American Studies Commons^™

Book Review Of The Nation’S Largest Landlord: The Bureau Of Land Management In The American West By James R. Skillen., Clare Ginger

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

James Skillen provides a comprehensive assessment of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), its origins, evolution, and ongoing efforts to manage the public lands for an increasing array of resources. His account documents the legal and political matrix in which the agency operates, recording the roles of key actors and processes that have influenced public lands administration, including members of Congress and presidential administrations, interest group politics, and efforts to bring expertise to the task of managing the public lands. Skillen organizes the results of his investigation into a chronology characterizing the BLM’s mandates and operations through two themes: “questions …

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, …

Livestock Responses To Complementary Forages In Shortgrass Steppe, Justin D. Derner, Richard H. Hart

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

Livestock gains of yearling Hereford heifers were evaluated during 1996–1999 on two complementary forage grasses, “Bozoisky-Select” Russian wildrye (Psathyrostachys juncea [Fisch.] Nevski) or “Hycrest” crested wheatgrass (Agropyron cristatum [L.] Gaertn. ssp. desertorum [Fisch. ex Link] A. Love). Average daily gains were similar between light and moderate stocking rates for both Bozoisky and Hycrest, and gains trended higher for Hycrest than for Bozoisky at light stocking rates. Total annual (spring + fall) beef production (kg/ha) was consistently greater for moderate (29%–46%) than for light stocking of both complementary forages. Spring gains represented >75% of the total annual beef production …

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 …

Book Review Of Heavy Burdens On Small Shoulders: The Labour Of Pioneer Children On The Canadian Prairies By Sandra Rollings-Magnusson, Bob Barnetson

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

The contribution of pioneer children (aged 4–16) to the economic survival of Canadian prairie farms is little known. Heavy Burdens examines the self-reported labor of 260 children in Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Manitoba between 1871 and 1913. A typology of labor (subcategorized by age and gender) helpfully structures the narrative data used to flesh out this work. The importance and invisibility of child labor during the settlement of the West broadly mirrors that of women. The five core chapters of the book examine children’s work in establishing farms, commodity production, waged labor, domestic tasks, and household subsistence activities. Each chapter examines …

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.

Book Review Of Native Activism In Cold War America: The Struggle For Sovereignty By Daniel M. Cobb., Daniele Bolelli

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

Nearly all of the many books dedicated to Native activism focus on the Red Power movement that flourished between 1968 and the late 1970s. In the minds of most people familiar with the topic, Native activism has become synonymous with events such as the 1969 occupation of Alcatraz Island, the 1968 creation of the American Indian Movement (AIM), the 1972 Trail of Broken Treaties, the 1973 occupation of Wounded Knee, and the 1970s civil war on South Dakota’s Pine Ridge Reservation. In the present book, Daniel Cobb argues that Native activism is not limited to these events. In an effort …

Book Review Of Contesting Knowledge: Museums And Indigenous Perspectives Edited By Susan Sleeper-Smith., Karen Coody Cooper

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

Seventeen scholars contributed to this group work. First exposed to compilation books in the eighties, I found the format exhilarating then. There were so many angles, so much information. Now, however, such books are, to me, rather like walking a cobblestone path. Maybe I just have inappropriate shoes, but the journey is seldom entirely smooth going. And having to adapt to different writing styles every 20 to 30 pages is an added hindrance. Still, the genre is here to stay, and Contesting Knowledge has much to recommend it. Analyzed in four out of twelve pieces, the National Museum of the …

Book Review Of Perspectives Of Saskatchewan Edited By Jene M. Porter, J. William Brennan

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

Intended to mark the centennial of Saskatchewan’s becoming a province in 1905, this collection of 18 essays has only just been published. Has it been worth the wait? A few essays stand out, either because they explore previously ignored aspects of the province’s history, or because they offer a fresh look at subjects we thought we already knew a great deal about. I would place Mary Ellen Turpel-Lafond’s and Christine de Clercy’s contributions in the first category, and Brett Fairbairn’s in the second. Turpel-Lafond discusses the challenges that Aboriginal people have faced in Saskatchewan over the past 100 years by …

Great Plains Research: Annual Index

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

No abstract provided.

