Name: Period:

“Earth and the American Dream: This is a story of the dream, the dream of land, the dream of riches, the American Dream. This is a story of the price; the price the Earth has paid to make the dream come true.”

Warning: As you watch this documentary, you will see disturbing scenes of what Americans have done to Native Americans and to the natural environment of the United States. Voices you hear are actors reading actual quotes from historical figures; they are sometimes racist and offensive.

Directions: For each time period, use annotation techniques and write down your thoughts, questions, and observations about each person’s historical perspective of the American Dream.

“There is little in common between us. You wander far from the Thoughts, Questions, Observations: graves of your ancestors, and seemingly without regret. Every part of this soil is sacred in the estimation of my people. Every hillside, every valley, every plain and grove has been hallowed by some sad or happy event in days long vanished. When the memory of my tribe shall have become a myth, these shores will swarm with the invisible dead that once filled them, and still love this beautiful land. The white man will never be alone; there is no death, only a change of worlds.” ~ Chief Seattle

1492-1776 “When we began to clear the land...” – (3:57)

“Ah Majesty, rivers Majesty filled with gold…a miracle. Mountain Thoughts, Questions, Observations: and hills, plains and pastures are fertile and beautiful. The harbors are unbelievably good, and there are many wide rivers, of which the majority contain gold…rivers, Majesty, filled with gold. Your servant, Christopher Columbus.”

“My God, a hideous and desolate wilderness full of wild beasts and wild men, and what multitudes there might be of them? We know not.” ~ Gov. William Bradford, Plymouth Colony

“Genesis, the first part, the twenty-eighth verse, the Lord’s words, ‘You shall have dominion over the fish of the sea, dominion over the birds of the heavens, over all the Earth, over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the Earth. Go forth children, multiply, fill the Earth, and subdue it.’” ~ Bible, King James Version

“In such a wilderness, when we began to clear the land with fire, with might and strength, trees so thick and strong, we laid them all along, most furiously to ashes did confound. As for the natives, they’re near all dead of the smallpox. So the Lord has cleared our title to what we possess, and we shall be the place where the Lord will create a new heaven and a new Earth.” ~ Gov. John Winthrop, Massachusetts Bay Colony 1

1776-1850 “What good man would prefer a country covered with forests?” – (8:27)

“Sir, our lands were originally very good, but use and abuse have Thoughts, Questions, Observations: made them quite otherwise. We ruined the lands that are already cleared and either cut down more wood, or just emigrate; emigrate to the western country.” ~George Washington, President

“The American, he fells the forests and drains the marshes. The wilds become villages, and the villages…towns. The American, the daily witness of such wonders, does not see anything astonishing in all this destruction.” ~ Alexis De Tocqueville

“What good man would prefer a country covered with forests, and ranged by a few thousand savages, to our extensive republic studded with cities and towns, and prosperous farms, occupied by more than 12 million happy people?” ~ Andrew Jackson, President

“Most men, it would seem to me, do not care for nature and would sell their share. Nowadays, almost all men’s so called improvements, as the building of houses and the cutting down of forests, simply deform the landscape. What is the use of a house, I ask, if you haven’t a tolerable planet to put it on?” ~ Henry David Thoreau, Naturalist

“When I think of these times and call back to my mind the grandeur and beauty of those almost uninhabited shores, when I picture to myself the dense and lofty summits of the forest, unmolested by the acts of the settler, when I see that the vast herds of elk, deer, and buffalo which once pastured on these hills and in these valleys have ceased to exist, when I remember that these extraordinary changes have all taken place in the short period of twenty years, I pause, wonder, and although I know all to be fact, can scarcely believe it’s reality.” ~ John James Audubon, Artist

1850-1900 “The prairies will be covered with your speckled cattle and festive cowboys.” – (11:56)

“The entranced act of destiny of the American people is to subdue Thoughts, Questions, Observations: the continent, to rush over this vast field to the Pacific Ocean, to confirm the destiny of the human race.” ~ William Gilpin, Territorial Governor

“There is nothing on the American continent equal to it, folks, timber, soil, fish, climate, no end to the possibilities of wealth here, an inexhaustible goldmine. Take a train, take a wagon, by golly walk if you have to.” ~ Samuel Wilkerson, Railroad Booster

