Place is Powerful

Where are you from?

What does that mean? –From specific…..Batchelor Middle School or Bloomington, IN –To general….. The United States or the Midwest

Imagine ….. that you needed to describe to someone who has no knowledge of United States geography, especially of local geography, where you are from. How would you describe that?

We can discuss this in many social and geographic contexts, too. For example, my family is from the line of Hungerfords of England. Or I’m from a place that has four distinct seasons so we have learned to adapt to those. We drink hot cocoa in the winter and iced tea in the summer.

Where is History From? Usually we want to know ‘what happened’ BUT…. History happens somewhere!

Place Did you ever think that a ‘place’ has a history, a story to tell, a biography? Why do some events happen in one place and not another? Can an event change a place?

Does place have meaning for your life? Think of an event in your life or in history and where it happened. How was the place where the event happened critical to its occurrence or outcome?

Can place impact our everyday lives? What do we know about some Native American culture groups and how place impacted their lives? What about the lives of the pioneers? Man has Lived with nature Battled nature Destroyed nature

What we’re doing…. Our study into the history of the United States is a study of The LAND AND The decisions of man and how he’ll use it. Place attributes historical context to our understanding. Man leaves an imprint where ever he goes.

Indiana’s Heritage in Nature

We’ll begin our study with Indiana’s natural environment as close to pre-human inhabitation as we can. Why might that be difficult?