Category: Californian Gold Rush

They served with back-breaking labor during both cold winters and hot summers. Hundreds died in explosions, landslides, injuries, and diseases. And even though they made significant contributions to the building of the Transcontinental Railroad, these 15,000 to 20,000 Chinese immigrants have largely been forgotten by history.

Looking back, historians claim that the Chinese, who had started to arrive in the United States in large numbers during the California Gold Rush of 1848-1855, were thought too frail for the dangerous, strenuous task of constructing a railroad east of California. Hilton Obenzinger, associate director of the Chinese Railroad Workers Project in North America at Stanford University, says that Central Pacific Railroad director Charles Crocker proposed recruiting Chinese workers after a job ad culminated in just a few hundred replies from white workers. “But Crocker’s plan hit the opposition in the wake of anti-Chinese sentiment, stemming from the California Gold Rush, that had taken hold of the state,” Obenzinger said to NBC, adding that building manager James Strobridge did not believe the immigrants were tough enough to do the job.

But even so, the Central Pacific Railroad was desperate, says Gordon Chang, Stanford Professor of American History and author of the book ‘Ghosts of Gold Mountain’. “White workers, which the organization desired, didn’t sign anywhere similar to what was required in numbers,” he says. Crocker’s peers protested at first to prejudice, but then stepped back because they had few other choices. The suggestion of recruiting Chinese, it appears, may have been posed first by Crocker’s Chinese assistant.

The According to the Chinese Railroad Workers Report, in January 1864, the Central Pacific started with a team of 21 Chinese men. ‘In January 1865, assured that Chinese employees were able, the railroad employed 50 Chinese staff and then 50 more,’ states the Project. “But the need for labor grew, and the white workforce became hesitant to do such a backbreaking, dangerous task”.

Leland Stanford, president of Central Pacific, former governor of California and founder of Stanford University, told Congress in 1865 that the bulk of rail workers were Chinese. Without them, he said, “it would be difficult to complete the western part of this great national enterprise within the period needed by the Actions of the Congress”. More Chinese immigrants started to settle in California, and almost 90 percent of the workers were Chinese two years later. Their tasks covered everything from unskilled labour to blacksmithing, tunneling and carpentry, according to the project, with much of the construction performed with hand tools.

Of course, the vast number of immigrants employed for the Central Pacific and their diligent work did not mean that they were well-treated or well-compensated for their contributions. According to the project, Chinese laborers employed in 1864 were earning 26 dollars a month, working six days a week. Eventually, they conducted an eight-day strike in June of 1867.

“The Chinese started getting 30-50 percent lower salaries than the whites for the same work and had to compensate for their own food products”, Chang says. They often had the most complicated and risky job to perform, including tunneling and using explosives. There is also evidence that several workers have been met with physical violence at times. They opposed this and the long hours and used their combined influence to oppose the company. The strike ended without pay equality after the Central Pacific shut off food, transport and equipment to the Chinese working in the camps, however, Chang notes, the strike was not in vain. The workplace standards changed during the protest. “The pants were scared off the company’s leaders”, he notes.

With Chinese workers contributions to the development of America’s landmark building venture, Chang says their past is often overlooked. Historical culture has oppressed the Chinese as much as many other groups.

The American Industrial Revolution took place during the nineteenth century. As a result, new inventions were produced including the Steam Engine. The Steam Engine was a revolutionary invention that was capable of mass transportation. Two companies, the Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad, worked together in order to commence the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. This caused the second wave of immigration, as cheap labor was required for the project. Primarily, the second wave of immigration in America consisted of Chinese and Irish immigrants. However, although both races were immigrants, Chinese immigrants were treated as outcasts in American society. This was shown through the use of government regulations placed upon the Chinese immigrants followed by frequent riots against them.

Although both races were immigrants, each immigrated to America for different reasons. The Irish suffered from the Great Potato famine. In Ireland, potatoes were the Irish’s main food source. However, a potato blight caused the crop to become rotten and inedible. As food became limited, there was a mass famine in Ireland. In order escape the famine, the majority of Irish people immigrated to the United States. From 1847 to 1852, nearly a million immigrants immigrated into the United States. They also immigrated to the United States for religious freedom. At the time, Ireland was colonized by Britain and encouraged to convert to Protestant. As an incentive to becoming Protestant, the government would provide financial aid to those who convert and ignore those who didn’t. The majority of the Irish population was Catholic at the time and unable to practice their religious beliefs. Because of this, they sought religious freedom they soon immigrated into the United States.

