Week Fourteen: Political Developments Leading to Statehood

1895 Rand McNally Library of Congress

Professor Fritz’s lecture (~34 minutes) starts us off by positing the year 1890 as the demarcation line between the frontier era and the modern era in the West. (There are those who would disagree with him, but we’ll save that argument for another time.) He describes the sequence of events that took our region from territorial status to statehood, and shows how political factionalism and general chaos set the stage for later labor and agrarian unrest.

The Maps section this week is huge and illustrates how political status was documented in map form. Take some time to peruse what’s laid out there – it’s a great visual narrative of political developments during this period.

In Tribal Perspectives we’ve provided resources to help you see the effects of the Dawes Act and other legislation on the size of Indian reservations. The issue of tribal sovereignty, is something to begin thinking about as reservation policies become more formalized.

In People, you’ll find several photographs and images that we think offer yet another window into the history of the Northwest. In Art and Literature we’ve included photos of memorials and architecture that serve a public (and political) function.

Finally, on the Research page you’ll find our manifesto on the virtues of doing real, hands-on, archival research. We’ve included a website from Washington State for those interested in using newspapers as primary resources (and yes, we are aware of the irony here). These and other newspapers are an excellent source for research into issues from this week’s topic.

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