“How beautiful would this natural Eden look if parted off with fences into farms, dotted with cities, villages, and farm houses? Each claimant can claim and hold 240 acres of land. My husband, his father and sister are claimants, making 720 acres of land belonging to our family.” ~ Miriam Colt, Homesteader

“Yes, the Indians are in evidence everywhere. I am told they are harmless, but I do not like the way they have of stalking into the house unbidden, or looking in at the windows. I do not like it.” ~ Gertrude Burlingame, Homesteader

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“They will not dig the gold or let others do it. They are too lazy and too much like mere animals to cultivate the fertile soil, mine the coal, develop the salt mines, or wash the gold. What shall be done with these Indian dogs in our manger?” ~ Editor, The Yankton Press & Dakotan

“The buffalo hunters have done more to settle the vexed Indian question than the entire regular army has done, because they are destroying the Indians commissary. Indeed for the sake of lasting peace, let them kill, skin, and sell until the buffalos are exterminated. Yes, then your prairies will be covered with your speckled cattle and the festive cowboy.” ~ General Philip Sheridan, Commander of the Western Army

“I rush my horse into ‘em, pick out the fattest cows, shoot them down. I killed for the railroad company for seventeen months. During that time, the number I brought into camp was kept account of…4,280 buffalo…4,280.” ~ Buffalo Bill Cody, Showman

“While the slaughter of the buffalo has been in places needless and brutal, and while from a purely selfish stand point, many, including myself, would rather see it continue to exist. Yet, its destruction was a condition precedent on the advance of white civilization in the west. From the stand point of humanity at large, the extermination of the buffalo has been a blessing.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt, President

“Nature has nowhere presented more beautiful and lovely scenes than those of the vast prairies of the west, and of man and beast, no nobler specimens than those who inhabit them, the Indian and the buffalo, joint and original tenants of the soil, and fugitives together from the approach of civilized man. They fled to the Great Plains of the west, and there, under an equal doom, they’ve taken up their last abode, where their race will expire, and their bones will bleach together.” ~ George Catlin, Artist

“I love the land and the buffalo and will not part with it. I don’t want to settle. I love to roam the prairies. I want the children raised as I was. A long time ago, this land belonged to our fathers, but when I go to the river, I see soldiers in its banks. They cut down our timber. They kill my buffalo. When I see that, it feels as if my heart would bust with sorrow.” ~ Satanta, Chief of the Kiowa

Of 60 million buffalo in the American West less than 500 live to see the 20th century.

Of 2 million Native Americans when Columbus arrived less than 390,000 live to see the 20th century.

1900-1920 “Man’s forces will be used to hasten his dominion over nature.” – (21:37)

“It is a glorious history our God has bestowed upon his chosen Thoughts, Questions, Observations: people, a history of statesmen, who flung the boundaries of the republic out into unexplored lands and savage wildernesses, a history of a multiplying people, who overran a continent in half a century. Steam joins us. Electricity joins us. The very elements are in league with our destiny.” ~ Albert Beveridge, U.S. Senator

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“The final victory of man’s machinery over nature’s materials is the Thoughts, Questions, Observations: next logical process in evolution. Machinery, science, and intelligence moving on the face of the Earth may well affect it as the elements do, up building, obliterating, and creating, and they are man’s forces, and will be used to hasten his dominion over nature, and each gain upon nature adds to the quantity of goods to be consumed by society.” ~ Simon Patten, Political Economist

Bigger and better than ever, oh what a feeling, you’ve got me feeling, bigger and better than ever… My heart is bumping, you’ve got it bumping, bigger and better than ever…bigger and better than ever. ~ Song

“To make one ton of steel, one and a half tons of iron has to be mined, then transported a hundred miles from the mine to the lakes, then carried by boat hundreds of miles, and then transported by rail a hundred and fifty mile into Pittsburgh. One and a half tons of coal must be mined, manufactured into coke, and carried fifty miles by rail, and one ton of limestone, mined, and carried to Pittsburgh. Miraculous.” ~ Andrew Carnegie, Industrialist

