PRAIRIE FORUM Vol. 26, No. 1 Spring 2001 CONTENTS Editor's Note Patrick C. Douaud 111 ARTICLES Art, Culture, Regionalism and the Representational Populist Ressentiment ofWilliam Kurelek Andrew Molloy 1 "Awful Splendour": Historical Accounts ofPrairie Fire in Southern Manitoba Prior to 1870 WE Rannie 17 The SheppardJournals: Gender Division of Labour on a Southern Alberta Ranch Shirley Musekamp 47 Grazing the Grasslands: Exploring Conflicts, Relationships and Futures Simon M. Evans 67 Farmers and "Orderly Marketing": The Making of the Canadian Wheat Board RobertIrwin 85 Motivational and Attitudinal Correlates of Female and Male Farm Operators' Off-Farm Employment in Agro-Manitoba Kenneth C. Bessant and Erasmus D. Monu 107 FORUM Jon Gjerde's Minds ofthe Westand Canadian Prairie History: A Round Table Discussion 119 BOOK REVIEW SCHMITZ, Andrew and FURTAN, Hartley, The Canadian Wheat Board: Marketing in the New Millennium by Murray R. Bryck 135 INDEX 139 CONTRIBUTORS 143 PRAIRIE FORUM: Journal of the Canadian Plains Research Center Chief Editor: Patrick Douaud, Education, Regina Editorial Board: I. Adam, English, Calgary D. Gauthier, CPRC, Regina P. Ghorayshi, Sociology, Winnipeg S.Jackel, Canadian Studies, Alberta M. Kinnear, History, Manitoba W. Last, Earth Sciences, Winnipeg A. Leger-Anderson, History, Regina P. McCormack, Native Studies, Alberta A. Mills, Political Science, Winnipeg F. Pannekoek, Alberta Culture and Multiculturalism, Edmonton D. Payment, Parks Canada, Winnipeg T. Robinson, Religious Studies, Lethbridge L. Vandervort, Law, Saskatchewan J. Welsted, Geography, Brandon B. Wilkinson, Economics, Alberta Copy Editor: Brian Mlazgar, CPRC, Regina Book Review Editor: Wendee Kubik, CPRC, Regina PRAIRIE FORUM is published twice yearly, in Spring and Fall, at an annual sub­ scription rate of $23.00 for individuals and $28.00 for institutions. In addition, 7% GST must be added to all Canadian orders. Out-of-Canada orders, please make pay­ ment in Canadian funds and add $5.00 for postage and handling. All subscriptions, correspondence and contributions should be sent to: The Editor, Prairie Forum, Canadian Plains Research Center, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, S4S OA2. PRAIRIE FORUM is not responsible for statements, either offact or opinion, made by contributors. © 2001 CANADIAN PLAINS RESEARCH CENTER ISSN 0317-6282 EDITOR'S NOTE The present issue ofPrairieForum is introduced by an essay on William Kurelek, in which Andrew Molloy explores the tensions between regionalism and national­ ism as he sees them expressed in the intensely emotional grass-roots work of that artist. There follows a description of the nineteenth-century "Grass Fire Era" in southern Manitoba, which W.F. Rannie interprets as a consequence of the fur trade, of encroaching agriculture, and of travellers' carelessness. Shirley Musekamp has put together significant excerpts from journals pertain­ ing to the Sheppard ranch in Alberta, as well as associated photographs, in an effort to demythologize the early days of ranching by relying on individual accounts and by highlighting the circumstances of everyday labour. The remaining three articles deal with farming exclusively. Simon Evans gives us an analysis of the contemporary ranching situation, characterized by a rapid change due to socio-economic evolution, increased urban encroachment, and shifting perceptions. Robert Irwin then addresses the controversy surrounding the Canadian Wheat Board by delving into its origins and by examining the structures involved in the grain trade as they have related to farmers' interests. Finally, K Bessant and E. Monu give us a detailed analysis of the attitudes and motivations which set apart men and women looking for off-farm employment in agricultural Manitoba. We also have a Forum. Edited by Royden Loewen, this is an account ofa round­ table discussion held at the May 2000 annual meeting of the Canadian Historical Association in Edmonton. The discussants critiquedJon Cjerde's 1997 book Minds of the West: Ethnocultural Evolution in the Rural Middle West, 1830-1917, in terms of the applicability of its American content to the Canadian context; the author pro­ vided a response which concludes this Forum. Patrick C. Douaud Editor-in-Chief University of Regina Art, Culture, Regionalism and the Representational Populist Ressentiment of William Kurelek Andrew Molloy "In the end, the art ofthe past is being mystified because a privileged minority is striving to invent a history which can retrospectively justify the role ofthe ruling classes, and such a justification can no longer make sense in modern terms. And so, inevitably, it mystifies." John Berger, Ways ofSeeing (1972) ABSTRACT. This article explores the cultural, artistic and political