Effects of the Pentagon Papers and Watergate Tapes on the Relationship Between American Government and Media

     By the end of the Cold War, Vietnam had split into two states. Communist North Vietnam, led by Ho Chi Minh, and South Vietnam, led by self-proclaimed dictator Ngo Dinh Diem. U.S. Government officials feared not getting involved in Vietnam because of what they called the “Domino Effect,” which refers to the idea that if Vietnam became a communist state, the rest of South East Asia would follow suit, and eventually so would the rest of the world. As China became increasingly supportive of North Vietnam, the U.S. saw it necessary to support South Vietnam, at first only by sending supplies and officers to train the Vietnamese military. Eventually, the U.S. involvement escalated to the point where upwards of 50,000 American troops had been deployed. Anti-war activists strongly disagreed with the U.S. Government’s decision towards war. They felt the U.S. did not need to get involved in another situation like Korea. They did not want to sacrifice the money, supplies, and lives for a nation that did not even want foreign assistance. Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson all supported the war in Vietnam, each increasing involvement with his respective presidency. To what extent the presidents were involving the U.S. with Vietnam however, was not fully disclosed to the American public.

Anti-Vietnam War Poster

     

     At the time these men served in office, reporters believed that their relationship with the government was one intended by the first amendment of the Constitution. If a reporter went digging a little too far, it was understood that some matters had to be kept secret for reasons of national security. “Reasons of national security,” soon became an excuse for government officials. It is ironic really. America was involving itself in a war against power-hungry communist regimes, while at home her leaders took advantage of their power and status by lying to the American people under the façade of overly classified documents and lame justifications.

Richard Nixon talking on the phone in the oval office. Ironic because the deceitful Nixon is juxtaposed with the bust of "Honest Abe."

     

     As the war in Vietnam worsened, so did the depth of deceit by American presidents, culminating with two major events surrounding President Richard Nixon; the publishing of the Pentagon Papers and the leak of the Watergate Tapes. The Pentagon Papers were commissioned by Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara under the name “Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force.” The purpose of the report was to record America’s involvement in Vietnam, from beginning (~1954) to present (1969). Ultimately, the report served to disclose the outright lies of all the presidents involved in the war, from Eisenhower to Nixon. The Pentagon Papers were leaked by Daniel Ellsberg, an analyst on the task force who became so disturbed by the deceit that he secretly photocopied 7,000 pages of the report. After failing to release the papers to the public via a congressman, Ellsberg turned to the New York Times, who published the first “part in a series” of the report.

Time Magazine Cover (not to be confused with the New York Times)

    

   Immediately, Nixon claimed that he was in favor of moving out of Vietnam, but that it was difficult to undo the damage caused by his predecessors Eisenhower, Kennedy, and Johnson. With most Americans in disbelief, he then took action not against the newspaper, but against Ellsberg in, eventually, the Supreme Court for violating the Espionage Act of 1917. However, Nixon did not only take action within the law. He illegally broke into the office of Ellsberg’s psychiatrist, searching for accessory incriminating evidence, still trying to avoid blame. This unlawful act reversed Ellsberg’s potential 150 year sentence and swung the case in his favor, 6 to 3.

Daniel Ellsberg in court

     Nixon did not stop his power trip there. Desperate to be reelected in 1972, Republican Nixon hired burglars to break into the Democratic National Committee and wire tap the phones and steal the classified documents of select individuals. Unfortunately for Nixon, a sharp-eyed security guardsmen found tape on door locks left by the burglars and called the police. The burglars were arrested, but Nixon’s cover up was sufficient to win him the election. He was not discovered as the leader of the burglary until 1973, when as a result he resigned.

Report of the Office of the Secretary of Defense Vietnam Task Force Cover Sheet

     The Pentagon Papers and Watergate Scandal give us two important take-aways: 1) By the first amendment, the American people have a right to freedom of press, and thus to information that is not to be unjustly withheld because of superficial reasons, and 2) It is the duty of reporters and journalists to mediate between the American government and her people, providing truthful information without compromising security. If America is a nation “by the people and for the people,” then those people must know their nation’s agenda and be provided with enough information to meaningfully add to the nation’s debates. This has always been true, but it was only realized after the Pentagon Papers and Watergate Scandal. 

Annotated Source List:

1) The Miller Center at the University of Virginia detailed Daniel Ellsberg's involvement in the release of the Pentagon Papers and the subsequent events that related to Nixon, describing the logic behind Nixon's political moves with Watergate evidence as proof.

