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SCC US Summary
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Summary of the course 'SCC US' > American History & Culture.
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Summary SCC US1. Introduction
● The US has 50 states.
● Poplulation over 300 million people.
● Learn Geography: - Atlantic Plain
- Piedmont
- Appalachian Mountains
- Central Lowland
- Great Plains
- American Cordillera
- Alaska
- Hawaii
- Coastlines and rivers
- National Parks (1st National park: Yellowstone > support from
Theodore R.)
- Climate
- American regionalism ( The Northeast, South, Midwest, West)
● Flag > 13 horizontal stripes + 50 five-pointed white stars. Stripes symbolize > 13
colonies, 50 states
Color white stands for purity and innocence. Red for hardiness and valor. Blue for
vigilance, perseverance and justice. Other name: ‘The Star-Spangled Banner’/Stars and
Stripes/The Red, White and blue’.
● Pledge of Allegiance > to the Flag of the US is an oath of loyalty to the American
national emblem. First used on Columbus Day.
● Bald Eagle > the national bird of the US. (1782, was placed with outspread wings on
Great Seal)
● Liberty Bell > was rung on July 8, 1776 after the first public
reading of the Declaration of Independence. Is rang on every
Independence Day (July 4) until the death of John Marshall.
● Great Seal > the official seal of the American government.
Obverse: the eagle > bears a shield + 13 stripes = states, the
chief = federal government, olive branch = peache, 13 arrows =
war, text: Out of many, one. Reverse: pyramid with the all-seeing eye of Divine
Providence.
● White house > the official residence of the president of the US. (Pennsylvania,
Washington DC)
● Uncle Sam > a nickname/cartoon image to personify the American government.
Samuel Wilson stamped his shipments with the initials of the US during the War of 1812.
● Statue of Liberty > a colossal statue on Liberty Island (NYC). The statue symbolizes
liberty in form of a woman wearing flowing robes and a spiked crown who holds a torch
in her right hand and carries a book in her left hand. Gift by the French to mark the 100 th
anniversary of the War of Independence.
, ● The Star-Spangled Banner > the national anthem. Written by Francis Key after seeing
the bombardment of Fort McHenry in Baltimore during the War of 1812.
● Thanksgiving Day > A day of fasting and prayer during a period of drought was
changed to one of thankgiving because the rain came during prayers. The fourth
Thursday of November > holiday.
● Independence Day (4th of July) > an annual holiday commemorating the Declaration of
Independence on July 4, 1776 in Philadelphia.
● Purple Heart > the order of the Purple Heart is the oldest American decoration for
military merit, originally establish by George Washington. Is awarded to members of the
U.S. Armed Forces who have been killed/wounded in action against an enemy. It’s known
as the Badge for Military Merit. (In the middle is George Washington.)
2. Native Americans
● 1492, Christopher Columbus set sail from Spain to find a new way from Europe to Asia.
Aim: to open up a shorter trade route between the two continents. The first place he
arrived, he named San Salvador. He thought he had landed in the Indies, so he called the
people Indians.
● Europeans called America ‘The New World’, but it wasn’t new to the Native Americans.
● Tribes: The Pueblo people > Arizona + New Mexico. They made clothing and
blankets from
cotton. Food > they grew crops of maize and beans.
Irrigation made them successful farmers.
Apache people > neighbours of Pueblo. Wandered the deserts and
mountains in
small bands, hunting deer, gathering wild plants, nuts +
roots.
Fierce warriors, much feared.
Iroquois > a group of tribes who lived far away from the Pueblo and the
Apache.
Skilled farmers, hunters and fishermen. Fierce warriors.
Dakota/Sioux > means enemies. The Sioux grew no crops and built no
houses.
For food+shelter+clothing they were depended on the
buffalo.
Chinook and Haida > tribes that lived in large houses built of wooden
planks.
● Carvings on totem poles were part of the house. The carvings on the totem pole were a
record of the history of the family that lived in the house.
● The potlatch > a popular ceremony amongst the wealthy tribes along the Pacific coast
of North America. Potlatch means gift-giving.
● There is no hereditary leadership within tribes. > Tribal duties are divided among
various chiefs, groups or medicine men.
Religion > based on deep faith in supernatural and spiritual forces.
Economy > designed to give the male members of the tribe a maximum of leisure and a
,minimum of manual work.
● No man can own land as personal property. A tribe/village might claim land as its
territory for farming+hunting, but it is held and used communally.
● The highest order of honor in battle was to strike an unwounded enemy with the hand
or with the bow > counting coups. Killing an enemy was rather low down on the scale of
honor.
● First encounters > Spanish colonists arrived in the early 1500s > settled in Florida and
California.
They sent missionaries to bring Christianity to the Native Americans and forced them to
work in their fields and mines. The French and Dutch settlers came to trade. The Puritan
settlers came to make a home, to farm. They needed land.
