Welcome to my blog

This is Mrs. Scoop’s blog for the AP US history kids at PHS. Although it is designed for my students’ needs, anyone is welcome to use it. If you look to the right, you will see a list of category tags. There is a category for each chapter in our textbook, The American Pageant. In addition, there are subject categories, such as “Native Americans” or “assignments” Most posts are located in at least two categories, like “Chapter 1” and “Native Americans” or “Colonization.”

Under each chapter category, I have provided primary source documents that will help expand your understanding of the chapter, as well as other materials such as practice test items, historical essays or explanations. I strongly urge you to use this information to aid your comprehension and to prepare yourself for not only my tests and quizzes but for the AP exam as well.You are welcome to leave comments– I would suggest you use a pseudonym rather than your real name for security purposes. The comments need to be appropriate– that’s directed more at outside visitors than my students. If you have a question, post it in the comments and someone will probably answer it.

Welcome! Let’s take off!

Photo by Randy Pollock of a shuttle launch at dawn, 2007

Principled? Or Naive?

The Iroquois were a confederation of five Native American nations that was founded in the 16th century (see pp. 40-41 in your text). Many Native tribes played a game, usually called “stickball,” that is the ancestor to lacrosse. Lacrosse is played throughout North America and Europe.

Some indigenous people still feel lingering resentment for their treatment under the control of the Canadian, American, and Australian governments. So what happens when principle meets the security demands of a post- September 11 world? Read this (http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/16/us/16iroquoisweb.html), which was posted on July 14, 2010, originally:

The Iroquois national lacrosse team was supposed to open the world championships on Thursday night with a much-anticipated game against host country England.

Instead, the team remains stranded at a Comfort Inn in Ozone Park, Queens, denied visas by the British government and growing increasingly doubtful that it will be able to compete in the tournament at all.

What the Iroquois team had most feared for the past week — that their passport dispute with the governments of the United States and now Britain would not be resolved before their first game in the tournament — has now come to pass. The team forfeited its first contest, which had been scheduled for 7:30 p.m. local time in Manchester, England.

Team officials continued their weeklong scramble to allay British concerns over their tribal passports, on which they have traveled to past international competitions. But they reported little progress in that effort.

“We haven’t given up,” Percy Abrams, the team’s executive director, said Thursday. “We just feel like if we get to the right person, someone high up enough, something will work out for us. They have to do the right thing.”

The team’s travel plans were first thrown into question last week, when the British government said the players would not be allowed to travel on their tribal passports unless the American government provided written assurance that they would be allowed to re-enter the United States after the tournament.

Federal officials refused to do that until Wednesday morning, when Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton authorized a one-time waiver clearing the way for the team to travel without United States passports, which it has refused to accept.

For a few hours, the team was all smiles, thinking that only some paperwork at the British Consulate stood between the team and its departure for England. But late Wednesday afternoon, the team was informed by British officials that it would not be granted visas after all.

That drew immediate outrage from team officials, who said the consulate had gone against its word, and from several lawmakers who had lobbied the State Department on the players’ behalf.

The U.K. Border Agency issued a statement saying that the players would be welcome to travel to England on tribal passports — but only if they also presented “established documentation” like American or Canadian passports.

That is not an acceptable option to the team, which has repeatedly said that traveling on what it considers a foreign passport would be an affront to the sovereignty of the six nations that make up the Iroquois Confederacy.

The State Department spokesman, Philip J. Crowley, said American officials had discussed the team’s situation with British officials multiple times on Wednesday and Thursday. But the British government concluded it could not make an exception to its usual immigration policies, which he said did not come as a surprise to the State Department.

”We’re satisfied that they looked at this thoroughly, but from their standpoint they made the decision they made,” Mr. Crowley told reporters in Washington. “It’s their prerogative to determine and decide who qualifies for entry into the United Kingdom.”

The Iroquois team is scheduled to play again on Saturday at 1:30 p.m. local time against Japan. Team officials said they would need to depart Kennedy Airport by Friday afternoon to have any hope of not forfeiting that game, too.

In the meantime, the team planned to play a scrimmage against a local lacrosse club in Bayville, Long Island, on Thursday night. After all, the players want to stay in shape, just in case they do find a way to get to England.

But as the hours pass, team officials concede that appears less and less likely to happen. “Our window is closing,” Mr. Abrams said.

Archaeologists search for evidence of the Pequot War

Here is the link from the Associated Press. Since they have threatened to sue any website that uses their content without paying a fee, you need to just click on the link below to read the article.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100712/ap_on_re_us/us_pequot_battlefields

The Pequot War is mentioned on page 52 in Chapter 3 of your text.

This geneological site (http://www.dowdgen.com/dowd/document/pequots.html) has excellent background on the Pequot War and its significance. Here is the opening paragraph:

For the early settlers of Southern Connecticut, the Pequot War of 1637 had great consequences. In what was the first serious armed conflict between indigenous people and settlers in New England, the powerful Pequot tribe that occupied and controlled the Connecticut Valley was “blotted out from under heaven”, in the words of one Puritan. By the time the Davenport and Whitfield congregations settled New Haven and Guilford, there was no threat of Indian resistance. Success of the planters, like all of the settlers of The Great Migration, depended on the cooperation or acquiesence of the Indians….

Click on the address to read the brief summary, which also includes a map that may be helpful to your understanding.

Columbus and the “New World”

This is a pretty informative slide presentation on Columbus.

You can also access this video at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HT5cIeHPR-c