Mountain School at Home “ACHOTUS” Ep2: George Holmes
We're excited to share a new series of videos based on a Mountain School activity called A Cultural History of the Upper Skagit, or "ACHOTUS." It's a lesson in which students imagine traveling back in time to meet historical figures relevant to the area around the Environmental Learning Center. We teach cultural history so that students have a fuller understanding of human interaction with this landscape and to recognize the variety of ways people from different backgrounds connect to a place like this. We hope students will see themselves in these people and stories and think about the ways that they connect to the places and communities in which they live. The series was created by our instructors Jillian Ross, Imara White, Alexa Brandy and Kari Paustian during the pandemic as a way to reach people at home and support online learning. Watch the full series on YouTube here.
Learn more about…
- George Holmes:
- NOCA Presentation_BlackMiners.pdf; presentation by Denaya Shorter and Glenn Nelson of The Trail Posse including primary source images and documents
- George Holmes, from slave to North Cascades miner; article from Skagit River Journal
- NCCC – Impressions of the North Cascades (My Place in the Mountains); essays from North Cascades Conservation Council (NCCC)
- North Cascades:History Basic Data (Chapter 6); article from the National Park Service
- Mining in the Skagit Valley:
- Paul Pitzer, Building the Skagit, Chapter 1
- Miners – North Cascades National Park (US National Park Service); article from the National Park Service
- North Cascades:History Basic Data (Chapter 5); article from the National Park Service
- The post-Civil War era and historical concepts mentioned in the video:
- Reconstruction; collection of videos and media from PBS
- The Rise and Fall of Jim Crow; collection of videos and media from PBS
- Sundown towns: Sundown Towns: A Hidden Dimension of American Racism
- 40-acres and a mule: The Truth Behind ’40 Acres and a Mule’ | African American History Blog | The African Americans: Many Rivers to Cross ; Land: Giving Rise to the Famous Phrase 40 Acres & a Mule
- Sharecropping: Sharecropping: Lesson for Kids ; Sharecropping | Slavery By Another Name Bento ; Sharecropping – Definition, System & Facts – HISTORY
Glossary of Terms:
- Time Immemorial: The very distant past – longer than humans have been able to record time and historical eras, longer than what human memory allows
- Sharecropping: A type of farming in which tenant farmers rent plots of land from a landowner in return for a portion of their crop, which is given to the landowner at the end of each year.
- Mason: A builder and worker in stone
- Union: An organized association of workers, often in a trade or profession, formed to protect and further their rights and interests
- Sundown town: An all-white municipality or neighborhood in the United States that practice a form of segregation by excluding non-whites via some combination of discriminatory local laws, intimidation, and violence
- Hydraulic system: A system operated by a liquid (often water) moving in a confined space under pressure
Thank you for helping us offer these at-home lessons for transformative learning experiences in nature by making a gift at www.ncascades.org/give.