2) The "40 Years After the Leak, Weighing the Impact of the Pentagon Papers" video, produced by PBS News Hour, provided insight into the changes in attitude of the media toward American government.

3) A large portion of information about Daniel Ellsberg's court case was found in the article "The Impact of the Pentagon Papers," published by The Telegraph.

4) Freedom for Vietnam provided an anti-war perspective on the actions of individual presidents and on general reasons why America should not have been involved.

5) The American government's perspective and reasoning for getting involved in Vietnam are included in an article by Dhahran British Grammar School. Since it came from a British source, I hoped it would be less biased.

6) The History Channel's article on the Watergate Scandal provided a summary of the burglaries and cover-ups.

7) I began my search on the Pentagon Papers with the basic facts provided online by the National Archives.

Thoughts on the Portrayal of the Great Depression in the Movie Cinderella Man:

   

     Each individual is said to be the sum of his or her experiences and surroundings. Just as people are conglomerates of events that take place in their lives, the other people with whom they surround themselves, and their specific time and location in space, the memories of these people are too. As time moves forward, history becomes, essentially, a conglomeration of the memories of many, rather than specific memories of single individuals. Even events reported and recorded in history books cannot are not completely factual; the primary sources come from individual, perhaps even biased, perspectives. What becomes most important is the essence, the main idea, of what happened. 

     Films are an excellent way to communicate history. For lack of time (moviegoers do not always have the greatest attention span), filmmakers must have discretion in what to include, from modifying and/or fabricating dialogues to dramatizing tragedies and glories. 

     The movie Cinderella Man is based on true events. It is a successful film because it tells the story of one man in a way that mirrors the experiences of the masses during the Great Depression. One of the most important components of the film was the evocation of emotion from the viewers. This is more simple to do if the film focuses on one perspective. So, the filmmaker chose to villain-ize Max Baer, making the underdog win of James Braddock more triumphant. The filmmaker also chose not to dwell on Baer's personal life and jewish heritage. Another artistic liberty taken was with the age of Braddock's children. They were made younger, causing the audience to feel more pity for the family in their hard times. 

     In the film, Braddock becomes a hero to many as a man who remade himself through strength and hard work, despite the ubiquitous Depression. His story was uplifting to others because they identified with him. The majority of people in America still believed in the "self-made man." They valued hard work and perseverance, trusting that, with enough of each, any man could rise to, maybe not fame and fortune but, a comfortable lifestyle. This mindset was a form of Social Darwinism: the weak and lazy will not succeed. When the Depression hit, many men could no longer provide for their families and they took it as personal failure. Braddock for example first tried working with a broken hand, but then had to, in his mind, stoop to receiving government assistance, standing in bread lines and taking loans. Still unable to put away his old mindset in light of the times, Braddock returned all he had taken from the government when his personal financial situation improved. 

     The film not only captures one lower middle class man's stubborn pride and financial struggle, but also shows how the Depression affected multiple rungs on the social ladder, including women and upper class men. For example, the characterization of Braddock's wife reveals the fear of many women of the time; the fear of their husbands leaving out of selfish survival and the fear of having to send their children away to more able family members -- yet another instance of the typical 1930s Social Darwinistic mindset. Men who had previously been substantially wealthy, like Braddock's manager, felt they had to hide their depressed situation. The manager stayed in his luxurious apartment, but tried not to invite anyone over out of embarrassment. He had had to sell all his furniture and miscellaneous items of value. 

     While not necessarily completely factual, the film still paints a picture of what life must have been in the 1930s. The audience is exposed to the bread lines, the scrappy meals, the sacrifices of each family member for the good of the family unit, multiple levels of society from people living in Hoovervilles to the owners of the boxing company, the self-judgment and the shame of embarrassment, and, most significantly, the emotional strength of the people of the Depression. 

Chemical Weapons in WWI

Mustard Gas Burns

Mustard Gas 

Soldiers in trenches, death by phosgene

Phosgene

Tear Gas (ethyl bromoacetate)

Initial Questions on The Great War:

1) When did WWI break out and who was on each side?

WWI began on July 28, 1914 with the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand of Austria. The two sides were known as the Triple Entente and the Triple Alliance. The Triple Entente consisted of The UK, Russia, and France. The Triple Alliance consisted of Germany and Austria-Hungary.

