American Studies Commons^™

The 2013 Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize, R. Matthew Joeckel

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

After long deliberations by members of three subcommittees and the chairs of those committees, the Great Plains Distinguished Book Prize was awarded to Blackfoot Redemption: A Blood Indian's Story of Murder, Confinement, and Imperfect Justice, by William E. Farr, published by the University of Oklahoma Press. As the chair of the prize committee, I am pleased to state that many fine books were submitted for the competition, and that each of them was meritorious in some way. Nevertheless, Blackfoot Redemption is unique among the submissions-and indeed among the vast majority of accounts of Plains Native American lives in …

Review Of Theodore Roosevelt In The Badlands: A Young Politician's Quest For Recovery In The American West By Roger L. Di Silvestro, Mark Harvey

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Biographers of Theodore Roosevelt have long been aware of the significance of the time he spent in the Badlands of Dakota Territory during the 1880s. After an initial visit in 1883, Roosevelt returned the following year, this time overwhelmed with grief. Earlier that year he had experienced unimaginable personal tragedy when his beloved wife, Alice, and his mother died on the very same day. A few months later TR returned to western Dakota by train, bound for a landscape he hoped would bring him solace, healing, and renewal.

Over the next several years, Roosevelt returned to the Badlands for weeks …

Review Of The James T. Bialac Native American Art Collection: Selected Works Edited By Mark Andrew White, Emma I. Hansen

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Beginning in the 1950s, Arizona collector James T. Bialac assembled an extensive and eclectic collection of Native American art, consisting of approximately 2,500 paintings and 1,500 kachina dolls, baskets, jewelry, pottery, and sculptures. The collection represents several regions, with particular strengths in the southwestern and southeastern United States and the Southern Plains. Produced by the University of Oklahoma in recognition of Bialac's donation of his collection to the university's Fred Jones Jr. Museum of Art, the catalogue provides an overview of this assemblage, featuring images of selected works and accompanying essays.

Following Mary Jo Watson's introduction, ''A Tradition of Appreciation: …

Review Of Fighting Their Own Battles: Mexican Americans, African Americans, And The Struggle For Civil Rights In Texas By Brian D. Behnken, Edwin Dorn

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

If you are an African American, a Mexican American, or a progressive Anglo who grew up in Texas in the past century, reading Brian Behnken's book, filled as it is with examples of the state's racism, is sure to tear off a few old scabs. Behnken's main objective, however, is to explain the factors that kept black civil rights activists from working with their Hispanic counterparts to reduce racial segregation and discrimination.

One factor, Behnken argues convincingly, was geography: the battleground for the black struggle was in the eastern part of the state, the Mexican American battleground hundreds of miles …

Review Of Hell Of A Vision: Regionalism And The Modem American West By Robert L. Dorman, Allen Frost

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

This thorough study of the American West takes as a given the region's contested and continuously shifting identity among scholars as well as among artists, activists, and government agencies. One of Robert Dorman's many contributions to the field in Hell of a Vision is his decision to chart the formations of these multiple Wests alongside each other, from the latter half of the nineteenth century to the present day.

The primary texts examined here range from the canonical to the unexpected. Dorman's archive begins with John Wesley Powell's maps of the "Arid Region," produced in 1891 for the U.S. Geological …

Review Of The Indianization Of Lewis And Clark By William Swagerty, Clarissa W. Confer

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

This two-volume work sets out to chronicle and analyze the process of change experienced by the men of the Corps of Discovery as they traveled through the homelands of diverse American Indian cultures on their way to the Pacific and back. Doubtlessly, an undertaking as bold and arduous as the Lewis and Clark expedition altered those who experienced it. One could examine these changes a variety of ways. Here, author William Swagerty focuses on the intersection between Euro- American and Native American cultures-the point at which white men traded aspects of their culture for those of the people they had …

Review Of Living With American Indian Art: The Hirschfield Collection By Alan J. Hirschfield With Terry Winchell, Heather Ahtone

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

As the reality sets in that Native Americans have not become the vanishing race, their continuum of artistic excellence is underscored in the collection amassed by Alan and Berte Hirschfield. Living with American Indian Art documents how these avid collectors have integrated a broad range of cultural materials into a private Wyoming home, reflecting their collecting passion and broad interests. From the TIingit baskets to the Zia pottery to the Cheyenne buckskin dresses, the Native arts found in the Hirschfield collection are exquisite works, in keeping with Alan Hirschfield's mantra, "When you see something beautiful, buy it!"

