So...I eat all day long, and I think all day long too. I would like to decrease one of those to a little less time of the day spent doing it... for just a little bit, just a break, and I will give you a hint it is not eating. I need a break from thinking!
After having completed the book Coming Home to Eat, and while reading as well, I have thought even more about what I eat, it's relation to the land and the people that got it to me etc. I considered myself a conscious consumer and eater before the book and now it has given me even more to consider, which is great, I want to be the best I can be, yeah that sounds cheezy but I mean it.
I have know for awhile that we have a great onion farm just outside of town, and you know what I want to tell you that you can buy those very onions in your local Raley's. They are delicious, if you like onions, and it feels great to buy what you know came from only a few miles away.
You may have noticed that I have not said where they come from exactly because I always get Lovelock and Loyalton mixed up and I can't remember the brand name for the onions, even after a superficial google search I could not resolve the issue. Nevertheless, I have some onion info for you.
They are in season right now, as is garlic, YUM! So get it soon, cuz the season won't last forever.
General Information
The nutritional value of both onions and garlic is low. They contain some carbohydrates and potassium, but very
little vitamins. Most of the nutrition is in the leaves that are used as green onions or chives. Both are believed to
have positive health benefits by some cultures. The odor of garlic is an organic sulfur compound that has strong
antibacterial properties.
Geothermal dehydration plants are located in Nevada. They dry onions and garlic to
make flakes and powder.
NEVADA ONIONS (Allium cepa)
In 2001, Nevada had the single largest fresh-white onion farm in the nation. White onions thrive in Nevada
because of our dry climate. This results in less of a disease problem than in wetter states.
Nevada’s fresh onions are shipped internationally to Mexico and to Quebec Province in
Canada. In the United States, fresh onions go as far away as New York, Florida and Texas.
However, not many go the northeast because a lot of onions are grown there. To the right is an
onion just prior to harvest. Note that most of the onion is above ground.
White onions and red onions will grow about 1,300 of the 50-lbs. sacks (65,000 lbs. or 32.5
tons) per acre. Yellow onions will grow about 1,600 of the 50-lb. bags (80,000 lbs. or 40 tons)
per acre. Onions grown to be dehydrated produce less per acre because they are small, dry onions.
Early settlers and Native Americans used Nevada’s native wild onion. This onion has narrow leaves that grow in a
circle. They do not look like a cultivated onion plant.
This information and the photo came from this site http://www.nvaitc.org/onions.pdf
OK, never mind the photo would not save to the blog, you can imagine what it may look like though. Picture a bunch of golden onions basking in the sun in a large open field, blue skies...
I have spent some time studying herbalism and natural healing as well as the harvesting of native wild foods and actually have eaten a lot of wild onions that grow in the hillsides around town. I have been wanting to get out and do some harvesting soon as they are in season, but have been really busy, I know none of you in class can relate.
I will try to get out soon and bring some wild onions back to class to share.
For now if you haven't already you should check out the Great Basin Food Co-op website that is posted in a past blog, easy to find don't fret.
The Cafe and Diner "Brownies"
This is one of the 3 remaining original places of business that Yuma has to offer today. All the other oldies have been crowded out and out-competed by the big box stores and chain restaurants.
Local Folk, Local hang-out, for the more seasoned crowd that is.
This is Bobby Brooks owner of the great cafe and diner that we spent many hours drinking coffee and charming older gentlemen
Agriculture field, one of many
Yuma got it's start as an ag-town, now it is a subject of sprawl and risks losing a lot of fertile land to development.
You don't see decks like this anymore, and sadly you may not in Yuma for much longer either.
Wood deck, the picture really should be rotated to the right, that is how I like to see it anyway, so go ahead and give it the ol' head tilt.
Yuma sunset, time for the bar, I mean more field work
"The Spot", Historic downtown Yuma
We really did get a lot of field work done here, I will prove it to you later.
