I remember learning about Columbus at a very young age actually, the only reason I was mentioned the history was because of the idea that we would get a day off from school in memory of the “discovery” of the Americas by the man named Christopher Columbus. To be honest, I never really thought much about it since I was introduced to the story of how everything was done until I was probably in 5th grade where I was introduced to the history. I remember that I was being taught about the fact that it was an accident and that arriving in the Americas wasn’t planned. After that intro, I was told that these men brought in a lot of innovation to these groups of people that were already on the land which made me question what went on which I was taught later on in 7th-8th grade. The oppressive methods that were used created a negative impact on people to this day by having memories of the events that occurred and how people who belong to Indigenous communities are still affected. I have been able to see a bigger perspective of the situation and it has really opened my eyes to the side of the people being oppressed.
The introduction of the methods of the building was very interesting, since I am trying to do a self-designed major in architecture, being able to hear these methods and knowing how much the world has grown technologically has been surprising. Although the way that it was being explained seemed pretty similar to the methods that are used now in day to build homes as well. The use of nature as a resource has changed greatly with the use of innovations like fake plants or other things that replaced the beauty of nature. In the reading Encounters at the Heart of the World chapter 3, they really introduced the whole idea of building structures and the use of “post-and-beam” and “Hpuse 12 instead had four central posts aligned with the cardinal compass points in a square around a fire pit. The other houses had a vertical wall post only on their two long sides, while House 12 had them on all four.”(Encounters at the Heart of the World, Fenn, pg.56) The use of the reinforcement on the house being able to maintain four walls around makes it interesting since they can use the methods of other people who would migrate which meant that there was still some type of communication even if they weren’t around each other physically, they adapted to the new improvements they would find from other groups in their migrations.