Great Plains Research, Volume 23, Number 2, Fall 2013 (Complete Issue)

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

CONTENTS

Introduction — Richard Edwards and Peter Longo

School Consolidation and Community Development — Gary Paul Green

The Importance of Being Emily: Lessons from Legislative Battles over

Forced School Consolidation — Marty Strange

Tiebout in the Country: The Inevitable Politics of Rural School Consolidation — Steven L. Willborn

Place-Based Civic Education and the Rural Leadership Crisis in Nebraska — Christie L. Maloyed and J. Kelton Williams

Considering Native American Students in Rural School Consolidation — Andrea Miller

Photo Essay: Atmosphere for Learning Undistracted: Rural Schools of Nebraska — Charles W. Guildner

Economic Issues in School District Consolidation in Nebraska — …

A Matter Of Regionalism: Remembering Brandon Teena And Willa Cather At The Nebraska History Museum, Carly S. Woods, Joshua P. Ewalt, Sara J. Baker

Department of Communication Studies: Faculty Publications

In 2010–2011, the Nebraska History Museum featured two temporary exhibits: “We the People: the Nebraskan Viewpoint” and “Willa Cather: A Matter of Appearances.” We argue the public memories of Brandon Teena and Willa Cather contained in the exhibits are distanced from regional politics when articulated alongside the nostalgic regionalist rhetoric of the Nebraska History Museum. Specifically, both exhibits not only discipline the memory of trans* performance within problematic material and symbolic contexts, but also place these memories within a rhetoric of regional optimism that has critical consequences for restricting counter-public formation. In performing this reading, the essay argues that critical …

An Historical Archaeological Investigation Of The Indianola Prisoner Of War Camp In Southwestern Nebraska, Allison Marie Young

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

Second World War military operations resulted in the capture of thousands of prisoners of war. This led to the creation of internment facilities by both the Axis and the Allies. Archaeologists have begun to examine these facilities. The United States government established a POW program with numerous camps all over the country. This study provides the results of historical archaeological research at the Indianola prisoner of war camp in southwestern Nebraska. A goal of this research is to determine if the archaeological record reflects adherence to the Geneva Convention of 1929. The investigation included archival research and archaeological fieldwork with …

Great Plains Research, 23-2 Fall 2013, Editorial Matter, Richard Edwards, Peter Longo

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

Masthead

Contents

Volume Introduction, by Richard Edwards & Peter Longo

Instructions to authors

"In Family Way": Guarding Indigenous Women’S Children In Washington Territory, Katrina Jagodinsky

Department of History: Faculty Publications

The cases discussed here represent very few of the guardianship arrangements that characterized intergenerational and interracial households in territorial Washington, yet the patterns they illustrate correspond with other evidence that allows historians to track the distribution of Indian and mixed- race children in the Puget Sound region. Th e 1880 federal census schedules for counties bordering the Puget Sound reveals the informal guardianship of Native women’s children in ninetytwo households. Among these extralegal arrangements were forty- two households headed by white men, some single like Ed Boggess and others married to white women like Phoebe Judson, who classified the indigenous …

Review Of The Negative Influences Of Non-Native Salmonids On Native Fish Species, Kelly C. Turek, Mark A. Pegg, Kevin L. Pope