2) When and why did the US get involved in WWI?

The US joined the war when the Lusitania was sunk by a German U-Sub. The US also intercepted a German telegram to Mexico known as the Zimmermann Note, in which Germany offered to help Mexico regain Texas.

3) What were the casualty rates for the various countries involved?

4) When and why did the war end?

The war came to a close because of all the men that were lost, specifically in Germany. After Germany moved toward peace, so did other Central powers. Fighting on the Western Front continued for a while, but eventually armistices were signed. The formal end of the war is the signing of the Treaty of Versailles, which essentially blames, and gives $20 billion debt to, Germany.

Array of Post Cards from the Great White Fleet:

*Carl is a fictional sailor on Admiral Emory's U.S.S. Rhode Island who then moved to Admiral Schroeder's U.S.S. Maine during resupply at Ceylon. He joined the Navy to prove his manhood and to traverse the world.

December 25, 1907

Dear Mom and Dad,

     This trip has only just begun and how wonderful it is! We'll be showing the world America's naval prowess. I am proud to be a part of this history-making journey.

     Two days ago we arrived in Trinidad, an island north east of Venezuela. I was expecting a parade with big crowds spectating and large bands marching upon our arrival on shore, but it was a rather quiet welcome. Although, with the governor being a British colonialist, I can see why he would not want to celebrate America's navy. 

     Despite the lack of pomp and circumstance, however, we are still enjoying our Christmas. This morning we gathered palm fronds, bamboo leaves, holly branches, and evergreen boughs to decorate the ships. Tonight we will be having a classic ham dinner and to hold us over until then, we have been snacking on the delicious and plentiful fruit their markets offer. Yesterday and today, boxing and playing with parakeets have filled my free time.

     I will keep you all updated as our fleet makes its way throughout the world.

With love,

Carl

April 24, 1908

Dear Mom and Dad,

     It has been a while since I sent you a post card! I apologize, as I told you I would update you as much as possible. I hope you all are well.

     Recently I have been very tired. I am not as chipper as I was upon our departure from Hampton Roads. Whenever we stop somewhere though, I am always revived by the happy faces, the kindness, the culture, and the food. A few days ago, we arrived in Los Angeles. It's so refreshing to be around people who have genuine patriotism. 

     I am completely amazed by the weather and scenery here. It's not too hot, not too cold, bot to humid, not too dry. The orchards stretch for miles, corralled by snow capped mountains and the peaceful Pacific in the distance. The whole essence of this place sums up for our main goal for this expedition; to establish a global environment of peace by the hands of Americans. It's not that we are better than other countries -- we simply realize, and have the power to maintain, that justice is the best policy.

Until next time,

Carl

July 22, 1908

Dear Mom and Dad,

     Before we depart from Hawaii today, I wanted to send you all another post card. 

     The heat in almost unbearable here. I suppose the natives have gotten used to it, but even after spending time on the (gorgeous) beaches in the (clear, blue) ocean I sweat constantly. 

     It's obvious we are here to clear relations between Queen Liliuokalani and ourselves. Unfortunately, I think it will be in vain. Almost all the places we've been before have welcomed us and tried to entertain us. Here though, we have had to entertain the locals.

     I am ready to come home. I'm tired, hot, and haven't slept in a proper bed in months. At least we are on the second leg of the journey.

Miss you,

Carl

October 19, 1908

Dear Mom and Dad,

     I thank God for the pleasure of writing this post card to you all. On the way here from our brief stop in Manila, our Great Fleet experienced a storm greater than even we could handle. Objectively, it is a miracle we only lost one man, given the waves taller than the boats themselves. Subjectively however, I lost one of my good friends on this voyage, William Fuller. As he yelled "So long, Fellas!" I think I began crying, but I could not feel my tears given the sheets of rain.

     We made it to Yokohama, Japan yesterday, escorted by sixteen Japanese battleships, one for each of our ships. This whole encounter is going to be so fake. I have been talking about it with the men. We are here to solidify the peaceful, cooperative American relationship with Japan, but so far they have just tried to show there military strength. Maybe I am just being hypocritical by criticizing them. 

     The common people are very nice though. The girls are beautiful and so are the silks they made specifically for us sailors. I am bringing one home for you mom!

