Other International and Area Studies Commons^™

Review Of West Of The American Dream: An Encounter With Texas By Paul Christensen, Roger Jones

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

In 1974, fresh from his doctoral studies at the University of Pennsylvania, poet and critic Paul Christensen set out for his first teaching job, in College Station, Texas, at Texas A&M. Eastern by education and temperament, and as yet unsteeped in Texas culture, Texas literature, or Texas landscape, Christensen was somewhat uncertain about what to expect in his new setting. Almost thirty years later, however (and still at Texas A&M), Christensen now looks back on the years and on his own experiences in West of the American Dream, a rich, wide-ranging, evocative work combining his critical eye for the …

Review Of Beauty, Honor, And Tradition: The Legacy Of Plains Indian Shirts By Joseph D. Horse Capture And George P. Horse Capture, Imre Nagy

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The study of Plains Indian art is currently in a transitive stage. Because of the enthusiasm of several non-Native researchers and scholars in the eighties and nineties-like Norman Feder, Dennis Lessard, Richard Conn, John C. Ewers (just to name those who have already passed away)-the appreciation of Plains Indian beadwork and quillwork almost reached the highest levels of connoisseurship, and prices for these pieces rose to the stars. At the same time, our knowledge of tribal or regional styles clarified to a certain degree, and our vision became less obscured by centuryold misconceptions. The presence of Native American scholarship also …

Review Of Anti-Indianism In Modern America: A Voice From Tatekeya's Earth By Elizabeth Cook-Lynn, Jacki Thompson-Rand

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

The fertile mind of Elizabeth Cook-Lynn has produced essays, lectures, and papers on an array of issues confronting Native America, a selection of them presented here. Writing from a Dakota-centered view, Cook-Lynn provides analysis and commentary on oppression that arises and takes shape out of language, knowledge production, and "misrepresentations of Indian people on the part of individuals and institutions. Literature, federal Indian policies, the academy, American Indian Studies, scholarly theoretical trends, and art are indices to Anti-Indian ism in America.

Cook-Lynn's authoritative assessment of the state of Native American Literary Studies provides insight into her appreciation of the complications …

Come To The "Champagne Air" Changing Promotional Images Of The Kansas Climate, 1854 -1900, Karen De Bres

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Euro-American settlers poured into Kansas during the second half of the nineteenth century, and there they encountered a hostile and unpredictable climate. Rainfall patterns were erratic, and the extremes of temperature were both demanding and daunting. Countering these conditions, or at least tempering them, became a task for a variety of individuals and organizations. The work was straightforward: to transform the image of Kansas in order to attract prospective immigrants. As historian Carl Becker wrote, this was not easy: Until 1895 the whole history of the state was a series of disasters, and always something new, extreme, bizarre, until the …

Review Of Racial Frontiers: Africans, Chinese, And Mexicans In Western America, 1848-1890 By Arnoldo De Leon, Sucheng Chan

Great Plains Quarterly (through 2013)

Arnoldo De Leon wrote this book to fill a gap in the existing literature on the American West that either "overlooks or is mindless about the contributions of Africans, Chinese, and Mexicans to the frontier experience." In his view, the presence of these nonwhite groups made the region a racial as well as a psychological frontier. In a short text of only 107 pages, he argues, in chapter 1, that these groups came because the frontier offered them opportunities not available in their homelands (though "homeland" is not entirely applicable to American-born blacks). That is, their motive for migrating to …

Migrations Of Grassland Communities And Grazing Philosophies In The Great Plains: A Review And Implications For Management, Joe C. Truett

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

Ecologists commonly separate Great Plains grasslands communities into types based on grass height: shortgrass prairie, mixed-grass prairie, and tallgrass prairie. Grass height correlates directly with precipitation and thus lessens with distance westward and with drought. Grass height correlates inversely with grazing intensity and thus shortgrasses expand eastward when grazing pressures are great and shrink westward when grazing pressures relax. Evidence about past distributions of shortgrasses, coupled with the prehistoric and historic abundances of large grazers and the black-tailed prairie dog (a shortgrass indicator), suggest a far-eastward occurrence of shortgrass prairie in the late Pleistocene (despite a relatively wet climate), a …

