Early Pacific Northwest History Essay

Northwest Canadian Forest Products Limited is a company that owns and operates five saw mills in British Columbia and Alberta, Canada. They produce lumber for construction in a few different countries. The President of the company is dealing with a tough situation with one of her mills in Jackson, British Columbia. The mill in Jackson is her least productive mill and she soon has to make a decision that could cost the company a substantial amount of money. She has the choice of either investing 50 million in the weak Jackson mill or to invest more that 50 million in a new mill high demand area. The president has been informed of the many complaints from the managers and supervisors, but nothing seems to be the right solution.

As such, in 1804, President Thomas Jefferson hired Meriwether Lewis and William Clark to explore the vast territory. Before the expedition started, President Jefferson instructed Lewis and Clark to interact with the Native Americans they encountered on their journey friendly and treat them nicely for it will help to acquire their knowledge and to know everything about their way of life such as religion, occupations, food, clothing, language, relations to other nations, traditions, animals, and how they are killed. This will guide and assist the Americans in taking over the Louisiana territory because they know their weaknesses and strengths. In addition, before they left for the expedition, they bought well known Indian gifts such as glass beads, mirrors, scissors, thimbles, needles, tobacco, knives, peace medals, etc, as an important sign of friendship and allegiance. Lewis and Clark were accompanied by some recruited soldiers, Clark's African-American slave York, Toussaint Charbonneau as an interpreter in the expedition, Toussaint pregnant wife, and the only female in the expedition named Sacagawea, John Ordway, and many

The Northwest Ordinance is considered if not, one of the most important legislative acts of the Confederation Congress. Officially titled “An Ordinance for the Government of the Territory of the United States North West of the River Ohio” the Northwest Ordinance was a document adopted by the Confederation Congress. Sometimes known as the Ordinance of 1787, adopted July 13, 1787, by the Second Continental Congress established a government for the Northwest Territory. This ordinance outlined the process for admitting a new state into the Union, and guaranteed that the newly created states would in fact be equal to all original thirteen states, the Northwest Ordinance also focused on protecting civil liberties and completely outlawed slavery within the new territories. Adopting the Northwest Ordinance ended a long bitter period of debating how to organize the western territories of the United States.

The United States currently occupies around thirty-seven percent of North America, but how has this prosperous country expanded so fast in the last three centuries? The US is currently one of the largest countries in the world and the second largest in North America. Though most Americans know about the original Thirteen Colonies, several of them might have trouble trying to list another major affair through which the United States has expanded westward. Many battles and fights have caused the borders of the United States and the states and territories of the land now deemed to the United States to have changed; along with major purchases of land, the battles and fights have brought America to the current size it is.

A historical event that occurred in the Pacific Northwest region was the start of trading between Native Americans from the Pacific Northwest and Europeans. This was an important event because Non-Native Americans were driven to the region because of the idea of making money. This lead to settlements and trading posts throughout the region.The social structure of tribes in this region was also affected by trade. The website http://www.washington.edu/uwired/outreach/cspn/Website/Classroom%20Materials/Curriculum%20Packets/Indians%20&%20Europeans/II.html says, “In return the Europeans sought furs, and it became relatively simple for powerful Native leaders to take control of the acquisition, preperation, and trade of furs within a given area.

Minnesota is known to be home to the Dakota. The Santee, also known as Eastern Dakota, move their villages and do different things according to the seasons. During the winter they lived off stores of supplies built up over the years. Women processed hides and gathered wood while they men were off hunting. In the spring the men went off to hunt and villagers went to sugar camps. At the sugar camps they made maple sugar and syrup. In the summer families gathered in villages while men hunted and fished and women with children cultivated crops. When the corn had been harvested they went off to harvest the wild rice from canoes. The wild rice grew in lakes so that is why they used canoes. In the fall, the men and their families went to the year’s spot for the annual hunt. All of this was essential to the Dakota’s way of life and culture.

