Cheyenne Autumn essays

Cheyenne Autumn essays Cheyenne Autumn is a film of contrasting viewpoints. On one hand it tries to sympathize with the Native Americans but at the same time it gives little value to their lives. The film shows how unfair they were treated but does so unfairly. It is important to view for our course because it shows how Hollywood can try to portray Native Americans in a light that is much better then the previous portrayals but still miss the mark. The opening scenes are meant to show how proud and noble the Native Americans are as a people. They wait on the government officials until the chief collapses and even then he refuses help. At the same time the two main American Indians carry around a piece pipe with them wherever they go and still speak with the Indian speak that is so prevalent in John Ford movies. The soldiers are made out to be unsavory characters because they show how little they car for the Indians. This is apparent by how the character Tom Archer refers to them as being, ...soldiers from their first slap on their ass. He is saying that they are savages from a young age on and he was trained into being a savage of sorts, a soldier. This seems to be a way of excusing his savagery. The American Indians, fed up with the no show by the government fat cats, decide that it is time they went back to their own land. The land the government has set aside for them is not good for much and they are dissatisfied by their treatment. The filmmakers were showing how the American Indians were being misled and treated poorly from the government. At one point the character, Little Wolf, portrayed by Ricardo Montalban says that the white mans words are poison. He says when he learned to speak the white mans language it was not filled with so much poison. He can speak with wisdom but not with proper English. Cheyenne Autumn is an interesting movie that shows a transitional period in movie making. The filmmakers tri...

How To Make Tree Cookies

How To Make Tree Cookies Ever heard of a tree cookie? Sadly, unless you are a termite, you cant eat them. But you can use them to unlock the past of a tree. From its age to the weather conditions and hazards it faced in its lifetime, tree cookies can be used to better understand trees and their role in the environment. So what is a tree cookie? Tree cookies are cross-sections of trees that are usually around 1/4 to 1/2 inch in thickness. Teachers and ecologists use them to teach students about the layers that make up a tree and to illustrate to students how trees grow and age. Heres how to make your own tree cookies and use them at home or with your students to learn more about trees. Making Tree Cookies Just as with edible cookies, tree cookies are made using a series of steps in a recipe. Start by selecting a tree with a trunk or thick branches that you can cut to reveal the tree rings. Take note of the type of tree it is and where it came from.Cut a log that is about three to six inches in diameter and three to four feet long. (You will cut this down later but it will give you a good section to work with.)Slice the log into Cookies that are 1/4 to 1/2 inch wide.Dry the cookies. Yes you will bake these cookies! Drying the cookies will help prevent mold and fungus from decomposing the wood and will preserve your cookie for many years to come. Set them in the driveway in the sun, or on a drying rack in the yard for several days. Air flow is more important than sunlight, but if you can get both, that would be perfect.Sand the cookies lightly.If these cookies will be used in the classroom, cover with a coating of varnish to help them withstand years of handling. What Can You Learn From A Tree Cookie? Now that you have your tree cookies, what can you do with them? Here are several ways you can use tree cookies at home or in your classroom to teach students about trees. Take a closer look. Start by having your students examine their tree cookies with a hand lens. They can also draw a simple diagram of their cookie, labeling the bark, cambium, phloem, and xylem, tree rings, center, and pith. This image from Britannica Kids provides a good example. Count the rings. First,  ask your students to take note of the differences between the rings - some are light colored while others are darker. Light rings indicate fast, spring growth, while dark rings show where the tree grew more slowly in the summertime. Each pair of light and dark rings - called an annual ring - equals one year of growth. Have your students count the pairs to determine the age of the tree.   Read your cookie. Now that your students know what they are looking at and what to look for, help them understand what else a tree cookie can reveal to foresters. Does the cookie show wider growth on one side than the other? This could indicate competition from nearby trees, a disturbance on one side of the tree, a windstorm that caused the tree to lean to one side, or simply the presence of sloped ground. Other anomalies that students can look for include scars (from insects, fires, or a machine such as a lawn mower,) or narrow and wide rings that may indicate years of drought or insect damage followed by years of recovery. Do some math.  Ask you students to measure the distance from the center of the tree cookie to the outermost edge of the last summer growth ring. Now ask them to measure the distance from the center to the outermost edge of the tenth summer growth ring. Using this information, ask them to calculate the percent of the trees growth that took place in its first ten years. (Hint: Divide the second measurement by the first measurement and multiply by 100.) Play a game. Utah State Universitys Forestry Department has a cool interactive online game that students can play to test their tree cookie reading skills. (And teachers, dont worry, the answers are there too if you need a little help!)