the Summer 2008 StoryCatcher A publication of the Mari Sandoz Heritage Society Death, Murder, and Mayhem on the Plains Two Chadron State professors pre- society. Abstracts of both papers are and power might be accumulated. sented original research on Mari printed here. She begins immediately to bear the Sandoz at the 34th Interdisciplin- “Haunted Houses, Hurting offspring that then become the bodies ary Great Plains Studies Symposium Bodies & Healing Earth: Sex she bends to her own interests— Death, Murder, and Mayhem: Stories including her thuggish sons who help of Violence and Healing on the Plains and Violence in the Settlement enforce order among the patrons in April. Sponsored by the Center for Narratives of Mari Sandoz.” at Slogum House, and the alluring Great Plains Studies, the University by Matthew Evertson. daughters, who help attract the cus- of Nebraska-Lincoln, and University Mari Sandoz’s 1937 novel Slogum tomers themselves. of Nebraska at Omaha, the sympo- House is a still-shocking portrayal As the narrative progresses, Gulla sium examined the representation of of a boarding house on the edge of Slogum becomes the manipulative, violence on the Plains from multiple, both the law and settlement in the patriarchal figure who obsesses over interdisciplinary perspectives. Nebraska Sandhills in the late 1800s the “lay of the land” and its pos- The organizers encouraged explora- where the ruthless session, ruling from her unsightly tions of “the haunted land of the matriarch, Regulla fortress of Slogum House rising Great Plains” that “has long suggested (Gulla) Slogum, artificially out of the “oxbow flat” stories of conflict and loss, of wrench- manipulates the country of the Niobrara river, with ing change and difficult healing.” lawmen, cattlemen, a crow’s nest for watching external and local officials Dr. Katherine Bahr and Dr. Mat- threats, secret passageways for spying who can’t resist and listening to activities within the thew Evertson, both teachers in the the bodies she department of English and Humani- house, and a whole host of unsavory prostitutes, including and cruel actions brewing inside. ties at Chadron State, addressed these her own daughters. themes in their presentations. Bahr Continued on page 2 and Evertson are also members of the Seeking land, power board of directors of the Mari Sandoz and revenge, Gulla exchanges the Heritage Society. bodies of her family for both legal Mark your calendar claims to homesteads, but also il- Evertson had previously presented legally, by gleaning information from for the 2009 Annual portions of his analysis at the Western and about her customers and then Literature Association Conference and blackmailing or manhandling the Conference more recently at the Osher Lifelong prominent patrons of Slogum House. Learning Institute at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln for the special Her ultimate goal is to own and March 26-28, course series “Mari Sandoz: Story control all of the land within a 20 Catcher of the High Plains.” mile circle of Slogum House. Her legacy begins by using her own body 2009 Bahr’s study had its genesis in a paper to entrap Ruedy Slogum, becoming at Chadron State she presented at the 2006 Mari Sandoz pregnant in hopes that she will then Heritage Society Conference, which become a part of his prominent fam- College, Chadron, focused on Sandoz’s 1947 novel The ily in Ohio. Tom-Walker and its themes of the aftermath of war and war’s effects on Spurned by the Slogums, she forces Nebraska her new husband West, where land The Story Catcher 1 Summer 2008 The StoryCatcher Death, Murder, and Mayhem cont. The “Story Catcher” is the title of a book by Mari Sandoz and it is the title her state. Sandoz’s biographer, Helen of Helen Winter Stauffer’s autobigra- W. Stauffer, refers to her as a “noted phy of Mari, “Mari Sandoz The Story western historian, novelist, biogra- Catcher of the Plains.” pher, lecturer and teacher.” The StoryCatcher is published four Her histories and biographies, particu- times a year by the Mari Sandoz Heri- larly Crazy Horse and Old Jules, have tage Society, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit received considerable recognition, but organization. her fiction has been somewhat less The Sandoz Society seeks to build an successful. Nevertheless, whatever the appreciation of Mari Sandoz’s body perceived shortcomings of her liter- of work, to preserve the literary works ary style, Sandoz explores powerful, and legacy of this premier historian, universal themes through her regional and to raise funds to support these settings and characters. efforts. Each year, the Society hosts a conference that celebrates and Matt Evertson She, like a number of her contem- studies the works of the author. poraries, was particularly concerned Meanwhile, her husband builds an about the horrors of war, but unlike Additionally, the Society provides Eden-like retreat nearby