Storythe Fall 2010 A publicationC of the Mari Sandozatcher Heritage Society High Plains Lecture with Michael Forsberg a Success by Justin Haag, CSC Information Service Nature photographer Michael Forsberg of Lincoln added words to his images in expressing love for what he termed “the big back yard of the Great Plains” during a an October presentation at Chadron State College. Forsberg, who was presenting the inaugural installment of the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Society’s Pilster Great Plains Lecture Series, was joined by South Dakota rancher and author Dan O’Brien for the presentation. Forsberg and O’Brien recently collaborated on a book, Great Plains: America’s Lingering Wild. (Some 250 people attended the presentation.) O’Brien read one of his essays from the book, which helped illustrate the amount of time, Nationally known photographer, Michael Forsberg of Lincoln, was patience and skill involved in photographing the first presenter of the Pilster High Plains Lecture. His wife, Patty, wildlife. is setting up a slideshow of Forsberg’s photography set to music. In the past four years, Forsberg has shot 30,000 images while logging 100,000 miles on the beauty. He said people have a “perception versus road. He also went through “two wheel-bearing reality” problem in the Great Plains— a massive assemblies, three sets of tires and one and a half area stretching from Canada to Texas that he noted Suburbans,” he said. would be the 10th largest country in the world if sovereign. The primary focus of Forsberg’s presentation was conservation. To make his point about the “It doesn’t knock your socks off at a glance. It’s decimation of species since westward expansion not the Colorado Rockies, it’s not the Pacific of the United States, he showed historical Northwest, it’s not the Grand Canyon,” he said. photographs, one of which was an early 19th “It’s a place that you can’t appreciate from a century image of “U.S. Biological Survey” spelled roadside pullout in five minutes. It’s a place you out with 1,600 dead prairie dogs. have to linger for hours, for days, for months, for years or a lifetime. Then it’s like getting to know Forsberg said goals of the Great Plains book were to an old friend. The more time you spend, the more study the ecosystem and to build an appreciation layers you peel away, the more beauty you see.” for the plains from those who haven’t witnessed its Continued on Page 2

The Story Catcher 1 Fall 2010 The StoryCatcher Pilster Lecture Series (cont.) The “StoryCatcher” is the title of a book by Mari Sandoz and it is the title of Helen Winter Stauffer’s bigraphy of Mari, Mari Sandoz: The Story Catcher of the Plains. The StoryCatcher is published four times a year by the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. The vision of the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society is to perpetuate and foster an understanding of the literary and historical works of Mari Sandoz; and to honor the land and the people about which she wrote: Native Americans, ranchers, farmers and the people who settled the High Plains country. The Society hosts a conference and presents the Pilster Great Plains Lecture Series. Additionally, the society provides Michael Forsberg met with four classes of students at the Mari Sandoz High Plains collections on loan to the Mari Heritage Center at Chadron State College while he was there for the Pilster Great Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center at Plains Lecture. Center Director Sarah Polak observes. Chadron State College. Address changes should be mailed to 2301 NW 50th Street, Lincoln, NE 68524. That’s what the Great Plains is, and it can be every bit as remarkable Contributions to the Mari Sandoz as all these other places, he said. Heritage Society are tax-deductible. Showing a series of maps to illustrate the development of the Great To join the Society, fill out and mail the form on the back of this newsletter. Plains, Forsberg said that despite the many challenges facing today’s For more information, e-mail Great Plains ecosystem, there’s hope. [email protected], or visit www.marisandoz. “All is not yet lost on the prairie. There is still that lingering wild that survives here and the idea of conservation is still alive and well,” he Mari Sandoz said. “Conservation efforts are growing, and it’s not coming from The feats, the passions, and the some government directive on high. It’s a movement coming from distinctive speech of the West come people as firmly rooted in the soil as the prairie is itself.” alive in the writings of Mari Sandoz His photography has evolved from something he once did for himself (1896-1966). to something he now does for his children and future generations. As the author of 23 books, including Old Jules, Cheyenne Autumn, and “I care a lot about this place, I care a lot about the people who make Crazy Horse, the Strange Man of the their life on the land here, and I care a lot about the