Range And Population Size Of The American Burying Beetle (Coleoptera: Silphidae) In The Dissected Hills Of South-Central Nebraska, Mark Peyton

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

The American burying beetle (Nicrophorus americanus Olivier) is the only insect found in Nebraska currently on the federal endangered species list. I conducted surveys in 1995, 1996, and 1998 to determine range and population size of the American burying beetle in south-central Nebraska, A total of 826 individuals were captured during these three years, A Sequential Bayes Algorithm was used to estimate population size based on mark and recapture data. Results from this study and other studies identify the range of this population in south-central Nebraska as an approximately 4,500 km2 area located south of the Platte River in …

Fish Community Persistence In Eastern North And South Dakota Rivers, Jeffrey Shearer, Charles Berry, Jr.

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

Over the past 25 years, the James River in North and South Dakota has experienced records in minimum and maximum discharge. Our objectives were to compare: (1) the fish community in the main river after dry (1988-90) and wet (1993-2000) years, and (2) the fish community of both the main river and tributaries between dry (1975) and wet (1998-2000) years. In South Dakota in the main river, there were 10 families and 29 species after several dry years and 11 families and 35 species after several wet years. Percichthyidae was the additional family after the wet years. Basinwide, there were …

Constructing The Cooper Model Of Folsom Bison Kills On The Southern Plains, Leland Bement

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

The Cooper model postulates that a dichotomy exists in the size and seasonality of bison kill sites from the Folsom age (10,800- 10,200 years ago). This dichotomy is a result of changing settlement and subsistence patterns, from population aggregation in the late summer and early fall for large-scale kills, to a dispersed pattern with small bison kills during all other seasons. Attendant to the change in human population aggregation and number of bison harvested are changes in bison butchering techniques, choice of camp location, and ritual activity. It is postulated that ritual activity of an aggregated group is manifest in …

Sustainability And Historical Land-Use Change In The Great Plains: The Case Of Eastern Colorado, William J. Parton, Myron Gutmann, William Travis

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

The Great Plains is one focus of the debate in the United States over appropriate land use and sustainability. Within the Plains region, eastern Colorado represents a case study that permits researchers and policymakers to focus on important relationships between agricultural land use, population change, and the sustainability of agriculture, environment, and communities. Colorado Front Range urban areas experienced large increases in population from 1950 to 2000 that resulted in a 35% reduction in total farmland. In the urban fringe region, farmland declined rapidly since 1978 and harvested irrigated cropland declined by 16% since 1990. Rural population in eastern Colorado …

Changes In Asian And Hispanic Population In The Cities Of The Great Plains, 1990-2000, Evelyn Ravuri

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

In several areas of the United States previously not known for foreign populations, the number of Hispanics and Asians have increased in the past two decades. I examined the percentage change for Hispanics and for Asians for 41 cities in the states of Iowa, Kansas, Nebraska, North Dakota, and South Dakota between 1990 and 2000. Hispanics and Asians are then disaggregated by ethnic subgroup, and regression analysis is used to determine the characteristics of cities that attract or repel different subgroups for both 1990 and 2000. In 2000 Mexicans, Other Hispanics, and Vietnamese were attracted to cities with low income …

Relationship Between Community Satisfaction And Migration Intentions Of Rural Nebraskans, Rebecca J. Vogt, John C. Allen, Sam Cordes

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

Though many nonmetropolitan counties in the United States experienced population gains in the 1990s, many of the nonmetropolitan counties in the Great Plains continued to experience population declines. Thus, the reasons that people are moving need to be explored. This paper examines possible reasons by analyzing the relationship between community satisfaction and migration intentions of nonmetropolitan Nebraskans. Data used for this analysis were from an annual survey mailed to 6,500 residents living in nonmetropolitan counties in the state. The survey data were analyzed at two levels. First, demographic comparisons were made between those who planned to stay in their communities …

Bully Or Friend? The Us In The World Today, St Mary's University

President's Peace Commission - Programs

The President’s Peace Commission existed from 1984 to 2013 at St. Mary's University. The Commission fostered an ethical commitment to participate in the establishment of world peace and social justice.

