Report on Work by Gray Pedersen in US History: Nov. 1996

What We Do:

Throughout the US History course I teach, questions of the relationship between people and nature or the land surface repeatedly. Though students and I have paid some attention to them, I would like to do more. The approach I am taking is to develop and use at least one unit that focuses specificaly on these questions. The topic I have chosen is the establishment and now partial dissolution of the land grants made to railroads in the west. I am part way through developing the unit and plan to use it with the classes this year.

The essential question is:

What do the historic events surrounding the establishment and dissolution of the grants tell us about the changing relationship between people and land in the United States?

Obvious sub questions include: What happened? What's happening? How? Why?

Implicit in the work is the shift from a view of land as a commodity toward a recognition of land as a community. This is linked to work on the development of a land ethic such as that done by Aldo Leopold. For related work, see the examples from Bob Mazelow and Dwight Gibb.

What do Students Gain?

This has yet to be seen. However, here are some of the ways that I expect and hope students will gain from the work:

a perspective on the historical basis of changing relationship between people and land in the U.S. and the West, and an introduction of the forces which shape these changes.

the skills of finding, interpreting, and analyzing various primary and secondary sources. This is a topic where many of the sources are heavily influenced by bias and emotion - a chalenge and an opportunity.

direct experience in viewing images (airphotos) of the land and linking clues from them to historical forces that shaped them.

exposure to different philosophical/ethical assumptions about the appropriate relationship between people and nature, and the direct connection between these assumptions and actions which shape the landscape.

involvement in a case where there is a strong connection between the study of US History and current events and decisions.

What Has Helped and Hindered:

I have been helped by the choice of a relatively simple, clear topic, and the availability of good resource materials. Like all of us, I am hindered by the lack a time available to educate myself on this and plan the unit, and by the challenge of finding an appropriate way to include this in a course which is already well established.