3.+CREATING+A+RELATIONSHIP+WITH+NATURE+text


 * CREATING A RELATIONSHIP WITH NATURE - cont'd.

Short Biographical Sketch: Blue Hole, Little Miami River, Robert S. Duncanson. (Looking & Learning) School Arts | October 01, 2003 | Braunlin-Jones, Heather ** Robert S. Duncanson was born in Fayette, New York, around 1821, the son of free African American parents. His paternal grandfather was the illegitimate son of a Virginia slave owner who had been given freedom as a young man. The Duncanson family later settled in Monroe, Michigan, and became skilled in house painting, decorating, and carpentry. It was in these trades that Duncanson began to work during the late 1830s. Desiring to become an artist, he left Michigan around 1840 for Cincinnati, which was, at that time, the economic and cultural center of the United States west of the Allegheny Mountains.

Upon his arrival, Duncanson settled in Mount Healthy, a neighborhood northwest of the city known for its abolitionist sympathies and home to a tightly knit group of African Americans. Although he was aware of the struggles he would face as an African American working in a city so close to the South, he soon received several commissions from Cincinnati citizens.

Among those Cincinnatians who were interested in Duncanson was Nicholas Longworth (1783-1863), the city's greatest patron of the arts. Long-worth commissioned Duncanson to create a series of landscape murals for Belmont, his home (now the Taft Museum of Art in Cincinnati). He also financed Duncanson's trip to Europe to further Duncanson's artistic studies. In 1853 Duncanson became the first African American artist to make the Grand Tour of Europe, stopping in London, Paris, and Florence. While on this excursion, his interest in painting landscapes increased.

After returning to Cincinnati, Duncanson continued to paint landscapes in addition to portraits of local abolitionists, including Longworth. His style of landscape painting was influenced by the Hudson River School painters, which included such artists as Thomas Cole (1801-1848) and Asher B. Durand (1796-1886), whose works Duncanson would have seen during a number of Cincinnati exhibitions. The Hudson River School viewed America's untamed land as the Garden of Eden and saw the country's natural wilderness as a source of national pride. Duncanson was also influenced by a group of Cincinnati painters, including Worthington Whittredge (1820-1910) and William L. Sonntag (1822-1900]. The three artists would often venture on excursions throughout the Ohio River Valley, looking for views and scenes for their paintings.

With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Duncanson traveled through the northern United States and Canada to escape the turmoil of the fighting. Duncanson ventured on a second expedition to Europe in the summer of 1865, when he traveled to Scotland. While there, he received international acclaim from the British press for his works of art.

By the late 1860s Duncanson was struggling with mental illness, believing the spirit of a master artist possessed him. His delusions may have been brought on by his continuous exposure to lead-based paint, first as a housepainter and later as an artist. This exposure eventually led to the poisoning of his mind and body. Having spent his last years in Michigan, Duncanson died in a Detroit sanatorium on December 21, 1872. ** STUDENT-FRIENDLY INQUIRY RUBRIC ** ||
 * ** Performance Level 3 **
 * Mastery - Got It! ** || ** PL 2 **
 * Approaching Mastery **
 * Almost there ** || ** PL 1 **
 * Below Mastery **
 * Some way to go **
 * Student poses a question || Student sharpens a question provided by the teacher || Student engages in a question provided by the teacher ||
 * Student gives priority to evidence in responding to question || Student is directed to the evidence by the teacher || Student is given the evidence by the teacher ||
 * Student formulates explanations from evidence || Student is given possible ways to use the evidence to formulate an explanation || Student is given the evidence and told how to analyze it ||
 * Student connects explanation to scientific or art knowledge || Student is directed toward areas of science and art knowledge || Student is given possible connections to science and art knowledge ||
 * Student forms reasonable and logical argument to communicate and justify explanation || Student is coached in the development of communication/ Student communicates and justifies broadly || Student is given steps, guidelines and procedures to use to sharpen communication ||
 * The above rubric was adapted from //Essentials Features of// **
 * // Classroom Inquiry and Variations //**