This program is about the United States in international organizations, the roots of terrorism and international perceptions.

Historical And Recent Records And First Nest Records Of Henslow's Sparrow In North Dakota, Jill A. Shaffer, Lawrence D. Igl, Frédérick Vanhove

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

The northwestern limit of the Henslow's sparrow (Ammodramus henslowii) breeding distribution occurs in southern Minnesota and central Wisconsin. In North Dakota, observations of Henslow's sparrows are reported infrequently, and there are no published nest records in the state. Herein, we summarize and review previous reports of Henslow's sparrows in North Dakota and document the first two nest records of Henslow's sparrow in the state.

Differences In Distribution Of Modified Basins And Ducks Relative To Roadside Transects, Jane E. Austin, Glenn R. Guntenspergen, H. Thomas Sklebar, T. K. Buhl

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

Wetland basins in the Prairie Pothole Region of the U.S. are commonly modified by excavation (e.g., roadside ditches, stock dugouts), partial drainage (ditching), and diking. Differences in the distribution of modified wetlands may affect the predictive accuracy of waterfowl survey data if such wetlands are not distributed randomly in the landscape and if waterfowl are not distributed equally among them. We used data collected on thirty-eight 40-km² plots in North Dakota to examine the distribution of modified basins relative to roadside transects and their use by five species of dabbling ducks in 1995. The 800-m-wide transects were subdivided into …

Nest Parasitism On Constructed Islands In Northwestern North Dakota, Amy L. Zimmerman, Marsha A. Sovada, Tim K. Kessler, Robert K. Murphy

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

Parasitism of duck nests can reduce host productivity. We examined effects of nest parasitism on success of host nests found on constructed islands in the Fuller-Big Meadows marsh in northwestern North Dakota from 1994 to 2000. We found 1642 duck nests of 10 species on 25 0.3-ha islands. Nine hundred- seventy (59%) of the 1642 nests were parasitized, of which 87% were parasitized by redheads (Aythya americana). The observed parasitism rate was greater than 50% in four of seven years and was highest in 1997 (81 %, n = 252). Mallard (Anas platyrhynchos) nests tended to …

Genetic Variation In The Midcontinental Population Of Sandhill Cranes, Grus Canadensis, Jessica L. Petersen, Richard Bischof, Gary L. Krapu, Allen L. Szalanski

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

Three subspecies of sandhill crane (Grus canadensis) are recognized in the Midcontinental population, the lesser (Grus c. canadensis), Canadian (G. c. rowani), and greater (G. c. tabida). Blood samples collected on the population’s primary spring staging area in Nebraska, U.S.A., were used to resolve the genetic relationship among these subspecies. Phylogenetic analysis of 27 G. canadensis, by DNA sequencing of a 675 bp region of the mtDNA, supports the subspecies designations of G. c. canadensis and G. c. tabida. G. c. rowani individuals were intermediate with each of the other …

Effects Of Leafy Spurge Infestation On Grassland Birds, Daniel M. Scheiman, Eric K. Bollinger, Douglas H. Johnson

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

Grassland bird populations are declining. Invasive plant species may be contributing to these declines by altering habitat quality. However, the effects of invasive plants on grassland birds are largely unknown. Leafy spurge (Euphorbia esula) is an exotic, invasive weed in the northern Great Plains. We examined the effects of leafy spurge infestation on densities of breeding birds, nest-site selection, and nest success in grasslands on the Sheyenne National Grassland (SNG), North Dakota, USA, 1999-2000. We categorized spurge-infested grasslands into 3 groups (low, medium, high), based on the area covered by spurge patches. We surveyed 75 100-m-radius circular points …

