This week I focused on reframing and strengthening my research topic. After my meeting with Professor Vider I realized that my previous research focus was a little difficult to prove with sources because there was an absence of immigrants in the national parks. After thinking for around a day and half I was able to find a new area of focus. I am still researching national parks in the early 20th century, but instead of how they demonstrated anti-immigrant sentiment I want to show how national parks were created to showcase American supremacy/ foster nationalism, and yet simultaneously they were not for everyone. This highlights who actually benefited from American 'democracy' in the early 20th century. I will research this through the lens of the founders (who championed eugenics), the elitist nature of the parks and the forced removal of indigenous peoples from this land. A question that will guide this research is To what extent did the founding of national parks represent 20th century American ideals? I am also fascinated with how national parks were a symbol in the early 20th century equivalent to the American dream.
Thankfully, much of the research I already completed for the other topic will still be useful for me. I continued to find primary sources this week, including new ones that mention Native Americans in Yosemite and Yellowstone. I also read the secondary source "National Parks: The American Experience" by Alfred Runte. This book is extremely useful for my research as it details why national parks were created in America and how they were used as tourist locations over the years. Currently, I have a lot of sources that I will need to sort through in the coming weeks. Most of them are digitized, but a couple are a bit difficult to track down. Overall, I am very happy with this week's progress and how the research is coming around.