“If the business man’s refinery taints the air, if his chimneys smug the sky, if his waste poisons our streams, we tolerate it. Tell him of the forest, blighted by the arsenic fumes from giant smelters, and he replies, ‘It would cut dividends to get rid of the fumes. The smoke laden air of every city,’ he says, ‘is but a testimonial of the general prosperity of the county.’” ~ Edward A. Ross, Sociologist

“Wheat will win the war. Plant wheat. Plant the cattle ranges. Plant your vacant lots. Plant wheat, wheat for the boys over there, wheat for the allies, wheat at any price. Wheat will win the war. Fetch me timber my son, wherewith to build a thousand ships. Without ships, the war cannot be won. Without timber, ships cannot be built. Every swing of an axe, every cut of a saw, may score as heavily as a shot, fired from the trenches. Help our boys win the war. Make our world safe for democracy.” ~ Uncle Sam, Government Pamphlet

1920-1930 “Hadn’t we figured out mass production?” – (30:20)

“There has always been at each decisive period in this world’s Thoughts, Questions, Observations: history, uh…some voice, some note that represented for the time being the prevailing power. First, there was the lions roar. Then came the voice of man. Now, in the streets of Detroit, the murmur of this newest and most perfect of forces, the automobile.” ~ The Detroit News Tribune, Editorial

“The way to make an automobile for the great multitudes is to make one just like another, to make them all alike, to make them come through the factory all alike. Just like one pin is just like another. A car so low in price that no man making a good salary will be unable to own one. And when I’m through, about everybody will have one. The horse will disappear from our highways. The automobile will be taken for granted, and there won’t be any problem.” ~ Henry Ford, Automaker

Henry Ford, Henry Ford, what have you done? You’ve got the whole nation talking. Henry Ford, Henry Ford, you sure make them run. Soon there’ll be nobody walking. ~ Song 4

Thoughts, Questions, Observations: “Of course our agents say we overload them with cars and bully-rag them until they have to pull in customers by the ears. But what of it? The average American family is happier and healthier for having a good little car, even if the old man was bluffed into buying it.” ~ Anonymous, Ford Executive

“I won’t give up that car. I’d go without clothes and food before I gave up that car. Why I’d rather starve!” ~ Anonymous Woman

“The story of the development of life and industry in America is the most amazing tale of the waste of wealth by a careless improvident people the world has ever known. For every barrel of oil which reaches the pipeline, three barrels have been wasted. It may be cheaper today to skim the cream from oil gushers, but our children and our children’s children may pay a bitter price.” ~ Stuart Chase, Political Scientist

We’re running wild, we’ve lost control, we’re running wild, mighty bold…

“America has been altered astonishingly, and the changes which have come over us were more swiftly achieved than at any time in our history. We sold more goods to the world in this decade than the entire 19th century, and we mined a billion tons more coal, smelted twice as much copper, made three and one half times as much steel. We match a decade against a century and the decade wins.” ~ Christine Frederick, Home Economist

“Industry as a whole can plan and execute for its advancement, secure in the belief that there are no limits to the total productive capacity of the country and the resulting purchasing power, because there are no limits to the needs and desires of American consumers. Of course, there exists theoretically that danger point when consumption has reached its limit. However, such a breaking point is probably nonexistent. Human desires seem to have no limits.” ~ Paul Mazur, Banker

“If a man saves $15 dollars a week and invests in good common stocks, and allows the dividends to accumulate, at the end of twenty years, he’ll be rich. And, I am firm in my belief, that man not only can be rich, but ought to be rich! ~ John J. Raskob, Chairman of General Motors

“Gosh, wasn’t we crazy? Why the thought never entered our head that we wasn’t the brightest, wisest, and most accomplished people that was ever on this Earth. Hadn’t we figured out mass production? Couldn’t we make more things than anybody? Did the thought ever enter our bone head that the time might come when nobody would want all these things we were making? No, we had it all figured out that the more we made, the more they would want.” ~ Will Rogers, Humorist

1930 – 1940 begins on next page…

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1930-1940 “Whether we like it or not, we are on our way.” – (38:27)

“Great areas lie devastated beneath the merciless cloud of Thoughts, Questions, Observations: pulverized soil. It looms like dim, grimy doom and settles in arid layers in desiccated dregs. This was the western prairie grassland. The cowboys grazed their cattle here. Then cultivators came, plowed up the buffalo grass, and laid the soil bared to the winds. And now, the winds have blown off the top soil in clouds, in drifts!” ~ Fox Movietone News