Sincerely,

Carl

November 30, 1908

Dear Mom and Dad,

     Tomorrow we depart for the third leg of the journey. At Thanksgiving the cooks on board went all out with ham, pineapple, cranberry sauce and the like. Bands played all night to accompany our meal and celebration. During dinner, we were given the itinerary for the rest of the trip.

     As you can tell from the post card, we have spent the last few days in Manila. I originally thought that our visit here would be much like our stop in Hawaii; making amends with former rulers, but other issues took center stage. It has been rainy the entire time we have been here and there is also a cholera outbreak. I feel bad not only for myself and fellow men who did not get to spend much time on land, but for the people of Manila as well. It is obvious they put great effort, time, and money into preparing to welcome us. Hopefully our future stops will not be governed by the weather.

     I'm sure your Thanksgiving was a enjoyable as mine. I am missing you all very much.

With love,

Carl

December 18, 1908

Dear Mom and Dad,

     We were running low on coal and Boy! Did we choose the most interesting place to resupply! While here, I have eaten the freshest mango and pineapple I have ever eaten in my life. I got to drink milk from a coconut the size of my head. I even got to ride an elephant. 

     Every day, snake charmers would come on the boats and put on shows for us with there snakes and mongoose. If we paid enough money, he would get the snake and a mongoose to fight to the death.

     At first, I was surprised that the people wore so few cloths. I suppose the lack of cloths is a result of the poverty here in Kandy, Ceylon, but there is really no utility for the cloths. It's so hot and humid, despite the fact that it is December.

Have a Merry Christmas,

Carl

January 6, 1909

Dear Mom and Dad,

     I miss you all more than you know. I'm not the only one that's getting tired of this journey either. You can tell by looking at the boats themselves. The white paint is scraping off and there are barnacles covering the lower sides of the boats. 

     We have spent the last few days passing through the famous Suez Canal. It is a very slow process because of all locks and dams. Our boats are also very cumbersome. We only clear the sides of the canal by about twenty feet on either side.

     My fellow lower ranking men are happy to be so close to coming home, but we are ready for another excursion. Unfortunately, only higher ranking men get to go onshore in Cairo to visit the pyramids. The closet you and I will ever get to the pyramids is this post card.

With Love,

Carl

January 9, 1909

Dear Mom and Dad,

     know this post card is coming only a few days after my last one, but after the Christmas season, I could not help but share my excitement with you all. As I am in Admiral Schroeder's Division, we were assigned to visit Turkey. I have been in Smyrna for two days now. What I am so excited about though is all the ruins, especially in Ephesus; the same Ephesus from the Bible! Visiting renewed my faith, which I will admit was growing weary from this long journey.

     While we were here, the Turks tried entertained us, but they had been hit with some nasty earthquakes.  We are staying a few more days to help them recover. I sure, however, the Turks also want us to stay because of their current tension with Germany and Austria. Admiral Schroeder still insists we are neutral, but the Turks obviously don't believe so.

     I am happy to report that this will be my last post card. By the end of this month we will exit the Mediterranean Sea through the Strait of Gibraltar and set sail for Hampton Roads.

Sailing proudly,

Carl

Sources:

William Stuart's The Cruise of the Great White Fleet

Smithsonian Post Card Chronology

Library of Congress on The Great White Fleet

Department of the Navy on The Great White Fleet

Ceylon Post Card

Princeton on The Great White Fleet

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Political Cartoons mirror the society in which they were created, giving historians information on what people of the time thought was funny and found to be pressing issues. Here are some political cartoons from the Philippine-American War.

Pro-Imperialism Cartoon

This cartoon features Filipino (school?) children knocking at Uncle Sam's home door, next to which his pet bald eagle proudly sits. Uncle Sam's home represents the United States ,as it is labeled so, and the school-aged Filipinos represent the belief that America needed to educate the Philippines. Some imperialists of the time listed education of the Filipinos, in accordance with Social Darwinism and Manifest Destiny, as a mean reason for annexation of the Philippines. 

Making Fun of America's Relationship with its Territories

This cartoon shows three savage-looking men (boys?) skipping happily with their American flags, ready to celebrate America's Independence Day. The three figures labeled are Hawaii, Cuba, and the Philippines. The situation portrayed by this cartoon is funny because it is extremely ironic. It makes readers ask "Why would our annexed territories want to be considered American, and then go celebrate American independence, when in becoming American they lost the opportunity for their own independence?" The intended audience for this cartoon is imperialists.

