13 (D-118) "Go West Young Man"

Mohave Indians, 1871 photograph.

Joshua Trees and Yucca plants

An Indiana newspaper journalist, John Soule, wrote in 1851: "Go West young man, and grow up with the country!" United States citizens and immigrants migrated all the way to the Pacific Ocean by the mid-nineteenth century. Western expansion. Manifest Destiny. (Do you know these terms?) But, because we are leaving from Los Angeles, we are going East!!

13. (D -118) "Go West young man, go West!" Twenty-two Western States form The American West (west of the Mississippi River).

We are going to visit four of them: California, Nevada, Arizona and Utah. First, we will take the bus from Los Angeles to Laughlin, Nevada, 371 kilometers. We'll cross part of the Mojave Desert.* In this desert there are between 1,750 and 2,000 species of plants. Do you know the Yucca plant and the Joshua Tree? The Mormans gave the name to this tree -- it looks like the Biblical Joshua who stretches his hands up to the sky in prayer.

Jane

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VOCABULARY:

grow up = grandir

looks like =resembles

prayer = prière

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* The Mojave Desert = The name comes from the Mohave tribe of Native Americans. Both "Mohave" and "Mojave" are accepted and interchangeable for the Indian name "Aha macave". Their name comes from two words: aha, meaning 'water', and macave, meaning 'along or beside', and to them it means 'people who live along the river'.