Hatchet 2

Now Brian is flying the plane alone. He sees the radio the pilot used to communicate. He got the radio and started screaming into the microphone. When he realized he could only hear himself he remembered he has to press the mic switch. He pushes the mic switch and talks. Someone hears him. Brian instantly starts explaining what happens. All of a sudden the radio has no signal and his communications are knocked out. This makes Brian panic. Now he is contemplating his death. Finally he get a hold of his self and decides how he will land the plane when it runs out of fuel. He says he will land it in one of the lakes that are below him. He sees one as the plane is descending and crash lands it in the lake. He smashes his head of the steering wheel and is thrown from the plane. He ends up on the shore and just goes to sleep. He wakes up on the beach aching all over, but concludes nothing is broken and that he'd live. His head is pounding and doesn't know where he is. He is lost in the Canadian wilderness. All he has is his windbreaker and his hatchet. He is alone.

Hatchet 1

In the beginning of the story a 13-year-old boy named Brian is on a small bush plane. He is on his way to Canada to stay with his father for the summer. His parents were recently divorced and he is depressed about it. While he is on the plane he flashes back to before he got to the airport in the car with his mother. Him and his mother are driving and all he can think about is "the secret." He keeps remembering what he saw one day when he was riding his bike with one of his friends. He was riding by a car and he saw his mother. He was going to wave but he saw a man in the car with her. This stopped him from waving. Then it happened. She kissed him, and she didn't kiss him the way you would kiss your grandmother. After the divorce Brian knew why it had happened and his father didn't. Brian's mother gave him a hatchet for when he went to Canada so he could use it in the outdoors. Now Brian came back and he was back on the plane again sitting next to the pilot in the cockpit. The pilot started to strike up a conversation about flying. He asked Brian if he'd ever flown before, but Brian hadn't been on a plane before. So the pilot told Brian what to do and he did it. He knew basically how to fly the plane. After a little bit the pilot started having aches in his arm and his chest. He was having a heart attack. Brian didn't realize what was happening until after the pilot died.

Olaudah Equiano

Olaudah Equiano was just a young boy when he was enslaved. In his narrative he describes the conditions forced upon him and his people. He describes the hold where the slaves were as unbearably hot. It was so hot people could suffocate. Also the hold was not clean at all. All those people in one compact place at once was not the healthiest. Disease spread around quickly. He explains how the children fell into the tubs that people were going to the bathroom in. There was no where for the slaves to bathe either. Another thing was that there wasn't enough fresh air getting to the hold so people were getting very sick. The only time a slave went up on deck was when they were near death and absolutely needed fresh air. Equiano explains how the men that enslaved him and his people beat his people to near death if they acted up in any sort. Despite all of the bad things that have happened to him and his people, Equiano recognizes some good things. He recognizes the fish and that a crew member taught him what a quadrant was and how it was used on a ship to navigate.

A Journey Through Texas

The Native Americans thought the Spaniards were some life form on like an angels level of super naturalness. The Natives asked the Spanish to ask the Heavens for rain. This explains the reason why the Natives were so scared of the Spaniards. They thought the Spaniards could punish them. The Spaniards only wanted to get to the colony of New Mexico to find maize. There only a few reasons the Spaniards asked the natives to help them. One reason being that the Spaniard didn't know the land at all and needed assistance navigating to get to the colony. Another reason is that the Spaniards didn't know what was safe to eat on their journey. The natives knew what was safe and what was unsafe to eat. Also the natives knew how to cook the foods. The natives also told the Spaniards what tribes were safe and what tribes were dangerous.

The Iroquois Constitution

The Iroquois Constitution wasn't just a set of laws and an explanation of how a government will operate. It was much more than that. It was a way of life. It explains how people should live their life under the Tree of Great Long Leaves, meaning in peace and harmony. Under the Tree anger and frustration did not exist. When you lived under this constitution you lived without hatred and with love and peace at heart. You would show your peace and gratitude toward others in the confederation with four strings of shells. I the strings of shells are symbolic for love and peace. This was a place where evil was not a factor. Only love would be expressed under the Tree of Great Long Leaves.

from The Navajo Origin Legend

What? This story made no sense at all. The only thing I pulled from it is that men and women were created to be together and reproduce.

When Grizzlies Walked Upright

The Chief of the Sky Spirits is meannt to be "God" in this story. He creates Earth with a stone and puts a mountain on it first. Then he starts to walk down his mountain putting his finger on spots on the earth creating trees. The snow melted under his feet creating rivers. He then breaks his walking stick and throws the big pieces in the water creating otter and beaver, and small pieces being the fish. Then he took the largest piece of thhe stick and created all other animals on earth, grizzly bears being biggest. He disliked them so he sent them away to live in the forest at the base of his mountain. When his daughter falls down the mountain and is taken by the grizzlies she becomes one of them. She is now apart of all other earth life and starts the cycle of evolution on Earth. This story is another way to explain how life started on earth. Also it explains how humans came to be as well as every other animal on the planet.

The Earth on Turtle's Back

This story, to me, seems like its another non scientific way to explain how earth was created. The Great Tree represents earth before it formation. All the men that tried to uproot the tree represents all the time it took for earth to form, and when the chief finally uproots the tree earths formation is complete. Now that earth is formed, life starts to up rise. Each animal who tries to bring the earth up to the surface of the water represents early life forms. Each time a different animal try's to get the earth that animal goes deeper than the past animal. When the animals go deeper that represents evolution. The animals get stronger and better instincts the further into evolution they get. The muskrat may not have been the strongest, but its instincts for survival have increased because it knew that the Sky Woman (could be its family or companion) needed the earth to survive. The turtle represented the world changing into something with life, and flourishing as a planet. Now the earth was completely evolved and life could flourish on land as well as the water.

Christopher Colombus

In the reading I did today on Christtopher Colombus I learned a few things. One thing I learned is that he arrived on an island. On the island he found a deserted house that were completely furnished. The natives fled when they saw Colombus' crew arrived. Colombus made sure that his crew took nothing from the house. He saw how beautiful and fertile the land was. There was no development, just foliage and lakes. He discovered the aloe tree and decided he would take some back. When they came upon a village of natives, the natives fled into the mountains. Finally natives came up to them. Colombus gave them glass beads and hawk's bells. In return, the natives brought them fresh water to stock their ships. Colombus spoke with the natives and asked about gold. The natives told him of Colba or Cuba. According to what Colombus heard there was an abundance of gold and spices there and that is where he would go. From my learning in past years I've learned that Colombus wasn't really as nice as he was portrayed in this story. I was taught that he took as much as he could get his hands on. Eventually he took control of La Hispanola or the Dominican Republic. He came and went bringing everything of "value" back to Spain. The natives had to gather a certain amount of gold per week or so or else they would either be beatin, killed or enslaved.