wildlife and our Oglalas, she was a tireless researcher, natural heritage,” Forsberg said. a true storyteller and an artist passionately dedicated to the land. Forsberg provided live narration for a 12-minute slideshow of his With her vivid stories of the last days of stunning photographs to finish the presentation. the American frontier, Mari Sandoz has In introducing Forsberg, Sandoz Society president Lynn Roper of achieved a secure place as one of the finest authors in American literature Lincoln used the title of a Sandoz book. and one of Nebraska’s most important “We can’t think of a better way to start this series off than with “The place called the Great Plains...a high country, a big country of writers. someone who really has Love Song to the Plains in his heart,” she said. vast reaches, tremndous streams...and the sweetness and heartbreak As a historian and as a novelist, Sandoz was inducted into the Nebraska Hall The lecture series is funded from an endowment created from the of spring on the prairies.” of Fame in 1976 and posthumously sale of 3,731 acres of Dawes County ranchland donated by Esther Mari Sandoz Love Song to the Plains received the coveted Wrangler Award Pilster to the Sandoz Society in 2006.  from the Hall of Great Westerners.

The Story Catcher 2 Fall 2010 Jules in a Lacy Headscarf? Likely, Not. A woman named Debby contacted From Old Jules, The Hills, pg. 361 the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society The next morning, long before to ask about the word fascinator daylight, the mother, without and was curious about its meaning awakening Jules, called the two in Mari Sandoz’s book, Old Jules. older children. The wind was Sarah Polak, director of the Mari dead, the stars were out; and the Sandoz High Plains Heritage shed was empty of everything Center and a noted historic clothing except Brownie and Blackie, the expert at the Stuhr Museum of the team, nickering for food. They Prairie Pioneer in Grand Island, were saddle-broke, and on them Neb. investigated. Jule and Marie were to track the A Wikipedia definition called a cattle, dig out and save what they fascinator a style of millinery, a could. fine, lacy head covering akin to Old Jules After gulping a hot breakfast they a shawl. In 20th century it was were bundled into what warm called a cocktail hat; often seen at especially made with heavy yarn. clothes the family afforded, an old horse races. Jules was not exactly a fashion fascinator wound about Marie’s Debby found it a little peculiar plate and probably would not head. Climbing upon the old that Jules Sandoz or any of his have worn anything that was not horses, they set out, equipped with family would wear a cocktail warm.” a spade and a hammer. hat or any kind of lacy, fancy From Old Jules, Henriette, pg. 104 From Old Jules, The Hills, pg. 362 millinery. Sandoz mentions it After that, things went better in The next cow was dead. And several times in her books Old the home on the Running Water. still the two climbed on and Jules and Hostiles and Friendlies. Jules put on a little weight, wore off, digging and sweating, their Polak discovered in the 1897 cleaner shirts, and no longer feet clumpy and wooden with Sears and Roebuck catalog, page rode around with his knees out. cold. Noon came; Marie’s face 305, a fascinator was the term for He stayed home more, spending burned; her lips were blistering a knitted head scarf. long evening hours over his new in the unshielding fascinator. She It is listed as a ladies garment and stamp collection, his guns and his thought about the smoked glasses the illustration accompanying the reloading tools. at home in Mary’s trunk. Jule, description shows it with ruffles, This was different from living with protected by darker pigment and a  she said. It is displayed on the the illiterate Estelle. Sometimes huge cap, was hungry. same page as shawls to be worn he even talked of Rosalie. At first around the shoulders or on the Henriette went out into the night, head. but after a while she kept right on The Mari Sandoz High Plains It appears wider than a typical mending. Toward winter Rosalie Heritage Center celebrates the sent her a knitted cap, such as the scarf, so the fascinator would life and literature of Mari Sandoz cover the back of the neck, sportswomen wintering in the Alps wore, tomato red and white, and the culture of the High Polak said. The one that Jules is Plains. The Center is located at wearing in the book is one that very pretty, and becoming to was probably made by Mary. Henriette’s dark eyes and straight Chadron State College, 1000 brows. Jules had not written, but it Main Street, Chadron, NE “I don’t think that Jules would was good Rosalie knew. Henriette 69337. Web site: www.csc.edu/ have paid for one,” she said. kept the gift wrapped in tissue sandoz, 1-800-CHADRON or “Looking at the Sears illustration, paper and wore a long brown email [email protected]. it was probably very warm, fascinator about her ears instead.