Field work Yuma, AZ
I believe I mentioned in an earlier blog that I spent some time in Yuma, AZ , you will recognize the name from the book we've all been reading, where I was conducting some field reseach.
Not only am I doing my Geog 418 on the historic aspect and sprawl of the town, but I have an internship doing some planning there as well. So I got the opportunity to spend some quality time getting to know some of the natives while connecting with the town as well.
I am posting some pictures of the journey to share with you just what it is that I will exposing you all to a little later for my project.
What is really cool about this trip is that I began reading the book Coming Home to Eat while on the journey and there are some common paths that the book takes that I got to live as well. Yes, I know this is vauge, but I need something to talk about for my presentation.
Not only am I doing my Geog 418 on the historic aspect and sprawl of the town, but I have an internship doing some planning there as well. So I got the opportunity to spend some quality time getting to know some of the natives while connecting with the town as well.
I am posting some pictures of the journey to share with you just what it is that I will exposing you all to a little later for my project.
What is really cool about this trip is that I began reading the book Coming Home to Eat while on the journey and there are some common paths that the book takes that I got to live as well. Yes, I know this is vauge, but I need something to talk about for my presentation.
Great Basin Food Co-op
I have attached some information from the Great Basin Food Co-op that is here in Reno on Wonder Street off of Wells Ave, for those who may not be familiar. It is a great local organization that encourages involvement and localally grown food.
Check it out, both online and in person.
http://www.greatbasinfood.coop/community/
We are officially incorporated as the State of Nevada’s first ‘Food Cooperative Association, we are proud to be teamed up with six certified local growers, one year-round hydroponic grower, one local conventional grower in transition, and several other natural growers. We won our first Nevada EcoNet ‘Golden Pine Cone Award’, we placed 2nd in the “Best Grassroots Organization” RN&R category, we just hired our first two paid staff member workers, our membership has increased to over 800, and we are now looking forward to implementing our first Point of Sale (POS) system at the co-op.
Great Basin Basket
Did you know that the average food product purchased at your local grocery store travels an average of 1,500 miles to get to your plate? That amounts to an unbelievable amount of resources used to feed us! As the distance between our food sources and us becomes ever-increasing, we at Great Basin Food Basket are joining the national CSA movement to regain control over our food, our health, and our environment.
About the Great Basin Food Basket
Like you, we at Great Basin Food Basket care about the quality of our food. We wish for the best local, most nutritious and fresh food available to us at a reasonable price, AND we want it grown following sustainable land practices and with organic certification. With this basket program, we support our local farmers and our local economy. With our CSA, we want to cultivate a community that sits down at a collective table to enjoy the best foods the land around us has to offer. We offer you a seat at the table and hope you will join us in celebrating good local organic foods through our Great Basin Food Basket program!
Check it out, both online and in person.
http://www.greatbasinfood.coop/community/
We are officially incorporated as the State of Nevada’s first ‘Food Cooperative Association, we are proud to be teamed up with six certified local growers, one year-round hydroponic grower, one local conventional grower in transition, and several other natural growers. We won our first Nevada EcoNet ‘Golden Pine Cone Award’, we placed 2nd in the “Best Grassroots Organization” RN&R category, we just hired our first two paid staff member workers, our membership has increased to over 800, and we are now looking forward to implementing our first Point of Sale (POS) system at the co-op.
Great Basin Basket
Did you know that the average food product purchased at your local grocery store travels an average of 1,500 miles to get to your plate? That amounts to an unbelievable amount of resources used to feed us! As the distance between our food sources and us becomes ever-increasing, we at Great Basin Food Basket are joining the national CSA movement to regain control over our food, our health, and our environment.
About the Great Basin Food Basket
Like you, we at Great Basin Food Basket care about the quality of our food. We wish for the best local, most nutritious and fresh food available to us at a reasonable price, AND we want it grown following sustainable land practices and with organic certification. With this basket program, we support our local farmers and our local economy. With our CSA, we want to cultivate a community that sits down at a collective table to enjoy the best foods the land around us has to offer. We offer you a seat at the table and hope you will join us in celebrating good local organic foods through our Great Basin Food Basket program!
