American Studies Commons^™

Travelstead, Nelle (Gooch), 1888-1974 (Sc 2046), Manuscripts & Folklife Archives

MSS Finding Aids

Finding aid only for Manuscripts Small Collection 2046. Undated Christmas poem written by Nelle Gooch Travelstead for her grandson Coleman Travelstead; explanatory letter 30 June 2008 from Coleman Travelstead to Jonathan Jeffrey.

Portraits Of Online Teaching And Learning: The Experiences Of An Instructor And Six Graduate Students In A Course Entitled Educating Students With Autism, Sarah R. Semon

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Throughout the last decade (1999-2009) Florida's Bureau of Exceptional Education Student Services, in partnership with Institutions of Higher Education created the Florida Virtual ESE program to develop and deliver online professional development courses. The state also provided tuition support for teachers to participate in online professional development coursework to earn credentials necessary to be considered Highly Qualified. Online course delivery is thought to be a cost-effective approach to the provision of professional development for in-service teachers. However, there is a need to examine what it takes to create meaningful online learning experiences that facilitate the goals and objectives particular to …

Myth Management: The Nature Of The Hero In Callimachus’ Hecale And Catullus’ Poem 64, Oraleze D. Byars

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Two of the best known examples of the Hellenistic epyllion are the Hecale by Callimachus and poem 64 by Catullus. Both poems feature Theseus, a traditional hero whose mythology dates to Homer and Hesiod. Callimachus chose an episode from the Theseus tradition which highlighted his positive side, while Catullus picked a chapter from the mythic stores which put him in the worst possible light. This paper will examine the two poet's use of mythological material - how they suppressed, included and altered the earlier traditions - to make their very antithetical cases for Theseus. In addition to Theseus, I will …

The Effects Of Professional Development Efforts On Educator Beliefs And Perceptions Of Competency Within A School-Based Response To Intervention Model, Joshua Nadeau

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify and understand relationships between educators' perceived skills, observed practices, and stated beliefs - as well as the impact of evidence-based professional development upon those relationships - during the first year of ongoing school-based implementation for Florida's Statewide Problem- Solving/Response to Intervention (PS/RtI) Project. The PS/RtI model is conceptualized as providing a data-based template to drive student service delivery decisions; as providing a tiered framework of assessment and evaluation to maximize efficiency of allocated school funds; and as defining the determination of eligibility for special education services to be based solely upon a …

Remembering Gus Kermes, Sandra A. Soule

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Long time Shaker Seminar participant and artist Constantine J. Kermes, affectionately known to his countless friends as “Gus,” passed away on May 19, 2009, in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. Many of his fellow Seminar attendees remember Gus constantly painting when visiting Shaker sites. He painted Shaker village views, their buildings and workspaces, and the people who had populated them.

Daughter Of The Shakers: The Story Of Eleanor Brooks Fairs, Johanne Grewell

American Communal Societies Quarterly

In this presentation I shall try to explain how Eldress Anna's "girls" got to the South Family, Watervliet, what their life was like when they lived with the Shakers and how that experience shaped their lives after they joined “the world.” I’m telling the story based on my recollections and on family records pertaining to one girl and her two sisters, orphans who were brought up by the Shakers. The girl was Eleanor Brooks Fairs, and my name is Johanne Fairs Grewell. Eleanor was my mother, and I do so wish she were here to tell her story.

This is …

Redefining The Dust Bowl Region Via Popular Perception And Geotechnology, Jess C. Porter, G. Allen Finchum

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

The Dust Bowl is a historical vernacular region that has been delimited by a diverse group of academics, literary authors, and popular cultural voices. However, the general public’s perception of the Dust Bowl region has not been mapped and analyzed. This research queried residents of 93 Great Plains counties in order to ascertain their perceptions and knowledge of the vernacular Dust Bowl region. Analysis of the responses via the application of geographic information system mapping reveals striking differences between respondents of varying age and place of residence. Findings suggest that spatial understanding of the Dust Bowl phenomena is eroding among …

"So Long As I Can Read": Farm Women's Reading Experiences In Depression-Era South Dakota, Lisa Lindell

Hilton M. Briggs Library Faculty Publications

During the Great Depression, with conditions grim, entertainment scarce, and educational opportunities limited, many South Dakota farm women relied on reading to fill emotional, social, and informational needs. To read to any degree, these rural women had to overcome multiple obstacles. Extensive reading (whether books, farm journals, or newspapers) was limited to those who had access to publications and could make time to read. The South Dakota Free Library Commission was valuable in circulating reading materials to the state's rural population. In the 1930s the commission collaborated with the USDA's Extension Service in a popular reading project geared toward South …

