Other International and Area Studies Commons^™

A Two-Part Measure Of Degree Of Invasion For Cross-Community Comparisons, Qinfeng Guo, Amy Symstad

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Invasibility is a critical feature of ecological communities, especially for management decisions. To date, invasibility has been measured in numerous ways. Although most researchers have used the richness (or number) of exotic species as a direct or indirect measure of community invasibility, others have used alternative measures such as the survival, density, or biomass of either a single or all exotic species. These different measures, even when obtained from the same communities, have produced inconsistent results and have made comparisons among communities difficult. Here, we propose a measure of the degree of invasion (DI) of a community as a surrogate …

Crying Wolf: Concluding That Wolves Were Not Restored, L. David Mech

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

In 2007, the USA removed (delisted) the grey wolf (Canis lupus) in the upper Midwest from the Endangered Species List. After 35 years of being considered endangered, these wolves had increased from 750 in 38 400 km2 of Minnesota (Fuller et al. 1992) to over 4100 inhabiting 110 000 km² of Minnesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan. Conservationists celebrated this event as a most significant success. Suddenly, however, this milestone was challenged by Leonard & Wayne (2007) based on preliminary genetic findings that wolves of the upper Midwest 100 years ago were different from 69 per cent of the …

Long-Term Dynamics Of Leafy Spurge (Euphorbia Esula) And Its Biocontrol Agent, Flea Beetles In The Genus Aphthona, Diane L. Larson, James B. Grace, Jennifer L. Larson

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Three flea beetle species (Aphthona spp.), first introduced into North America in 1988, have come to be regarded as effective biological control organisms for leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula). The black flea beetles (Aphthona lacertosa and A. czwalinae) in particular have been shown to cause reductions in leafy spurge stem counts in the northern Great Plains, while the brown flea beetle (A. nigriscutis) has persisted and spread, but has not been found to be as effective at controlling leafy spurge. The ability of black flea beetles to control leafy spurge in any given year, …

Prairie Pothole Regional Studies, Robert A. Gleason

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

The U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) conducted a comprehensive, stratified survey of 204 wetland catchments in 1997 and 270 catchments in 2004, a subset of more than 2 million hectares of wetland and grassland systems established on Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and Wetlands Reserve Program (WRP) lands. The purpose of the survey was to gather data for estimating a variety of ecosystem services provided by prairie pothole wetland catchments. In early 2008, USGS published a preliminary findings report as a result of these studies.

Effectiveness Of Lethal, Directed Wolf-Depredation Control In Minnesota, Elizabeth Harper, William J. Paul, L. David Mech, Sanford Weisberg

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Wolf (Canis lupus) depredations on livestock in Minnesota, USA, are an economic problem for many livestock producers, and depredating wolves are lethally controlled. We sought to determine the effectiveness of lethal control through the analysis of data from 923 government-verified wolf depredations from 1979 to 1998. We analyzed the data by 1) assessing the correlations between the number of wolves killed in response to depredations with number of depredations the following year at state and local levels, and 2) the time to the next depredation. No analysis indicated that trapping wolves substantially reduced the following year’s depredations at …

Review Of "Injuns!": Native Americans In The Movies By Edward Buscombe Killing The Indian Maiden: Images Of Native American Women In Film. By M. Elise Marubbio, S. Elizabeth Bird

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

THE PERSISTENCE OF POPULAR MEMORY: THE CINEMATIC CONSTRUCTION OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN

These two books, while having significant subject matter in common, are very different in style. Buscombe's small volume serves as an effective review of much that has already been written about cinematic representation of "Injuns," offering some useful new interpretations, but apparently not primarily with a scholarly audience in mind. Marubbio's book is very much a specialized work of scholarship, with a much narrower focus, being essentially the first full-length treatment of the cinematic representation of Native American women.