On the other hand, Chinese immigrants immigrated for economic purposes. Back in China, there was mass poverty. Families would live in small homes and have very limited food to eat from. Due to these conditions; the Chinese sought for economic opportunity. At the time, California was discovered to have large amounts of gold. Because of this, from 1849 to 1930, 380,000 Chinese Immigrants traveled to the United States. Doing so, they hoped to mine gold in order to send back money to their families in China. This period was known as the California Gold Rush. However, not all Chinese immigrants immigrated for gold, as they planned to work on the Transcontinental Railroad in order to make small accumulations of money in exchange for strenuous labor.

During the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, there were differences in productivity between the two races of immigrants. The two companies, Central Pacific Railroad and the Union Pacific Railroad planned to build on opposing sides and meet at the Utah Territory. The Union Pacific started from the east while the Central Pacific Railroad started from the west coast. The Chinese immigrants were shown to be a better choice then Irish immigrants. Not only did the Chinese work harder, but they also worked for less pay.

The Chinese immigrants were very successful due to their prior knowledge from China. Chinese laborers were able to use explosives and gunpowder, further speeding up the construction process. On the other hand, Irish workers had trouble keeping up with the Chinese, as they were found to be usually drunk and rowdy. Because of this, construction from the Central Pacific Railroad Company was slower than that of the Union Pacific Railroad. Irish workers would quit after receiving their first paycheck, as the work was very dangerous. This caused the Union Pacific to lack laborers. It was suggested by the Central Pacific to use Chinese immigrants, as they had a good reputation from the work they did. Soon enough, thousands of Chinese workers were hired to work for the Union Pacific Railroad, but were treated differently than white workers. Although they received 35$ per month (the same pay as white workers), they had to pay for other expenses. This included food and housing. The white workers had these necessities given to them with their work. Although this was the case, Chinese laborers used this to their advantage. Because they had to pay for food, their diets were healthier than other races. Chinese laborers were able to eat foods such as fish, fruit, and rice. Most importantly, they drank tea, which boiled the germs from water. On the other hand, the white workers drank contaminated water and ate unhealthy diets. Because of this, Chinese laborers were in a more fit condition than other workers. Although Chinese immigrants were key to the success of the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad, they were exploited by their bosses. They were often treated as if they were slaves, and whipped to work harder. This was not the worst of it all. When the project was completed, the white owners took complete responsibility over the project. The Chinese immigrants received no recognition over the harsh labor they bared. Afterwards, although they were able to become residents, Chinese citizens were unable to receive citizenship.

The Transcontinental Railroad was one example of Chinese immigrants taking unwanted jobs. The Chinese continued to pick up unwanted jobs. In the political cartoon, it depicts a Chinese immigrant working multiple jobs. It also shows the other non-Chinese immigrants standing around without labor. This political cartoon conveys the Chinese replacing workers, known as scabs. This was shown to be extremely prevalent during the Civil War. As workers left their jobs in order to fight in the war, many laborers sought out for workers to fill in for them. Chinese immigrants quickly filled up the positions, working hard for low wages. When soldiers returned from the war, conflict arose as their jobs were stolen away from them. Tension arose, as Anti-Chinese feelings began to arise. Soon enough, the government began to intervene and set laws that targeted Chinese immigrants. For example, this political cartoon depicts the Queue Ordinance law of 1873. This was an example of a racist law that the Chinese immigrants had to deal with. This law stated that criminals of the city had to cut their hair to a certain extent. This instilled fear into the Chinese immigrants, as they wouldn’t be accepted back to China if they lost their queues.

White Anti-Chinese groups began to sprout due to the Chinese immigrants stealing their jobs. In their meetings, they would call Chinese immigrants invaders of the United States and how they came to steal the money from other laborers. This soon led to violence throughout the country. For example, in Los Angeles a massacre took place, as a white officer was accidently hit. As a result, an angry mob of white people attacked the Chinese immigrants, invading and destroying their homes. This took place in multiple Chinese communities. These “Chinatowns” that developed over time were destroyed by angry mobs, causing a large amount of Chinese immigrants to be killed in the process. These mobs were only stopped due to military intervention by the government.

