Major Discussion 1click The Links Below To Read And View The Sources ✓ Solved

Major Discussion 1 Click the links below to read and view the sources. Then respond to the discussion question. Your response must be at least 300 words and include specific examples, including quotations and paraphrases from both sources to support your answers. Remember to include a question for your classmates to respond to in their comments. Source 1: Ghost Dance to Wounded Knee Click the link above to view a clip from a documentary about the massacre of the Lakota Sioux at Wounded Knee in 1890.

The link will take you first to a log-in page where you will enter your student ID# and password. Then the video clip should begin playing automatically. Source 2: The Jungle by Upton Sinclair 1906, The Jungle brought awareness to the harsh working conditions in the American meat packing industry and the plight of immigrants. Upton Sinclair’s descriptions shocked the public and led to new safety regulations and support for the Progressive movement. The book tells the story of Jurgis, an immigrant from Lithuania who works as a packer in a large meat packing plant, and Marija, a member of Jurgis’s extended family who works in a canning factory.

Excerpt #1 The men upon the killing beds [meatpacking plants where animals were butchered] felt also the effects of the slump which had turned Marija out; but they felt it in a different way. . . . The big packers did not turn their hands [workers] off and close down, like the canning factories; but they began to run for shorter and shorter hours. They had always required the men to be on the killing beds and ready for work at seven o’clock, although there was almost never any work to be done till the buyers out in the yards had gotten to work, and some cattle had come over the chutes. That would often be ten or eleven o’clock . . . [but now] they would perhaps not have a thing for their men to do till late in the afternoon.

And so they would have to loaf around, in a place where the thermometer might be twenty degrees below zero! . . . Before the day was over they would become quite chilled through and exhausted, and, when the cattle finally came, so near frozen that to move was an agony... There were weeks at a time when Jurgis went home after such a day as this with not more than two hours’ work to his credit—which meant about thirty-five cents. There were many days when the total was less than half an hour, and others when there was none at all... All this was bad; and yet it was not the worst.

For after all the hard work a man did, he was paid for only part of it. Jurgis had once been among those who scoffed at the idea of these huge concerns [businesses] cheating; and so now he could appreciate the bitter irony of the fact that it was precisely their size which enabled them to do it with impunity [without any consequences]. One of the rules on the killing beds was that a man who was one minute late was docked an hour. . . . And on the other hand if he came ahead of time he got no pay for that—though often 2 the bosses would start up the gang ten or fifteen minutes before the whistle. And this same custom they carried over to the end of the day; they did not pay for any fraction of an hour—for “broken time.†A man might work full fifty minutes, but if there was no work to fill out the hour, there was no pay for him. . . .

One of the consequences of all these things was that Jurgis was no longer perplexed [surprised] when he heard men talk of fighting for their rights. He felt like fighting now himself... He began to attend union meetings.] He had picked up a few words of English by this time, and friends would help him to understand. They were often very turbulent [wild] meetings, with half a dozen men declaiming [shouting] at once, in as many dialects of English; but the speakers were all desperately in earnest, and Jurgis was in earnest too, for he understood that a fight was on, and that it was his fight. . . . He discovered that he had brothers in affliction [with similar problems], and allies [friends].

Their one chance for life was in union, and so the struggle became a kind of crusade [fight for a just cause]. Excerpt #2 There was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; there would come all the way back from Europe old sausage that had been rejected, and that was moldy and white—it would be dosed with borax [a white powder made from boric acid, used in detergents, flame retardants, and disinfectants] and glycerine [a chemical compound used in foods and medicines], and dumped into the hoppers [containers for mixing], and made over again for home consumption. There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit. . . .

There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats. These rats were nuisances, and the packers would put poisoned bread out for them; they would die, and then rats, bread, and meat would go into the hoppers [containers] together. This is no fairy story and no joke; the meat would be shoveled into carts, and the man who did the shoveling would not trouble to lift out a rat even when he saw one—there were things that went into the sausage in comparison with which a poisoned rat was a tidbit.

3 There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be ladled into the sausage. . . . Some of it they would make into “smoked†sausage—but as the smoking took time, and was therefore expensive, they would call upon their chemistry department, and preserve it with borax and color it with gelatine to make it brown. Discussion Question How did western expansion and industrialization affect the lives of the different people who lived in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century?

