Amer-European settlement of the Great Plains transformed bountiful Native soil into pasture and cropland, distorting the prairie ecosystem that the peoples who originally populated the land had long understood and were able to use wisely. Settlers justified this transformation with the unexamined premise of deficiency, according to which the vast area of the Great Plains was inadequate in flora and fauna and lacking in the advances of modern civilization. Drawing on history, literature, art, and economic theory, Frances W. Kaye counters the argument of deficiency, pointing out that, in its original ecological state, no region can possibly be incomplete. Goodlands examines the settlers' misguided theory, discussing the ideas that shaped its implementation, the forces that resisted it, and Indigenous ideologies about what it meant to make good use of the land. By suggesting methods for redeveloping the Great Plains that are based on native cultural values, Kaye points the way to a balanced and sustainable future for the region in the context of a changing globe.
Frances W. Kaye is professor of English at the University of Nebraska. She is the author of Hiding the Audience: Arts and Arts Institutions on the Prairies. Kaye divides her time between a farmstead outside Lincoln, Nebraska, and a house in Calgary, so that she may always be close to the prairie land that drives her research.
