Chase Klausner I pledge National History Day Process Paper January 24, 2014 Process Paper The choosing

of my topic began with Native Americans in general. I am personally intrigued by Native American culture, spirituality, and history. Starting with Native Americans, I wanted to focus in on one region, and from there, go into specifics in researching about their ways of life. I chose the Northwestern region and focused on Iroquois Confederacy. After choosing a particular Native group and region, I proceeded to ponder what it was I wanted to research about the Iroquois. Through general research and inquiry, I saw a large number of references to the Iroquois strong political system of democracy, their formidable fighting power, and resilient attitudes toward European expansion. I chose this topic because of my interest in Native Americans and the Iroquois their influence on this country today. My research was conducted in two ways. In the first way, looked for primary sources and secondary sources through four databases. For primary sources I searched the databases American Memory Collection and American Historical Newspapers; for secondary sources, I searched the databases JSTOR and Global Issues In Context. I found many viable sources to use from these databases. The second way I researched my topic was searching Google by using keywords like Iroquois or Iroquois Confederacy and using only credible sites. Using these two ways of research, I created an eclectic and expansive bibliography to chose from when putting my website into action.

I knew from the beginning I wanted to either conduct a website or an exhibit for my project. I knew these were my two favorite options because I knew I wanted to bring my project to life with not only words, but also pictures, illustrations, and other media aspects apart from the physical writing of the project. From there, I proceeded to chose a website for my project because I wanted the most visually enticing experience for the viewer where just writing would not be the only tool of the project. Because I chose a website, I can now choose from tools like slideshows, pictures, videos, text, or maps to illustrate my points instead of being constrained to just text. This years National History Day theme is rights and responsibilities. There are a few ways my topic ties into this theme. In times of European frontiers and westward expansion, Native Americans, including the Iroquois, were viewed as another bump in the road and inferior to Europeans. Despite this stereotype and judgment, the Iroquois developed a system of government in which founding fathers of America based many ideas off of and some of these ideas were included in the Constitution, Articles of Confederation, and Bill of Rights. As I look back on how the time and people portrayed Native Americans, and in my case, Iroquois, I see that the rights acknowledged to them, were minimal to none. Word Count: 470 words