Today in the old west

1. CURRENT WEST & MIDWEST SITUATION

2. MULTICULTURAL AMERICAN WEST

3. MODERN NATIVE AMERICANS

4. HOW WILD IS THE WILD WEST TODAY?

5. VISIBLE REMAINS OF THE WILD WEST

The Midwest is both rural and industrial. It is called the "corn belt" and "breadbasket” of the nation. The U.S. produces 40% of the world crop.The automobile and steel industries were central to community and economy in the Great lakes area. As those industries declined, the upper Midwest became known as the rust belt. Major cities that suffered from the Rust Belt problems include Chicago, Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Columbus.

The West is associated with national dreams and myths of unlimited opportunity and individualism. It also has the nation's most open landscapes.

California has emerged as the most populous state and one of the top 10 economies in the world.


Linguistic Characteristics of this region:

The accents of the region are generally distinct from those of the South and many urban areas of the American Northeast. The accent of most of the Midwest is considered by many to be "standard" American English. This accent is preferred by many national radio and television broadcasters.

Minnesota, western Wisconsin, and Michigan's Upper Peninsula have strong Scandinavian accents, which intensifies as one travels north. Michigan accents closely resemble Canadian ones across the border. Many parts of western Michigan have a noticeable Dutch-flavored accent.

Chicago is recognized as having its own distinctive nasal accent, with a similar accent occurring in parts of Wisconsin, Michigan, northern Indiana, Cleveland, and western New York State. This may have been derived from Irish, German, Polish, and Eastern European influences in the Great Lakes region.


2. MULTICULTURAL AMERICAN WEST

Today the West is the most rapidly growing part of the United States. It is also one of the most ethnically diverse, as people from other cultures continue to be drawn to the West.

Los Angeles is said to have the largest Mexican population outside of Mexico, while San Francisco has the largest Chinese community in North America and also has a large LGBT community. California has a large percentage of residents being African-American.


As many as 100,000 Native Americans moved to the West as a result of the Indian Removal policy in 1830. In theory, relocation was supposed to be voluntary and many Native Americans did remain in the East.In practice, great pressure was put on Native American leaders to sign removal treaties. In 1838-1839 US troops expelled the Cherokee Indians from their ancestral homeland in the Southeast and removed them to what is now Oklahoma.

A. How do the Native Americans live today?

There are 562 federally recognized tribal governments in the United States. These tribes possess the right to form their own governments.


Where do the Native Americans live today?


A. How do the native Americans live today?

A public opinion research showed that most non-Native Americans admitted they rarely encountered Native Americans in their daily lives. While sympathetic toward Native Americans and expressing regret over the past, most people had only a vague understanding of the problems facing Native Americans today. For their part, Native Americans told researchers that they believed they continued to face prejudice and mistreatment in the broader society.

“The cultural clash that still exists today between Native Americans and the dominant society around them has led to conflict, depression, and low self-esteem in the Native American

culture. Poverty abounds, along with unemployment, poor education, depression, and drug abuse.”


Byrney, Montana August 1941


B. Use of indigenous imagery and names in American sport

The use of Native American names and images in sports has been a topic of debate in the United States and Canada since the 1960. Numerous civil rights, religious, athletic and academic organizations consider the use of native names and symbols by non-native teams to be a harmful form of ethnic stereotyping which should be eliminated.


Some teenagers talk about their daily life as Native Americans

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A. Modern Day Cowboys

There are still cowboys all over the West, from North Dakota down to New Mexico, partly because there is still some rugged terrain where the horse remains the best way of getting around. But it is also partly because the cowboy embodies many of the characteristics which Americans see as part of their identity - the tough, self-reliant figure riding alone who tamed the unconquerable wilderness from which America drew its wealth.

Cowboy hats and cowboy boots are still a widely accepted style in public places throughout the Wild West. You can hear Country music nearly anywhere you wander and certainly you still find plenty of horses, cattle, deer and antelope.


B. Gun Control

In the Old West you needed a gun to be safe from bandits, natives, and wildlife. In the cities and towns of the West, however, the law often prohibited people from toting their guns around. A visitor arriving in Wichita, Kansas in 1873, the heart of the Wild West era, would have seen signs declaring, "Leave Your Revolvers At Police Headquarters, and Get a Check.“A check? That's right. When you entered a frontier town, you were legally required to leave your guns at the stables on the outskirts of town or drop them off with the sheriff, who would give you a token in exchange. You checked your guns then like you would check your coat today at a Boston restaurant in winter.


B. Gun Control

The second most common cause of arrest in the Old West was illegally carrying a firearm. Somehow, we’ve got to the point that “Modern West” actually has less-restrictive gun laws than the supposedly lawless Old West.


A. The Gold Mines Today

The old mining districts and settlements, including "ghost" towns, are visited by increasing numbers of tourists each year. In a few districts the old camps have been reconstructed as recreation areas. In recent years more people have become aware of the importance of California's gold rush in the history and development of the western United States.Unfortunately, little visible evidence remains of many of California's important gold-quartz mines other than caved shafts and tunnels.


B. Wagon Ruts

More than 400,000 people traveled the Oregon Trail during the 19th century—so many that there are spots where wagon ruts are still visible today.

Wagons really did wear down certain patches of ground so much that nothing grows there to this day. The National Parks Service, Bureau of Land Management and other groups have marked many of these spots (you can see a marker in the above photo on the right) and have taken steps to preserve them.

Though it is not a remain of the Wild West, Route 66 became a very important symbol of the east-west migration in the 20th century, just like the Oregon trail in the 19th.

During the latter half of the 20th century, several transcontinental interstate highways crossed the West bringing more trade and tourists from the East.



C. Route 66

People who started doing business along the route became prosperous due to the growing popularity of the highway, and those same people later fought to keep the highway alive in the face of the growing threat of being bypassed by the new Interstate Highway System.

During the Great Depression of the 1930s, Route 66 became a thoroughfare for thousands of hopeful Midwesterners and southerners on their way to California seeking a better life. About 210,000 emigrants came to California during the depression years.


C. Route 66

Route 66 Today After the decertification of Route 66 in 1985, some states along its route chose to keep the 66 designation and use it as a state road. In addition, beginning in 1987, Arizona founded the Route 66 Association. In 1999, President Bill Clinton signed the Route 66 Preservation.In recent years, Route 66 has been featured in a variety of mass media. For example, in 2006, the Disney-Pixar film Cars highlighted the highway.

Route 66 is cool!!


C. Route 66

John Steinbeck wrote of the dust bowl immigrants in his book "The Grapes of Wrath" in 1939Steinbeck described Route 66 as:

“The path of a people in flight, refugees from dust and shrinking land, from the thunder of tractors and shrinking ownership . . . They come into 66 from the tributary side roads, from the wagon tracks and the rutted country roads. 66 is the mother road, the road of flight".

The highway is a symbol of a changing America. “The Mother Road” also symbolizes three aspects of everyday life such as The New Optimism and Migration, Freedom and Mobility, and a Trademark.

“The most famous road in the world”

Nowadays, it represents American history and heritage and is some kind of icon of American pop culture.


C. Route 66

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Today in the old west

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