Where the West Begins? Geography, Identity and Promise
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Where the West Begins? Geography, Identity and Promise Papers of the Forty-Seventh Annual DAKOTA CONFERENCE A National Conference on the Northern Plains Cover illustration courtesy of South Dakota Department of Tourism THE CENTER FOR WESTERN STUDIES AUGUSTANA 2015 Where the West Begins? Geography, Identity and Promise Papers of the Forty-Seventh Annual Dakota Conference A National Conference on the Northern Plains The Center for Western Studies Augustana Sioux Falls, South Dakota April 24-25, 2015 Compiled by: Erin Castle Nicole Schimelpfenig Financial Contributors Loren and Mavis Amundson CWS Endowment/SFACF City of Deadwood Historic Preservation Commission Tony & Anne Haga Carol Rae Hansen, Andrew Gilmour & Grace Hansen-Gilmour Gordon and Trudy Iseminger Mellon Fund Committee of Augustana College Rex Myers & Susan Richards CWS Endowment Joyce Nelson, in Memory of V.R. Nelson Rollyn H. Samp, in Honor of Ardyce Samp Roger & Shirley Schuller, in Honor of Matthew Schuller Robert & Sharon Steensma Blair & Linda Tremere Richard & Michelle Van Demark Jamie & Penny Volin Ann Young, in Honor of Durand Young National Endowment for the Humanities Cover illustration Courtesy South Dakota Department of Tourism ii Table of Contents Preface ........................................................................................................................... vi Anderson, Grant K. A Schism Within the Nonpartisan League in South Dakota .................................................................... 1 Bakke, Karlie Violence and Discrimination in Indian Country: A Reality for Native American Women ..................... 19 Browne, Miles A. Abraham Lincoln and America’s Unfinished Business .......................................................................... 32 Carlson Aronson, Marilyn Digging for History’s Roots Shows That Cather and Cleary Created Great Plains Heroines ................ 38 Crawford, Leiya, Carla Barnes and Haley Hanna Blight or Alright? Exploring Residential Perceptions of North Dakota’s Expanding Energy Production Landscapes ......................................................................................................................... 56 Elness, Katie Native American Poverty: Pine Ridge, South Dakota ........................................................................... 66 Fanebust, Wayne Where Myth Meets the West: The James Brothers Escape Through Dakota ...................................... 78 Helmers, Jessica Ann From Okoboji to Mankato: Viewing Changes to the Minnesota Borderlands Region through Women’s Captivity Narratives .............................................................................................................. 92 Henry, Casey Settling the West: Overcoming All the Odds ...................................................................................... 110 Matthew Housiaux The Two George McGoverns: The Rise and Fall of a Prairie Populist, 1956-1980.............................. 122 iii Johnson, Barbara Stained Glass in the American West: Re-envisioning an Ancient Art ................................................. 149 Johnson, Carolyn The Sioux Falls Sisters of Cheer: Letter Writing and Domestic Ideals on the World War I Home Front ................................................................................................................................................... 162 Kirby, Joe A History of Counties in South Dakota ............................................................................................... 178 Norland, Thomas The Sioux Falls Municipal Band: Traditions and Importance to the Sioux Empire ............................. 193 Porter, Kimberly K. Robinson’s History of North Dakota: May It Rest in Peace ................................................................ 207 Prewitt, Mel University of Manitoba and the Weakening of French Language Rights ........................................... 219 Rahja, Jean Elliott Willam Henry Harrison Beadle: South Dakota’s Grand Old Man ....................................................... 230 Ritter, Michelle The Roots of Violence against Native American Women ................................................................... 237 Rives-East, Darcie Beneath the Minnesota N(ice): Criminal Identity, the Plains, and Popular Culture ........................... 251 Simmons, Thomas E. Topographical Emphases in Hugh Glass Narratives, 1825-2015 ........................................................ 264 Soule, Jennifer Beginning and Endings of the West in South Dakota: Hiawatha Asylum ........................................... 281 iv Timm, John The Friendship that Brought Statehood to the Dakotas .................................................................... 