Week 7 Reading Response
I was one of the lucky few chosen to lead the discussion from Dr. Hausladen's selection A Geographer looks at the San Joaquin Valley, by James J. Parsons.
I will begin by saying that I was not thrilled with this piece immediately after having read it, but I have taken some time to let it marinate while also having the fortune and good timing of making a trip to the Imperial Valley and adjacent Yuma, AZ for some field work and now I have gained a greater appreciation for the piece.
It was as I was driving from El Centro California in the Imperial Valley on my way towards good ol' Yuma, that I really understood and felt what it was that Parsons was relaying.
I was cruisin' on the I-8 with the windows down, my hair flying every-which-way and happy as a clam, when I went to turn on some music. First I went for the ipod, but then as I was looking around at my surroundings, yes I was still driving 80mph at this point, I realized that there is really no other way to cruise through the Imperial Valley than listening to the local fair of musica en espanol.
It was the only appropriate thing to do, and so I went.
It made the journey complete, the thoughts lucid, flowing from one topic to the next with ease as I drove towards my destination.
With each agricultural field that I passed seeing the myriad of workers, differant types of tractors used for each crop, and the variation of smells that accompanied each I felt more connected to Parsons.
Parsons stated that a cultural geographer seeks to know the personality of a geographical space (that right there screams smell to me after this last weekends experience) by examining its physical form, its inhabitants and their relationship with both the land they occupy and the world beyond, most profitably in a historical perspective.
Parsons gives an excellent dexcription of the natural landscape, how humans have influenced it, how the climate history and disease have helped shape the valleys production now, how cultures have contributed through time and how all of the above influences what grows there and who lives there today.
The whole time I was in the car, well for the whole trip really, I was thinking about all of the above. I don't want to give too much away as it will then be redundant when you hear it in my presentation and read it in my paper, but you probably get the jist of it.
One thing that I want to point out that is a re-appearing theme in the reading is the importance of looking beyond the obvious, and looking with all of your senses, to see as a geographer we need to see more that what is right in front of our noses and look deeper and ask questions, smell, listen even if it is not in our language (esspecially) and don't be afraid to ask an old timer what's been going on.
OK, now I really need to stop because I am really excited to tell about all the wonderful old charecters that I met this weekend while conducting research for my term paper : )
The book Coming Home to Eat has me enchanted. I am unable not to think about it. It is truly a topic that involves one of the most fulfilling and wholesome acts of ones day (not for all, but for me) I am a food lover! I love to eat, I love to cook, I have been a chef for over eight years in restaraunts ranging from Fine Dining to, well, The Deux Gros Nez, and of course my own home and kitchen. I am a member of the slow food movement and I believe in the importance and blessing of wholesome food.
This book is a wonderful testimony to the importance of local production not only in terms of food, but for the future now that we need to consider the cost of energy to get our food and all that is involved therein.
I am not really far in to the book yet, but far enough to be in love with this man's efforts, as well as his wife's. One of the restaraunts that I cooked in, we grew our own vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. We were not a big restaraunt, but our business was steady and the people loved our food. I would love to say that we grew all our own vegetables for what we made, but that is such a HUGE production. I also have been in a family with a little fairee for a mom who can and does grow anything. Although she always has a big garden and we give TONS of tomatoes and zucchini away each season, it would take sooo much more before she was eating only out of her garden for her, my dad, and what kids pop in raid the fridge.
I was thinking about the book today, yes like I said I think about it all the time because I eat all the time, and I am looking forward to seeing how or if he gets bread. Does he buy local wheat, or amaranth and grind it to make bread and bread products or does he eliminate this all together.
I was trying to figure out if there is a local, within 250 mile radius, producer of wheat, or in my case a gluten free grain ( I am allergic to gluten) that makes bread.
Alright I feel like I am babbling.
