resource Controversy

The Easiest way to define perspective is the way you view something, or the world around you.  It often can be influenced by multiple factors such as economic status, where you live, how you were raised, and religion.  For example, take this picture below  There are two ways that a person could view this picture.

Question to answer in your notebook or in your drive: 

1.  What are the two different ways someone could see or view this image?

This is same principle that leads people to view the same historical event differently.

***Remember the end goal of all your research is to answer the question, Were the events that occurred during westward expansion progress?  Make sure that you are gathering information that will help answer that question and also try to view it from both perspectives.  That will help tremendously.****

In the 1800's America was home to a extreme pest, known as the passenger pigeon. The total population of the passenger pigeon was somewhere between 3-5 billion birds.

• Massive flocks of passenger Pigeons could be seen roosting in this canopy in such numbers that the limbs of trees often broke off or entire trees toppled from the weight.
• Not only did all this excrement kill understory vegetation it also produced an enormous amount of fuel for wildfires that periodically swept through. Combined with the dead wood from all the broken limbs caused by the roosts one can imagine the fires must have gotten pretty serious.These large fires would have favored the more resistant white oak, black oak and bur while removing the less resistant trees. This was great for the pigeons as they ate quite a lot of white oak acorns during mating season. This was great for the white oaks because the acorns, processed and excreted by the pigeons, germinated and led to more white oaks (2). Yes, it appears the Passenger Pigeon had quite an effect on the forest ecosystem.
• By 1914, with the passing of the last Passenger Pigeon, all of the effects the bird had on the ecosystem were now eliminated. The canopy damage done at the birds roosting sites had allowed more shade intolerant plants to come in and mature in the areas with more light hitting the forest floor while the birds were still alive. This effect has been magnified (though not due to the birds demise) with the loss of a large portion of their habitat through chestnut blight. Now, in the post extinction world, we see a larger amount of these shade intolerant trees filling the gaps.
• Passenger pigeons were one of the most important food resources for numerous carnivores, such as foxes, lynx, raccoons, marten and mink, and for several raptors, such as falcons and hawks.

Questions in regards to the text above:

1. If railroads had never existed, do you think the passenger pigeon might have survived?  Why?

2. Based upon the language the author uses and the way they write, what do you think their perspective is on the extinction of the passenger pigeon?

3.  Describe the extinction of the passenger pigeon through a different perspective than the one the author uses.

The man standing in this photo is not standing on a mountain, well sort of.  It's a large mound of buffalo skulls that are about to be ground up to be used as fertilizer for farm fields.

Questions to Answer:

1. Taking the knowledge that you have about American Bison I want you to explain how the killing of bison can be seen as progress.

2. Taking the knowledge that you have about American Bison I want you to explain why the killing of bison does not show progress.

***Use the website below if you need more information on American Bison***
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/episodes/american-buffalo-spirit-of-a-nation/introduction/2183/