The Story Catcher 3 Fall 2010 to change the name of Highway Kelley Joins 20 between Hay Springs and Fort Robinson to “Crazy Horse Sandoz Board Memorial Highway.” Karen Kelley, who was born and Dr. John Gamby, a veterinarian raised in Chadron, has become and city councilman in Chadron, the newest member of the Mari came up with the idea, said Sandoz Heritage Society Board of Chadron City Administrator Directors. Sandra Powell. Her parents were Don and “It was his hope that a portion Gerry Kelley, longtime Chadron of Highway 20 could be renamed residents. to honor Native Americans and “My childhood home was in to pique residents’ interest in the same block as the Chadron Nebraska’s rich history,” she said. Public Library, where I spent Crazy Horse, an Oglala Sioux war many summers reading,” she said. Karen Kelley chief, was killed at Fort Robinson “It was here that I discovered in 1877. Mari Sandoz when I checked out opportunity to explore Mari’s “The trail roughly along Highway Winter Thunder, which triggered memorabilia in her basement.” 20 was where they carried Crazy my ongoing interest in Sandoz Horse’s body after his death,” Each year she attended the annual and her books.” Powell said. “Some say he was Mari Sandoz Heritage Society buried not too far away from Kelley graduated from Chadron Conference in Chadron, weather State College with a BS in art Highway 20. Some say it was permitting, and enjoyed the farther away. That’s still up for education, but the amount of diversity of programs. time she spent reading was a discussion.” clue to what her future would “I look forward to being a The person being honored must be bring. She decided not to pursue contributing member of the deceased for at least five years, have teaching and went on to receive Sandoz board,” she said. lived a significant portion of his a Masters of Librarianship at the Currently, she works as a life in Nebraska, have a reputation University of Denver. substitute librarian for the Douglas within the state and contributed to “My first library job was as a County Libraries in and around Nebraska society. Children’s Librarian at the Denver. Happily retired, she The Crazy Horse memorial project Englewood Public Library and reads, travels, paints watercolor started in 2008 and has gained at my retirement in 2009, I was landscapes and works as a support through resolutions from working as a Reference Manager docent at the Kirkland Museum. Sheridan County, Dodge County for Denver Public Library,” said Additionally, she is working on a and the City of Crawford, Powell Kelley. certificate in Botanical Illustration said. at the Denver Botanic Gardens.  “That would be a great honor to While at the Denver Library, she a a a a explored the Western History name it after him,” said Doug collection that has some Sandoz City of Chadron Bissonette, a liaison to the Oglala material, and she began to Sioux Tribe and a Crazy Horse donate Sandoz-related books to wants to honor historian at South Dakota’s Pine enrich the collection. Ridge Reservation. “It would bring Crazy Horse more awareness to the tribes along “A memorable experience for me By Emily Nohr the Nebraska and South Dakota was taking the Sandoz road tour Omaha World-Herald border.” with my mother,” Kelley said. (Published Oct. 14, 2010) NOTE: The Nebraska Highway “My mother had arranged for Commission approved the request, us to visit with Caroline Sandoz The City of Chadron has asked the State Highway Commission which now is awaiting approval by Pifer and, while there, I had the Gov. Dave Heineman. 

