Initial+Proposal

Upon first hearing that my good friend was taking a trip with her youth group to a Native American Reservation, I was immediately interested. Venturing further, I attended meetings with her ministers, and other church officials before i had the "ok," and from then on my anticipation grew as the trip to North Dakota got closer and closer. Although I had months in advance to pack, organize, and get ready for my departure, nothing could have prepared me for what I was about to experience. Extreme poverty and devastation among the living standards was evident, but not so evident were other social issues such as education, alcohol and drug addictions, rivalries, and the home life of many of these people. As I was exposed to these conditions, I was shocked, and wondered how this could occur, and how many people do not know about this. This lead me to ask the question, how does the United States government continually to negatively affect the economic and social states of the Standing Rock Reservation? While working to research and develop the answer to the question, I plan to follow Mr. Martin's set deadlines for each assignment. However, I will begin to work on the project aspect immediately in order to guarantee a success. By meeting each deadline, I am able to efficiently manage my time effectively, leading me to have a better chance of success.

To complete this project, however, I need to research particular aspects of my project. Credible and scholarly sources are a must! I am especially interested in researching primary sources and documents to achieve a understanding of the magnitude of what is occurring on the reservation.

With this project, I anticipate to encounter many different problems and conflicts. The first of these, is managing the work and time necessary to have a successful project. I expect to spent a fair amount of time, working on my project each week. Resources such as library books, databases, primary sources, and scholarly websites will be used. While facing problems and challenges, such as solving my problem and aiming for “too high” of a result for my project, my mentor and topic expert will be able to support me by keeping my spirits high, and staying focused on the research, project, and paper components of my research.