Identity Anxiety And The Power And Problem Of Naming In African American And Jewish American Literature, Rachael Peckham

English Faculty Research

This article examines the fraught power of names and (re)naming in African-American and Jewish-authored literature in 20^th-century America. The article applies various concepts within critical race theory, such as critic Stuart Hall's theories on cultural identity, to The Autobiography of Malcolm X, Ralph Ellison's personal essay "Hidden Name and Complex Fate," and Bernard Malamud's short story "The Lady of the Lake." In each of these texts, African-American and Jewish characters' names serve as loaded markers for the shifting planes of identity in tension with a culture and history of oppression.

Book Review: Daschle Vs. Thune: Anatomy Of A High-Plains Senate Race By Jon K. Lauck, Thomas D. Isern

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Historian, political operative, and blogger Jon K. Lauck offers an insider’s account of the 2004 United States Senate race in South Dakota. Democrat Tom Daschle, leader of his party in the Senate, sought reelection and was challenged by Republican John Thune. Lauck seeks to explain Thune’s surprising victory—or rather, as the account unfolds, Daschle’s bitter loss. As is the way with insider accounts, this one produces some striking insights, but is also somewhat limited by its perspective.

Daschle in 2004 struggled, as Lauck puts it, with “the LBJ dilemma”—how to lead a liberal party in Washington while campaigning back home …

Abundance And Distribution Of Lesser Snow And Ross’S Geese In The Rainwater Basin And Central Platte River Valley Of Nebraska, Mark P. Vrtiska, Susan Sullivan

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

The number of lesser snow geese (Chen caerulescens) and Ross’s geese (C. rossii), hereinafter called “light geese,” staging during spring in the Rainwater Basin and Central Platte River Valley of south-central Nebraska has dramatically increased since the late 1980s. However, there has been no documentation of the abundance or distribution of light geese across the Rainwater Basin and Central Platte River Valley and the relationship of distribution to conservation-order activities. We used aerial transect surveys and distance sampling methodology to estimate abundance and distribution of light geese in the Rainwater Basin and Central Platte River Valley …

American Treasures (Exhibit Guide), Osher Map Library And Smith Center For Cartographic Education

Osher Map Library Miscellaneous Publications

American Treasures (Exhibit Guide). October 18, 2009 to August 21, 2010

Maps offer such compelling insights into the past that anyone, regardless of age or educational level, can enjoy and learn from them. To celebrate OML's renovation and expansion, this exhibition explores the library’s rich and varied collections and its mission to preserve those collections and make them accessible.

Curated by Matthew Edney.

Book Review: Collaborating At The Trowel’S Edge: Teaching And Learning In Indigenous Archaeology Edited By Stephen W. Silliman, Joe Watkins

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

This book is an outgrowth of a symposium presented at the 2005 Society for American Archaeology annual meeting and judged by the Amerind Foundation as the conference’s outstanding symposium. The original symposium papers, further refined during an Amerind Foundation-sponsored seminar held in October of the same year, form the book’s chapters. The volume’s rather lofty goal, as set out in Silliman’s introductory chapter, is to “redirect contemporary archaeology in many ways that are more methodologically rich, theoretically interesting, culturally sensitive, community responsive, ethically aware, and socially just.”

The chapters in part 1 focus on field schools and workshops conducted in …

Arcadian Visions Of The Past, Mark Rice

American Studies Faculty/Staff Publications

In lieu of an abstract, here is the article's first paragraph:

A couple of years ago, my wife gave me a book about my childhood hometown of Richland, Washington, a small desert city where I haven’t lived for more than twenty years. The book, a pleasantly slim volume simply titled Richland, is one in a series of photographic histories of communities around the United States published by Arcadia Publishing. Like all of Arcadia’s books, Richland is packed full of photographs, and its pages showed many of the buildings, neighborhoods, and desert landscapes that I had known intimately as a child …

Birth, Life, And Death Of Olive Branch, 1896-1924, Vernon Squire

American Communal Societies Quarterly

For those who are just beginning their searches and studies about Shakers, the title might seem to suggest that this article is about a Shaker named Olive Branch. For those more experienced in Shaker studies, they will recognize that Olive Branch refers to the Shaker community in Florida, which existed from 1896 to 1924.

Shaker Messages From Mary Magdalene And John Calvin: Haughty Spirits, Bearing For The Dead, And The Problem Of History, Jane F. Crosthwaite

American Communal Societies Quarterly

Among the pleasures and puzzles of the Era of Manifestations are the many messages that Shaker instruments received from personages long dead. The responsibility and perhaps temptation of the scholar is to decode these messages, to analyze the intention of the instrument, the value of the message, and the utility of the experience for the larger Shaker enterprise.