McKinley's Secrets from America

Here, a caricature of President McKinley guards a locked book representing the true, but hidden, brutalities initiated by Americans in the Philippines. Meanwhile, he puts his hand in the face of the on-looking, larger in body size (representing the actual size of the American population versus the individual president) man, labeled U.S. Many Americans supported the Philippine-American War until the awful acts to which the United States resorted became public. This cartoon is obviously post-publication and directed at all Americans, but specifically imperialists.

The most interesting thing I have learned in U.S. History so far, is how tycoons such as Rockefeller, Carnegie, and Vanderbilt came to such a status, depending on their own combinations of luck, hard work, opportunity, skill, and help from the Industrial Revolution. However, not everything was pleasant to learn about when studying the Industrial Revolution. In fact, I was almost brought to tears when I read about the children who, extremely tired after a fourteen hour work day, had water thrown in their faces to keep them awake. The documentary on the Triangle Shirt Waist Factory was equally depressing. Luckily, however, from these events and others like them, America came to the realization that labor laws regarding safety, hours, and wages are necessary for the working class. While I was unpleasantly surprised to learn about the horrors of work-life and home-life during the Industrial Revolution, the images of women jumping from buildings and children being maimed by machines will stick in my memory for at least the next ten years, if not the rest of my life.

     The terrible events that occurred during this time period and the motivation for each of the Industrial Revolution tycoons, have their roots in greed, as do the other time periods we have studied this semester. During the Civil War, yes, Southerners were fighting for the key to their livelihoods, but instead of having slaves, they could have had paid laborers and still made a profit. Because of their greed, they chose to demote African Americans to a less-than-human status in order to justify reducing their cost of living to an unacceptable rate.

     When America began to move West, railroad companies became the new face of American greed, providing desperate immigrants with jobs, sure, but again denying wages sufficient for comfortable lives. In the vastness of West, Americans were still greedy for wealth in land as well, pushing the Native Americans into reservations and harassing them even in their compliance. After the Industrial Revolution, the average quality of life thankfully began to rise, but the greed did not abate. Alternatively, a national spirit of materialism developed, manifesting itself in giant mail order catalogs and the appearance of special clothing for each event in the day, from cycling, to walking, to dining, to dancing, and to sleeping. Although we have not yet studied beyond 1920, I know that this materialism grew into an unmanageable, careless greed, peaking in the “Roaring Twenties” and collapsing in the Great Depression.

     Even today, greed defines our society. We are obsessed with the latest and greatest, and once we obtain whatever we have set our eyes on, be it an cell phone, a car, or a pair of shoes, we immediately take it for granted and move on to the next item on our lists. Although greed is the constant in American History, or at least the eras we have studied this semester, I would choose to call the period from 1865-1920 “The Age of Transformation.” From unit to unit, and within each unit, the American people, their values and livelihoods, have undergone continuous change. Black men gained the right to vote. Machines took over the American economy. With immigration, our culture became more diverse. Essentially, we grew to better respect our fellow man. 

The Gibson Girl's Guide to Glamor

 
When I initially started this project, I knew I wanted to do something with Charles Gibson's, a sketch artist for the New York Times, "Gibson Girl" of the Progressive Era (1890-1920). As I began research, I soon expanded my search to include the evolution women's fashion. My goal was to define how such evolution and the appearance of the Gibson Girl reflected the values and beliefs of society in the Progressive Era. In the first book I browsed through, I found the perfect quote to summarize my goal:

"The instrument of powerful and coquettish women, the fan both conceals and discloses. [Christian] Diors' comparison of the cocktail-party hostess and the eighteenth century woman denotes the relevance of clothing and decoration to the social function of women during these eras. While clearly ornamented differently, these personalities depended on a superficial facade through which to communicate their respective social facility."

- 100 Dresses[1]

A Gibson Girl has brains, beauty, and brawn. She is educated, clever, and can easily converse with men. It is highly possible she is a college graduate from a domestic studies program. She has an effortless beauty, inside and out. Her hair is piled atop her head in luscious curls, her makeup is light, and her outfits and accessories accentuate her figure. Her disposition is cheery, poised, and stately. She cycles, swims, takes walks in the park, attends important dinners, and dances at balls. She even has a specific outfit for each event. This seeming perfection is then spiced up with a more edgy, but still graceful, personality.  She smokes in public (with the men), shoots guns (with the men), and flirts often (with the men). [2] The Gibson Girl takes risks, thereby defying social norms and leading the young girls of the Progressive Era.

