Hi, guys! humuhumu3 here. Don't forget to love, favorite, and follow! Here's another story in the (sort of) Historical Fiction genre. It was originally a school assignment; we were supposed to choose a person from the painting "American Progress" by John Gast and write a short story from that perspective (My History teacher was really into understanding history, and he had us do a lot of writing-- not that I'm complaining.=D He's awesome). If you hit the "m" key, you can look at the painting. The Western Expansion movement was sort of slowly happening during and after the Revolutionary war, but it really got its official start when President Thomas Jefferson bought the Louisiana Territory from Napoleon in 1803. After Lewis and Clark made their journey all the way to the Pacific Ocean and back, people started running for land and the hopes of riches, aka gold. The term "manifest destiny" wasn't used until 1845 by John L. O'Sullivan, but it was a belief widely spread that Americans had a God-given right and duty to control all the land from coast to coast. It had mixed results, but obviously, we eventually settled it and turned it into states. This story, however, doesn't talk about the American's point of view, but from the other side, the abused, disrespected, and bloody side of Manifest Destiny. Many thousands of Native American tribes were driven from their homes and relocated/killed. As this story talks about, buffalo were killed for their hides, which were used (and sadly, still are) for clothing. The bodies were left to rot, and the bones were shipped east to be used for fertilizer, combs, dice, buttons, and bone china dishes. Another thing this story mentions is western Native American culture. They worshiped buffalo, as the buffalo were the center of their livelihood. They used whatever they could from the bodies and put the remains back in the ground to release the spirit back into the wild. And they set fires to burn away dead vegetation to make room for new grass. Okay, history lesson over. Go find another project to look at. Have fun.
Photo backdrop from Pintrest Click the Flag and hit space to go to the next thingy. Hit the "m" key to see the painting "American Progress."
