Other International and Area Studies Commons^™

Habitat And Nesting Of Le Conte's Sparrows In The Northern Tallgrass Prairie, Maiken Winter, Jill A. Shaffer, Douglas H. Johnson, Therese M. Donovan, W. Daniel Svedarsky, Peter W. Jones, Betty R. Euliss

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

ABSTRACT. Little is known about the breeding biology of the Le Conte's Sparrow (Ammodramus leconteil), probably because of its secretive nature. We provide new information on several aspects of Le Conte's Sparrow breeding biology, including rates of nest parasitism by Brown-headed Cowbirds (Molothrus ater) and potential factors affecting breeding densities and nesting success of the species. Our study was conducted in the tallgrass prairie of northwestern Minnesota and southeastern North Dakota during 1998-2002. Breeding densities varied among years, but this variation was not clearly linked to climatic patterns. Vegetation had some influence on densities of Le …

Habitat Preferences Of Migrant And Wintering Northern Harriers In Northwestern Texas, Caroll D. Littlefield, Douglas H. Johnson

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

We studied habitat preferences of northern harriers (Circus cyaneus) in 4 counties of the Southern High Plains of northwestern Texas from October 1989 to May 1995. Harriers generally arrived in late July and departed in April. They hunted over a variety of habitats in the study area but mainly in Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) grasslands and vegetated playa basins. CRP grasslands, playa basins, and shortgrass prairie were used disproportionately to their availability, whereas winter wheat was used less than its availability. Brown harriers (adult females or subadults of either sex) foraged in CRP about as often as adult …

The Quintessential Companion For North American Birders, Lawrence D. Igl

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

How do birds drink? How fast can a hummingbird fly? Why do some birds balance on one leg? How fast can an ostrich run? Why do some birds hop and others walk? What is the most abundant bird in the world? As an avian ecologist, these are just a smidgen of the many questions I have been asked by the public during the past several years. To answer these and similar questions, I typically do not reach for a text on ornithology or avian ecology. Rather, I have come to rely on a number of quick-reference, encyclopedic resources on birds, …

Markov Chain Monte Carlo Estimation Of Species Distributions: A Case Study Of The Swift Fox In Western Kansas, Glen A. Sargeant, Marsha A. Sovada, Christiane C. Slivinski, Douglas H. Johnson

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

Accurate maps of species distributions are essential tools for wildlife research and conservation. Unfortunately, biologists often are forced to rely on maps derived from observed occurrences recorded opportunistically during observation periods of variable length. Spurious inferences are likely to result because such maps are profoundly affected by the duration and intensity of observation and by methods used to delineate distributions, especially when detection is uncertain. We conducted a systematic survey of swift fox (Vulpes velox) distribution in western Kansas, USA, and used Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) image restoration to rectify these problems. During 1997-1999, we searched 355 …

Population Genetic Structure In Migratory Sandhill Cranes And The Role Of Pleistocene Glaciations, Kenneth L. Jones, Gary L. Krapu, David A. Brandt, Mary V. Ashley

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

Previous studies of migratory sandhill cranes (Grus Canadensis) have made significant progress explaining evolution of this group at the species scale, but have been unsuccessful in explaining the geographically partitioned variation in morphology seen on the population scale. The objectives of this study were to assess the population structure and gene flow patterns among migratory sandhill cranes using microsatellite DNA genotypes and mitochondrial DNA haplotypes of a large sample of individuals across three populations. In particular, we were interested in evaluating the roles of Pleistocene glaciation events and postglaciation gene flow in shaping the present-day population structure. Our …

First Record Of Graphoderus Liberus (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae) In North Dakota, Bruce A. Hanson, Ned H. Euliss Jr., David M. Mushet

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

Graphoderus liberus is a moderate sized (11 to 12 mm) predaceous diving beetle (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae). Two species of Graphoderus have been recorded in North Dakota, G. perplexus, and G. occidentalis (Gordon and Post 1965, Hanson and Swanson 1989). Graphoderus liberus is transcontinental from New York to British Columbia, but it is more common along the coasts (Larson 1975). In Canada, G. liberus is uncommon; in Alberta only two specimens have been reported from woodland pools (Larson 1975). There have been no records of G. liberus occurring in North Dakota. Graphoderus liberus is easily distinguished from G. perplexus and G. …

Book Review: Austin, Cleared For Takeoff: Aviators, Businessmen, And The Growth Of An American City, Roger Bilstein