Long ago a river ran wild through a land of towering forests. Bears, moose, and herds of deer, hawks and owls all made their homes in the peaceful river valley. Geese paused on their long migration and rested on its banks. Beavers, turtles, and schools of fish swam in its clear waters. One day a group of native people, searching for a place to settle, came upon the river valley. From atop the highest mountain, known today as Mt. Wachusett, they saw the river nestled in its valley, a silver sliver in the sun. They came down from the mountain, and at the river’s edge they knelt to quench their thirst with its clear water. Pebbles shone up from the bottom. “Let us settle by this river, said the chief of the native people. He named the river Nash-a-way – River with the Pebbled Bottom. By the Nash-a-way, Chief Weeawa’s people built a village. They gathered cattails from the riverbanks to thatch their dwellings. In the forest they set fire to clear brush from the forest floor. In these clearings they planted corn and squash for eating. They made arrows for hunting and canoes for river travel. When the Indians hunted in the forest or caught salmon in the river, they killed only what they needed for themselves for food and clothing. They asked all the forest creatures that they killed to please forgive them. The Nashua people saw a rhythm in their lives and in the seasons. The river, land, and forest provided all they needed. The Nashua had lives for generations by the clear, clean, flowing river when one day a pale-skinned trader came with a boatload full of treasures. He brought shiny metal knives, colored beads, and cooking kettles, mirrors, tools, and bolts of bright cloth. His wares seemed like magic. The Nashua welcomed him, traded furs, and soon a trading post was built. In the many years that followed. The settlers’ village and others like it grew and the Nash-a-way became the Nashua. The settlers worked together to clear the land by cutting down the forests, which they thought were full of danger – wilderness that they would conquer. They hunted wolves and beaver, killing much more than they needed. Extra pelts were sent to England in return for goods and money. The settlers built sawmills along the river, which the Nashua’s current powered. They built dams to make the millponds that were used to store water. They cut down the towering forest and floated tree trunks down the river. The logs were cut up into lumber, which was used for building houses. The settlers built fences for their pastures, plowed the fields, and planted crops. They called the land their own and told the Indians not to trespass. Hunting land disappeared as the settlers cleared the forest. Indian fishing rights vanished as the settlers claimed the river. The Indians’ ways were disrupted and they began to fight the settlers. The wars raged for many years but the Indians’ bows and arrows were no match against the gunpowder, and so the settlers’ rifles drove the Indians from the land. Through a hundred years of fighting, the Nashua was a healthy river, sometimes dammed for grist and sawmills, but still flowing wild and free. Muskrats, fish, and turtles still swam from bank to bank. Deer still came to drink from the river, and owls, raccoons, and beaver fed there. At the start of the new century, an industrial revolution came to the Nashua’s banks and waters. Many new machines were invented. Some spun thread from wool and cotton. Others wove the thread into cloth. Some machines turned wood to pulp, and others made the pulp into paper. Leftover pulp and dye and fiber was dumped into the Nashua River, whose swiftly flowing current washed away the waste. These were times of much excitement, times of “progress” and “invention.” Factories along the Nashua River made new things of new materials. Telephones and radios and other things were made of plastics. Chemicals and plastic waste were also dumped into the river. Soon the Nashua’s fish and wildlife grew sick from this pollution. The paper mills continued to pollute the Nashua’s waters. Every day for many decades pulp was dumped into the Nashua, and as the pulp clogged up the river, it began to run more slowly. As the pulp decomposed, bad smells welled up from the river. People who lived near the river smelled its stench and stayed far from it. Each day as the mills dyed paper red, green, blue, and yellow, the Nashua ran whatever color the paper was dyed. Soon no fish lived in the river. No birds stopped on their migration. No one could see pebbles shining through murky water. The Nashua was dark and dirty. The Nashua was slowly dying. One night Oweana, a descendant of Weeawa who still lived by the Nashua, had a dream so vivid that he awoke in wide-eyed wonder. In his dream Chief Weeawa’s spirit returned to the river and saw it as it was now – still and deadly. Chief Weeawa mourned for the Nash-a-way, but where his tears fell upon the dirty waters, the waters were cleansed until the river once again flowed freely. The next morning Oweana went to speak to his friend Marion. When he told her of his dream, she said, “I had this dream also! River with the Pebbled Bottom is the name Weeawa gave it, but today no pebbles shine through the Nashua River’s waters.” Together they decided something must be done. Marion traveled to each town along the Nashua. She spoke of the river’s history and of her vision to restore it. “No longer do we have a river – it’s a stinking, smelly sewer. But it wasn’t always this way.” People listened and imagined a sparkling river, full of fish. They imagined pebbles shining up through clear waters. They signed petitions and sent letters. They convinced the paper mills to build a plant to process the waste. They persuaded the factories to stop dumping. Finally, new laws were passed and the factories stopped polluting. Slowly, slowly, the Nashua’s current began to clean its water. Year by year the river carried away the dyes and fiber to the ocean. Marion and Oweana thanked the people who had helped to clean the Nashua. Through the meadows, towns, and cities, the Nashua once again flows freely. Paper pulp no longer clogs it. Chemicals no longer foul it. Now we walk along its banks and row upon its fragrant waters. We can set our boats upon it and with its current, drift downstream. Once again the river runs wild through a towering forest greenway. Red-tailed hawks and barred owls live here. Geese pause from their long migration and rest on the riverbanks. Deer come to drink from the river’s waters. We, too, have settled by this river. Pebbles shine up through clear water. Nashua is what we call it – River with the Pebbled Bottom.
 * // A River Ran Wild //**** by Lynne Cherry **

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