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

Non-native salmonids are often introduced into areas containing species of concern, yet a comprehensive overview of the short- and long-term consequences of these introductions is lacking in the Great Plains. Several authors have suggested that non-native salmonids negatively influence species of concern. The objective of this paper is to review known interactions between non-native salmonids and native fishes, with a focus on native species of concern. After an extensive search of the literature, it appears that in many cases non-native salmonids do negatively influence species of concern (e.g., reduce abundance and alter behavior) via different mechanisms (e.g., predation and competition). …

Taking The Measure Of A Mark: Exploratory Size And Shape Analysis Of Cut Marks, Eileen Johnson, Patrick J. Lewis, Leland C. Bement

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

A database of 128 measured incised butchery marks (i.e., the classic cut mark) was the basis for exploratory statistical tests of length and width measurements from late Pleistocene mammoth localities and an early Holocene bison locality. The tests reveal several trends. The initial approach uses univariate descriptive statistics, regression, and ANOVA to examine differences in size and shape of marks. Significant differences are noted in length and width of marks based on location, element, and type. Length and width variables demonstrate low variability within incised marks. Results demonstrate a consistency in incised marks across the two taxa. Other consistencies are …

Review Of Inequity In The Technopolis: Race, Class, Gender, And The Digital Divide In Austin Edited By Joseph Straubhaar, Jeremiah Spence, Zeynep Thfekci, And Roberta G. Lentz, Anthony M. Orum

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

Austin, Texas, by most accounts, is one of the most attractive cities in America. It is said by many people and magazines to be one of the best cities in which to live. Outside of Silicon Valley, it possesses some of the best high-tech companies and the most generous investors in high technology. Young people from across the country attend the University of Texas at Austin- and few of them ever seem to leave. It has become the Urbantopia of our age, the model for the new "creative economy."

But is it? How much of what we know about Austin …

Review Of Community And Frontier: A Ukrainian Settlement In Thecanadian Parkland By John C. Lehr, Jim Mochoruk

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

At first glance this slender volume appears to be nothing more than a study of one small and seemingly insignificant Ukrainian Canadian settlement located in the harsh bush country of southeastern Manitoba. Appearances can be deceiving. While Community and Frontier is most assuredly a case study, it is a brilliant little work-a true gem-that sparkles with intellectual vitality as it broadens our understanding of the entire Ukrainian Canadian experience, particularly in the pioneer phase.

Great Plains Research, Volume 23, Number 1. Spring 2013 (Complete Issue)

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

CONTENTS

Aquatic Invertebrate Community Structure in the Niobrara River, Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Nebraska, 1996-2009 — David E. Bowles, David G. Peitz, and J. Tyler Cribbs

Late Holocene Activation History of the Stanton Dunes, Northeastern Nebraska —Rebecca A. Puta, Paul R. Hanson, and Aaron R. Young

Relative Abundance of Northern Flying Squirrels and Red Squirrels in Different Forest Types, Black Hills, South Dakota — Melissa Hough and Charles Dieter

Accuracy of Antler Metrics in Predicting Age of White-Tailed Deer and Mule Deer — Casey W. Schoenebeck, Brian C. Peterson, and Jason A. Obermiller

Review of the Negative Influences of …

Review Of Green Illusions: The Dirty Secrets Of Clean Energy And The Future Of Environmentalism By Ozzie Zehner, Jonathan Hladik

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

As we grapple with climate change and pollution, resource scarcity and rising prices, it's clear we need to make difficult choices about our energy consumption. In the opinion of many, the solution begins and ends with increased investment in renewable energy systems, an investment that will help us cut back on emissions and lower prices-while creating economic opportunity here at home. Ozzie Zehner doesn't share that opinion. His critique of modem American environmentalism in Green Illusions maintains that many of us could be wrong.