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

At its widest point, Texas measures some 850 miles across. EI Paso, in the extreme west, is closer to Los Angeles than it is to Texarkana, sited near the state's eastern boundary. Given the distances its citizens have to travel, Texas has always been attuned to transport technology. And people living in the capital, Austin, near the state's center, have always been interested in finding rapid forms of travel to the far-flung cities and counties of the rest of the state. Thus, Ragsdale's book touches on a highly relevant aspect of urban as well as regional history. Moreover, as national …

Book Review: American Indian Education: A History, Clyde Ellis

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Do we need another history of Indian schools? After reading this book - a revision of Reyhner and Eder's 1989 study of Indian education - the answer is yes and no. Not surprisingly, they harshly criticize education's role in the United States government's coercive assimilation campaigns, but offer only a limited assessment of how students, parents, and communities negotiated the cultural battleground of education between the end of the Civil War and the Indian Reorganization Act. The authors do their best work addressing events since the 1950s, a period yet to receive a full treatment. Their discussion of those years …

Notes And News

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

CALL FOR PAPERS: GREAT PLAINS SYMPOSIUM 2005

NEIHARDT AND JOURNALISM

POW WOW SCHEDULE FOR NEBRASKA

COWBOY SONGS & RANGE BALLADS: PAINTING THE WEST WITH WORDS

NATIVE RANCHING AND RODEO LIFE ON THE PLAINS

Book Review: Willa Cather And Material Culture: Real-World Writing, Writing The Real World, Steven Trout

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

This tightly edited collection has two objectives: first, to underscore the importance of material objects in Cather's supposedly unfurnished fiction; second, to remind us of the material conditions under which her work - work that seems, at first sight, aloof from commercial consideration - was marketed and sold. Packed with original research (never before, for example, has anyone bothered to consider how much wealth Myra Henshaw's gold-stuffed "kit gloves" contain or to examine where Cather's name appears in advertising for the 1934 film version of A Lost Lady), the volume achieves both goals. Cather specialists and scholars interested in …

Review Of American Indians In U.S. History By Roger L. Nichols, William Bauer

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Writing a survey of United States history is a difficult task. Writing a survey of American Indian history-which dates to either 40,000 BCE or when Earth Initiate descended a rope of feathers, depending on your preference poses an even more daunting task (more formidable than reviewing it). Roger Nichols undertakes this imposing venture, nonetheless, and in American Indians in U.S. History successfully offers a concise, readable, and affordable text.

Nichols divides his book into three sections: the frontier period, reservation life, and integration. Throughout, he addresses the gamut of issues facing American Indians, from the contentious debate about their origins …

Review Of Vote Your Conscience: The Last Campaign Of George Mcgovern By Richard Michael Marano, John Miller

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

In the two-party system of the United States, political candidates are fated to be separated into "winners" and "losers." The broad narrative of American political history defines George McGovern as one of its biggest losers, the victim of Richard Nixon's 1972 steamroller re-election campaign, which pulled out all the stops, legal and illegal, to convert the moment into a new Republican majority. Ironically, despite Watergate, Nixon remains in the minds of many Americans as more of a political statesman than his defeated opponent.

This recounting of McGovern's abortive 1984 campaign for the Democratic presidential nomination by the senator's Connecticut coordinator …

Review Of Circle Of Fire: The Indian War Of 1865 By John D. Mcdermott, Charles Robinson

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The Indian War of 1865 marks the last time Plains Indians actually took the offensive against white intrusions into their territory. Besides the basic disruption of their hunting grounds by thousands of outsiders en route to the gold fields of Montana, the immediate cause was the massacre of Black Kettle's band of Cheyennes at Sand Creek by Colorado Territorial Volunteers in 1864. Throughout Circle of Fire, John D. McDermott refers to the hostile tribes as "the avengers," and rightfully so. Although in subsequent campaigns the Indians were largely on the defensive, the war of 1865 set the tone for …

Book Review: The Lavender Scare: The Persecution Of Gays And Lesbians In The Federal Government, Louis Crompton

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Few people are aware that the McCarthyite "Red Scare" of the fifties was paralleled by a "Lavender Scare" that led to a purge of gay men and lesbians employed by federal agencies. But David Johnson, in his admirably researched new study, tells us that three-quarters of the 25,000 letters received by Senator Joseph McCarthy expressed concern with homosexuals in government rather than Communists. How did that come about?