The Puritans saw their God-given duty to exploit the world.
Native Americans culture: achieving a balance between nature and man, instinct and
reason, body and mind, play and work.
The Puritans culture: glorifying the reason, faith, duty and hard work, suppressing the
natural, physical and playful.
the deadly sin of idleness = refusing to do one’s calling
● Iroquois > a league of tribes, the Five Nations > the most democratic nation of its time.
● 1787 law > Northwest Ordinance > the Native American “lands and property shall
never be taken from them without their consent; and in
their property, rights and liberty they shall never be
invaded or disturbed”.
However, President James Munroe changed this in 1817.
He believed that Native Americans had 1 way to survive >
they would have to be moved from lands that white
settlers wanted, further west. There they would be free to
continue their old ways of life or to adopt those of white
Americans.
● 1823 “Indians could occupy land, but not hold title to those lands.’
● 1830 President Andres Jackson passed the Indian Removal Act. > All Native Americans
living east of the Mississippi River would be moved west to a place called Indian
Territory.
● the Cherokee tribe’s land lay between the state of Georgia and the Mississippi River.
They had changed themselves from a stone age tribe into civilized community. In the
1830s Congress declared that their lands belonged to the state of Georgia. The
Cherokees were driven from their homes and forced to march hundreds of miles overland
to state of Oklahoma. In the cold winter of 1838-1839 American soldiers gathered
thousands of Cherokee men, women and children and forced them to march 1,200 miles
into rugged territory. This lasted 5 months! 4000 People (a quarter) died from exposure,
hunger and disease. This march became known as the Trail of Tears.
● 1849 Gold was discovered in California.
● The Native Americans tried to drive newcomers away from their hunting ground, but
this was impossible. They made treaties with the government in Washington, giving up
large pieces of their land for white farmers to settle upon.
● In 1851 the Indian Appropriations Act I allocated funds to move Native Americans tribes
onto reservations ‘to protect them’.
, ● In 1862 President Abraham Lincoln passed the Homestead Act. Anyone who had never
taken up arms against the government (including freed slaves and women) could file an
application to claim a federal land grant.
● In 1868 the Fort Laramie Treaty was signed, exempting the Black Hills, which were
sacred to the Sioux. In 1874 gold was found in the Black Hills. The government tried to
buy the land. The Sioux refused. (Mother Earth not for sale.) The government broke the
treaty and allowed prospectors+miners to enter the Black Hills. They also slaughtered
the buffalo. Between 1850 and 1885 white hunters almost completely destroyed the
great herds. Americans saw the extermination of the buffalo as a way to end Native
American resistance. The government decided to force the Native Americans to give up
their wandering way of life. They were forced to live on bad land: the reservations.
● In 1871 the Indian Appropriations Act II ended the recognition of Native American tribes
or independent nations and prohibited other treaties.
● Best known victory of the Native Americans > the Battle of the Little Bighorn, also
known as ‘Custer’s Last Stand’. (1876) On a hill near the Little Bighorn River 3000 Native
American warriors (Sioux + Cheyenne) led by Chiefs Sitting Bull and Crazy Horse
surrounded and killed over 250 men of the US cavalry led by General George Armstrong
Custer in less than 30 minutes. It was the last stand for the Native Americans too. The
American government and people were angry and sent more soldiers to hunt down
Custer’s killers. The Sioux surrendered and the American soldiers marched them away to
the reservations.
● 1890 > The Ghost Dance > A religious prophet told the Sioux to dance a special dance
for a great miracle to take place. Their dead warriors would come back to life, buffalo
would return, white men would be swept away. The Ghost Dance movement was
peaceful. On December 29, 1890 a group of 350 Lakota Sioux left their reservation. They
set off to join another group nearby for safety, but a party of soldiers stopped them on
the way and marched them to an army post at Wounded Knee Creek. Next morning the
soldiers ordered the Lakota Sioux to give up their guns. One warrior refused. The soldiers
began shooting. Within minutes, most (300) of the Lakota Sioux were dead or badly
wounded. > known as the Wounded Knee Massacre.
● 1924 Congress passed the Indian Citizenship Act > recognized Native Americans as full
citizens of the US and gave them the right to vote. This helped to counter the
paternalistic policy of the Bureau of Indian Affairs > which had taken care of business
for the Native Americans, but often not to their advantage.
● 1934 > Indian Reorganization Act > encouraged the Indians to set up their own
governments.
● 1946 > Indian Claims Commission > set up by government to deal with claims of unfair
treatment or fraud.
● 1972 > the American Indian Movement (AIM) > staged a protest march on Washington
called the ‘Trail of Broken Treaties’. It culminated in the Native Americans taking over
the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
● Until this day the call for preservation of the environment is still of importance.
3. Early settlers
(Alcatraz Island)
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