Zehner begins by addressing the seductive nature of renewable energy systems, dissecting popularly circulated solutions, and …

Review Of Fishes Of The Central United States By Joseph R. Tomelleri And Mark E. Eberle., Timothy H. Bonner

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

The second, enlarged edition is a timely and necessary revision of the comfortable first edition classic. Tomelleri and Eberle remain true to their initial intent of providing accurate yet readable species accounts and detailed illustrations of Great Plains fishes. Format and style are especially suited for nontechnical audiences (anglers, naturalists, fish enthusiasts), whereas detailed life history accounts, summaries of conservation threats, and an extensive bibliography serve as handy references for natural resource managers and researchers.

Upon first review, the "Revised and Expanded" label may seem suspect: this second edition has 34 fewer total pages. However, revision of taxonomy and addition …

Review Of The Future Of Indian And Federal Reserved Water Rights: The Winters Centennial Edited By Barbara Cosens And Judith V. Royster., Lloyd Burton

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

As one who took an early interest in the water rights of American Indian tribes (American Indian Water Rights and the Limits of Law, 1991), I found this book a welcome opportunity to get current on an enduring yet ever-changing area of western water law. In reading it, I was impressed both by what it is and what it is not.

What It Is. This is primarily a report on the proceedings of a conference that the American Indian Law Center and the University of New Mexico's Utton Transboundary Resources Center convened on the centennial anniversary of the U.S. …

Review Of The Guide To Oklahoma Wildflowers By Patricia Folley, Barney Lipscomb

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

Oklahoma is home to some 2,500 species of flowering plants. Patricia Folley has captured, in full color, some 200 striking and beautiful wildflowers. From the state wildflower (Gaillardia pulchella) to the state grass (Sorghastrum nutans), this wildflower guide covers plants growing in the Rocky Mountain foothills in the northwest to the cypress swamps of the southeast and a lot in between.

Each species is illustrated with at least two photos showing the entire plant in its habitat and a closeup of its flower. The text offers a short description, followed by the geographic area of the …

Review Of Reservation "Capitalism": Economic Development In Indian Country By Robert J. Miller, Gavin Clarkson

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

I don't know how many times I've heard someone say, "Capitalism doesn't work in Indian Country ... it's just not compatible with their way of life." While I've often attempted to counter such misconceptions with my own anecdotal knowledge and experience, Robert J. Miller's excellent Reservation "Capitalism" thoroughly eviscerates that persistent myth.

The opening chapters offer a comprehensive critique of the antiquated notion of Indians as "forest-dwelling socialists," detailing how private property rights, wealth accumulation, and entrepreneurial acumen were commonplace throughout Indian Country prior to European contact. Miller proceeds to recount how reservation economies were devastated by European interactions and …

Accuracy Of Antler Metrics In Predicting Age Of White-Tailed Deer And Mule Deer, Casey W. Schoenebeck, Brian C. Peterson, Jason A. Obermiller

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

Electronic deer check systems offer state natural resource agencies alternatives to mandatory in-person check stations, resulting in potential savings in money and personnel. However, a reliable means for hunters to classify the age of harvested antlered deer must be established so that important management indices such as antlered yearling harvest can continue to be used to set future management goals. Therefore, we evaluated the use of six different antler metrics to predict age class of white-tailed and mule deer (1.5 and >/= 2.5 years). We used discriminant analysis to determine the number of deer correctly classified into each age class …

Review Of What The River Carries: Encounters With The Mississippi, Missouri, And Platte By Lisa Knopp, Eugene Zuerlein

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

The best way to fall in love with rivers is to have a relationship with them. Lisa Knopp does this by looking, experiencing, and contemplating what each river looked like in its wild state; how historical and contemporary travelers viewed them; how they were named; how First Americans lived near and depended upon them; how industry and agriculture have used them; what each river is like after two centuries of human tinkering and engineering; and how the culture, politics, and philosophy of people living along these rivers continue to be shaped by them.

