Westward Expansion
what it means to be an american
What it means to be an american as a pioneer in the westward expansion
The pioneers struggled to get to Oregon, because they needed the knowledge to trade, travel long distances, and kill animals in order to survive. The pioneers had to trade their least important supplies to try and gain more important supplies that they needed. Although they may have needed a lot more supplies for the important supplies to have an equal trade, they also had to travel from their town all the way to Oregon. Lastly, the pioneers killed an abundance natives and buffalos.
Oregon Trail Route
This is a picture of the Oregon trail. The pioneers used it to travel to Oregon
trading
"We had every reason to believe that the natives have not provisions sufficient for our consumption, and if they had, their prices are so high that it would take times as much to purchase their roots & dried fish as we have in our possession, including our small remains of merchandize and clothes," stated Pacific ocean bound on Sunday, November 24 1805¨. This illustrates how the pioneers traded. It wasn't always this easy to trade, sometimes they had to put in more supplies than they got out.
Pioneers Travels
Pioneers had to travel to the new land in Oregon, and with their travel came sickness and injuries.¨Rain came down and required us to tie down the wagon covers, and so increased our sickness by confining the air we breathed,¨ stated On the plains In 1844. This passage, in on The Plains In 1844, shows how sickness easily came over the pioneers when they had to make the simplest of changes.¨My dear child, your leg is broken all to pieces!¨On The Plains In 1844. This quote demonstrates the risk of injury when you take on the journey to the west.
killing
Over the years of travel the pioneers had killed of many native americans things like people buffalo and traditions. The pioneers went out to explore one day on the plains and killed off so many buffalos just for the fun of killing them, then they proceeded to leave the buffalo there to rot, and not use any of it (picture above). ¨Our mothers told us that the whites were killing everybody.¨ Ho for California. The pioneers were the white people who killed the native americans for nothing, the natives wanted to help the pioneers make their journey easier.
Westward Expansion: Crash Course US History #24
Work Cited
“On the Plains in 1844.” The Gilder Lehrman Institute of American History. 2013. Web. <www.gilderlehrman.org>
“Lewis and Clark Journal Entries.” Brain Waves Instruction. 2014. Web. <www.brainwavesinstruction.blogspot.com>
Werner, Emmy E. Pioneer Children on the Journey west. Boulder, Colorado: Westview Press, 1995. Print