The Story Catcher 4 Fall 2010 When I Discovered Mari Sandoz . . . 2011 Sandoz By Jillian L. Wenburg/ M.A. I was introduced to Mari Sandoz Conference as a voracious young reader with The Story Catcher and The Moved to Fall Horsecatcher, but I didn’t truly The Mari Sandoz Heritage Board appreciate Sandoz’s art in those of Directors has decided to works and her many others until move the Mari Sandoz Society I had aged. By that, I mean I Conference to the fall in 2011 did not fully understand her in conjunction with the Pilster works until I took the time Great Plains Lecture. to appreciate the plains and landscape right beside me. With the succes of the lecture in October, drawing 250 people Having had the providential opportunity to be raised in to the Chadron State College a small Nebraska town, I am campus, the board hopes that intimately familiar with the land Jillian Wenburg appreciates the beauty more people will also attend the Sandoz so fondly writes about. of the land near the Standing Bear bridge fall conference. However, until reading Sandoz’s in north-eastern Nebraska. Additionally, the people who works, I did not fully appreciate experience. Her work reels the attend the conference will be the beauty of the open sky and reader into her narrative, explored able to enjoy a high profile plains and the tragedy of the end in such rich detail that any reader speaker and lecture as a kick-off of some of it. can tell she loves the land. to the conference on Thursday In Sandoz, I have found a I am currently enrolled in an evening. The conference will kindred spirit. Her attitude English PhD program and follow on Friday ending mid- toward teaching, learning, plan to center my dissertation afternoon. writing and Nebraska is one I around Sandoz and her works. The 2011 conference will can relate to so well. In reading Recently traveling back to Kansas coincide with the centennial her writing, both her letters City from the Sandoz Heritage celebration of Chadron State and fiction, I find pieces that Center, where I was doing College. I wish I had written, ideas I some preliminary work for my have contemplated but that she dissertation, I stopped at 6 a.m. Watch future issues of the Story articulated so much better. between Chadron and Ogallala. Catcher for the exact date of The one aspect between Sandoz I thought taking some snapshots the conference and registration and me that most certainly for my family was a way I could materials in August 2011.  differs was her ability to speak capture some of what I was seeing. her mind with such razor sharp But I knew that this special moment - seeing, quite possibly, In those moments, she is clearly conciseness and fire. This trait still with me, allowing me to better I find so admirable! Sandoz beyond eternity above the plains, in the richness of clouds and experience the area and history never shied away from taking on in ways I otherwise would not. issues and tasks in which she was colors - would not fully translate in any Kodak form. I am not sure how I found Mari criticized or critiqued. She would Sandoz, but she, most evidently, listen to all sides and formulate At that moment, I realized that found me— for a lifetime. her opinion and fight for it. She what I could not capture in a spoke her mind with aplomb in a photo or even in my writings, what Jillian Wenburg received her Master of brilliantly articulate manner. Sandoz could. The art that she Arts and Bachelor of Arts degrees in painted across each page transmits English from the University of Nebraska Her texts described the plains in in Kearney and is currently enrolled in way that I have not yet discovered me to the plains and resonates for years. So many times, in viewing an Interdisciplinary PhD program in how to do. Her richness in detail English and History at the University in her explication of the land the areas sbout which Sandoz writes, I can hear her. of Missouri-Kansas City. She lives in truly captures the Nebraskan Kansas City with her husband, Chris.