Review Of Great Lonely Places Of The Texas Plains Poems By Walt Mcdonald, James Hoggard

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Both of them winners of major awards, poet Walt McDonald and photographer Wyman Meinzer link their work in a volume that can be read profitably three ways: studying the brilliantly lighted color photographs; reading the moving, story-directed poems; or experiencing the ways both sets of works engage each other. The book's production is beautiful, and the consistent high quality of poems and photographs makes one revisit their memorably precise images and phrases. In places the land of the Plains is seen as sparsely fertile, even parched, and its people, we see, have lived close to grief; but what emerges in …

Book Review: Feasting And Fasting With Lewis & Clark: A Food And Social History Of The Early 1800s, Barbara G. Shortridge

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

This volume is an intriguing combination of narrative and reference material. A first section sets the historical context for the famous voyage of discovery by discussing such topics as contemporary food preservation, outdoor cooking, and knowledge about nutrition and food safety. Then a longer second section chronologically details the food events of the journey, beginning with shopping in Philadelphia. Here the author gives attention not only to obvious topics such as food and beverage provisioning, indigenous flora and fauna food sources, and the diplomatic aspects of eating together with Native Americans, but also much about illness, starvation, and shortage of …

Title And Contents- Winter 2005

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Great Plains Quarterly

Volume 25 / Number 1 / Winter 2005

Contents

Some Thoughts on The 25th Anniversary Of The Great Plains Quarterly

Deep Mapping the Biome: The Biology Of Place In Don Gayton's The Wheatgrass Mechanism And John Janovy Jr.' S Dunwoody Pond

Child Labor in The Early Sugar Beet Industry In The Great Plains, 1890-1920

A Tribute to Sue Rosowski

Book Reviews

Notes And News

Book Review: The Food Journal Of Lewis And Clark: Recipes For An Expedition, Mary Wallace Kelsey

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

This well-designed and appealing book, combining history with usable recipes reminiscent of the times and places the expedition traveled, looks as though it might have been published early in the nineteenth century. Gunderson uses the term "paleocusineology," which she defines as bringing history alive through cooking. If one merely thumbs through the volume, finding recipes for ice cream and lemon meringue pie can be a bit startling. Obviously, these foods could not have been prepared in the wilderness. Reading, however, tells us that the story begins with the employment of Meriwether Lewis as President Thomas Jefferson's private secretary in 1801 …

Book Review: College Rodeo: From Show To Sport, George H. Pfeiffer

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Clearly, college rodeo has meant much to the life of Sylvia Gann Mahoney. She was a college rodeo coach herself. She married a rodeo coach. She is a founder of an intercollegiate Rodeo alumni group. Perhaps her close association with college rodeo and her obvious love for the sport is the reason she should not have written this book.

Review Of A Vast And Open Plain: The Writings Of The Lewis And Clark Expedition In North Dakota, 1804- 1806 Edited And With An Introduction By Clay S. Jenkinson, Douglas Munski

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Definitely not to be overlooked in the evergrowing mass of publications concerning the Lewis and Clark Expedition during its bicentennial commemorations is this crucial reference work produced under the auspices of the State Historical Society of North Dakota and the North Dakota Humanities Council. Jenkinson's edition is a special contribution to Corps of Discovery literature because it highlights the 215 days the expedition spent in North Dakota's Missouri River region in the words of the voyage's major and minor journal keepers, superbly annotated by Jenkinson and richly illustrated. A Vast and Open Plain also includes the Mandan Miscellany document of …

Book Review: Writing Grief: Margaret Laurence And The Work Of Mourning, Helen M. Buss

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Writing Grief promises two departures in Laurence criticism: a study of the literary output in the context of the author's life, and a theoretically informed work on the psychology of grief. In his introduction the author asserts that mourning is pervasive in Margaret Laurence's work and that "her personal life was deeply informed by her first hand experience of death"; he then proposes that "for Laurence, this work of mourning involved writing texts that explored autobiographical materials." One expects, therefore, an exploration of fictional texts informed at each turn by biographical and autobiographical materials, an innovation in Laurence study that …

Book Review: Discovering Lewis And Clark From The Air, Gary Huibregtse

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

When acclaimed photo historian Beaumont Newhall published the fourth edition of The History of Photography in 1964, he included (in a chapter titled "The Quest of Form") an aerial photograph, made by a Royal Air Force photographer, that showed German forces plowing up a Libyan airfield to render it useless for advancing allied forces. This strange, abstract image, consisting largely of linear plowed patterns, though by no means the first example of a photograph made from an airplane, was most likely included in this largely aesthetic tracing of the medium's history as an illustration of the visual power potently available …

Book Review: Unaffected By The Gospel: Osage Resistance To The Christian Invasion, 1673-1906: A Cultural Victory, J. Frederick Fausz

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

As he did in his 1992 The Osage: An Ethno-historical Study of Hegemony on the Prairie-Plains, Willard Rollings expands and enhances our understanding of that historically significant, but often neglected, Native nation in this new study of Christian missions.