Buscombe is known for his works in film criticism, …

Review Of Riding To The Rescue: The Transformation Of The Rcmp In Alberta And Saskatchewan, 1914- 1939. By Steve Hewitt, Michael Dawson

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

This is a timely book. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), which has served as a popular symbol of Canadian identity since the late nineteenth century, is today awash with financial scandals and accusations of corruption, incompetence, and cover-ups. The police force that has its roots in the creation of the North-West Mounted Police in 1873 is now perceived by many Canadians as just one more example of a modern, bureaucratic organization that has fallen victim to the misuse and abuse of power. Of particular concern is the RCMP's controversial role in monitoring and detaining suspected threats to national security. …

Review Of Cather Studies 6: History, Memory, And War Edited By Steven Trout, Margaret Doane

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Steven Trout's engrossing History, Memory, and War, volume 6 of the acclaimed Cather Studies series, is a collection of essays showing how pervasively war appears in Cather's works: the "sheer number of armed conflicts evoked in her fiction is perhaps unprecedented in American literature." Trout's wide-ranging volume shows "the ubiquity of armed conflict . . . as a major theme or as a background feature in Cather's writing" as well as showing that she personally "thought of war on a regular basis."

The collection includes essays by fourteen Cather scholars and moves from the Civil War through World War …

Review Of Saskatchewan: The Luminous Landscape By Courtney Milne, Terry Graff

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Saskatchewan: The Luminous Landscape is a compelling photographic anthology of the diverse and complex topography of the Canadian prairie province of Saskatchewan. Published to commemorate Saskatchewan's centenary in 2006, this handsome coffee-table book comprises 225 sumptuous full-color photographs by the internationally acclaimed master photographer Courtney Milne. Six chapters of stunningly beautiful imagery, combined with personal commentary, chronicle Milne's intimate relationship to his home place, which extends back to his childhood growing up on the bank of the South Saskatchewan River.

For Milne, landscape photography has served as a sustaining inspiration in a remarkable photographic and writing career that has taken …

Review Of John Graves, Writer Edited By Mark Busby And Terrell Dixon, Pete Gunter

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

A geographical accident, Texas lumps together High Plains and Gulf tropics, western deserts and eastern bayous. The writings of John Graves (chiefly known for Goodbye to a River) mirror these incompatibles, relentlessly probing their transitions and significance, including their human significance. His is a perpetually thoughtful prose.

The first section of John Graves, Writer contains discussions with friends and associates plus a long interview. The second is a "festschrift" celebrating his life and writings. An essay on his relations with Texas Monthly magazine appears here, backed up by a second essay on this topic in the next section, which …

Review Of Fire In The Water, Earth In The Air: Legends Of West Texas Music By Christopher J. Oglesby, Kent Blaser

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

From Bob Wills, Buddy Holly, and Waylon Jennings to Stevie Ray Vaughn, Joe Ely, and Natalie Maines of The Dixie Chicks, Lubbock and its greater West Texas environs have been home to an unusually eclectic and creative musical community. Defining precisely what constitutes West Texas music is difficult, and diversity and variety often overshadow common features, but a West Texas "sound," blending elements of country, western, blues, early rock and roll, and folk and roots traditions into an identifiable if multifaceted genre, is widely accepted. The list of music "legends" associated with this region is indeed long and impressive and …

Review Of 900 Miles From Nowhere: Voices From The Homestead Frontier. By Steven R. Kinsella, Thomas Isern

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Steven R. Kinsella's work is an uneasy admixture. On the one hand it is fresh, because it goes to the grassroots, sampling the writings of settlers up and down the Plains. On the other it's stale, stereotypical. The documents, stirring as individual pieces, are arranged into categories and schema as predictable as they are questionable.

Plains pioneers were, the title says, 900 miles from nowhere. They were "sturdy and determined people" who battled a "harsh, inhospitable landscape," a place of "loneliness and homesickness." The "constant roar" of the wind "drove some settlers mad" on a day-today basis, while the "troublesome …

Book Review: Slipping Backward: A History Of The Nebraska Supreme Court By James W. Hewitt., Cloyd Clark

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

James W. Hewitt answers that question and many more in his history of the Nebraska Supreme Court, Slipping Backward, which covers the court and its judges from 1938 through 1995. It is the first history of the Nebraska Supreme Court and the first book-length study of a Great Plains supreme court. Hewitt approached his task by reading each of the 14,335 cases decided by the Nebraska Supreme Court during those years, then artfully organizing his history around four Chief Justices of the court: Robert G. Simmons (1938-63), Paul W. White (1963-78), Norman Krivosha (1978-87), and William C. Hastings (1987-95). This …