290 Trask, David S. Do Native American People Have a Place in the Emerging Midwestern Historical Narrative or Do They Belong to the West Alone? ....................................................................................................... 310 Tremere, Blair The West Begins: A Man and His Missions ......................................................................................... 336 Walsh, Kali, Brandon Rudnick & Troy Huber Bakken Crime: Perception vs. Reality ................................................................................................. 356 v PREFACE “Great American Desert,” “Dakota Territory,” “Middle Border,” “Middle West,” “Midwest,” “Great Plains,” “High Plains,” “Western Plains,” “Northern Plains,” “Central Plains,” “Missouri River Basin,” “flyover country,” “the heartland,” “Siouxland,” “the big empty,” “the lost region.” These are some of the terms writers have used to identify the central region of the United States. For its 47th annual meeting, April 24-25, 2015, the Dakota Conference took as its theme “Where the West Begins?” with the intention of exploring the geography, identity, and promise of the Dakotas and the prairie-plains areas of Minnesota, Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming, and Montana. Is the Northern Plains where the Midwest ends and the West begins? What geographical and demographic characteristics help us identify the northern region of the Great Plains? In what ways is the Northern Plains changing? Do these changes bode well or ill for the region and its traditional and new inhabitants? The “hollowing out” of small towns and rural areas in the plains has led to such responses as the buffalo commons, Pleistocene rewilding, and the American Prairie Reserve. Not all rural areas, however, are in decline—reservation populations are increasing. What issues confront Native American communities, and how will these communities respond to future challenges? To focus our thoughts on the conference theme at the opening plenary session, I proposed that the Missouri River Basin, which extends as far east in the Northern Plains as the Big Sioux River, is the beginning of the West. I also asked CWS National Advisory Council member Jon K. Lauck, author of The Lost Region: Toward a Revival of Midwestern History (2013), to assemble a panel on the Midwest and Great Plains, which drew considerable attention and will result in a symposium and possibly a book publication. Among other invited speakers, Los Angeles-based author Josh Garrett-Davis, whose Ghost Dances: Proving Up on the Great Plains (2012) provides an insightful account of becoming an adult in Hot Springs and Pierre, South Dakota, in the 1980s and 1990s, spoke on the imaginative richness of the West. Executive Director of the Pine Ridge Area Chamber of Commerce Ivan Sorbel addressed the economic challenges and promises of reservation life. The closing session featured Dr. Robert Wright, author of the new CWS publication Little Business on the Prairie: Entrepreneurship, Prosperity and Challenge in South Dakota, on the topic of “The Other Two Dakotas.” Many sessions examined other aspects of the conference theme. David Trask, of Fort Collins, Colorado, asked whether Native American people have a place in the emerging Midwestern historical narrative. Thomas Simmons, USD Law School, examined the topographical emphases in the Hugh Glass narratives. William E. Lass, Minnesota State University Mankato, explained how the boundary between Minnesota and South Dakota was established. Twenty-four students presented this year, representing Minot State University, Valley City State University, Presentation College, and Augustana. Several presentations followed different paths, but all related to the region. Seventeen authors participated in the Northern Plains Autograph Party. Dr. Gordon Iseminger, University of North Dakota, received the Distinguished Contribution vi Award, presented by the CWS Board of Directors in recognition of his work as a teacher, author, and frequent presenter at the Dakota Conference. Dedicated to examining contemporary issues in their historical and cultural contexts, the Dakota Conference is a signature event of the Center for Western Studies, whose programming focuses on the Northern Plains region of the American West. Get the latest conference news at www.augie.edu/cws or follow us on Facebook and Twitter. Harry F. Thompson, Ph.D. Executive Director The Center for Western Studies vii A Schism within the Nonpartisan League in South Dakota Grant K Anderson “We’ll stick” became the motto of National Nonpartisan League followers. Arthur C Townley, a one- time Socialist and bankrupt farmer, launched the movement among North Dakota agriculturalists in 1915. The group objected to perceived abuses by railroads, bankers, and commodity brokers