One notable leader that arose was Denis Kearney. He was an Irish immigrant who told speeches to the common laborer. In his speech “Appeal from California”, he said: “We have permitted them to become immensely rich against all sound republican policy, and they have turned upon us to sting us to death. They have seized upon the government by bribery and corruption. They have made speculation and public robbery a science. They have loaded the nation, the state, the county, and the city with debt. They have stolen the public lands. They have grasped all to themselves, and by their unprincipled greed brought a crisis of unparalleled distress on forty millions of people, who have natural resources to feed, clothe and shelter the whole human race”. In this part of his speech, Denis describes the invasion of Chinese immigrants into America. He blames the Chinese immigrants as the root cause of the lack of labor. He accuses them that their intention was to steal the available jobs while bribing the government on the side. Ironically, this was completely wrong as the government punished the Chinese immigrants the most out of all the other races of immigrants.

In response to all the commotion, the government continued to release laws that restricted Chinese immigrants. For example, in 1870 congress passed a law that stated Chinese immigrants were prohibited to become citizens. Because of this the Chinese had no political representation, as they were unable to elect political leaders. However, the government drew the line when they passed their final law, the Chinese Exclusion Act. The act itself prohibited further immigration of Chinese laborers into the United States. However, at the time America was already limiting other races to regulate the population. This act added something different, as it states: “…every Chinese person other than a laborer who may be entitled by said treaty and this act to come within the United States, and who shall be about to come to the United States, shall be identified as so entitled by the Chinese Government in each case, such identity to be evidenced by a certificate issued under the authority of said government”.

This part of the Chinese Exclusion Act states, that Chinese immigrants must carry around identification card at all times. The identification card contained information that made them recognizable. This included things like age, height, name (with English pronunciation), occupation, and a picture identifying them. This part of the Chinese Exclusion act was to remove as many Chinese immigrants as possible. Any illegal immigrants without this identification card would be sent back to China. This was clearly an act of racism, as other immigrants were not required to do so. The act was considered to be “successful”, as it decreased the Chinese population in America, giving more job opportunities to white laborers. Because of this, the Anti-Chinese groups pressured the government to continue the act. In 1892 Congress enacted the Geary Act, as it extended the Chinese Exclusion Act by another 10 years. By 1920, the Chinese population had plummeted by 40,000 due to this. They also had no say in this, as they were not considered citizens, but only residents of America.

The Chinese had many hardships during their time in America. Although they were showing to be hard workers in American society, this came as a double-edged sword as it was used against them. Because they stole white laborers’ jobs, they were treated poorly and suffered from it. This also caused government intervention and restricted the small freedoms they once had.

Introduction to the California Gold Rush and Its Diverse Impact

The California Gold Rush wasn’t solely negative for the people of California and the state’s overall economic situation. However, some groups of people did not experience this ‘California Dream’ some immigrants seemed to have lived. The Native Americans living in California at the time of the Gold Rush went through unbelievable hardships, easily suffering the most out of everyone. Furthermore, discrimination and racism were issues immigrants from all over the world, especially those of Spanish and Chinese ethnicity, had to experience when coming to California in hopes of gaining wealth. While the discrimination wasn’t nearly as prevalent in the beginning of the Gold Rush, it became more and more of a problem when the gold resources grew scarcer over time and the white Californian miners felt as though immigrants should have no right in taking their gold off of their land.

The Plight of Native Americans During the Gold Rush

The greatest suffering during and after the Gold Rush was, without a doubt, inflicted on the Indigenous population of California. In the early days of the gold rush the indigenous people worked alongside the white prospectors in the mines with one government report estimating that half of the gold miners in California in 1848 were Indians. According to Rawls in ‘Gold Diggers: Indian Miners in the California Gold Rush’, they used to labor as independent agents, trading their gold to white merchants for different kinds of goods. Kamiya adds that “one relatively cosmopolitan forty-niner wrote of them: ‘A more filthy and disgusting class of human beings you cannot well conceive… they seem to be only a few degrees removed from brutes’”. From here on onwards, Indians were cleared from the gold fields and expeditions to kill them were organized by white Americans. Even the governor of California at the time said, “A war of extermination would continue to be waged between the two races until the Indian race becomes extinct” (Kamiya). One can only imagine the constant fear Native Americans had to live with, simply because they weren’t white.