in a place he many writers, she focused on the collections on loan to the Mari calls “spring branch canyon,” spend- Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center home front and on the victimization ing most of his hours in a “one room at Chadron State College. These of veterans by opportunists and cor- soddy that seemed to grow out of the materials and financial support from rupt politicians. the Society’s endowments support earth and was a part of it…” While The Tom- the College’s academic, archival, Retreating to his womb of safety, Walker (1947), is a research, and outreach programs. surrounded by high sandstone walls, difficult and pos- Address changes should be mailed Ruedy finds refuge growing flowers sibly tedious read, to 2301 NW 50th Street, Lincoln, NE and plants and nurturing the critters it is remarkable in 68524. that crowd around his porch, with its depiction of Contributions to the Mari Sandoz the gurgle of the spring in the back- the ugly, almost Heritage Society are tax-deductible. ground, a reverse earth mother set in unmentionable, To join the Society, fill out and mail stark contrast to the cruel, domineer- effects of war on the form on the back of this news- ing and masculine Gulla. letter. For more information, e-mail the domestic lives [email protected], Filled with disturbing images of the of returning soldiers. human violence set in contrast to the or www.marisandoz. Schooled by her nation’s immediate healing plains (animals tortured and experience with World War II, San- killed, the castration of a rival love Mari Sandoz doz could just as well have set her interest, deadly car wrecks, bloody The feats, the passions, and the stories after the Gulf War or during shootings, bone-crushing brawls distinctive speech of the West come the current Iraq conflict. Some things, and a whole host of grizzly deaths alive in the writings of Mari Sandoz it seems, never change. Among the played against the political, social and (1896-1966). veterans of her own region, she finds familial maneuverings of a colorful As the author of 23 books, including her universal theme. and conflicted community of settlers) Old Jules, Cheyenne Autumn, and In The Tom-Walker, Sandoz writes Crazy Horse, the Strange Man of the Slogum House is one of Sandoz’s most Oglalas, she was a tireless researcher, daring novels and one of her most about the aftermath of war, about a true storyteller, and an artist pas- complex portrayals of homesteading the traumatized soldier’s return to the sionately dedicated to the land. on the Great Plains. home front following the first wave of parades and patriotic fervor. In her With her vivid stories of the last days of the American frontier she has “Collateral Damage: Veterans episodic accounts of three veterans, achieved a secure place as one and Domestic Violence in Mari stretching from the American Civil of the finest authors in American Sandoz’s The Tom-Walker” War to World War II, she depicts literature and one of Nebraska’s most by Katherine Bahr the collateral damage war inflicts on important writers. families in the form of an intimate, The reputation of Nebraska author personal, domestic violence brought As a historian and as a novelist, San- Mari Sandoz has never reached the doz was inducted into the Nebraska on by what WW II era psychology Hall of Fame in 1976 and posthu- status of her contemporary Willa was just beginning to diagnose as mously received the coveted Wran- Cather, but she is the undisputed post-traumatic stress syndrome. matriarch of literature produced in gler Award from the Hall of Great Continued on page 3 Westerners. and about the northwest region of Book Club Explores Book, Author First Hand Nine members of the First Tuesday Book Group of Omaha visited the Mari Sandoz High Plains Heritage Center in June. The women made the trip to explore the origins of Mari Sandoz and her 1942 novel, Crazy Horse. Their selection of Crazy Horse was spurred by its selection for the One Book, One Nebraska initia- tive in 2007. Upon their arrival at the Center, director Sarah Polak led the women on a tour of the Sandoz exhibits and gardens, and later participated in their book discussion. They asked her about Native Americans’ perceptions of Sandoz’s work, and about the factual accuracy of the book. The discussion took interest- ing new turns when Polak asked Nine members of the First Tuesday Book Group who visited the Sandoz High Plains Heritage the group how their understanding Center in Chadron were Paula Ashford, Nancy Behringer, Nancy Gallagher, Eva Jay, Linda of the story might have been af- Johnson, Ruth Keene, Jane Olson, Terrie Ringwalt and Sue Rusie, all of Omaha. fected by current events in Iraq. To complete their visit to the Center, The country was particularly beau- in the past, including Jonis Agee, the women met with archivist Anne tiful due to recent rains, and the Bess Streeter Aldrich, Willa Cather, Greenia.