All I am trying to say is that I have really been feeling the readings lately.
I will begin by saying that I was not thrilled with this piece immediately after having read it, but I have taken some time to let it marinate while also having the fortune and good timing of making a trip to the Imperial Valley and adjacent Yuma, AZ for some field work and now I have gained a greater appreciation for the piece.
It was as I was driving from El Centro California in the Imperial Valley on my way towards good ol' Yuma, that I really understood and felt what it was that Parsons was relaying.
I was cruisin' on the I-8 with the windows down, my hair flying every-which-way and happy as a clam, when I went to turn on some music. First I went for the ipod, but then as I was looking around at my surroundings, yes I was still driving 80mph at this point, I realized that there is really no other way to cruise through the Imperial Valley than listening to the local fair of musica en espanol.
It was the only appropriate thing to do, and so I went.
It made the journey complete, the thoughts lucid, flowing from one topic to the next with ease as I drove towards my destination.
With each agricultural field that I passed seeing the myriad of workers, differant types of tractors used for each crop, and the variation of smells that accompanied each I felt more connected to Parsons.
Parsons stated that a cultural geographer seeks to know the personality of a geographical space (that right there screams smell to me after this last weekends experience) by examining its physical form, its inhabitants and their relationship with both the land they occupy and the world beyond, most profitably in a historical perspective.
Parsons gives an excellent dexcription of the natural landscape, how humans have influenced it, how the climate history and disease have helped shape the valleys production now, how cultures have contributed through time and how all of the above influences what grows there and who lives there today.
The whole time I was in the car, well for the whole trip really, I was thinking about all of the above. I don't want to give too much away as it will then be redundant when you hear it in my presentation and read it in my paper, but you probably get the jist of it.
One thing that I want to point out that is a re-appearing theme in the reading is the importance of looking beyond the obvious, and looking with all of your senses, to see as a geographer we need to see more that what is right in front of our noses and look deeper and ask questions, smell, listen even if it is not in our language (esspecially) and don't be afraid to ask an old timer what's been going on.
OK, now I really need to stop because I am really excited to tell about all the wonderful old charecters that I met this weekend while conducting research for my term paper : )
The book Coming Home to Eat has me enchanted. I am unable not to think about it. It is truly a topic that involves one of the most fulfilling and wholesome acts of ones day (not for all, but for me) I am a food lover! I love to eat, I love to cook, I have been a chef for over eight years in restaraunts ranging from Fine Dining to, well, The Deux Gros Nez, and of course my own home and kitchen. I am a member of the slow food movement and I believe in the importance and blessing of wholesome food.
This book is a wonderful testimony to the importance of local production not only in terms of food, but for the future now that we need to consider the cost of energy to get our food and all that is involved therein.
I am not really far in to the book yet, but far enough to be in love with this man's efforts, as well as his wife's. One of the restaraunts that I cooked in, we grew our own vegetables, herbs and edible flowers. We were not a big restaraunt, but our business was steady and the people loved our food. I would love to say that we grew all our own vegetables for what we made, but that is such a HUGE production. I also have been in a family with a little fairee for a mom who can and does grow anything. Although she always has a big garden and we give TONS of tomatoes and zucchini away each season, it would take sooo much more before she was eating only out of her garden for her, my dad, and what kids pop in raid the fridge.
I was thinking about the book today, yes like I said I think about it all the time because I eat all the time, and I am looking forward to seeing how or if he gets bread. Does he buy local wheat, or amaranth and grind it to make bread and bread products or does he eliminate this all together.
I was trying to figure out if there is a local, within 250 mile radius, producer of wheat, or in my case a gluten free grain ( I am allergic to gluten) that makes bread.
Alright I feel like I am babbling.
All I am trying to say is that I have really been feeling the readings lately.
note to my readers
Sorry for the delay folks, I will be posting for last week and this one very soon.
The readings are done, the time is just not easy to get a hold of lately.
Thanks for the understanding.
