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A Great Plains reader / edited by Diane D. Quantic and P. Jane Hafen.

F591 .G763 2003

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Format:: Book
Contributor:: Quantic, Diane Dufva.; Hafen, P. Jane, 1955-
Language:: English
Subjects (All):: Natural history.; Frontier and pioneer life.; History.; Great Plains--History--Sources.; Great Plains.; Frontier and pioneer life--Great Plains--Sources.; Great Plains--Description and travel--Sources.; Great Plains--Biography.; Natural history--Great Plains--Sources.
Genre:: Sources.; Biographies.
Physical Description:: xxii, 730 pages ; 23 cm
Place of Publication:: Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2003]
Summary:: The Great Plains are as rich and integral a part of American literature as they are of the North American landscape. In this volume the stories, poems, and essays that have described, celebrated, and defined the region evoke the world of the American prairie from the first recorded days of Native history to the realities of life on a present-day reservation, from the arrival of European explorers to the experience of early settlers, from the splendor of the vast and rolling grasslands to the devastation of the Dust Bowl. Several essays look to the future and explore changes that would embolden the people of the plains to continue to call home this place they have learned to value in spite of its persistent challenges. The infinite variety of the Great Plains landscape and its people unfolds in works by writers as diverse as Willa Cather, Loren Eiseley, Louise Erdrich (Ojibwe), Diane Glancy (Cherokee), Langston Hughes, Wes Jackson, Garrison Keillor, William Least Heat-Moon, Kathleen Norris, Wright Morris, Francis Parkman, O. E. Rolvaag, Mari Sandoz, William Stafford, Mark Twain, Douglas Unger, James Welch (Blackfeet), and Canadians Sharon Butala and Sinclair Ross. From tribal histories to the impressions of travelers today, from tales of isolation and nature's furious storms to accounts of efforts to build communities, from flights of fancy to nuanced observations of the ecology of the grasslands, this comprehensive volume provides a history of the intricate relationships of land and people in the Great Plains.
Contents:: Introduction: Toward a Definition of the Great Plains xvii; Part 1. The Lay of the Land; The Nature of the Plains: Impressions 3; / N. Scott Momaday 4; Excerpt from The Names 4; / Ian Frazier 15; Excerpt from Great Plains 15; / Sharon Butala 24; The Subtlety of Land 24; / Loren Eiseley 37; The Flow of the River 37; / William Least Heat-Moon 44; Atop the Mound 44; Plains Nature: Natural Histories 49; / John Madson 50; The Lawns of God 50; / William Stafford 68; In Response to a Question 68; / Greg Kuzma 70; Songs 70; / Dan O'Brien 73; Excerpt from The Rites of Autumn 73; / Paul A. Johnsgard 82; Seasons of the Sandhill Crane 82; / Paul Gruchow 88; Spring 4 88; / Bruce Cutler 93; From a Naturalist's Notebook 93; / Linda Hasselstrom 95; Coffee Cup Cafe 95; Red Glow in the Western Sky 97; / William Least Heat-Moon 100; Under Old Nell's Skirt 100; / Denise Low 105; Another Tornado Dream 105; / Wallace Stegner 107; The Question Mark in the Circle 107; Part 2. Natives and Newcomers on the Great Plains; First Stories: Native American Accounts 123; / Zitkala-Sa 125; When the Buffalo Herd Went West 125; / Charles Eastman 130; A Legend of Devil's Lake 130; / John G. Neihardt 136; The Great Vision 136; / Luther Standing Bear 150; Crow Butte 151; The Holy Dog 152; / Ella Cara Deloria 154; Excerpt from Waterlily 154; / Zitkala-Sa 166; Impressions of an Indian Childhood 166; / Louise Erdrich 179; Father's Milk 179; / Joy Harjo 193; Grace 193; Deer Dancer 194; For Anna Mae Pictou Aquash ... 