Paper for above instructions

Western expansion and industrialization in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries played a critical role in shaping the lives of various groups of people, particularly Native Americans and immigrants. The consequences of these phenomena were marked by exploitation, cultural displacement, and severe socio-economic challenges.
In the context of Native Americans, particularly the Lakota Sioux, the westward expansion was synonymous with systematic violence, loss of cultural identity, and dislocation. The documentary clip "Ghost Dance to Wounded Knee" illustrates the tragic culmination of this process at Wounded Knee in 1890, where the U.S. government brutally suppressed the Lakota people during a desperate attempt to reclaim their cultural and spiritual practices through the Ghost Dance. This dance was not merely a religious revival; it embodied hope for a return to a life unhindered by the traumatic fallout of colonization. As noted in the documentary, "The government saw the dance as a threat, leading to a tragic confrontation that ended in the massacre of hundreds of men, women, and children" (Ghost Dance to Wounded Knee). The Wounded Knee Massacre stands as a grim testament to the ongoing effects of American expansionist policies, which often disregarded the sovereignty, rights, and humanity of indigenous populations.
In contrast, the experience of immigrants during industrialization was characterized by harsh labor conditions, primarily as depicted in Upton Sinclair's "The Jungle." The narrative follows Jurgis, a Lithuanian immigrant who finds himself enmeshed in the brutal realities of the meatpacking industry. Sinclair captures the struggles of immigrant workers as they cope with the exploitation in factories. He writes, "Jurgis went home after such a day as this with not more than two hours’ work to his credit—which meant about thirty-five cents" (Sinclair). The dehumanizing working conditions were not simply a byproduct of a burgeoning economy; they were a direct reflection of an industrial system designed to prioritize profit over people. Jurgis's realization that the “big packers did not turn their hands off and close down” but reduced work hours to minimize wages exemplifies the capitalist exploitation inherent in this industrial era (Sinclair).
Moreover, Sinclair exposes the unsanitary conditions under which meat was processed, illustrating the disregard for worker and consumer health. He notes that “thousands of rats would race about on it” and that “there would be meat stored in great piles in rooms” where leaked roof water could contaminate it (Sinclair). Such grim descriptions highlight not only the dire working conditions but also the growing disconnect between the corporate entities that benefited from industrialization and the lives of those laboring to fill the insatiable demand for cheap products.
The narratives of both Native Americans and immigrants reveal a broader social and economic landscape characterized by inequality and systemic disenfranchisement. While American expansion brought forth the notion of opportunity and progress for some, it simultaneously marginalized and victimized others. For example, the immigrant workers in factories were often met with hostility as they sought better opportunities. Sinclair illustrates this when he describes Jurgis attending union meetings: “He began to attend union meetings... their one chance for life was in union” (Sinclair). This exploration of solidarity among marginalized workers reflects the labor movement's response to industrialization, which was a reaction to the injustices they faced.
Furthermore, the struggles of the Lakota Sioux resonate in this narrative of western expansion, as their struggle against cultural erasure and direct violence finds parallels in the experiences of immigrants battling economic exploitation. One could argue that both groups symbolized resistance against different facets of a rapidly industrializing nation that prioritized expansion and economic growth over the dignity and rights of individuals.
Thus, the intersections of western expansion and industrialization profoundly affected various groups in America at the turn of the twentieth century. While Native Americans faced genocide and cultural eradication, immigrant populations encountered brutal labor conditions within the new industrial economy. Both narratives serve as reminders of the complexities and often ugly realities of American growth during this critical period, revealing systemic injustices that led to widespread suffering.
In conclusion, the comprehensive understanding of this era reveals the intertwined fates of diverse groups. It underscores the necessity for a critical examination of historical narratives that often romanticize progress without acknowledging the human cost. To spark discussion among classmates, I pose the question: How do you think these historical narratives shape our understanding of contemporary issues pertaining to the rights of indigenous peoples and immigrant labor in today's society?

References

1. Sinclair, Upton. "The Jungle." 1906.
2. "Ghost Dance to Wounded Knee." Documentary Film Clip.
3. Takaki, Ronald. "Strangers from a Different Shore: A History of Asian Americans." Boston: Little, Brown and Company, 1990.
4. Zinn, Howard. "A People's History of the United States." New York: HarperCollins, 2005.
5. Adams, David Wallace. "Education for Extinction: American Indians and the Boarding School Experience, 1875-1928." Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 1995.
6. Pullen, William C. "Beyond the Bottom Line: The Effect of Economic Factors on the Governance of Native American Tribes." American Indian Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 4, 1983, pp. 292–309.
7. Tindall, George Brown, and David E. Shi. "America: A Narrative History." New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 2007.
8. Kessler, Ronald. "A Violent America: The History of the Indian Wars and the Trail of Tears." New York: Discovery Press, 1990.
9. Goodwyn, Lawrence. "The Populist Moment: A Short History of the Agrarian Revolt in America." New York: Oxford University Press, 1978.
10. McGerr, Michael. "A Fierce Discontent: The Rise and Fall of the Progressive Movement in A "People's History" Of American History." New York: Free Press, 2003.