...very soon, I promise, I know I have dedicated readers who live for this.
The readings are done, the time is just not easy to get a hold of lately.
Thanks for the understanding.
...very soon, I promise, I know I have dedicated readers who live for this.
Reading Response week 6
My two favorite readings this week were from an excellent writter and about how the works of a unique geographer has changed the geographic world for many. What's Your Consumptive Factor By the acclaimed Jared Diamond, and Mr. Sauer and the Writers by Parsons ( a first name for Parsons did not make it to my notes, woops).
It was, in my opinion, high time that an article like Diamond's made it into our class readings and discussion. The extreem over-consumption of our nation is a problem not only for us,
the choices that we make affect so many more than we could ever imagine when we look at the new toy we just bought our neice or nephew, daughter, son, or neighbor... A toy that was made in China or some other developing country whose children will probably never have what our children have in terms of gadgets and toys. The people who've made the toys, that will no doubt break or be forgot in a matter of months, maybe even weeks, their lives are being affected everyday in both positive and negative ways as a result of our over consumption. I want to offer the suggestion of watching the movie The Manufactured Landscape to get an inside look at what kind of effect our mindless spending patterns have on other nations.
I will move on by saying that our spending is a pattern. There is a very good metaphor for that depicts the nature of our spening in North America. It is the idea of a treadmill, we go to work to make money, then we come home and are tired and want to sit in front of our TV's to "relax" and we see ads and shows that tell and show us what we don't have and what we need to have so we are now unhappy because we don't have those things, so we go shopping and buy the things that make us temporarily happy, and then we go to work so that we can pay for those things, then we go home and are tired and watch TV... the treadmill. It is one way that we are conditioned to spend money, to want, the wanting of things that will make us happy. Bullsh*t! Material things will only make one so happy.
It is not a wholesome happiness. Does that mean that I think that the Chinese worker who is without a lot of material possesions is happy, hell no! look at their lives; they are doing what we are doing, but for survival in most cases and are exposed to high levels of toxins to make crap for us and in others they are trying to be like us and are not happy because they don't have enough.
There is a cycle here, anyone catching it?
I have lived in the desert in the middle of nowhere in Utah on a sustainable farm with my boyfriends old hippie dad and step mom who had 49 acres of land which included a fresh water spring, small river, and a swimming hole the Grant, the dad, had blasted out of the sandstone to dive in and cool off on the scorching hot days.
I was there for 4 months and never wanted. I was away from all things commercial, went days without seeing another soul and it was some of the happiest times in my life. I believe that when all your needs are met, you are able to face your inner self, and are not exposed to the propaganda brainwashing you into buying and wanted things at the turn of every corner and the blink of every eye, then one can truely be happy, without being a burden to others in our country or one across the globe by our consumption.
A side note, I don't think that this means either that we will crash as an economy, although I am actually pretty naive when it comes to how economics work, I am in my first economy class now, but there are ways of profiting from this here at home, it would mean less globalization though.
If are actions and consuming took place more locally then our problems would be considerably less.
Mr. Sauer...
I wish that I could have gone to the Black Mountain School!
I loved this peice because it was looking at geography through the eyes of an artist, Sauer made geography an art, and that is great news for me.
I loved what the people had to say in responce to his work.
Geographer- as a guiding spirit...
artistic forms of cultural landscapes
there is much more but you all read it so you know what I am talking about, otherwise I would be quoting the whole paper.
I loved the morphology of Landscapes
a good deal fo the meaning of area lies beyond scientific regimentation. The best of geography has never disregarded aesthetic qualities of landscape, to which we know no other approach than subjective. -Sauer
This man had a soul for the arts and he found expression through geography, or the other way around : )
It was, in my opinion, high time that an article like Diamond's made it into our class readings and discussion. The extreem over-consumption of our nation is a problem not only for us,
the choices that we make affect so many more than we could ever imagine when we look at the new toy we just bought our neice or nephew, daughter, son, or neighbor... A toy that was made in China or some other developing country whose children will probably never have what our children have in terms of gadgets and toys. The people who've made the toys, that will no doubt break or be forgot in a matter of months, maybe even weeks, their lives are being affected everyday in both positive and negative ways as a result of our over consumption. I want to offer the suggestion of watching the movie The Manufactured Landscape to get an inside look at what kind of effect our mindless spending patterns have on other nations.