Notes And News- Winter 2008

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

SYMPOSIUM ON THE AMERICAN INDIAN

CALL FOR PAPERS

VISITING SCHOLARS PROGRAM

CALL FOR PAPERS

CALL FOR PAPERS

Table Of Contents- Winter 2008

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

GREAT PLAINS QUARTERLY

Volume 28 / Number 1 / Winter 2008

THE PAGEANT OF PAHA SAPA: AN ORIGIN MYTH OF WHITE SETTLEMENT IN THE AMERICAN WEST

U.S. INDIAN POLICY, 1865-1890: AS ILLUMINATED THROUGH THE LIVES OF CHARLES A. EASTMAN AND ELAINE GOODALE EASTMAN

NAMING A PLACE NICODEMUS

REVIEW ESSAY: THE PERSISTENCE OF POPULAR MEMORY: THE CINEMATIC CONSTRUCTION OF THE AMERICAN INDIAN

BOOK REVIEWS

NOTES AND NEWS

Review Of Writing The Trail: Five Women's Frontier Narratives By Deborah Lawrence, Sherry Smith

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

This slim volume offers literary analysis of five nineteenth-century women's narratives of their travels to and experiences in the American West. The central themes of the book are that women's narratives differed from men's, and, that in the course of their western experiences, these women shed traditional roles dictated by a patriarchal society and realized new possibilities for self-identity. Western historians, particularly those who have studied women's history, will find little new here. But if this book brings such material to the attention of other students and scholars, then it is clearly worthwhile.

Deborah Lawrence focuses her attention on Susan …

Review Of The Force Of Vocation, By Adele Wiseman, Leslie Ianno

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Adele Wiseman's literary career began with the publication of her acclaimed first novel, The Sacrifice, in 1956. Public success and scholarly praise of the novel were followed by the Governor General's Literary Award for fiction. Though Wiseman continued to write plays, fiction, memoirs, and essays throughout her career, she never again enjoyed the success of her earliest novel. In The Force of Vocation, the first booklength study of Wiseman's work, Ruth Panofsky attempts to account for the rise and fall of this Jewish Canadian woman of letters.

Responding to the lack of attention to the publishing side of …

U.S. Indian Policy, 1865-1890 As Illuminated Through The Lives Of Charles A. Eastman And Elaine Goodale Eastman, Gretchen Cassel Eick

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Rapid change, passionate convictions, acute regional differences, ethnic conflict, and an army looking for a mission characterized the United States from 1865 to 1890. The Civil War was over and most of the soldiers had mustered out and gone home. The others were assigned either to the South to oversee reconstruction or, the larger number of them, to the area between the Mississippi and the Rocky Mountains-the Great Plains. The U.S. Army's new mission was to "pacify" the Great Plains, to protect the thousands of migrants enticed there by Congress's offer through the Homestead Act of 160 acres-free, contingent upon …

Review Of In The Days Of Our Grandmothers: A Reader In Aboriginal Women's History In Canada Edited By Mary-Ellen Keim And Lorna Townsend, Gillian Poulter

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

This collection of articles published since the early 1990s makes a welcome contribution to the range of texts available for both Native Studies and Women's Studies courses at the upper and graduate leveL In an excellent short introductory essay, Mary-Ellen KeIrn and Lorna Townsend provide a useful historiographic context for the collection and explain their desire to bring Aboriginal women "out of the shadows" by choosing essays that reflect contemporary scholarship and illustrate the diversity of Aboriginal women's histories. They take contributor Jean Barman at her word in turning the past on its head and making Aboriginal women rather than …

Diets Of Lesser Scaup During Spring Migration Throughout The Upper-Midwest Are Consistent With The Spring Condition Hypothesis, Michael J. Anteau, Alan Afton

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

The spring condition hypothesis (SCH) states that the current decline of the North American scaup population (Lesser [Aythya affinis] and Greater Scaup [A. marila] combined) is due to a decline in quality or availability of scaup foods on wintering, spring migration, or breeding areas that has caused a reduction in female body condition and subsequent reproductive success. Our previous research indicated that forage quality in diets of Lesser Scaup (hereafter scaup) at two sites in Northwestern Minnesota was lower in springs 2000-2001 than that reported for springs 1986-1988, consistent with the SCH. Accordingly, we further tested …