I have chosen two messages to examine; although they are rather dissimilar—one being a life story from Mary Magdalene and the other a confession from John Calvin—they do have several features in common. They exemplify the range of messages recorded by Shaker …

Long-Term Agricultural Land-Use Trends In Nebraska, 1866–2007, Tim L. Hiller, Larkin A. Powell, Tim D. Mccoy, Jeffrey J. Lusk

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Although landscape changes from anthropogenic causes occur at much faster rates than those from natural processes (e.g., geological, vegetation succession), human perception of such changes is often subjective, inaccurate, or nonexistent. Given the large-scale land-use changes that have occurred throughout the Great Plains, the potential impacts of land-use changes on ecological systems, and the insight gained from knowledge of land-use trends (e.g., to compare to wildlife population trends), we synthesized information related to land-use trends in Nebraska during 1866–2007. We discussed and interpreted known and potential causes of short- and long-term land-use trends based on agricultural and weather data; farm …

A Taxonomic Study Of Populations Of Tiger Beetles In The Cicindela Longilabris Complex From The Black Hills Of South Dakota, Stephen M. Spomer

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Three phenotypes within the Cicindela longilabris complex are present in the vicinity of the Black Hills in South Dakota: Laurent’s boreal long-lipped tiger beetle, Cicindela longilabris laurentii; the prairie long-lipped tiger beetle, Cicindela nebraskana; and a third phenotype that shares characteristics of both species. By comparing morphological and ecological characteristics between these three phenotypes, I was able to separate C. longilabris and C. nebraskana using ventral and proepisternal color, presence or absence of a middle band on the elytra, elytral luster, labral width:length ratio, and hind tarsal length. Somewhat less useful characters were labral color and total length. The …

Book Review: Grappling With Demon Rum: The Cultural Struggle Over Liquor In Early Oklahoma By James E. Klein, Davis D. Joyce

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

When asked to review this book for Great Plains Research, the first thought to cross my mind was of Jimmie Lewis Franklin’s Born Sober: Prohibition in Oklahoma, 1907-1959, for Franklin set a high standard on the subject of prohibition in Oklahoma with that 1971 work. Indeed, Franklin, now retired from Vanderbilt University, provided one of the endorsements for the dust jacket of James E. Klein’s work, calling it “An engaging study of the intense battle over liquor in the early years of the Sooner state. In a careful and sophisticated analysis Klein shows that tensions over prohibition arose …

Analysis Of Aquifer Depletion Criteria With Implications For Groundwater Management, Jesse T. Korus, Mark E. Burbach

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Groundwater is critical to many aspects of life on the Great Plains. Overdevelopment of this resource can have serious social, economic, and environmental consequences. Aquifer depletion criteria are used in many areas of the Great Plains to implement management responses and limit groundwater development. This study addresses groundwater-level triggers and depletion limits—criteria commonly used in Nebraska—within the context of interconnected ground- and surface-water systems. Generic models are used to calculate transient water budgets in three hypothetical systems given depletion limits of 5%, 10%, 15%, and 25%. In each simulation, the source of water to the wells changes from aquifer depletion …

Book Review: Ecology Of The Shortgrass Steppe: A Long-Term Perspective Edited By William Lauenroth And Ingrid C. Burke, Richard K. Sutton

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Ecology of the Shortgrass Steppe represents the newest in a series of books detailing the Long-Term Ecological Research (LTER) sites found throughout the United States. The book’s editors, associated with the on-going interdisciplinary research at the Central Plains Experimental Range and nearby Pawnee National Grasslands, bring 40 years of work to understanding this unique ecosystem.

The book proceeds from general overview chapters about the context, climate, soils, and plant community of what the editors call the shortgrass steppe (shortgrass prairie) to more detailed chapter reviews of its disturbance regime, faunal communities, primary production, organic and gas exchanges, grazing, and finally …

Book Review: Food And The Mid-Level Farm: Renewing An Agriculture Of The Middle Edited By Thomas A. Lyson, G.W. Stevenson, And Rick Welsh, Richard A. Levins

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

The central question of Food and the Mid-Level Farm is both complex and fascinating: how can we renew an agriculture of the middle? To a large degree, the answer lies with what we think an “agriculture of the middle” is.