I will move on by saying that our spending is a pattern. There is a very good metaphor for that depicts the nature of our spening in North America. It is the idea of a treadmill, we go to work to make money, then we come home and are tired and want to sit in front of our TV's to "relax" and we see ads and shows that tell and show us what we don't have and what we need to have so we are now unhappy because we don't have those things, so we go shopping and buy the things that make us temporarily happy, and then we go to work so that we can pay for those things, then we go home and are tired and watch TV... the treadmill. It is one way that we are conditioned to spend money, to want, the wanting of things that will make us happy. Bullsh*t! Material things will only make one so happy.
It is not a wholesome happiness. Does that mean that I think that the Chinese worker who is without a lot of material possesions is happy, hell no! look at their lives; they are doing what we are doing, but for survival in most cases and are exposed to high levels of toxins to make crap for us and in others they are trying to be like us and are not happy because they don't have enough.
There is a cycle here, anyone catching it?
I have lived in the desert in the middle of nowhere in Utah on a sustainable farm with my boyfriends old hippie dad and step mom who had 49 acres of land which included a fresh water spring, small river, and a swimming hole the Grant, the dad, had blasted out of the sandstone to dive in and cool off on the scorching hot days.
I was there for 4 months and never wanted. I was away from all things commercial, went days without seeing another soul and it was some of the happiest times in my life. I believe that when all your needs are met, you are able to face your inner self, and are not exposed to the propaganda brainwashing you into buying and wanted things at the turn of every corner and the blink of every eye, then one can truely be happy, without being a burden to others in our country or one across the globe by our consumption.
A side note, I don't think that this means either that we will crash as an economy, although I am actually pretty naive when it comes to how economics work, I am in my first economy class now, but there are ways of profiting from this here at home, it would mean less globalization though.
If are actions and consuming took place more locally then our problems would be considerably less.
Mr. Sauer...
I wish that I could have gone to the Black Mountain School!
I loved this peice because it was looking at geography through the eyes of an artist, Sauer made geography an art, and that is great news for me.
I loved what the people had to say in responce to his work.
Geographer- as a guiding spirit...
artistic forms of cultural landscapes
there is much more but you all read it so you know what I am talking about, otherwise I would be quoting the whole paper.
I loved the morphology of Landscapes
a good deal fo the meaning of area lies beyond scientific regimentation. The best of geography has never disregarded aesthetic qualities of landscape, to which we know no other approach than subjective. -Sauer
This man had a soul for the arts and he found expression through geography, or the other way around : )
Reading Response week 5
Well, here I am back again.
This week I did something a little different and actually printed out all the readings thinking that it would be better for class discussion, but then I got sick and wasn't even there to show off all my paper.
Don't worry I used front and back as well as multiple sheets per page, yet I still had some issues doing it; I hate to waste paper when it is not needed.
Onto the meat of it...
From Maps to Myth: The Census, Turner, and the Idea of the Frontier, think that this article displays what a clever idea Turner had in tracking the western frontier population with the census. What is interesting to me is that this was used in a way to encourage growth in those regions where there was fewer people. Walker is credited with creating the "technical concepts of the frontier and the frontier line to track settlement" and how improvements in map making really helped to collect the data they were after- what an exciting time that must have been to be a part of the maps that came from new techniques and all this vast largely unsettled land of the frontier.
I think one of the more interesting bits of information that I gathered from this reading is that until the 1980 census, only taxpaying Indians coutned. Now, this is something that is really not that surprising when I think about the situation and how Indians were treated and viewed, but to not consider them as part of a population that is occupying the same land in which you are gathering information? It is as though their existance is not being recognized and by not counting them in the census implies that the land that they are settling is not really occupied and is up for grabs.