“We started out in ’14 on a rampage such as was never known in the history of agriculture. We went into this thing on the thought of furnishing food and winning the war. It was partly patriotic and partly with the thought of making money. We plowed up 60 million acres of the best land in this country.” ~ William Sitterly, Farmer

“Well, we plowed. We plowed because war time wheat prices said plow. The government said plow. Wives said plow. So we plowed everything. Tore up so easy we plowed it all.” ~ Farmer

“Years ago, you plow out in the prairie with a woman, kids, and a couple of ponies. You get up a section of land. Yeah, they thought there was no end to that.” ~ Farmer

“America’s two million miles of rural road, three quarters of a million miles of surfaced highway, 127 million big machines, motor cars, locomotives, turbines, tractors, trucks, lathes, 700 million installed horsepower. America’s a million miles of pipeline, electric line, telephone line, a billion acres of farm land, six and a half million farms, a 100 million head of stock, half a billion acres of forest. It is incredible anyone should be in want.” ~ Robert R. Doane, Economist

“The mighty task of diverting the Colorado river through a mile of mountain is almost an accomplished fact. That’s dynamite. Hey, look out! The holes are loaded with 3,000 charges before the final pull on the lever, and here she goes!” ~ Fox Movietone News

“Technicians today span rivers, plug up canyons, go through mountains, but our future physical progress is going to put the present into the tiniest pygmy class. The public’s been told this so many times during the past few years that it does not believe it anymore. They look at our 10 million unemployed and say, ‘There’s your progress.’ We’re in the midst of this thing now, and it does not always look like happy landings ahead, but to stop is fatal. To stop our forward progress, even if we could, would hardly lead elsewhere than to a complete wreck. Whether we like it or not, we are on our way.” ~ Clifford Furnas, Chemical Engineer

1940-1950 “If only we could have created all this energy for something good.” – (44:45)

“A fighting machine in action is a thrilling and inspiring sight. Thoughts, Questions, Observations: Here’s another fighting machine in action, producing, not destroying. Producing for the 11 million fighting men of America and their allies. Steel jacketed messengers of death. Ammunition factory, one of hundreds engaged in turning out the millions…”

Continued on next page… 6

Here is steel, giant builder of the signals of defense, symbol of democracy’s strength, for guns, tanks, ships, planes, trucks… Long lines of new heavy tanks bear witness to the need for steel and more steel. Where we used to make hubcaps, now we're making helmets. Mass production, same as before, of the things that count today. Push buttons, switch gears, motors, transformers, turbines accelerating the defense effort across the continent. Mine coal in West Virginia. Has left the drafting boards and is now in mass production. …production line is democracy’s front line. …master productions. Mass production of the tools of battle. That’s just three days work standing there.” ~ Government Documentaries

“We won because we were audacious. We have won this war because our men are brave and because of the gift of nature’s materials. In the emergency of war, our nation’s powers are unbelievable. The strength we have spread around the world is appalling, even to those who make up that strength. I’m sure that in the past two years, I’ve heard soldiers say a thousand times, ‘If only we could have created all this energy for something good.’ But, we rise above our normal powers only in times of destruction.” ~ Ernie Pyle, War Correspondent

In the first half of the 20th century America’s population grew 100%

…mineral production grew 500%

…oil consumption grew 5,600%

… electrical consumption grew 6,000%

…motor vehicles grew 600,000%

…people consumed more non-renewable resources than in all of mankind’s previous time on earth.

“We have made the Atomic Bomb. We have become the richest people on the globe. We have achieved the highest standard of living known to history. But, how will we live? The whole world has an interest in the answers, which history will make of these questions.” ~ Henry Steele Commager, Historian

1950-1960 “We make consumption our way of life…” – (49:15)

When I was just a little girl I asked my mother what will I be. Thoughts, Questions, Observations: Will I be pretty? Will I be rich? Here’s what she said to me, Que sera sera, whatever will be will be. The future’s not ours to see.

Now I have children of my own. They ask me mother what will I be?

