American Studies Commons^™

Book Review Of Weather Matters: An American Cultural History Since 1900 By Bernard Mergen., Donna L. Woudenberg

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Weather Matters is a varied collection of everything sky and weather related, from history, to poetry and art, to the monitoring and impacts of weather-related natural hazards. Mergen states the book is “about the everyday experience of weather and the ways in which those experiences are perceived, marketed, and managed.” The volume is broken into five chapters focused on talking about, managing, seeing, transcribing, and suffering weather. “Talking about Weather” begins with a historical overview of “weather-bureau weather,” starting with the Congressional creation of a meteorological service administered by the U.S. Army Signal Corps in 1870 and ending with a …

Ranching And State School Land In Cimarron County, Oklahoma, Jacqueline Vadjunec, Rebecca Sheehan

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Ranchers in Cimarron County, Oklahoma, have turned to leasing school trust land to sustain and sometimes expand their operations. Changes in the land tenure process have undergone profound transformations in the last 20 years, greatly impacting land use in the region. Coupled with an almost decade-long drought, land managers pursuing seemingly “traditional” agricultural practices call upon increasingly complicated, mixed private and public tenure options in order to make ends meet. Using a political ecology framework, we examine conflicting relationships between school land, the state, and local land managers as well as the sustainability of cattle ranching on school trust land …

The 37th Interdisciplinary Symposium Sponsored By The Center For Great Plains Studies, University Of Nebraska–Lincoln: Diverse Faces, Shared Histories Immigrants On The Great Plains

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This one-day symposium features national and state scholars and writers speaking on various aspects regarding the history, politics, and personal narratives on immigration. Native, Asian, African American, and Latino perspectives vary yet share overlapping histories. This symposium is designed to broaden our perspectives about immigration on the Great Plains.

Determinants Of Net Migration In Montana, Evelyn D. Ravuri

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The Great Plains has experienced population loss for most of the 20th century while the Rocky Mountain region has experienced rapid population growth in the past few decades. This paper examines net migration by county for Montana between 1995 and 2000 disaggregated by age and educational level. Montana was chosen because it straddles the Great Plains and Rocky Mountain regions and thus provides an opportunity to compare and contrast net migration and population change in two regions undergoing fundamentally different population processes. Regression analysis was applied to determine the predictor variables responsible for net migration between 1995 and 2000. Dependent …

Great Plains Research 2010: News And Notes

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

CONFERENCES

October 31–November 3, 2010 The 2010 Annual Meeting of the Geological Society of America will be in Denver, Colorado. The theme is “Reaching New Peaks in Geoscience.” Website: www.geosociety.org/meetings/.

November 17–21, 2010 The 2010 Annual Meeting of the American Anthropological Association will be held Sheraton New Orleans and Marriott New Orleans in New Orleans. The theme is “Circulation.” Website: www.aaanet.org/meetings/.

December 12–15, 2010 The 58th Annual Meeting of the Entomological Society of America will be held at the Town and Country Hotel and Convention Center in San Diego, California. The theme is “Entodiversity: Disciplinary, Biological, and Geographical.” Website: www.entsoc.org/am/index.htm. …

Book Review Of Just One Vote: From Jim Walding’S Nomination To Constitutional Defeat By Ian Stewart., James A. Mcallister

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This story is almost Shakespearean in its dramatic proportions. It includes an overly ambitious politician frustrated by his leader’s refusal to make him a cabinet minister, an even more ambitious politician’s wife pushing him beyond his abilities and fostering his bitterness, and a government leader faced with a difficult colleague whose actions brought down the government, led to the leader’s resignation, and almost destroyed a political party. Just One Vote is a welcome addition to the already significant Canadian literature on the New Democratic Party of Manitoba. The attention paid to this subject reflects the party’s democratic socialist ideology and …

Book Review Of Native Peoples And Water Rights: Irrigation, Dams, And The Law In Western Canada By Kenichi Matsui, Oliver W. Maclaren

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Native Peoples and Water Rights constitutes a valuable collection of historical case studies that shed light on a category of rights frequently overlooked. These detailed examinations identify the political, economic, and social factors of the late 19th and early 20th centuries that influenced legislative and judicial developments regarding the water rights of North America’s First Peoples. Beginning with the adoption of John Locke’s property theory in the proagrarian policies of the Jefferson administration, Matsui documents the formative period of water rights in western North America. This analysis skillfully contextualizes Chief Justice McKenna’s seminal decision in Winters v. United States 207 …

A Soil Water Climatology For Kansas, Michael J. Keables, Shitij Mehta

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Regional climate models suggest that summers in the Great Plains may become increasingly dry during this century, raising concern about the availability of water resources for irrigation and municipal water supplies. While the models predict drier conditions across the region, the impact of climate change on water availability at the local scale will depend largely upon the soils and their ability to store water during dry periods. This study presents a soil water climatology for Kansas using a climatic water balance approach. Monthly observations of temperature and precipitation for the period 1950–2006 are used to calculate climatologies of actual evapotranspiration, …

Book Review Of A Kansas Year By Mike Blair, Donald W. Kaufman

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Mike Blair, a longterm employee of the Kansas Department of Wildlife and Parks, has combined wildlife and nature photographs taken in Kansas over many years into a single “synthetic” year of images. Although Kansas by title and locale, this small-format book (6 x 9 inches) will interest a wide audience, its photos and written text relating, with a few exceptions, as much to the entire Great Plains region as to a single geopolitical entity. Individual entries are presented in a chronological sequence, January through December, not unlike an almanac, each consisting of one or two photos and a page or …