Scene with Idealized Gibson Girls

Simply put, the Gibson Girl was the ideal woman of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Women of ages 15-30 strove for her slim waist and lush hair. Charles Gibson had apparently planted the ideal woman in the minds of all Americans. She began to appear not only in the actual women of the Progressive Era, but on everyday items such as broomsticks, plates, parasols, and wallpaper. However, Gibson claims he would not have depicted the Gibson Girl in his drawings if he had "not already seen [her] in the papers." [2] It truly was a change in the minds of the women of this era which brought the changes in fashion and ideals. 

Charles Gibson's Drawings on Plates

Perhaps the Gibson Girl was a compromise between women's and men's views. Other women of the time were not striving to maintain their feminism, but to break past it in order to achieve other goals. This girl was the college girl. The college girl challenged the beliefs established in the Industrial Era such as "men hate intelligent wives" or "the man is the family's breadwinner." Some people even believed that higher education for women would result in women who were "unsexed" biologically, socially, and culturally. [3] Luckily, the women were not unsexed biologically, but they were, however, culturally and socially. Both the president of Harvard and the Theodore Roosevelt claimed that the best of American society would wane and immigrants would take over American society because educated women were not marrying, and/or having as many children, with educated men. The widely publicized Gibson Girl helped to soften this image for the college girl. The Gibson Girls' feminine features were the fan that concealed the acts of women desperately trying to challenge their own stereotype. [3] 

When looking at the fashions of the Gibson Girl and the college girl, there is a noticeable difference which solidifies the idea of the Gibson Girl as a compromise between women's and men's ideals in the Progressive Era. After tracing the minute differences in style year to year from approximately 1850-1920, I noticed several trends towards masculinity, somewhat contradictory to the still voluptuous-looking Gibson Girl. Ornamentation became subdued, the square toe appeared, more chunky heels (like men's army boots in WWI) came into fashion, and dark colors were more popular [4] [5]. These trends were most likely characteristic of the average woman trying to challenge the status quo, not by smoking in public, but by pursuing education in the arts and sciences.

The Gibson Girl style seemed to follow more of the freedom of art nouveau, with her S-shaped silhouette, Athenian inspired chignon, and the smallest waist achieved in the history of fashion. Everything was curvy, yet weightless, complimenting the flirtatious, yet graceful, personality of the idealized Gibson Girl. Essentially, Gibson girl fashion was "unencumbered by bustles and convention." [3] Before her time, women had flat front silhouettes with a bustle-built "table-top" silhouette in the back. Curls had been tight and precisely placed.

For fun, I tried to give myself a Gibson Girl up-do.

In the end, the Gibson Girl was loved by men and women alike in the Progressive Era because she was not too stuck in the past, but neither was she radically futuristic. She had the perfect balance of feminism and the bravery to challenge what was atypical for a woman. Her education gave substance to the entertainment of her beauty and escapades. This focus on outward appearance and need for specific fashions for individual occasions captures the arising materialism of the Progressive Era, while behind her concealing fan, the true Progressive women, the college girls, began their journey towards love (or at least appreciation) from the general populace.

[1] 100 Dresses
[2] This Fabulous Century 1900-1910
[3] The Gibson Girl Goes to College: Popular Culture and Women's Higher Education in the Progressive Era, 1890-1920
[4] Victoria and Albert Museum
[5] Costume and Fashion: A Concise History

This past weekend Randolph School put on a production of "To See the Stars," a play about the strikes of women shirt waist factory workers in New York City. Although the play was not about the Triangle Factory, it gave me perspective on the daily lives of the girls on strike and of the ethnic diversity among the girls. The play was very well done and I enjoyed watching my fellow students perform.

     Native American cultures are often misunderstood as "savage" because of their differences from Eastern culture. In the process of discovering why differences even exist, we come to better understand what is intrinsic to humanity and what is not. The study of cultures which have developed separately from the status quo (as defined by Eastern cultures) helps us redefine what is "normal" and what is "human."One of the touchiest topics in today's modern world is sexuality. Very few people are comfortable accepting anything other than heterosexuality, or even discussing sexuality in general. Native Americans, on the other hand, view sexuality as one with spirituality, where spirituality is something common to every living being.