A Strategic Review Of International Animal Protection, Paul G. Irwin

State of the Animals 2003

The level of animal protection activity varies substantially around the world. To some extent, the variation parallels the level of economic development, as countries with high per capita incomes and democratic political structures have better financed and better developed animal protection organizations. However there is not a one-to-one correlation between economic development and animal protection activity. Japan and Saudi Arabia, for example, have high per capita incomes but low or nonexistent levels of animal protection activity, while India has a relatively low per capita income but a fairly large number of animal protection groups.

The State Of Meat Production In Developing Countries: 2002, Neil Trent, Peter Ormel, Jose Luis Garcia De Siles, Gunter Heinz, Morgane James

State of the Animals 2003

Two organizations—one dedicated to the elimination of animal suffering and the other to encouraging sustainable agriculture and rural development— have joined forces to address animal welfare issues in the global livestock industry. The mission of The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS) and its international arm, Humane Society International (HSI), is to create a humane and sustainable world for all animals, including people, through education, advocacy, and the promotion of respect and compassion. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has as a specific priority to increase food production and food security while conserving and managing …

Book Review Of Climate Change Impacts On The United States: The Potential Consequences Of Climate Variability And Change. A Report Of The National Assessment Synthesis Team, Us Global Change Research Program, Susan Capalbo

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

Addressing the potential consequences of climate variability and change can be best summarized in terms of tradeoffs: tradeoffs between short-term and long-term impacts; tradeoffs among sectors and regions; and tradeoffs among national-level versus more regional-level impacts. Evidence of these tradeoffs is presented in this comprehensive report by the National Assessment Synthesis Team (NAST) for the US Global Research Program. Its findings are based on analysis of historical data, model projections, and scientific research. A key assumption in the report is the absence of major interventions to reduce continued growth of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

Book Review Of A Green And Permanent Land: Ecology And Agriculture In The Twentieth Century By Randal S. Beeman And James A. Pritchard, Kristin Ahlberg

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

Concentrating on the ideological underpinnings of American agriculture, Beeman and Prichard illuminate the 20th-century debate over defining and implementing suitable agricultural practices and policies. Against the backdrop of the Great Depression and World War II, farmers, environmentalists, federal officials, and academics found agriculture influenced by a growing ecological movement. Techniques purporting a better urban-rural balance, soil conservation, and organic fertilization were favored by individuals seeking an alternative to the economic and social despair experienced by Americans during the 1930s and 1940s. The agricultural establishment troika of agribusiness, land-grant universities, and the United States Department of Agriculture eschewed such ideas until …

Book Review Of Science At The American Frontier: A Biography Of Dewitt Bristol Brace By David Cahan And M. Eugene Rudd, Robinson Yost

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

Though not among the most influential American physicists of the late 19th century, DeWitt Bristol Brace (1859-1905) played significant roles in creating the Department of Physics at the University of Nebraska, Lincoln, and in developing extremely sensitive instrumentation attempting to measure the motion of the hypothetical ether relative to the Earth (more commonly called "ether drift"). As the book's title suggests, another of its major themes is the transmission of scientific knowledge, physics in particular, from German and East Coast American universities to the remoteness of the Great Plains. It is within this contextual framework that Science at the American …

Book Review Of A People's Dream: Aboriginal Self-Government In Canada By Dan Russell, Ross Gordon Green

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

The issue of achieving self-government has long been a concern of many Aboriginal people in Canada. Indian, Metis, and Inuit people were formally recognized in the Canadian constitution in 1982, when s. 35 of the Constitution Act, 1982 proclaimed that the "existing aboriginal and treaty rights of the aboriginal people of Canada are hereby recognized and affirmed." But did this include the right to self-government?