The Story Catcher 5 Fall 2010 When I Discovered Mari Sandoz . . . By Kate Knickrehm be sure, and not many people got I discovered Mari Sandoz the connection.) through my grandfather, It wasn’t until I was much Rudolph Wilhelm Kahman. older that I came to a better Known as “Rudy” to his friends understanding of my family’s and family, “Doc” Kahman to experience and Mari’s writings. his patients, and as “Opa” to my A number of years ago, well before brother and me. He was born the beautiful High Plains Heritage in 1903 at the family farm near Center was built, my mother and Glenville, Neb. I took a sort of driving pilgrimage Having had his fill of farming, through Nebraska, stopping at he headed to Los Angeles in what we thought was the little the 1920’s to study chiropractic cemetery where two baby Kahmans and nutrition, graduating were buried, visiting Mari’s grave from the Los Angeles School and Old Jules’s grave, and to my of Chiropractory in 1929. He Opa’s enthusiam for Mari Sandoz mother’s dismay, Carhenge. prompted her discovery. returned to Nebraska and set up And then, just last year, through practice in Grand Island, where pioneering family’s stories were an odd coincidence, I learned he lived until he passed away in right out of Mari Sandoz’s world. that a friend from Boulder, 1996. Toward the end of his life, we Kathryn Keller, had been coming As a young girl growing up in encouraged Opa to write his to the Sandoz Heritage Society Denver, Colo., I adored my Opa “memoirs” and we are so lucky conferences for many years. and our times together, especially today to have notebooks filled with She invited me to join her when my brother and I would his distinctive scrawl and, later, and Jane Patrick for the 2010 travel to Grand Island each video cassette tapes, telling his Conference last March, where the summer to stay with him and family history and tales of growing book Son of the Gamblin’ Man was learn about the land. up in Nebraska. What a life they discussed. Reading that book and Opa had a keen intellect and was had. participating in the conference interested in everything; he was Opa writes: “On the homestead and meeting so many wonderful constantly studying and reading it was a constant fight for people who value Mari Sandoz and and learning—at least when he survival; either the drought or the western Nebraska history renewed wasn’t fishing. He was particularly grasshoppers would get the corn.” my enthusiasm for her work and interested in western history, the my study of the family history. As much as I revered Opa, I know stories of the Plains Indians, the that as a child I wasn’t able to fully My Opa would have loved to have fur traders and trappers and the appreciate what those pioneers went seen this interest and devotion to things he knew as a boy. When through or to fully appreciate Mari Mari Sandoz, and I have joined Mari Sandoz’s works began to be Sandoz’s writings. the Sandoz Heritage Society in his published, Opa’s enthusiasm for honor and in honor of all of the her was contagious. I remember being enchanted other sons and daughters of the when we read The Christmas of the She wrote about the things he western Nebraska pioneers. Phonograph Records at a Christmas loved, the people and families he gathering. After perusing our Kate recently retired from 28 years of had known and the experiences bookshelves for inspiration, my law practice and is enjoying free time he had shared. His father was mother even named our German by painting and cooking. She lives in no “Old Jules” - Rolph was a Shepard puppy “Sandoz,” after Denver, Colo., with her husband and kind and caring father - but his Mari. (A strange name for a dog, to two dogs. 

The Story Catcher 6 Fall 2010 When I Discovered Mari Sandoz . . .

By Gil Savery I never met Sandoz, but should the Journal as a critic. Cather Thanks for the opportunity to have. Once we shared nearby did indeed write beautifully of relate how I discovered Mari seats as we watched a session of pioneer days in Webster County. Sandoz. No, no, it wasn’t through Nebraska’s fledgling unicameral Her background and interests, an Internet matchmaking Web legislature. She was wearing a hat however, did not parallel those site. Those had not yet been and was attired much the same as I of Sandoz who experienced a developed. But it had a strong have seen her pictured. I regret that hard life in Nebraska’s Sandhills. romantic twist. It came about this I did not introduce myself and share Mari’s father’s response to way: a mutual interest in the printed her honorable mention in the word. Harper Intercollegiate Short In 1938, I was dating a girl who Story Contest was: “You know I later became my wife. Among her consider writers and artists the books was Old