Born and raised along the Mississippi near …

Aquatic Invertebrate Community Structure In The Niobrara River, Agate Fossil Beds National Monument, Nebraska, 1996-2009, David E. Bowles, David G. Peitz, J. Tyler Cribbs

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

Aquatic invertebrates were sampled annually in the Niobrara River, Nebraska, during the period 1996-2009 using Hester-Dendy multiplate samplers. Collections indicated the invertebrate community in the river has shifted from one dominated by Ephemeroptera, Plecoptera, and Trichoptera (EPT) taxa to one dominated by Chironomidae and Amphipoda. Generally, EPT richness and percentage abundance of EPT of the total community, as well as percentage abundance of Heptageniidae and Leptophlebiidae, has declined across the years. During that same period, percentage abundance of Amphipoda and Chironomidae, taxa evenness, Shannon's Index, and the Hilsenhoff Biotic Index have increased. Stream discharge decreased significantly during the 15-year period …

Review Of Historical Atlas Of The North American Railroad By Derek Hayes, William G. Thomas

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

Lavishly illustrated, beautifully bound, and richly textured, this volume stunningly reproduces the visual culture of the railroad: its maps, brochures, advertisements, broadsides, and pamphlets. Derek Hayes has brought together over 400 maps, ranging from the first railroad survey map drawn in the U.S., filed in 1809, to President Barack Obama's "Vision for High Speed Rail in America," published in 2009. This is an impressive compilation, but it is not an atlas in the conventional sense. Hayes considers a "map" to be any printed item with geographical information on it, whatever its genre. Whether a route map, advertisement, or ticket, whether …

Roles Of Perceived Control And Planning In Ranch Drought Preparedness, Tonya Haigh, Cody Knutson

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

Ranchers in the Great Plains and across the United States face the threat of periodic drought. Though ranchers might minimize losses through drought-preparedness activities, many do not adequately prepare for drought, in part because of perceptions that the outcomes of drought management are not controllable. We explore how drought planning activities affect ranchers' perceptions of control and drought preparedness using the theories of planned behavior and goal attainment as guiding frameworks. Ten Great Plains ranchers who had engaged in drought management activities were interviewed about their plans. From the interviews, three activities emerged that appeared to increase ranchers' perceived control …

Late Holocene Activation History Of The Stanton Dunes, Northeastern Nebraska, Rebecca A. Puta, Paul R. Hanson, Aaron R. Young

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

The Nebraska Sandhills have been an important resource for better understanding dune activation and the nature of prehistoric Great Plains drought events. However, until recently, few studies have focused on documenting the activation histories of smaller dune fields found along the Great Plains' eastern margin. This study focuses on the Stanton dune field, which lies about 145 km east of the Nebraska Sandhills on an alluvial terrace of the Elkhorn River in northeastern Nebraska. Sediments in the Stanton Dunes were dated with optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) to determine when these dunes were active. The ages indicate three activation periods that …

Review Of Red State Religion: Faith And Politics In America's Heartland By Robert Wuthnow, James E. Sherow

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

Robert Wuthnow, who directs the Center for the Study of Religion at Princeton University, has a distinguished publishing record in the field of American religion and culture. A Kansas native, he has an unmistakable soft spot for the state. He opposes Thomas Frank's view that Kansans have consistently espoused Republican-centered moral issues at odds with their economic well-being. His central argument, as he clearly states, is that the "Republican Party and the centrist conservatism of the state's two dominant religions-Methodism and Catholicism- actually deterred radical religious and political movements from gaining much ground during most of the state's history." He …

Relative Abundance Of Northern Flying Squireels And Red Squireels In Different Forest Types, Black Hills, South Dakota, Melissa Hough, Charles D. Dieter

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

Northern flying squirrels (Glaucomys sabrinus) and red squirrels (Tamiasciurus hudsonicus) in the Black Hills National Forest (BHNF) of South Dakota represent isolated populations. Because data on both species in the region are limited, and because the northern flying squirrel in South Dakota and the Black Hills National Forest has species of concern status, we trapped throughout BHNF to determine relative abundance in different forest types for both populations. For northern flying squirrels, capture rate was higher in the northern and western hills compared to the southern and eastern hills, whereas for red squirrels, capture rate was …