The Dust Bowl in America Lesson IV: How Natural Disasters Cause Change in Community

What is a primary source? Brainstorm

Primary sources are original materials. They are from the time period involved and have not been filtered through interpretation or evaluation. Examples: journals, diaries, artifacts, audio recordings, interviews, photographs, letters, newspaper articles, original documents, records, speeches, etc.

Voices of the Dust United streaming http://player. discoveryeducation

Title: Dust bowl refugee in California Title: Dust bowl refugee in California. "We was starved out and we live on perhaps. We could maybe find a little work if we could afford to roll“. What problems cause people to become refugees? What can we do to help people who are refugees?

Title: Leveling hummocks in dust bowl, thirty miles north of Dalhart, Texas. Farmer: "Every dime I got is tied up right here. If I don't get it out, I've got to drive off and leave it. Where would I go and what would I do? I know what the land did once for me, maybe it will do it again." Son: "It would be better if the sod had never been broke. My father's broke plenty of it. Could I get a job in California?"

What would you do if this happened in your neighborhood? What kind of person would’ve taken this picture?

Title: Four families, three of them related with fifteen children, from the Dust Bowl in Texas in an overnight roadside camp near Calipatria, California

Title: Along the highway near Bakersfield, California Title: Along the highway near Bakersfield, California. Dust bowl refugees

Title: Dust bowl farmers of west Texas in town

If you were living during the Dust Bowl on a farm, how would you describe your life?

Dust Bowl Refugees Arrive in California Describe a typical day for a family fleeing the dust bowl. Do you think this is a good picture to illustrate the story of people fleeing the dust bowl?

Squatter camp on county road near Calipatria Squatter camp on county road near Calipatria. Forty families from the dust bowl have been camped here for months on the edge of the pea fields. There has been no work because the crop was frozen.

Home of a dust bowl refugee in California. Imperial County

Photo Analysis and Primary Resources What is going on in this picture? How would you describe the expression on the face of the man? What might he be thinking about? Would the meaning of this picture change if several of the men faced towards the camera instead of just one? Explain your answer. Do you think a person needs to have personally experienced unemployment and hunger to understand this photograph? Who should see this photograph? Does the publication of the photo like this help the people pictured in it? Why /Why not? Dorothea Lange American, 1933, print 1950s

How would you describe the woman’s expression How would you describe the woman’s expression? What does the woman’s gesture tell you about the way she is feeling”? Migrant mother during Dust Bowl era photo by Dorothea Lange David Alfaro Siqueiros. (Mexican, 1896-1974) “The Sob”