For decades, we have heard of a trend toward “bimodal agriculture” in which there are very many small farms, relatively few giant corporate operations, and not much in the middle. Most discussions of this “middle” go no farther than the scale of the operation, that is, the acreage, number of animals, and that sort of thing. The approach here moves …

Book Review: Power Struggles: Hydro Development And First Nations In Manitoba And Quebec Edited By Thibault Martin And Steven M. Hoffman, Merrell-Ann S. Phare

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

When First Nations try to protect their lands and waters it very often involves a struggle against some form of energy-related development. The greatest challenge facing those wishing to understand the long and complicated history between First Nations and hydro development in Canada is just that: it’s a very long and complex story. While this history begins over 50 years ago, the ensuing destruction of Indigenous lands and waters, cultures and ways of life, continues to this day.

Many have believed the time of building new big dams was over, especially since the Report of the World Commission on Dams …

Book Review: New Faces In New Places: The Changing Geography Of American Immigration Edited By Douglas S. Massey, John Defrain

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Patterns of immigration to the U.S. have been changing since the 1990s. The geographic dispersion of immigrants away from traditional urban gateways— New York, Los Angeles, Houston, Miami, and Chicago— into smaller communities throughout the country means that millions of native-born Americans lacking any experience with foreigners are now, for the first time in living memory, having direct and sustained contact with unassimilated immigrants. The newcomers settle in small towns as well as large cities, in the middle of the country as well as the coasts. Especially relevant to Great Plains Research readers, the new immigrants have discovered the Middle …

Book Review: Establishing Justice In Middle America: A History Of The United States Court Of Appeals For The Eighth Circuit By Jeffrey Brandon Morris, Mark R. Scherer

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

The United States Supreme Court accepts for review less than two percent of the cases presented to it on appeal. For the vast majority of litigants in the federal court system, therefore, the circuit courts of appeal are truly the “court of last resort,” and throughout American history those courts have had the final say on a wide range of critical issues. Yet despite these truths, books about the Supreme Court arrive on the shelves almost daily, while treatments of the lower courts remain rare. Thus, Jeffrey Brandon Morris’s goal in Establishing Justice in Middle America is both admirable and …

Book Review: Pagans In The Promised Land: Decoding The Doctrine Of Christian Discovery By Steven T. Newcomb, Blake A. Watson

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

In 1793, the Indians of the Northwest Territory declared themselves “free to make any bargain or cession of lands, whenever & to whomsoever we please.” Three decades later, however, the United States Supreme Court held in Johnson v. M’Intosh that the original inhabitants of America “are to be considered merely as occupants, to be protected, indeed, while in peace, in the possession of their lands, but to be deemed incapable of transferring the absolute title to others.” Chief Justice John Marshall concluded that the rights of Indians “to complete sovereignty, as independent nations, were necessarily diminished . . . by …

News And Notes Fall 2009

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

News and Notes

CALL FOR PAPERS

CONFERENCES

Book Review: Loren Eiseley: Commentary, Biography, And Remembrance Edited By Hilda Raz, Rasoul Sorkhabi

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

This little book is a nice addition to the Loren Eiseley shelf in my home library. Much has been written about Eiseley’s life, thought, and work, but he still remains little known to the public at large. As authors of essays in this volume testify from various angles, Eiseley’s writings are a rich reservoir of notions and emotions that connect humans to nature, life, and to themselves. The essays were first published in the Fall 1997 issue of Prairie Schooner, the journal in which the 20-year-old Eiseley published his first poem in 1927.

Scott Slovic’s introductory chapter is a …

Book Review: American Indians And State Law: Sovereignty, Race, And Citizenship, 1790-1880 By Deborah A. Rosen, Kathryn E. Fort

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

Deborah Rosen details the historical relationship between states and their American Indian populations. She argues that while states set aside some racist understandings in order to admit Indians into the state populace through voting rights and state citizenship, they also used these same instruments as methods of assimilation to limit tribal sovereignty and citizenship and to take tribal lands.

While there was no question the federal government reserved the right to deal with tribal nations through both the Indian Commerce Clause and the Non Intercourse Acts, states still found some room to determine the political status of individual Indians. Because …

Book Review: Water In Texas: An Introduction By Andrew Sansom, C. Allan Jones

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences

At last we have a review of Texas water issues worthy of the name! Andrew Sansom’s Water in Texas: An Introduction fills a void that has existed for many years. This easy-to-read 319-page introduction to Texas water will be an indispensable guide to students, professionals, and the public, laying out in easily understood language the importance and challenges of mitigating the effects of droughts and floods, protecting water quality, preserving environmental flows, and many other issues faced by water managers throughout the Great Plains. As part of the Texas Natural History Guides series, the volume has a tough flexible cover, …