The Great Plains: America's Crossroads
To many, the Great Plains are part of the Great Flyover, whose landscape and history alike are flat and featureless. However, in this region in the middle of the nation, cultures have mingled and clashed for thousands of years. This seminar will focus on the 19th century, though also examining the first peoples and the continuing cultural exchanges of the 20th century. The seminar will begin with the physical setting, plants, and animals, and consider early humans in both Native American traditions and anthropological/archaeological studies. Europeans arriving in the 16th century accelerated the long history of change and evolution, initiating more than three centuries of converging peoples and cultures, new centers of power, flourishing trade, calamitous epidemics, and cultural and material intrusions from across the planet. Participants will visit Bent's Fort to see a cultural crossroads illustrated through one family. They will also examine cattle ranching, homesteading, scientific explorations, and the depiction of the plains in art.