Using Plasma-Lipid Metabolites To Index Changes In Lipid Reserves Of Free-Living Lesser Scaup (Aythya Affinis), Michael Anteau, Alan Afton

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Understanding daily lipid-reserve changes in migrating wild birds is important for habitat assessment and species conservation. Plasma-lipid metabolites have been used to estimate rates of lipid accumulation or catabolism in small-bodied wild birds(<75 g), but this has not been validated for larger-bodied wild birds such as waterfowl. We developed an index for detecting whether individual birds accumulate or catabolize lipid reserves by regressing plasma-lipid metabolite levels(triglyceride and β-hydroxybutyrate) and known one-day mass changes(daily mass change) of 22 free-living Lesser Scaup (Aythya affinis; a larger-bodied species with typical mass range 600–1,000 g). Triglyceride and β-hydroxybutyrate predicted 75% of the variation in daily mass change (F = 28.85, df = 2 and 19, P < 0.001). Triglyceride was positively correlated (P = 0.029) with mass change, and β-hydroxybutyrate was negatively cor¬related (P < 0.001) with mass change (daily mass change = –54.49+ 11.82 [triglyceride] – 28.65 [β-hydroxybutyrate log]). Our results in¬dicate that triglyceride and β-hydroxybutyrate can estimate one-day changes in mass of free-living wild Lesser Scaup, which provides an index to daily changes in lipid reserves and should be useful for assessing quality of migration habitat.

Comparing Local Vs. Global Visible And Near-Infrared (Visnir) Diffuse Reflectance Spectroscopy (Drs) Calibrations For The Prediction Of Soil Clay, Organic C And Inorganic C, Joel B. Sankey, David J. Brown, Melisa L. Bernard, Rick L. Lawrence

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Local, field-scale, VisNIR-DRS soil calibrations generally yield the most accurate predictions but require a substantial number of local calibration samples at every application site. Global to regional calibrations are more economically efficient, but don't provide sufficient accuracy for many applications. In this study, we quantified the value of augmenting a large global spectral library with relatively few local calibration samples for VisNIR-DRS predictions of soil clay content (clay), organic carbon content (SOC), and inorganic carbon content (IC). VisNIR models were constructed with boosted regression trees employing global, local+global, and local spectral data, using local samples from two low-relief, sedimentary bedrock …

Ecosystem Services Derived From Wetland Conservation Practices In The United States Prairie Pothole Region With An Emphasis On The U.S. Department Of Agriculture Conservation Reserve And Wetlands Reserve Programs, Robert A. Gleason, Murray K. Laubhan, Brian A. Tangen, Kevin E. Kermes

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

Contents:

Chapter A Background and Approach to Quantification of Ecosystem Services By Robert A. Gleason and Murray K. Laubhan

Chapter B Plant Community Quality and Richness By Murray K. Laubhan and Robert A. Gleason

Chapter C Carbon Sequestration By Robert A. Gleason, Brian A. Tangen, and Murray K. Laubhan

Chapter D Floodwater Storage By Robert A. Gleason and Brian A. Tangen

Chapter E Reduction of Sedimentation and Nutrient Loading By Brian A. Tangen and Robert A. Gleason

Chapter F Proposed Approach to Assess Potential Wildlife Habitat Suitability on Program Lands By Murray K. Laubhan, Kevin E. Kermes, and Robert A. …

Impact Of West Nile Virus And Other Mortality Factors On American White Pelicans At Breeding Colonies In The Northern Plains Of North America, Marsha A. Sovada, Pamela J. Pietz, Kathryn A. Converse, D. Tommy King, Erik K. Hofmeister, Paulette Scherr, Hon S. Ip

United States Geological Survey, Northern Prairie Wildlife Research Center: Publications

American white pelicans (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos) are colonial-nesting birds and their breeding sites are concentrated in a few small areas, making this species especially vulnerable to factors that can influence productivity, such as disease, disturbance, predation, weather events and loss of nesting habitat. Nearly half of the American white pelican population breeds at four colonies in the northern plains: Chase Lake National Wildlife Refuge (NWR) in North Dakota, Bitter Lake (Waubay NWR) in South Dakota, Medicine Lake NWR in Montana, and Marsh Lake in Minnesota. Thus, sustained productivity at these colonies is crucial to the health of the entire …