Jules, in hardcover maggots of society.” and published in 1935 by Blue Ribbon Books, Inc. New York. I can’t resist making comparisons. These authors applied their I read Old Jules with pleasure; little talents influenced by disparate life realizing that ultimately my own experiences. In Lincoln, Cather career would acquaint me with wrote, among other things, of the some of Mari’s friends. performing arts in the heyday of In Sandoz’s foreword to Old Jules, traveling theatrical companies. addressed to the Atlantic Non- Actors were wary of the ink that Fiction Contest, she establishes flowed from her critical pen. Her the authenticity of her work by background and growing-up years referencing Dr. A. E. Sheldon, were very different from those of superintendent of the Nebraska Sandoz. State Historical Society and Frank Enriched by real-life experiences L. Williams, managing editor of and keen observation, Mari’s the Nebraska State Journal. Gil Savery knew and worked with Mari Sandoz’s friends. He never met Sandoz, prose portrayed and documented “Williams,” she wrote, “spent but should have the climate of conflict that his cub reporting days in western prevailed in settlement years, Nebraska in the eighties and knew including the pioneers’ I read her books and those of Willa Old Jules in the orchard days.” relationship with Native culture. Cather. In the mid 1930s, when The aging, corncob-pipe smoking I was a student at Lincoln High Ah, Mari Sandoz and Willa Williams, with striped shirt and School, Elsie Cather, Willa’s sister, Cather! Both lit up the history rumpled trousers, hired me as a was one of my English teachers. It of the high plains using literary police reporter in 1941. Helen was primarily a grammar class so torches set ablaze by dissimilar Mary Hayes, a skilled reporter and we spent much time diagramming flames. As the French would say: assistant city editor, and Anne sentences. Still, there was time to Vive la Difference! Longman, a great feature writer, write and Miss Cather encouraged Gilbert M. ‘Gil’ Savery is a 92- also were among Mari’s Lincoln aspiring writers with her ready laugh year-old retired managing editor of friends. Mari herself tells of being when humorous prose poured from the former “Lincoln Journal.” Mari a proofreader for two Lincoln our Parker fountain pens. Sandoz’s acquaintance, Frank L. newspapers. That would have been Williams, mentioned in the story, at different times for the Journal On occasion I had the opportunity to review books about Cather, who hired Gil for the Lincoln editing job in and the Lincoln Star were then that lasted 44 years. competitors. had started her writing career at

The Story Catcher 7 Fall 2010 Mari Sandoz Heritage Society Non-Profit Org. 2010-11 Mari Sandoz 1208 Laramie Street US POSTAGE Alliance, NE 69301. PAID Heritage Society [email protected] Permit No. 1359 Board Members www.marisandoz.org Lincoln, NE 68516 OFFICERS: Lynn Roper, president, Lincoln Brian Rockey, 1st vice president, Lincoln Dave Sandoz, 2nd vice president, Valentine Diana Hoffman, secretary, Gordon Wally Seiler, treasurer, Alliance Ron Hull, president emeritus, Lincoln

BOARD MEMBERS: Katherine Bahr, Chadron Celia Sandoz Ostrander Barth, Rushville Sybil Berndt, Chadron Holly Boomer, Rapid City, S.D. Mari Sandoz Heritage Society Christy Chamberlin, Las Cruces, N.M. Matt Evertson, Chadron Membership Form Yes! I would like to support the work of the Mari Sandoz Heritage Karen Kelley, Denver, Colo. Society. I have enclosed $______. Dan Kusek, Alliance Your membership payment/gift is tax deductible according to IRS Craig Larson, Scottsbluff guidelines. We will provide a receipt for tax purposes. To join, mail this form with your check, payable to the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society, to Treasurer, Kim Lee, Okemos, Mich. Mari Sandoz Heritage Society, 1208 Laramie Avenue, Alliance, NE 69301. Tom Lynch, Lincoln Type of Membership:  Renewal  New Con Marshall, Chadron  Gift Membership  Company Matching Gift (form is enclosed) Sue Maher, Omaha Please list my/our name(s) as: ______Dan McGlynn, Omaha ______Address City State Zip Code Alfred ‘Bud’ Pagel, Lincoln ______Shannon Smith, Boulder, Colo. Telephone E-mail If student, name of institution attending: ______EX OFFICIO: Organization/Library/Corporation/School contact person: ______Cindy Evert Christ, ______newsletter editor/communication Name/address for person giving gift membership: ______coordinator, Lincoln ______Sarah Polak, director, Date: ______Signature: ______Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Please check level of support.  $40 - Family/Library Center, Chadron  $10 - Student  $100 - Corporations/Schools www.marisandoz.org  $30 - Individual  $200-$10,000 - Patron Level