Book Review Of Unearthing Indian Land: Living With The Legacies Of Allotment By Kristin T. Ruppel. Tucson, Elizabeth James

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The legacies of allotment on reservations—fractionated heirship and dispossession most notably—have been apparent to numerous observers since the early 20th century. In Unearthing Indian Land: Living with the Legacies of Allotment, Kristin T. Ruppel explores contemporary efforts on the part of several Native individuals to correct more than a century of land tenure questions and outright fraud. Although such efforts have potential impact throughout Indian country, Unearthing Indian Land focuses on the local efforts of activists such as Ernee Werelus at Fort Hall in Idaho and Helen Sanders on the Quinault Reservation in Washington. Ruppel correctly traces the origins …

Evaluating A Hybrid Soil Temperature Model In A Corn-Soybean Agroecosystem And A Tallgrass Prairie In The Great Plains, Song Feng, F. Salvagiotti, M. R. Schmer, A. B. Wingeyer, A. Weiss

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

Simulation models of soil-related biological processes usually require soil temperature data. Frequently these soil temperatures are simulated, and the soil temperature algorithms cannot be more complicated than the original process model. This situation has led to the use of semi-empirical-type relationships in these process models. The objective of this study was to evaluate a hybrid soil temperature model, which combines empirical and mechanistic approaches, in an agroecosystem and a tallgrass prairie in the Great Plains. The original hybrid soil temperature model was developed and verified for a temperate forest system. This model simulated soil temperatures on a daily basis from …

Book Review Of Insects Of Texas: A Practical Guide By David H. Kattes., Christopher J. Durden

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

This guidebook is a well-illustrated, well-bound addition to our growing series on Texas insect fauna. Designed for the beginner and nonspecialist (and suitable for use in schools), it provides an identification aid for recognition of the groups to which common insects belong. Other references must be used in most cases to determine the species at hand. Today, BugGuide.Net will be the next step for the average reader. Most of the book is devoted to one-page presentations of a small selection of families, usually those that contain species most likely to be found by the casual observer. Common name, group name, …

Great Plains Research Volume 20, Number 2 (Fall 2010): Cover And Contents

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

SOCIAL SCIENCES

Ranching and State School Land in Cimarron County, Oklahoma Jacqueline Vadjunec and Rebecca Sheehan. 163

Determinants of Net Migration in Montana Evelyn D. Ravuri. 179

A Test of Personal Characteristcs that Influence Farmers’ Pro-Environmental Behaviors Courtney E. Quinn and Mark E. Burbach.193

GIS Spatial Analysis of University of Nebraska at Kearney Alumni Cohorts, 1930–2004 Paul R. Burger and Brett R. Chloupek. 205

The Really Good Buffalo Concept Test for “Values Added” Bison Diane Rickerl, Tim Nichols, and Carol Cumber. 215

NATURAL SCIENCES

Livestock Responses to Complementary Forages in Shortgrass Steppe Justin D. Derner and Richard H. Hart. 223 …

Gis Spatial Analysis Of University Of Nebraska At Kearney Alumni Cohorts, 1930–2004, Paul R. Burger, Brett R. Chloupek

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The purpose of this study was to utilize Geographic Information Systems (GIS) technology and spatial analysis coupled with the University of Nebraska at Kearney (UNK) alumni data from 1930 to 2004 in order to compare and contrast the changing distribution patterns of five-year alumni cohorts. Mean centers, location quotients, and cluster analysis were used to assess the degree to which UNK alumni cohorts have migrated over the 75-year period, the extent to which any regionalization or lack thereof occurs, and the proportion of UNK alumni per county compared to college graduates as a whole. These spatial patterns were then compared …

The Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize 2010

Great Plains Research: A Journal of Natural and Social Sciences (through 2013)

The University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s Center for Great Plains Studies will present its annual Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize in May 2011 to the most significant book on the Great Plains. Only first edition nonfiction full-length books published in 2010 will be considered for the award. The annual book prize includes a $5,000 cash award.

Review Of Teaching Graphic Novels, By Katie Monnin, Susan Spangler

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

No abstract provided.

Rationale For Magneto: Testament, Brian Kelley

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

A rationale for teaching the graphic novel Magneto:Testament in secondary schools.

Comic Vision, Gale Acuff

SANE journal: Sequential Art Narrative in Education

A narrative, rhetorical poem

Review Of Forts Of The Northern Plains: Guide To Historic Military Posts Of The Plains Indians Wars By Jeff Barnes, Barton H. Barbour

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Jeff Barnes's book presents brief histories and the historical importance of about fifty military forts in Iowa, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, and Wyoming. Only sites that played roles in the "Indian Wars" of the West, roughly from 1820 to 1890, are included. Each entry describes the post and its significance, and offers good suggestions for further reading. Barnes also provides a sidebar offering directions to each site, its hours of operation, admission costs, special events, and available amenities to help visitors plan their trips.

Barnes offers updated information on posts that have been treated in a number …

Review Of Notes From Texas: On Writing In The Lone Star State Edited By W. C. Jameson, Karl Germeck

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

For Notes from Texas, W. C. Jameson compiles essay responses from esteemed veterans of the Texas writing community in an effort to understand how each came to choose a career in writing and succeeded in doing so, as well as the role Texas (its myths and lore, geography, history, and culture) has played in that process. The result is a collection of fourteen personal essays from eleven native, and three transplant, Texans, including such notables as former and co-founding director of the University of North Texas Press, Frances Brannen Vick, novelists Elmer Kelton, Paulette Jiles, James Reasoner, and poet/songwriter …