Engineer Cantonment, Missouri Territory, 1819-1820: America's First Biodiversity Ineventory, Hugh H. Genoways, Brett C. Ratcliffe

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

It is our thesis that members of the Stephen Long Expedition of 1819-20 completed the first biodiversity inventory undertaken in the United States at their winter quarters, Engineer Cantonment, Missouri Territory, in the modern state of Nebraska. This accomplishment has been overlooked both by biologists and historians, but it should rank among the most significant accomplishments of the expedition. The results of this inventory allow us to evaluate the environmental, faunal, and floral changes along the Missouri River in the intervening nearly 190 years. The historical records form a visual image of a dynamic riverine system in which a highly …

Mapping The Dispossession: Scandinavian Homesteading At Fort Totten, 1900-1930, Karen V. Hansen, Mignon Duffy

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

Once Spirit Lake Dakota Reservation was opened to white homesteading in 1904, the turnover of land from Dakota to Euro-American hands was rapid. Scandinavians, the largest foreign-born group in the state, took advantage of this land-taking opportunity and moved onto the reservation in great numbers, acquiring approximately 25% of the land within six years. In effect, while the Scandinavians lived as neighbors with the Dakota, they also became the harbinger of the dispossession of Dakota land.

Using quantitative analysis oflandownership specified in plat maps of the reservation in 1910, this article analyzes the gender and ethnicity of the landowners. Oral …

Mapping Agricultural Land Cover For Hydrologic Modeling In The Platte River Watershed Of Nebraska, Patti R. Dappen, Ian C. Ratcliffe, Cullen R. Robbins, James W. Merchant

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

Throughout the western United States, natural resources managers are attempting to address the growing, and often competing, demands that municipal, agricultural and environmental interests have for water. The Platte River Cooperative Hydrology Study (COHYST) is a multi-agency effort that seeks to improve understanding of the ecology, geology, and hydrology of the Platte River watershed in central and western Nebraska. Information regarding the types, areal extent, and locations of crops (especially irrigated crops) is critical for estimating consumptive use of water. Digital land-cover and land-use datasets of the central and western Platte River valley have been prepared for four years: 1982, …

Developing The Nature-Based Tourism Sector In Southwestern North Dakota, Nancy M. Hodur, F. Larry Leistritz, Kara L. Wolfe

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

Rural communities increasingly are looking to the tourism sector as a source of economic growth. Southwestern North Dakota has experienced substantial out-migration and population loss, resulting in designation of the eight-county area as a Rural Economic Area Partnership (REAP) zone in 1995. The purpose of this study was to (1) identify opportunities for expanding the region's tourism sector, (2) identify challenges and obstacles facing tourism businesses, and (3) frame key issues and outline potential options for area decision makers. Information was gathered from (1) a survey of the region's tourism businesses, (2) focus-group interviews with tourism business operators, and (3) …

Testing Multigenerational Colonization Of Carrion By Blow Flies In The Great Plains, Timothy E. Huntington, David O. Carter, Leon G. Higley

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

The relationship between carrion and blow flies is well understood, but in situations where fresh carrion sources are unavailable, as may occur on the Great Plains, the potential for multigenerational colonization of a single carcass exists. By testing this possibility through a replicated choice/no-choice experiment using pig carcasses, we were able to demonstrate that multigenerational colonization of carrion by blow flies does not occur. Fresh pig carcasses were exposed to blow fly infestation, then placed in insect exclusion cages. After the emergence of this first generation of blow fly adults, "choice" cages were supplied with a fresh pig cadaver. No …

Using Schools To Map The Frontier Of Settlement On The Canadian Prairies, John C. Lehr, Brian Mcgregor

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

Most attempts to map the frontier of agricultural settlement in western Canada have used land alienation data or population density calculated from census returns. Both methods are fraught with difficulties. Population density data are only available at five-year intervals at the 36-square-mile township level. Land alienation does not always reflect settlement. In Manitoba, entire townships were alienated years before they were occupied. The organization and building of schools is a better indicator of actual settlement and the emergence of community-based institutions. To test this hypothesis, school formation and land alienation in 35 townships in southeastern Manitoba were plotted. This showed …