treatment of a transitional western Canadian artist within the larger context of the centralizing tendencies ofan "eastern-dominated" fed­ eral state. In the process, various theories of art and society are explored in order to sharpen under­ standing of the "popular culture order of things" that dominates much ofWestern society today. SOMMAIRE. Le present article explore le traitement culturel, artistique et politique d'un artiste de tran­ sition dans l'ouest du Canada, dans le contexte plus general des tendancescentralisantes d'un etat federal dont l'autorite penche al'est. On y passe en revue diverses theories de l'art et de la societe dans le but de mieux faire comprendre la culture populaire qui domine la societe occidentale contemporaine. This article focuses upon many aspects ofwhatwe commonly refer to as culture. My objective is to marry the federal government's attempt to create a national artis­ tic culture in Canada, through cultural agencies such as the Canada Council, with the profound sense of regional artistic consciousness found in the West as repre­ sented by the formative work ofWilliam Kurelek. Kurelek's work represents a cele­ bration of the ressentiment of a region which operates at the margins of the Canadian state - economically, politically and even artistically. The term ressenti­ ment is used by Nietzsche to describe a spirit of revenge, a drive that festers in the weak who seek vengeance against the strong and the privileged. It can also be used to denote a reactionary state in which "the mass," unable to create values for itself, merely reverses the values of the "higher types." Both forms of ressentiment are pres­ ent in western populist discourse and have helped to create political, social and economic projects as well as a regional "false consciousness." Marx argued that "false consciousness" grew out of a particular mode of pro­ duction associated with the base structure ofsociety. In any economic system, those who control the modes of production will be the movers and shakers of the socie­ ty; their thinking, values and perspectives will be dominant. All social and cultural forms of expression such as art will develop as a product of the dominant mode of production. The maintenance ofany system is also dependent on the existence of an ideology that functions to prevent these dispossessed of any economic system from seeing their real relationship to power structures. Ideology produces a "false consciousness" of oneself and one's relationship to history, and works best when it is not detected. When the centralizing tendencies of state ideology break down, however, as a result of cyclical regional economic conditions, political ressentiment can develop. Cultural-political ressentiment can thus become the basis for a concept of regional cultural studies as a strategy of resistance to the ideological hegemony of the national state. This article represents one such exploration. The Uses of Culture It is a truism to say that one can no longer speak ofa distinction between high and low culture. This is to the good. Culture has opened up from the intellectual scratching ofPlato's cave to the nearestvideo mansion. The traditional class nature ofculture which often glorified the social system and its priorities has been exploit­ ed over a period of time so class authority is not as overt as it once was. From the food we eat through the clothes we wear to our physical environment, everything is proper grist for the mill. We live the multi-ethnic experience at the most super­ ficial (sophisticated?) level because of the crossculturallevels of daily interaction and commodification in our society. That old standby, class authority, can no longer speak of universal rationality, intelligence or truth because it is seen to be a product of nineteenth-century history. The feminist movement goes even further in arguing that the traditional notions ofrationality and truth are themselves oppressive devices. We cannot agree any more on how to communicate because rationality, truth and intelligence are the necessary standards by which we communicate; they are built into the nature ofwhat it is to speak and think. If you think and speak at all, you are already in a situation where the canons ofrationality, truth and intelligence apply; but these do not themselves substitute for a particular dogmatic theology. This is what makes current discussions of culture so fascinating. After all, the era in which we live is supposedly post-historical, post-modern and post-contemporary. And what we are all "post" is rationality and intelligence. The idea is that reason has subverted itself. It was all a massive self-deception to think that we could discover the truth about the real world; rather, there are just sub-