Native Americans’ Role in the Discovery of Gold and Subsequent Exploitation

In ‘Gold Diggers: Indian Miners in the California Gold Rush’, Rawls mentions the controversy surrounding the exact circumstances of the discovery of gold at Sutter’s Mill. He states that Marshall himself later explained that “at the discovery his laborers, ‘white and Indian’, had collected the first particles” (1976, p. 30). This shows that Native Americans more likely than not should have gotten credit for the discovery of gold in California just as much as white men have.

While Native Americans and white settlers worked alongside each other in the beginning of the gold rush, these amicable relationships between them soon began to change. With more and more immigrants from all over the world coming to California to dig for gold, the government officials – they were few and far between – grew overwhelmed and, according to the Native American Heritage Commission (NAHC), “all effective authority collapsed”, which led to inevitable chaos, violence and uncountable, senseless killings and assaults against Native Americans. The NAHC states that paramilitary troops were created whose seemingly only task was to kill and kidnap Indians. A girl from the Oustemah Nisenan tribe in Northern California later described her accounts with the white settlers as follows: “A life of ease and peace was interrupted when I was a little girl by the arrival of white people. Each day the population increased and the Indians feared the invaders and great consternation prevailed …. as gold excitement advanced, we were moved again and again, each time in haste. Indian children…. when taken into town would blacken their faces with dirt so the newcomers would not steal them….”.

Violence and Chaos: The Deterioration of Relations Between Settlers and Native Americans

This account, provided by the NAHC, shows the fear even young Native Americans had to go through on a daily basis with white men out to kidnap and kill them. Their fear wasn’t for no reason as there have been countless attacks by the white settlers against tribespeople, such as the 1852 Bridge Gulch Massacre and the 1860 Wiyot Massacre. In the former case, also known as the Hayfork Massacre or Natural Bridge Massacre, 150 members of the Wintu tribe in Trinity County were killed by 70 white American men, led by one of the county’s sheriffs William H. Dixon, leaving only about five children unharmed. The reasoning behind the killing was based on a misunderstanding: Colonel John Anderson was killed by the Wintu, however, it was a different group that had actually performed the attack. The people that were killed by the white American men in the Bridge Gulch massacre were innocent. In the latter, also referred to as the Indian Island massacre, 80 to 250 Wiyot people were killed in 1860 by white settlers, who had settled in the area of Humboldt County during the California Gold Rush, using axes, knives, and guns, leaving only a handful of survivors. The local sheriff, Barrant Van Ness, told the San Francisco Bulletin about the motive: revenge for cattle rustling, the act of stealing cattle. A local newspaper called the Northern Californian, described the massacre as follows: “Blood stood in pools on all sides, the walls of the huts were stained and the grass-colored red. Lying around were dead bodies of both sexes and all ages from the old man to the infant at the breast. Some had their heads split in twain by axes, others beaten into jelly with clubs, others pierced or cut to pieces with bowie knives. Some struck down as they mired, others had almost reached the water when overtaken and butchered”.

This incredibly graphic description of the Wiyot Massacre shows the violence Native Americans were subjected to even years after the California Gold Rush had come to an end. These and many more planned attacks of Native Americans before, during and after the Gold Rush, also called Native American Genocide, were senseless killings by white settlers enslaving, torturing and killing innocent Indians in order to take over their land.

Tragic Massacres and the Native American Genocide

Trafzer and Hyer describe the genocide as a ‘Holocaust’, which, in most people these days, will evoke memories of the World War II genocide of European Jews. However, I thoroughly agree with using the term ‘Holocaust’, when describing the killings of the Indians as it perfectly describes the “terror, death, and destruction brought to Native Americans in California during the era of the Gold Rush” (Hyer, and Trafzer, 1999). Not only did the white miners kill California’s people, they also destroyed their natural habitats, killing plants and animals. As Hyer and Trafzer describe it in ‘Exterminate Them: Written Accounts of the Murder, Rape, And Enslavement of Native Americans during the California Gold Rush’, most Indians in California relied on their surroundings being rich in natural foods such as fruits, vegetables, seeds, and nuts as well as fish and meat. The many white miners, however, further jeopardized the Native Americans’ lives by destroying their natural resources by “introducing more livestock and alien plants that destroyed the natural landscape of California” (Hyer, and Trafzer, 1999). What is more, the invasive gold mining techniques and toxic chemicals used in the process were incredibly harmful to the environment, forcing Native Americans away from their homes as it left the soil too poisoned for cultivation and cattle breeding. The total destruction of the environment, including the Native Americans’ habitat, will be further explained in Chapter 3.2 ‘The Destruction of the Environment During the California Gold Rush’.