“Every seven and a half seconds, a new baby is born somewhere in the United States. That means every 7 seconds, marketers have gained one new prospect, who will need food, clothing, shelter, and later on, motor cars, HI FI sets, power boats, and a casket. More people mean more markets.” ~ Vance Packard, Social Critic

I want a corvette. I thought you would. Oh! I want a Pontiac, too. OK, we’ll have the usual two car garage. Let’s go all out and buy a Cadillac, too.

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“The population explosion is a grand thing for business. Think of all the machines we can sell to more people. The consumer is a great big gaping jaw we’re all trying to fill up with whatever we can cram down there, and the great hope is that the jaw will keep getting wider and wider. We can make it an American middle class universe. And, we can make a lot of money on it.” ~ Charlie Landesfahr, Advertising Executive

“All you have to know is what switch to turn, what buttons to push, and what cans to buy. Our canned foods are the best in the world, and look at the variety! Packaged cereals, prepared mixes, frozen foods… These peas may have been picked last June, when they were just perfect. Grandmother would call this a miracle. Ladies and Gentlemen, here they are…” ~ Advertisement

“Our enormously productive economy demands that we make consumption our way of life. That we convert the buying and use of goods into rituals. That we seek our spiritual satisfaction, our ego satisfaction, in consumption.” ~ Victor Lebow, Marketing Consultant

“Mother, wouldn’t it be slick if we had an electric ironer, like Sally’s mother has? Yes, of course it would, and I’m looking forward to having an electric dryer too. Whee! No matter what the job is, there are machines to take the hard work out of it. It’s no trick to do the wash with this baby, and we can go right on playing Cribbage. Automatic, huh? Awe, you betcha! ~ Advertisement

“At Shipping Court, Pennsylvania, America’s first full-scale atomic power plant, devoted exclusively to civilian use, goes into operation. In the Whitehouse, President Eisenhower waves a radioactive wand to send the plant into full scale operation, and nearly a quarter of a million kilowatts of power feed into the lines. Hundreds of thousands of homes, businesses, and factories are supplied from the pioneering installation. Peace time atomic energy truly comes of age.” ~ Advertisement

“The atom will give us all the power we need and more. Power seemingly without end, power to do everything man is destined to do. We have found what might be called perpetual youth, the hope and exuberance of boundless energy. ~ Westinghouse Electric Corp., Educational Pamphlet

“We have heard so much about the success of the epic effort to harness the atom, but we often delude ourselves into thinking that we have altogether conquered it. But, perhaps we’ve adjusted to the fact of atomic energy too fast for our own good. I am not sure that we fully realize what kind of power we’re holding in our hands.” ~ Thomas E. Murray, Atomic Energy Commissioner

“With every explosion of a super bomb, huge quantities of radioactive material are pumped into the air. This radioactive fallout carries something called Strontium 90, which is the most dreadful poison in the world. In sufficient concentration, it can cause cancer. Prior to the Atomic Age, radioactive Strontium was practically nonexistent in the world. Today, all of us, all over the world, have some of it in our bones.” ~ Adlai Stevenson, Presidential Candidate

Star Spangled Banner (National Anthem) by Jimi Hendrix 8

1960-1970 “A fateful power to alter and destroy nature…” – (57:40)

“We still talk in terms of conquest. We still haven’t become mature Thoughts, Questions, Observations: enough to think of ourselves as only a tiny part of a vast and incredible universe. Man’s attitude toward nature is today critically important, simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But, man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself. Now, I truly believe that we in this generation must come to terms with nature. And, I think we’re challenged as mankind has never been challenged before to prove our maturity and our mastery, not of nature, but of ourselves.” ~ Rachel Carson, Marine Biologist

“We have reached the moon, but we have not yet reached each other. I do not wish to seem overdramatic, but the members of the United Nations have perhaps 10 years left to subordinate their ancient quarrels and launch a global partnership to improve the human environment, to diffuse the population explosion. If such a global partnership is not forced within the next decade, then I very much fear that the problems I have mentioned will be beyond our capacity to control.” ~ U Thant, Secretary General, U.N.