Book Review: Adventures With A Texas Humanist, Steve Davis

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

An Alabaman by birth, James Ward Lee is well positioned to understand a basic fallacy about Texas's image as a "western" state. Despite popular notions of cowboys, cactus, and wide-open spaces, Lee reminds us that Texas was essentially "southern" for much of its history. Up until the 1950s, cotton far exceeded cattle as a measure of the Texas economy. The literary arts followed in those economic footsteps. While "western" writers such as Larry McMurtry and J. Frank Dobie are now seen as emblematic of the state, Lee argues that "the literary heart and soul of Texas used to be located …

Book Review: Weldon Kees And The Arts At Midcentury, Stephen C. Foster

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Weldon Kees as a person, the decentralization of artistic myths, and various issues involving the demography of the arts are some of the central concerns of this essay collection. Such inquiry suggests that Kees criticism could be productively pursued in the context of individuals such as Midwestern critic Gene Swenson and might help explain why the book's comparisons of Kees with many of his New York peers ends up being unproductive.

Book Review: "We're The Light Crust Doughboys From Burrus Mill": An Oral History, Kevin Coffey

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

As the millennium turned, Texas's Light Crust Doughboys approached seventy years of (almost) continuous existence. A '90s rejuvenation that culminated with the first of several Grammy nominations rescued them from museum-piece status, though celebrations were tempered by the death of the band's linchpin, banjo virtuoso Smokey Montgomery, a member from 1935, who lost a long battle with leukemia in 2001.

Book Review: Red River Rising: The Anatomy Of A Flood And The Survival Of An American City, Kathryn Sweney

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Red River Rising is a gripping read with all the tension and memorable characters of a good whodunit. The tale is the story of the 1997 flood that devastated a number of towns in the Northern Great Plains. Author Ashley Shelby chose to concentrate on Grand Forks, North Dakota, "because the story of the town's demise and recovery could be the story of any American community unexpectedly destroyed and then left to pick up the pieces and rebuild." Shelby said she learned from her journalist father "that the only way to tell the story is to talk to the people …

Book Review: Magic Off Main: The Art Of Esther Warkov, Eleanor Lazare

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Beverly J. Rasporich discusses the work of one of western Canada's most intriguing artists, placing it in a contemporary art context. Warkov's art is beautifully documented, offering the reader excellent illustrations of the detail, color, and fine technical workmanship of the original pieces. Dividing the book into three main sections-"An Artist's Life," in which Warkov's early influences are considered in terms of her family, art education, and life experiences; the "Early and Middle Years"; and the artist's "Mature Work"- Rasporich discusses the intricate and detailed narratives in Warkov's creations and relates them to both surrealism and the postmodern.

Book Review: Confronting Race: Women And Indians On The Frontier, Margaret Jacobs

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

In this update of her 1984 book, Women and Indians on the Frontier, 1825-1915, Glenda Riley has provided a new introduction and framework for her earlier research on white women's interactions with American Indians in the American West. Riley has copiously compared 150 European-American men's documents and 150 white women's sources to gain insight into how white men and women may have viewed and interacted with Indians differently. Riley originally argued that white women "saw Indians more clearly and related to them more intimately than most men." Having read recent work that emphasizes European-American women's complicity in colonialism, she …

Book Review: The Anguish Of Snails: Native American Folklore In The West, Raymond J. Demallie

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

For half a century Barre Toelken has studied Native American cultures in the West. In this volume he offers a perspective on how outsiders can approach the study of Native Americans using methods developed by the discipline of folklore. In doing so he displays a rare humility, exemplified by the book's title. The structure of its shell, he tells us, records "the ongoing responses of the living snail"; over time these form patterns whose meanings can be explored. Taking the snail shell as his metaphor for culture, he proposes that just as we can learn from studying the patterns in …