Environmental Destruction and Enslavement of Native Americans

As if the killings weren’t enough, Native Americans were oftentimes also enslaved by white settlers. In ‘The Enslaved Native Americans Who Made the Gold Rush Possible’ Erin Blakemore explains that “the very land on which Marshall spotted the gold was part of a vast empire built on the slave labor of native peoples” (2018). According to her, John Sutter, the owner of the sawmill at Sutter’s Mill where gold was first discovered in California, would have never become as powerful as he did without the indigenous people, in his case the Nisenan people. He basically forged a friendship with them and ended up turning them into a militia, “outfitting them with uniforms and weapons and training them to defend his land” (Blakemore, 2018). Sutter was also accused of molesting and sexually assaulting Native American girls. The molestation, however, wasn’t the only way for him to show his control over the tribe. A nearby rancher recalled “Often the Sacramento River was colored red by the blood of the innocent Indians”. Sutter kept up to 800 Native Nisenan people as slaves, feeding them close to nothing and not even providing utensils or bowls for their food. At night the slaves were locked up, without beds or furniture. If they refused to do as they were told they were beaten (Blakemore, 2018). As described in ‘The Enslaved Native Americans Who Made the Gold Rush Possible’, the Native Americans weren’t just seen as workers, but also as currency. For as much as two dollars a day, Sutter traded the Nisenan peoples’ labor among local ranch owners and new settlers. John Sutter, unfortunately, wasn’t the only one exploiting the Native Americans. California’s government did very little to protect them and, in fact, only made the situation worse. In 1850, the Act for the Government and Protection of Indians was passed by the state legislature but, unfortunately, too good to be true. The Act did not help keep the Indians safe, despite its promising sounding name; All it did was make it easier for white settlers to sell and enslave them (Watson, 2015). The law seemed to not have been for but against the Native Americans residing in California. The historian James Rawls describes the law as follows: “The name of the law sounds benign, but the effect was malign in the extreme degree. Any white person under this law could declare Indians who were simply strolling about, who were not gainfully employed, to be vagrants, and take that charge before a justice of the peace, and a justice of the peace would then have those Indians seized and sold at public auction. And the person who bought them would have their labor for four months without compensation”.

Conclusion: The Lasting Negative Legacy of the Gold Rush

In other words, white settlers declared any Native American who was out and about minding their own business as vagrants. This would then allow the settlers to detain the Indians and sell them at auctions, allowing someone else to exploit the Indians for their labor, i.e. enslave them. Rawls states that “frustrated Anglo-American miners formed militia groups, trying to exterminate the ‘red devils’, as they liked to call them. Also, in the militia’s mind the Native Americans living in California had become a problem they needed to get rid of. When the Indians resisted the attacks on them and fought back, they failed miserably due to being outnumbered and outgunned”. Frank La Pena, who was a professor of Native American Studies at the California State University in Sacramento, describes someone’s account with a white settler along these lines: “There was a person, up in Humboldt County, who was found with a small child, a young Indian child. And they ask him, ‘What are you doing with this child?’, he said: ‘I am protecting him. He’s an orphan’. And they say, ‘Well, how do you know he’s orphan?’, and he said, ‘I killed his parents’”.

This shows just how heartless the attacks on Native Americans were and how the Act for the Government and Protection of the Indians did not, in fact, protect them at all, even leaving children without their parents. After the gold rush, killing Indians was made legal due to their aboriginal rights as landowners, says April Moore, a member of the Nisenan Maidu tribe and educator. She adds that the white men received a monetary reward for bringing in the dead bodies, or even just parts, of Indians. The law that prohibited the killing of Native Americans in California was changed only well after 1900 (‘Act for the Government and Protection of Indians’). All in all, the Act for the Government and Protections of Indians did nothing to improve the lives of the Native Americans, more so the exact opposite, leaving the Indians betrayed by their own state’s government.