1970-Now “We have forgotten that we have only one planet.” – (1:01:25)

“Hundreds of birds, mostly ducks, are being washed ashore on the Thoughts, Questions, Observations: island of Martha’s Vineyard off the coast of Massachusetts. Their feathers are covered with heavy crude oil, picked up in a seven-mile long oil slick just off shore. The water fowl by the hundreds are dying.” ~ News Report

“The National Lead Company’s titanium oxide plant in St. Louis covers 40 acres and has 140 smoke stacks. Some of this pollution does consist of acid mist. I have seen our secretary come in with her nylon stockings in shreds from the acid mist…” ~ National Lead Company Employee

“Yesterday was one of the smoggiest days on record in the Los Angeles area. People hear didn’t need statistics to tell them the air quality was wretched. The city suffocated under the hot brown blanket.” ~ Los Angeles News

“Devices attached to the inside of smoke stacks, and what results is a huge quantity of sludge that no one has figured out what to do with.” “Powerful logging companies that have been clearcutting rain forests at the rate of three square miles a day.” “PCPs are valuable to industry, but they’re also poisonous…” “The fluorocarbons floating into the atmosphere deplete the ozone layer…” “Plutonium buried just seven years ago leaked out of its containers and seeped into…” “Chemical wastes are this ship’s wake. This ship is just dumping them as it goes along.” “…miles of beach are fouled with oily glop that’s two inches thick…” “…contaminated with high amounts of DDT. Now there are no fish…” “…and kept on rolling barrels of radioactive waste into the sea.” “It’s called acid rain.” “Chemical seepage…” “Radioactive waste.” “Illegal dumping of toxic waste.” “…treated for chemical inhalation.” “Dangerous for thousands of years…” “The Green House Affect.” “Skin cancer.” “…cloud of black smoke carrying toxic fumes.” ~ Various News Accounts

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“There are no boundaries on planet Earth. Not only have we failed Thoughts, Questions, Observations: to realize we are one people, we have forgotten that we have only one planet. The slow dismemberment of the Earth is not a recent development. Our early forbears began the process thousands of years ago. The difference is simple. Today, we have nowhere else to go.” ~ Jacques Cousteau, Oceanographer

“Compare the six days of the book of Genesis to the four billion years of geologic time. On this scale, one day equals about 766 million years. All day Monday until Tuesday noon, creation was busy getting the Earth going. Life began on Tuesday noon, and the beautiful organic wholeness of it developed over the next four days. At 4:00 pm Saturday, the big reptiles came. Five hours later, when the redwoods appeared, there were no more big reptiles. At three minutes before midnight, man appeared. One-fourth of a second before midnight, Christ arrived. At one-fortieth of a second before midnight, the industrial revolution began. We are surrounded by people who think that what we have been doing for one-fortieth of a second can go on indefinitely. They are considered normal, but they are stark-raving mad.” ~ David Brower, Conservationist

“Ah Majesty, rivers, Majesty, filled with gold.” “Go Forth, children! Multiply! Fill the Earth…and subdue it.” “And we shall be the place where the Lord will create a new heaven and a new Earth.” “The final victory of man’s machinery over nature’s materials is the next logical process in evolution.” “But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.” “I pause, wonder, and although I know all to be fact…can scarcely believe it’s reality.”

Union Carbide plant explosion, Bhopal India

Oil spill, Prince William Sound, Alaska

Deforestation, Amazon Rain Forest, Brazil

Nuclear power plant explosion, Chernobyl, USSR (Russia)

Famine, Korem, Ethiopia

“Not only have we failed to realize we are one people, we have forgotten that we have only one planet.”

“I looked below me where the Earth was silent as sick green light and saw the hills look up, afraid. And all the animals… and everywhere about me were the cries of frightened birds and the sounds of fleeing wings. Then, I was standing on the highest mountain of them all, and round about beneath me was the whole hoop of the world. And, while I stood there, I saw more than I can tell, and I understood more than I saw. For I was seeing in a sacred manner the shapes of all things in the spirit. And, the shape of all shapes, as they must live together like one being. And, I saw that it was holy.” ~ Black Elk, Vision of a Lakota Holy Man

“For centuries, we’ve lived as if our fate were separate from the fate of the Earth. But, no people, no country, can separate their own fate from the fate of the Earth.” ~ Bill Couturie, Producer E & the A D

But I still haven’t found what I’m looking for…” U2

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