Throughout the history for control over the Pacific Northwest many battles were fought. We found the ancestors of our families to be taken by surprise of the many actions we took. Many different tribes had established long lasting communities in the 18th century. Such as the Chinook, Salish and Nez Perce etc. The land was spread throughout the cascades through the Rocky Mountains. Years of torment and battle began from the Spanish and British explorers looking for the land. They searched for what they could not find at home, most of them having no idea what to expect when they arrived. In 1792, Captain George Vancouver was the first explorer to sail the waters of Puget Sound, claiming British sovereignty over the entire region. But he was not the only captain to have found the Pacific Northwest. Captain Robert Gray found the Columbia River and soon after Lewis and Clark made their way down the Rockies and the river as well.

     Quite possibly one of the most important purchases in the history of The United States was the one in which Thomas Jefferson enabled the size of the country to double. The territory was the Louisiana Territory, the 820,000 square mile piece of land was bought for 15 million dollars which equaled out to about three cents an acre.      The United States originally only wanted to buy the port of New Orleans. Thomas Jefferson wanted to buy this because there was a risk that the half million Americans living west of the Appalachian would secede from the Union. Purchasing the port would keep them from seceding because they would then have a port that they could easily use to

Manifest destiny and westward expansion was a tremendous key component to the growth of the nation economically because of the impact it had on native americans, women empowerment, and expanding the population of the country.

Colonizing the New World brought a new stream of products that were exchanged in the Columbian Exchange. Many new products were introduced to the Old World, “Things like Florida oranges, Irish potatoes, French vanilla ice cream, and Colombian coffee are around because the Old World met the New World and exchanges various goods.” (Doc 6). Many areas got products that grew really good in their conditions and then they became specialized in growing that crop. The Age of Exploration also contributed in finding different routes for people to travel by ship through. ”The mariner’s astrolabe was used to determine the latitude of the ship by measuring the noon altitude of the Sun or the meridia altitude of a star of a known declination” (Doc 2). New areas were found for countries to take shorter routes and with people pinpointing their location using the astrolabe, maps might have started to form. Relationships were established with the Indians and fur trade posts were set up. The Dutch established a company when they arrived to the Americas and began a fur trade with the Iroquois Indians. Good relations that were built with the Indian aided those countries in war, since the Indians would form an alliance with

The Expedition: In 1803 Meriwether Lewis and William Clark began their journey to explore the unknown west. Since it was America’s first time exploring the west, and never seeing the new land. There were many new plants, animals, Indian tribes, and new land. The expedition helped the Americans settle and move westward with the new land that was ours. The Lewis and Clark expedition finally ended

Manifest Destiny took place in the US in the mid-1800. Manifest Destiny was used among the Americans in the 1840’s as a defense for U.S. territorial expansion. It is the presumption that God had destined the American people to at divine mission of American movement and conquest in the name of Christianity and democracy.

American culture has changed over time as the country has grown. It is important to know our history so we can avoid the same mistakes that our ancestors made before us. With knowledge of our history and our prior mistakes, we can learn from them and make better decisions in the future.

Have you ever been in a place of green with forests and animals everywhere? Well, where some of the Native Americans lived, there were such things. Native American tribes such as the Crow lived in the Great Plains. The Crow tribe of the Great Plains were nomadic and followed the buffalo migrations which provided their food. This tribe spent a good part of the year living in camps that could easily be dismantled and moved to follow the buffalo migrations. Other tribes of the plains were more sedentary. These tribes lived in permanent villages year round.

In 1492, Christopher Columbus landed in the new world; the Native Americans lives were altered through the introduction of the Columbian Exchange, Cultural changes and loss of their homeland. Columbus's discovery of the new world sparked colonization of the Americas. There was an ample amount of vast, arable land thus creating economic opportunity for the wealthy and the common-man. The people longing for this opportunity intruded on the Native American's land and completely changed their way of life.