     Native Americans never looked down on expressing one's sexuality, be it heterosexual, homosexual, bisexual, trisexual (where partners include opposite sex, same sex, and self) , or asexual. Polygamy is a widely known characteristic of Native cultures which supports this claim. While one wife was pregnant or nursing, it was common for the husband to seek out other sexual partners. For this reason, divorce was not a major ordeal for Native Americans. Such a societal setup is almost entirely rape and prostitution free. Freely expressing one's sexualtiy, from heterosexual to asexual, was also encouraged among the adolescents of these cultures. A study was done on the sexual activity of adolescents in relation to interconnectedness with those around them, and increased interconnectedness was found in older, more sexually active individuals, a trait highly valued in Native cultures.

Click here to read more about evidence of acceptance of sexuality in Native American cultures.

     Sexuality was not only encouraged in Native American cultures, however. It was viewed as an expression of one's spirituality as well. Native Americans define spirituality as their tribe's set of beliefs about creation, how the world works, and the significance of each individual. Interconnectedness is a main theme across Native American spiritualities. It then follows that individuals who are more interconnected, so to speak, have an increased significance in society. As sexuality was seen as a manifestation of spirituality, Natives believed that homosexual/bisexual/trisexual/hermaphroditic individuals had a higher power and authority. These individuals are now known as "two-spirits," because they are believed to have a window into both genders, either physically (as in the case with hermaphroditism) or psychologically (as in the case with sexualities other than heterosexual and asexual). The most famous example of a two-spirit is the Zuni Man-Woman, from a Tewa Indian Pueblo.

The picture above is of a hermaphroditic Zuni Man-Woman. In the Tewa culture, the sun represents man and the moon represents woman. Men were also seen as the right side of society, while women were seen as the left. Men also did not wear as much clothing as women for the purpose of ease during hunting (depicted by the bow and arrow). Women worked as hunter-gatherers (depicted by the ears of corn). In Hopi depictions of the Zuni Man-Woman, the woman half has the hair up in a bun, representing the fact she is an eligible, unmarried woman. In Plains Indian cultures, two-spirits were often made chiefs.

Above is a picture of a Hopi two-spirit with the characteristic hair style.

Click here to read more about sexuality AND spirituality in Native American Cultures.

Link here to pictures.

Before anthropologists began to see that in studying Native American sexuality they were learning about the inherent tendencies of humans, they, perhaps inadvertently, made Native cultures seem extremely wrong and savage. The term used by early anthropologists to describe two-spirits was "berdache," a term which in french means "sodomite." Luckily, we are now finally uncovering the truth about Native American beliefs, values, and views on sexuality and spirituality.

Link to above picture here

Other links I used (and which influenced my ideas) are below:

Video on Sexuality and Spirituality in Indigenous Cultures This video opened my mind to how the study of sexuality across cultures is something that is not one dimensional.

Study on Relationship Between Adolescent Sexual Activity and Interconnectedness with Friends, Family, & Community Members This study gave scientific support to the connection (identified by many Native American cultures) between spirituality and sexuality.

Native Americans Before the Arrival of European Religion(s) This site helped spark my interest in sexuality and spirituality, where I had originally been interested only in Native American religion (which I now know is properly referred to as spirituality).

Two-spirit People: Native American Gender Identity, Spirituality, and Sexuality This ebook was my main source. My favorite part was reading about one of the author's experiences going to live in the Tewa culture (where she had to pick up most of the language when she got there) to research berdache misconceptions.

Popular imagination has a distorted view of the American cowboy. Cowboys are normally viewed as men who freely chose to stray from organized society, who were heroic, who used violence only in the name of justice, who were charming, courageous, and decent, and who were one with nature. In fact, however, cowboys were low paid workers at the bottom of the social ladder. They have been free from Eastern American society and free to roam throughout nature, but they were still bound by their work and lower social class.

