Utah and the Mormons essay
Humanities
A) Talk about the Mormons in the American West. Discuss briefly the movement of the Mormons into Utah Territory, their settlement there, and their expansion into what is now the State of Nevada. What kinds of communities did the Mormons found in Utah and Nevada? How did they improve the desert landscape and make it successful? How and why is the largest single internal migration of a group of people in American history so important to the founding and settlement of the State of Nevada? (If you select this topic, take a look at the film clip on the Mormons, as well as the readings and your notes on the PowerPoints. If you want to write this topic creatively, you might consider writing a series of letters or diary entries, describing your experience as a Mormon moving to Utah and Nevada in the 1840s and settling there. Make sure to include historical details describing your journey and settlement in the region.)
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B) Historian James Hulse, in discussing the Battles of Pyramid Lake (1860) between white settlers and Paiute Indians, states: “There was no doubt…that the events of Pyramid Lake had decisively established the domination of the white man in the western Great Basin.” What was happening in Nevada in 1860 to cause these “battles” between Indians and whites? How did these differences affect how Native Americans in Nevada lived and were treated by white settlers? (Some helpful hints for this topic: Northern Paiute: what were they like and how did they live traditionally? Americans who were moving into the area, and what they were looking for: land? wealth? How did the idea of Manifest Destiny influence white settlers? What happened to the Paiutes, and other Indian tribes, after they were defeated by the white settlers? If you want to write this topic creatively, you might be a Northern Paiute person, describing how your life is changing as your traditional ways are being influenced/infringed upon by white settlement in the 1860s.)