Book Review Of Watershed: Reflections On Water By Grant Macewan, Lee Foote

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

Watershed, the last of forty-eight books by Grant MacEwan, was completed in the year of his death and published posthumously. This work integrates his ninety-seven years as a keenly informed student of western Canadian water issues. Three attributes make it noteworthy. First, The Source: MacEwan was an excellent observer and student of water-related development, personal struggles, politics, and environmentalism in western Canada. Second, Voice: poetic yet spare prose embodies a voice of western scholarship free from romantic pandering. Third, Temporal Scope: Grant MacEwan renders a first-person account and commentary across a century of change.

Reverse Migration And Nonmetropolitan Employment In Four Great Plains States, 1970-1980, A. Olu Oyinlade

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

During the rural renaissance of the 1970s, the United States experienced a reverse migration pattern in which the flow of migration was predominantly urban to rural, unlike the traditional rural to urban flows. This migration phenomenon was equally experienced in the North Central Region, which includes the Great Plains states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas.

This study investigated the impact of the reverse migration phenomenon on employment in eight industry categories in three categories of counties in North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Kansas. Findings show that net migration had differential impacts on employment by industry category …

Book Review Of Saving Migrant Birds: Developing Strategies For The Future John Faaborg, Kenneth Able

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

The purported decline of populations of some of the most conspicuous and prized species of neotropical migrant birds has spawned something of a cottage industry. Beginning in the 1980s, many articles in the popular press, some of them wildly hyperbolic, predicted the imminent demise of much of North America's songbird fauna. One of the positive outcomes of this phenomenon has been a resurgence of research on migratory birds. In Saving Migratory Birds, John Faaborg takes a careful look at what we have learned in the two decades since the alarm was sounded and, just as important, what we still …

Review Of Birds Of Nebraska: Their Distribution And Temporal Occurrence By Roger S. Sharpe, W. Ross Silcock, And Joel G. Jorgensen, David L. Swanson

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

Several books regarding the status and distribution of the birds of Nebraska have appeared since 1980, including annotated checklists (Paul Johnsgard, A Preliminary List of the Birds of Nebraska and Adjacent Great Plains States [1980]; Johnsgard, The Birds of Nebraska and Adjacent Plains States [1997]; T. E. Bray et al., The Birds of Nebraska: A Critically Evaluated List [1986]) and treatments of breeding birds (James E. Ducey and Johnsgard, Nebraska Birds: Breeding Status and Distribution [1988]), but none of these is a truly comprehensive account of the state's avifauna. The current volume is aimed at just such a niche and …

Review Of Science And Native American Communities: Legacies Of Pain, Visions Of Promise Edited By Keith James, Dave Pruett, Ernest Stromberg

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

Science and Native American Communities, a provocative collection of essays from an unprecedented 1997 conference of Native American professionals in academia, science, engineering, and health sciences, explores "the uneasy meeting ground" between Western science and traditional wisdom.
Education, particularly in the sciences, is not value-neutral to Native peoples. Rather than education's poster children, many of the text's nineteen contributors are survivors of failed educational experiments: mission schools, boarding schools, externally imposed values, forced relocations. To editor Keith James (Onondaga), a professor of psychology, "Education has historically been associated with physical and sexual abuse and the emotional and cultural battery …

Review Of Water On The Great Plains: Issues And Policies Edited By Peter 1. Longo And David W. Yoskowitz, Alan R. Smith

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

The centrality of water scarcity on the region's public agenda, the correlative need for preservation, and the policies and laws resulting from these circumstances are basic to the concerns of Water on the Great Plains. The book makes a valuable contribution to the study of equity in water rights, its ten chapters offering an accurate overview of the equity issue from several perspectives: geographical, historical, political, and cultural. A complex inquiry, the work provokes further thought-especially on the issue of negotiation and compromise.