During the 19th century, the world began to see an increase in the complex relationships people had with the environment. There were many factors that contributed to the migration of new settlers towards the west such as the Transcontinental Railroad and the Homestead Act, which forced Native Americans to leave their homeland to make room for new settlers. This also led to the land and environment in the west being altered by the new advancements and techniques the settlers brought over. The complex relationships people had with the environment were incredibly prevalent during the time of the American Frontier and the preservation of the environment.

The American Frontier was part of the land in the Great Plains region occupied by new European settlers when they migrated west. The frontier was started by the passing of the Homestead Act which provided up to 168 acres of free land to settlers who promised to live on it and take care of it. This was the beginning of the disputes over land between settlers and Native Americans because with all the new settlers moving west, the Native Americans were forced off their land onto reservations. The Homestead Act was the start of many improvements and ideas that got people to move west in order to have a better life and have access to more opportunities. The Native Americans experienced first hand the complex relationship people had with the environment because they had already established their way of life and began developing the land and were forced to leave in order to make room for new settlers. In order to make sure the Indians would leave, fur traders began to kill off the buffalo, which the Indians relied on very heavily. This was a huge setback to their way of life, so they eventually decided to leave their land so they could stay together with their tribes. Another way the environment was forever changed was with the construction of the Transcontinental Railroad. This was also a huge factor in getting people to come and settle in the west because it offered them the possibility of jobs, safer and faster transport from coast to coast, and the chance for more economic opportunities. The building of the railroad took a toll on the people building it, the land, and especially the Native Americans. In order to build the railroad, the entire buffalo population was killed which drastically affected the Native American’s life. As a result of this, many Native Americans began to sign treaties because they truly didn’t know what to do anymore. Shortly after, many Native Americans were sent to boarding schools, such as the Carlisle Indian School, which completely stripped them of their identity and culture, in order to “Kill the Indian, save the man”. One of the reasons the Indians were sent to these schools was an effect of the Dawes Act. The Dawes Act aimed to “Americanize” Native Americans, encouraged them to become farmers, and as a result, the tribes lost nearly 2⁄3 of their land. Another factor that caused people to move west was The Gold Rush. The Gold Rush had an enormous effect on the land because instead of people digging by hand for gold, they began to bring in hydraulic drills in order to get the job done faster. These drills damaged the land and also increased air and water pollution. The creation of new technologies and migration of people west to start a better life, had a drastic effect on the land and also increased the complex relationships people had with the environment.

Conservation of the environment was an idea that was started in the 20th century by President Teddy Roosevelt because he believed everyone should do their part in the world to take care of the environment. As president, Roosevelt used his executive power in order to pass laws and policies that helped aid in the conservation of the environment, because he saw a problem with the way people treated the land, and believed he could do something about it. One of the major policies he created was known as the American Antiquities Act. This act gave the president permission to “declare historic landmarks and other objects of history to be National Monuments”. The passing of this act also helped to establish 230 million acres of public land, that would later be used for all sorts of things in the future. This caused the beginning of the conservation movement because this was the first time in history when there was a true effort to help protect the environment. In 1903, he met a man by the name of John Muir who took Roosevelt on a three-day camping trip to Yosemite Valley and was able to show him the many damaging problems that were being caused to the land by people. Later, Roosevelt agreed and set aside Yosemite Valley to be under federal protection. Roosevelt took this opportunity to protect Yosemite Valley because he believed the land was being destroyed by people and new technologies and believed he had the power to do something about it. This was huge for his presidency because people began to see the drastic effects they were having on the environment and began to start taking care of the land they occupied. Roosevelt’s actions to preserve the environment, truly affected the course of history, because, without his enforcement of policies, the land they had would not have lasted for future generations. The CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) created by Franklin D. Roosevelt was another huge step in the environmentalism movement. The CCC was started as a work relief program to provide jobs for men out of work due to the Great Depression. The men would go to national parks and create camping sights, clean up the area, and manage forests. This was a very important group because it provided jobs while also helping to conserve the environment. Roosevelt was huge on environmentalism and aimed his presidency to reflect that by using his power in order to encourage people to take care and cherish the land they had, in order to preserve it for generations to come. Roosevelt told the people, “ We are not building this country for a day. It is to last through the ages”.

Overall, through the 19th and 20th centuries, there were many times and events that caused complex relationships between people and the environment. Even society today is still not successful at avoiding conflict but has significantly improved from issues in the past. Throughout the future, there will always be problems involving people and their relationship with the environment, but we can always look back and learn from history, and be thankful for the people that came before us.