Not only does popular imagination have a distorted view of the American cowboy, it also has a distorted view of the "Wild West," altogether, sprouting from its misconceptions of the cowboy. A cowboy free to roam wherever he wants in the arid deserts of the West paints a picture of uninhabited, non-diverse land ready for exploration by Easterners. A cowboy who is respected by townspeople for putting Indians in there place paints the picture of war only between Easterners come West with Indians. A cowboy who is obsessed over across generations paints the picture of a singular Western culture, centered around the cowboy. None of these pictures, however, are real. In truth, the West was a region of diverse terrain; the Rocky Mountains, the Great Plains, the Redwood Forests, and the Mojave Desert offer huge ecologic diversity. Before Easterners came to the West, the land was indeed already inhabited by Indians, Spaniards, and Mexicans, many of whom had established permanent settlements. While Indians did fight with Anglo-Americans, many tensions lay within the Indian tribes themselves, and the cowboy was not the one to go fighting when the time came either; the U.S. Army fought the wars. No Western society was cowboy-centric; rather Mexican/Spanish settlements revolved around ranching and Indian tribes revolved around either farming (as is the case with the Pueblo Indians) or buffalo hunting (as is the case with the Plains Indians).

How could popular imagination be so blatantly wrong? Some stretching of facts is acceptable, but the view shared by most is almost completely fictional. The leading factor contributing to this obscuration of facts is mainly the popular works of fiction created at the time of migration to the West, contemporary with the American cowboy. Literature by Twain and Wister, paintings by Remington and Moran, even accounts from Teddy Roosevelt portray the West in its idealized form; an empty frontier offering freedom. Because of this popularization, many other aspects of the West have been forgotten, such as the former authority of Mexican ranchers, the initial success of Chinese immigrants turned sour by discrimination, the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, and the transformation of states into territories even at times as a result of women suffrage.

Before learning about the Post-Civil War South, I only knew that Lincoln was assassinated, the states somehow reunited, and slaves were freed.

After formally (re)learning more of the specifics of Reconstruction, what most stands out to me includes the following:
- The 13th amendment abolished slavery
- The 14th amendment defined citizenship
- The 15th amendment granted suffrage to all citizens
- The 17th president was Andrew Johnson, who was disliked and even impeached for violating the Tenure of Office Act
- The 18th president was Ulysses S. Grant, whose presidency was full of corruption because of stock deals with a railroad company and whiskey rings
- The 19th president was Rutherford B. Hayes, who gained office (over Samuel Tilden) only because Southern democratic leaders made a deal the Republicans. The deal basically exchanged Hayes' win for removal of Federal troops from the South
- The Crop-lien system was similar to sharecropping, but was facilitated by country stores which eventually gained a monopoly over supplies in the South. Inflated prices contributed to the debt brought on by the crop-lien system where farmers would pay with future, not-yet-harvested crops.
- Segregation went into the 1960s; not very far from present day. It is now easier to see why black culture is still very distinctive. The characteristics of this culture were formed during Reconstruction, when blacks segregated themselves from white culture and their past lives as slaves by developing autonomous communities complete with their own schools and churches. This autonomy coupled with the 13th, 14th, and 15th amendments define the black view of freedom.
- The KKK may still live on today (although it is more pro-white rather than anti-black supposedly), but Congress did put laws in place to deter the Klan from persecuting black citizens, including the Enforcement Acts.
- Other laws, however, were made in the South to skirt around the new amendments and maintain white supremacy, the picture of freedom for the average white southerner. These laws were the Jim Crow Laws.
- The Jim Crow laws have their origins in the Plessy vs. Ferguson Supreme Court Case, where segregation was ruled legal if accommodations for both races were equal.
-These laws were enforced legally, of course, but illegally as well through lynching. Lynching became something many white southerners looked forward to, even celebrated. It not a private happening either; local authorities and families came to lynching events.
- There was an anti-lynching movement, but it was fairly unsuccessful. Ida B. Wells, a female black journalist, was instrumental in this movement. Her success despite the times is astounding.

It is important for people to know and understand the history of the place in which they live so that 1) They do not make the same, or similar, mistakes, and 2) They understand why the economies, social structures, and infrastructures of the place in which they live are the way they are.

As a Southerner, I now know from where many persisting social stigmas come: black stereotypes, farmer stereotypes, and antebellum/white southerner/rebel pride stereotypes. To me, tracing this sociology is one of the most interesting parts of studying history.

The last post was a link to the animoto video I made summarizing the main, general view I have of America: that America is a country of the leaders. The clip emphasizes that America leads in invention, innovation, exploration, freedom, and equality.These things are multi-faceted; they encompass much.

For example, equality can include gay rights, immigration laws, the first amendment, health care, public education, and these are just a sample. However, America leads in other things too, although to some these other areas may not seem as serious. Undeniably, America also leads in pop culture and fast food.

Animoto Video: America, A Country of Leaders View Here

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