Faces of America and a "Nation of Immigrants"

While watching "Faces of America," it became apparent to me how there is no one in North America whose ancestry does not compose of at least one immigrant. I've heard people talk about their "Native American" ancestry and how they might be 1/32nd Cherokee or something along those lines, but in this present time there must be an extremely small number of pure Native Americans left (if any at all). While watching the various celebrities throughout the show gasp and say "Wow!" as they saw characteristics of their family tree, I questioned what might surprise me in my family tree. Perhaps their are family members in my background who did great things, or maybe I'm a long-forgotten descendant of one of the founding fathers. Maybe someday I'll try and figure out just where my true roots are.

What do you think it means to be a "nation of immigrants"? Think about the characteristics of people who decided to leave a homeland to successfully make a life somewhere else and take on a whole new cultural identity! Ask yourself how those traits may have shaped America, and what we see as American culture. Do you feel very aware of your connection to ancestors like the 19th century immigrants you've read about, and watched in the film? (Why or why not?)

A: I think being a "nation of immigrants" means that the United States is a nation that defines itself by its diversity of people from all around the Earth who earned the feeling of accomplishment by finally arriving in the United States. The majority of immigrants who came to the United States spent an exorbitant amount of their lives preparing and saving money to leave their homelands to find a fresh start. Once they had made the journey across the Atlantic Ocean and laid their eyes on Ellis Island, one can only imagine how proud they must have been to have successfully fulfilled their goals of arriving in the land of opportunity. These emotions of pride and accomplishment created the tone in American culture all throughout the country's history. One of the most common slogans around the country is "Proud to be an American." Slogans like this one came to be because of the pride felt by immigrants to have made a new life. Therefore citizens of the United States have a consistent feeling of national pride all across the nation. 
     Personally I probably don't feel as connected to my ancestors as I should. I know very little about who exactly my ancestors were or even where exactly they came from. Honestly I never thought to spend the time trying to try and develop knowledge of my family tree. After watching "Faces of America" and seeing Stephen Colbert and Meryl Streep completely humbled by their origins though, I am now very curious to know more about my lineage. 

http://www.cr.nps.gov/history/online_books/glimpses3/images/glimpses5.jpg

The Success Story of John D. Rockefeller

  The early 19th century was the time to live for a big-businessman. If you were wise enough to take advantage of the lack of legal restrictions, buy out your competitors, and control your product from start to finish you could become a very wealthy individual; John D. Rockefeller was one such individual. John D. Rockefeller was the founder of the late-19th century Standard Oil Company. Through this company John D. Rockefeller became known as the "wealthiest man who ever lived," as well as a cutthroat magnate who dominated oil from the ground to the barrel.

     John D. Rockefeller was unique in his approach to business because he was one of the first business leaders to take advantage of both "horizontal" and "vertical" integration simultaneously. "Horizontal" integration is the idea of beating your competition in business by integrating their enterprise into your own. "Vertical" integration differs in that instead of buying out your competitors, you buyout the enterprises that process your product during the various stages of development. By integrating both "horizontal" and "vertical" integration Rockefeller was purchasing refineries, oil taps, and barreling warehouses all while monopolizing his competition who used those same companies he was purchasing. Nowadays the U.S. federal government has made laws to prevent Rockefeller's imperious approach to business. However Rockefeller was not bound by today's laws and dominated the oil industry from beginning to end.

      Standard Oil Company's success only lasted throughout Rockefeller's life though. The company quickly begin to suffer only a few years after Rockefeller's death. Without the guidance of their genius founder, the company rapidly declined until it's failure in 1917. 

http://static6.businessinsider.com/image/4c6d47bc7f8b9ae57d700d00/john-d-rockefeller-1885.jpg

Native American Film Depictions

     Native Americans have been a key to success in the history of American cinema. Whether it's the Native American's savagery, alien customs , or their utterly different lifestyle the Native Americans have always been a source of attraction for the film industry's audience. However despite their popularity, Native Americans have been falsely portrayed for as long as they have been seen in the movies. Specifically family films have always steered towards the "savage" or "red-skinned" Native American depiction versus the more peaceful and truer version of Native Americans.

Disney's Pocahontas

      One of the most popular animated family films is Disney's Pocahontas. Pocahontas was an actual Native American who married a man by the name of John Smith just the same as in Disney's cartoon. Disney's version is far from the truth specifically in his depiction of the Native Americans. In the photo above you can clearly see Pocahontas as a beautiful woman with long black hair. In reality Pocahontas was a very young girl when she was married to John Smith. But in order to entertain his audience, Disney decided to depict Pocahontas around the same age as Smith so as not to bring about any controversy in his "children's film." Pocahontas also is seen with a raccoon sitting on her back in this photo. Obviously Native Americans were not "friends" with animals as they are seen in the movie. Instead Native Americans were appreciated for their relationships with animals in a different way. Native Americans were very efficient in their use of animals for hides, meat, tools, and other things. Almost nothing went to waste when Native Americans hunted animals. The honest truth is that Pocahontas' raccoon probably wouldn't have been smiling on her back but perhaps a warm hat instead.

Disney's Peter Pan

     Peter Pan was a favorite among Disney's followers for it's grand adventure and rebellious characters. These characteristics of misbehavior carried over into other characters all throughout the film, but with the Native Americans especially. First of all the depiction of the Native American chieftain above is an entirely incorrect portrayal. Chieftains were not defined by their bullhorns, feathered hats, and extravagant blue pants. Instead any of the leaders in a Native American tribe blended into the rest of the tribe members very inconspicuously. The Native American chieftain in Peter Pan is also a very grumpy man and does not have a particularly friendly visage. He appears to be very mean and assertive towards Peter Pan in trying to show superiority. While some Native Americans weren't very friendly with settlers, they weren't friendly because the settlers had given them reason to be so. When Joseph Banks first set foot in Tahiti, the local Tahitians weren't vicious or savage towards him. Instead the natives and the crew members of the ship developed a bartering system, learned one another's language, and grew to know one another very dearly. Native Americans were very similar to the Tahitians in this way. They were not initially savage and "grumpy" as this chieftain appears to be.

Disney's Brother Bear

     While some of the older Disney film's had very incorrect depictions of it's Native American characters, the newer Disney movies have turned out to be much more tolerant of it's characters origins. Brother Bear is a Disney movie about a young Inuit by the name of Kenai. The story consists of Kenai transforming into a bear and carrying on a journey with a bear cub back to his tribe. While animal transformation never actually occurred towards Native Americans, themes of Animism are very prevalent throughout the film. Animism is the belief of non-human "spiritual beings" that are present within all of one's surroundings. Animism was a common belief throughout Native American tribes that contributed to the association of Native American's to a close bond with nature. Whether there are spiritual beings within the rivers, rocks, trees, and lakes of the world is up to you but the Native Americans firmly respected nature in this way. Brother Bear is also one of the few cartoon movies which depicts it's Native American characters accurately. In this photo from the film you can clearly see the Inuits with completely natural clothing they most likely made themselves, but it lacks the incorrect patterns and extravagant features of the other incorrect portrayals in film. (Almost done).


Sources:
Cultural Critique
Indian Movies
Under-Representation of Native Americans
Animism (2)

PUPPY!!!!!

This is a blog about U.S. History, but I thought I'd post a cute puppy first.