196; Deer Ghost 197; Stories of Exploration and Travel: Newcomers' Accounts 199; / Pedro de Castaneda 201; Excerpts from "The Narrative of the Expedition of Coronado," 202; / Meriwether Lewis, William Clark 206; Excerpt from The Lewis and Clark Journals 207; / Edwin James 218; Excerpt from From Pittsburgh to the Rocky Mountains 218; / Josiah Gregg 231; On the Trail 231; / Diane Glancy 241; October \ From the Back Screen of the Country 241; / Susan Shelby Magoffin 243; Excerpts from Down the Santa Fe Trail and into Mexico 244; / Washington Irving 251; The Grand Prairie; A Buffalo Hunt 251; / Francis Parkman 258; The Platte and the Desert 258; Preface to The Oregon Trail, 4th ed. 266; Preface to The Oregon Trail, illustrated ed. 268; / Kenneth Porter 270; Land of the Crippled Snake 270; / Mark Twain 273; Excerpts from Roughing It 273; Part 3. Arriving and Settling in; Pioneers 285; / James Fenimore Cooper 287; Ishmael Bush's Camp 288; / Robert J. C. Stead 297; Prairie Land 297; Settlers 305; / Linda Hogan 307; Calling Myself Home 307; Red Clay 308; Heritage 309; Return: Buffalo 310; Crossings 312; / Hamlin Garland 314; Among the Corn Rows 315; / William Allen White 333; A Story of the Highlands 334; / Diane Glancy 339; September \ Peru, Kansas 339; / O. E. Rolvaag 341; Home-founding 342; / John Ise 368; A New Homestead 369; / William Stafford 374; The Farm on the Great Plains 374; / Era Bell Thompson 376; God's Country 376; / James Welch 389; Excerpt from Killing Custer 389; / Louise Erdrich 407; Dear John Wayne 407; Part 4. Adapting to a New Country; Surviving Nature's Storms 411; / Ron Hansen 413; Wickedness 413; / Sinclair Ross 426; A Field of Wheat 426; / May Williams Ward 434; Dust Bowl (A Sequence) 434; / Lois Phillips Hudson 437; The Water Witch 437; Creating Communities in America 445; / Willa Cather 447; Neighbour Rosicky 447; / O. E. Rolvaag 471; Excerpt from Peder Victorious 471; / Mari Sandoz 480; The Christmas of the Phonograph Records 481; / Will Weaver 491; A Gravestone Made of Wheat 491; / Luther Standing Bear 504; What the Indian Means to America 504; / Zitkala-Sa 507; Americanize the First American 507; / Elizabeth Cook-Lynn 512; End of the Failed Metaphor 512; / Linda Hogan 520; Oklahoma, 1922 520; Part 5. The Great Plains Community; The Great Plains Community 529; / William Allen White 531; The Passing of Priscilla Winthrop 531; / Langston Hughes 541; Dance 542; Carnival 552; / Larry Woiwode 560; The Old Halvorson Place 560; / Greg Kuzma 574; A Person in My Life 574; / Frederick Manfred 581; Wild Land 581; / Wright Morris 609; Excerpt from The Home Place 611; / Robert Kroetsch 621; Excerpt from Badlands 622; / Douglas Unger 629; Excerpt from Leaving the Land 629; / Sharon Butala 641; A Tropical Holiday 641; / Garrison Keillor 650; Collection 651; Life Is Good 654; / John Janovy Jr. 659; Home on the Range 659; / Ron Hansen 669; Red-Letter Days 669; / Louise Erdrich 678; The Tomahawk Factory 678; / Linda Hasselstrom 694; Going to the Post Office 694; / William Stafford 698; The Rescued Year 698; Sustaining America's Grasslands 703; / Kathleen Norris 705; Sea Change 706; / Wes Jackson 712; Matfield Green 713.
Notes:: Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN:: 0803238029; 0803288530
OCLC:: 50476709

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A Great Plains reader / edited by Diane D. Quantic and P. Jane Hafen.

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