Okay, there were a few points in the readings that I cluttered up the margins and I have decided to put, for your veiwing and academic pleasure, them here for you to comment on and think about, some of what would be below, is already above (got it?):
"Americans believed that the widely dispersed Spanish missionaries, British fur traders, adn Indian hunter-gatherers were underexploiting the west" image that, if only we had actually seem the value in that then,
Richard Henry Dana describes Mexicans as "idle, thriftless people" who "make nothing for themselves...in the hands of an enterprising people, what a country this might be!"
Well I agree with him, we have made something grand out of the west and the entire United States, but we have also a lot of large negative statistics that make our enterprising mindset not exactly desirable, and if we had done things differently like incorporate the ways of the "underexploiting Indians" with the enterprising mentality what a beauty we might have been.
"Spanish and Indian lands became targets for expansion."
"The frontier seemed a national embarassement: the census felt challanged to make the United States look more advanced."
and this is my personal favorite...
"The century had witnessesd our development into a great and powerful nation; it has witnessed the spread of settlement across the continent until not less than 1,947, 280 square miles have been redeemed from the wilderness and brought into the service of man."
Woah! Isn't that special that we could save all that milage from wilderness!
I can't help but wonder what those same people would say about our current environmental issues and mans involvment, would their opinions and goals remain the same?
This week I did something a little different and actually printed out all the readings thinking that it would be better for class discussion, but then I got sick and wasn't even there to show off all my paper.
Don't worry I used front and back as well as multiple sheets per page, yet I still had some issues doing it; I hate to waste paper when it is not needed.
Onto the meat of it...
From Maps to Myth: The Census, Turner, and the Idea of the Frontier, think that this article displays what a clever idea Turner had in tracking the western frontier population with the census. What is interesting to me is that this was used in a way to encourage growth in those regions where there was fewer people. Walker is credited with creating the "technical concepts of the frontier and the frontier line to track settlement" and how improvements in map making really helped to collect the data they were after- what an exciting time that must have been to be a part of the maps that came from new techniques and all this vast largely unsettled land of the frontier.
I think one of the more interesting bits of information that I gathered from this reading is that until the 1980 census, only taxpaying Indians coutned. Now, this is something that is really not that surprising when I think about the situation and how Indians were treated and viewed, but to not consider them as part of a population that is occupying the same land in which you are gathering information? It is as though their existance is not being recognized and by not counting them in the census implies that the land that they are settling is not really occupied and is up for grabs.
Okay, there were a few points in the readings that I cluttered up the margins and I have decided to put, for your veiwing and academic pleasure, them here for you to comment on and think about, some of what would be below, is already above (got it?):
"Americans believed that the widely dispersed Spanish missionaries, British fur traders, adn Indian hunter-gatherers were underexploiting the west" image that, if only we had actually seem the value in that then,
Richard Henry Dana describes Mexicans as "idle, thriftless people" who "make nothing for themselves...in the hands of an enterprising people, what a country this might be!"
Well I agree with him, we have made something grand out of the west and the entire United States, but we have also a lot of large negative statistics that make our enterprising mindset not exactly desirable, and if we had done things differently like incorporate the ways of the "underexploiting Indians" with the enterprising mentality what a beauty we might have been.
"Spanish and Indian lands became targets for expansion."
"The frontier seemed a national embarassement: the census felt challanged to make the United States look more advanced."
and this is my personal favorite...
"The century had witnessesd our development into a great and powerful nation; it has witnessed the spread of settlement across the continent until not less than 1,947, 280 square miles have been redeemed from the wilderness and brought into the service of man."
Woah! Isn't that special that we could save all that milage from wilderness!
I can't help but wonder what those same people would say about our current environmental issues and mans involvment, would their opinions and goals remain the same?
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
