Tuesday, September 4, 2012

The American Indian and Problem with History

One of the greatest mistakes ever made in American history was the injustice and destruction inflicted on the indigenous natives by European Americans. No one, I think, should deny what it took for White Americans to stretch from the East to the West in creating the United States we know today. The results of European and White American conquests of the native population were the renowned myths that narrowly defined the history of the United States for a substantial amount of time. They classified American Indians as blood thirsty savages who were eventually brought to their demise by the “civilized” Christians of the eastern United States. In every sequence of events, history while written by the victorious is always filled with lies and many biases. The winning side feels that only their history is worthy of remembrance since they’re more powerful culturally, technologically, and politically. Even some historians have altered new research with their narrow cultural/religious perception of the events that took place. Recently, that barrier has been broken with new studies of the origins of Native Americans tribes all the way back around 40,000 to 12,000 B.C.
Although I have previous knowledge of the so-called Bering ‘land bridge’ that brought many tribes from Asia into North America, I was amazed by the amount of history there was about the migration into the continent and the establishment of the new North American tribes. Essentially, these tribes came onto the American continent in search of big game such as reindeer, moose, bison, and woolly mammoths. While there are hints of these people hunting great game across North America, most the evidence has been found within Alaska where the hunters cornered their prey at many ‘kill sites.’ Many of these tribes went as far as modern day Pennsylvania, which I suppose isn’t much of a surprise, but I was under the impression most of the tribes then settled in Canada and in the mid – western United States. In despite of leaving their original homes, these people made use of the tools and hunting methods they developed in Siberia, thus passing on their most ancient of traditions. Many of these traditions had been drawn from other cultures from East Asia to Europe, hinting that discovering the “New World” was merely an expansion of the old world. From reading that information, one can easily draw the similarities shared between Native Americans, Europeans, Asians, and so on.
Another interesting find in Native American history was the systematic process of adapting to the new environments and the creation of many substances to sustain the native way of life. Such innovations included making specially “fluted” spear points within camps located near rich quarries. These enable tribesmen to sharpen their spears in a way that allows them to kill their prey on site. In the areas where flint flourished, numerous animals were trapped in those regions, providing tribes with enough food and turning these people into a complex, organized society, greatly different from their ancestors. It all really shows how similar Native Americans are with other cultures, in terms of survival and maintaining their way of life.                 

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Thursday, April 19, 2012

#13 State government interaction

My CP has had very little interaction with the State governor. Political involvement comes mainly from the nearby city, where the citizens elect the officials who will allow the funding of parks and open reserves to continue. Acterra is a non-profit organizations that relies only on donations and the tax payer money from Palo Alto citizens to continue with its projects. As far as politics are concerned, small local parks or areas, such as where Acterra is located, are affected by State government affairs only if a law, act, or call is made to all communities within the state to make financial cut backs in order to keep the economy stable. For the most part, however, the State governor's authority doesn't stretch to any organizations, such as my CP.

$ and services #10

As with any non profit organization, my CP relies on the continous donations from the local people.  There isn't any real connection my CP and other groups have between each other since they only focus on the lands within their community. While some people donate to Acterra, the rest of its money comes from the general fund or the property tax that Palo Alto citizens have to pay. The amount of tax payer money that Acterra receives depends on the situation of the city's revenues. Recently, due to some cutbacks, Palo Alto's revenues have changed, causing the usual funding of open spaces and parks to drop.  

Thursday, March 29, 2012

CP and legislation #6

Although my CP is a non profit organization, there is no information on the organization making requests for any legislative work be done for its prosperity. However, since the Santa Cruz District has jurisdiction over Portola and Castle Rock, some of their legislation has been stretched to try to preserve the Bay Area's natural beauty. It may not have directly affected the organization, but the decision to not pass this legislation may impact how we look after the forests within the Bay.

Two years ago, a plan was set to create an open space district in the Santa Cruz County. It didn't pass due to concerns from the Land Trust of Santa Cruz County that this new district would cost the county greatly, given the economic mess then. The director of Land Trust, Terry Corwin, recognized the need of protecting the farms, water supply, and beauty of California's natural habitats; however, the right way of doing so without costing the economy was the part no one could figure out. An open space district essentially would have required tax money from its residents in order to acquire and manage the land. The requirements needed to establish this district would have been reduced, but only a swift approval from the voters could have allowed it to be put into effect. So, this is connected with my CP in a way that the legislation might have made it possible for people to be able to manage the lands Portola and Castle Rock seek to preserve. Since this country is still struggling economically, the California state government has made up its mind about what it can do for the enivornment. It's up to the local people to raise enough money to reverse the process.

Sunday, March 18, 2012

CP #4

Apart from their own campaign of keeping their parks open, the Portola and Castle Rock Foundation doesn't usually participate in other political campaigns. There's no evidence to suggest otherwise if my CP gets involved, but instead it's the people who fundraise to help the organization with their cause. The only time they would advocate for a candidate during a campaign is dependent on if that political figure had a plan to either extend the deadline of finanical cutbacks or focus on other economic problems, leaving state parks out of it. For the most part, my CP is only politically active when times are hard on the parks and the people who visit them, contribute to keeping California's State Parks open.

Friday, March 16, 2012

Local Citizens and my CP (#2)

The relationship between California citizens and my CP doesn't stretch from just this organization to the people, but from every state park to everyone in the state. The vast majority of people advocating to keep the parks open ranges from middle schoolers, who pick up trash thrown on camp grounds to everyday citizens from the different counties who bring the issue to Governor Jerry Brown's attention. As these people interact with the park rangers and organizations that support maintaining California's State Parks, the same kind of interaction is going on between citizens from the Bay Area and the Portola and Castle Rock Foundation. They are all advocating for the same cause and it's real inspiring to know that there are those who care about the history that they created. California citizens fought to keep the parks open 150 years ago and still are continuing the fight today. Even now, if no government funding is provided, the people will still keep pushing their cause sending out petitions and using their own money to save the parks. For them, the closure of California State Parks will be the end of one part of the state's history and culture.

California citizens, who participate in maintaining and reforestating the parks, can have a great effect on how busy my CP stays. With fundraising and profits made from selling certain materials, the foundation can help with backing up projects organized by individuals, who want to keep the parks in the Santa Cruz Mountains free of vandalism, full of exhibits for vistors, and kept to their natural beauties. This can only be possible if the people, who've been to these parks, step up to save what they believe should stay and remain untouched by economic cutbacks.