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 …

Review Of The Fall Of A Black Army Officer: Racism And The Myth Of Henry O. Flipper By Charles M. Robinson Iii, Bruce A. Glasrud

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

In 1881 Lieutenant Henry O. Flipper, the first black graduate of West Point, was accused of embezzlement and conduct unbecoming an officer. A court-martial subsequently found Flipper guilty of conduct unbecoming an officer, but not of the embezzlement charges, and dismissed him from the army. In his 1994 account, The Court-Martial of Lieutenant Henry Flipper, Charles Robinson III concluded that "racism affected the sentence. Dismissal was totally out of line with sentences given to white officers for more serious offences." With this 2008 revision of his earlier work, The Fall of a Black Army Officer, Robinson finds Flipper …

Review Of Breathing In The Fullness Of Time By William Kloefkorn, David Pichaske

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The central metaphor in this final installment of Nebraska State Poet Bill Kloefkorn's four-part celebration of life in the Great Plains is air. Whereas his three previous memoirs- water, fire, and earth-explored childhood and adolescent memories, Kloefkorn here focuses mainly on adult experiences in college and the Marine Corps, teaching English at Nebraska Wesleyan, classroom adventures as a poet-in-residence, and his celebrated victory in the North Platte, Nebraska, hog-calling contest. Time and tradition are central concerns in this book, as is desire-in football and marriage, in writing poetry and being a good Marine or hog caller, in overcoming adversities like …

Review Of Laura Ingalls Wilder And Rose Wilder Lane: Authorship, Place, Time, And Culture By John E. Miller, Philip Heldrich

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

In his third book on Laura Ingalls Wilder, John E. Miller presents another fascinating study of this most cherished writer and her times. Miller weighs in on a number of the continuing controversies surrounding Wilder's books, foremost among them the question of how the Little House books were authored. He also enters into the continuing debate on the racial politics of Wilder's writing, especially in Little House on the Prairie, that has become the focus of many newer studies of Wilder's work. Miller presents Wilder and daughter Rose Wilder Lane as products of their respective times, showing how during …

Review Of Cherokee Thoughts: Honest And Uncensored By Robert J. Conley, Kirby Brown

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

It is often said that if you present fifty Cherokees with a given proposition, you'll get fifty-one opinions about how best to proceed. Cherokee Thoughts captures the humor, complexity, and contention embedded in such aphorisms. Careful to emphasize that the volume speaks neither for all Cherokees nor for any Cherokee government, Robert J. Conley engages a variety of contemporary tribally specific conversations, ranging-in no particular order-from the highly contentious issues of Cherokee citizenship, identity, and the freedman debates, to thoughts on tribal specific historical fiction and intellectual production ("Cherokee Literature," "Tribally Specific Historical Fiction," "John Oskison and Me"), to Cherokee …

Great Plains Quarterly, Volume 30, Number 1, Winter 2010--Editorial Matter

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Masthead

Contents

Book Reviews

News and Notes: CALLS FOR PAPERS; INTERNATIONAL CONFERENCE ON CZECH AND SLOVAK AMERICANS; BEST ARTICLE PRIZE IN WOMEN'S HISTORY; VISITING SCHOLARS PROGRAM GRANTS FREDERICK C. LUEBKE AWARD

Review Of Listening To The Land: Native American Literary Responses To The Landscape By Lee Schweninger, Kelli Lyon Johnson

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

In Listening to the Land, Lee Schweninger demonstrates a Native American connection to Mother Earth to be a prevailing stereotype in cultural representations of Indigenous peoples in literature, television, and film. While refusing to dismiss "an indigenous relationship to, appreciation for, awareness of, or understanding of the land that is significantly different from non-Indian relationships," Schweninger analyzes the complicated portrayal of the landscape in Native American literature in the context of this stereotype, which he calls the "Land Ethic Stereotype," the framework with which he begins his study of a wide range of twentieth-century Native writers from a number …

Review Of Waiting For Coyote's Call: An Eco-Memoir From The Missouri River Bluff By Jerry Wilson, Mark D. Dixon

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

This book documents its author's move to the bluffs of the Missouri River valley in southeastern South Dakota and his experiences and personal reflections during twenty-five years of life there. In the spirit of Aldo Leopold's A Sand County Almanac, Jerry Wilson weaves together observations about the natural and human history of the bluffs and reflections-derived from his experiences on the South Dakota bluffs and his childhood on an Oklahoma farm-about how to live ethically on the land and toward its creatures. In so doing, he fashions an intimate tapestry of the Missouri River bluffs and woodlands that are …