Grasslands grown : creating place on the U.S. Northern Plains and Canadian Prairies

Summary: In Grasslands Grown Molly P. Rozum explores the two related concepts of regional identity and sense of place by examining a single North American ecological region: the U.S. Great Plains and the Canadian Prairie Provinces. All or parts of modern-day Alberta, Montana, Saskatchewan, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Manitoba form the center of this transnational region. As children, the first post-conquest generation of northern grasslands residents worked, played, and traveled with domestic and wild animals, which introduced them to ecology and shaped sense-of-place rhythms. As adults, members of this generation of settler society worked to adapt to the northern grasslands by practicing both agricultural diversification and environmental conservation. Rozum argues that environmental awareness, including its ecological and cultural aspects, is key to forming a sense of place and a regional identity. The two concepts overlap and reinforce each other: place is more local, ecological, and emotional-sensual, and region is more ideational, national, and geographic in tone. This captivating study examines the growth of place and regional identities as they took shape within generations and over the life cycle.

Record details

ISBN: 9781496226716 (paperback)
Physical Description: xviii, 474 pages : illustrations, maps ; 23 cm
print
Publisher: Lincoln : University of Nebraska Press, [2021]
Copyright: ©2021

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Formatted Contents Note:

Introduction: Looking northwest from La Vérendrye Hill -- Parents' choice : taking root on the northern grasslands -- Small worlds : animal friends, foes, and place rhythms -- Sensing prairies and plains: grasses, grains, waters, woods, rocks, and snow -- "The purple hills beckoned" : growing up, travel, education, and region -- "Old woman who never dies" and "old man's garden" : settler and indigenous relations over the generations -- "All is so still-so big, I scarce can speak" : new literature and settler society aesthetics -- "Surely grass is the great mother of all plains agriculture" : agricultural adaptation and grasslands conservation -- "All that vast region of grass land" : the United States, Canada, and changing cultural geography -- Conclusion: Looking across the line from the prairies and plains.