Conference Will Explore History, Future of Plains

-Jennifer Sanderson

4/12/2004

Problems of the present usually have roots in the past.

That's why organizers of the 36th annual Dakota Conference on Northern Plains History, Literature, Art and Archeology think their humanities disciplines can shed light on the pressing issues of today and tomorrow.

"We want people to realize that if they have a concern about the region, this is one venue where they can come to discuss it or hear other views," says conference director Harry Thompson.

Later this month, the Center for Western Studies - for which Thompson oversees research collections and publications - will host two days of idea exchange on topics as varied as Sioux Falls' reputation for quickie divorces in the late 1800s and the secrecy surrounding Wounded Knee.

The roughly 80 sessions invite but do not require scholars, writers and students to embrace the 2004 theme, "The Great(er) Plains: Land and Water issues for the 21st Century." It is the second in a three-year emphasis on the region's geography. Last year, the prairie figured most prominently, while the 2005 conference will showcase the Black Hills.

Fittingly, the annual award recognizing cultural preservation efforts will, in 2004, go to a man who calls others to seek out important land sites. Bruce Blake, a lawyer and director of the Minnehaha County Historical Society marker program, will receive the award for Distinguished Contribution to the Preservation of the Cultural Heritage of South Dakota and the Northern Plains.

Lewis and Clark's expedition into the Louisiana Purchase has a clear link to this year's theme, and several presenters will piggyback on the excitement surrounding the bicentennial. Guests can learn about plants the Corps of Discovery documented along its route, the people who followed in the Corps' footsteps and, through "One Does Not Sell the Land on Which the People Walk," how Lakota and European American perspectives compare on the meaning of land and water.

For Brad Tennant, a history instructor at Presentation College in Aberdeen, the attraction to Lewis and Clark predates the 200th anniversary. He specializes in the historic legacies of South Dakota and the Northern Plains, and 2004 will mark his eighth consecutive year of presenting a Lewis and Clark topic at the Dakota Conference. In all, he has attended for 18 years and lectured at all but one of those. He'll speak at 8:30 a.m. April 24, his "Defining the Northern Parameter of Louisiana Territory" part of the "Exploration" session.

"Some people think we bought the territory and then decided to explore it," says Tennant, a member of the South Dakota Humanities speakers bureau. "The actual chronology is that the expedition was being planned well in advance of the purchase."

What that purchase included is just as confusing. Tennant began with the wording of the 1803 treaty between France and the United States, but it was of little help. Its description simply said that whatever France had owned in the large parcel of land now belonged to America.

Tennant traced a more useful description back to 1682, when the French explorer LaSalle proclaimed the watershed of the Mississippi River for King Louis XIV. The claim extended to the reaches of the Mississippi's furthest tributaries, but Tennant says northeastern South Dakota, North Dakota and portions of Minnesota weren't actually part of the package. Possession being nine-tenths of the law, it was a small detail once traders got word of Lewis and Clark's discoveries and fanned out into the region.

One of the fur traders, Joseph La Framboise, is the topic of another "Exploration" lecture, "Leading the Pathfinders." Janet Timmerman, of Southwest Minnesota State University's Center for Rural and Regional Studies, will give a biographical sketch of the man who was a guide and confidant to artist George Catlin, cartographer Joseph Nicollet and other important figures who helped open up the area for the nation's understanding.

The paper Timmerman will present has its roots in a project begun 10 years ago. Her research led her to some of La Framboise's own letters, written in an odd blend of Canadian French, Dakota dialect and fur-trade lingo. Not to mention, she says, he was a terrible speller. But he knew the trade, his family having worked as merchants for 200 years by the early 1820s, when he established an American Fur Co. post at Great Oasis, in what is now Murray County, Minnesota.

"I wouldn't call him Nicollet's Sacagawea, but he relied on La Framboise in the same way, to tell about the places off the trail and the topography," Timmerman says. "People's interest is piqued by the Lewis and Clark bicentennial, but Nicollet's trip certainly filled in so many gaps."

History is only one of the disciplines at the Dakota Conference. Writers will speak about setting action in the Northern Plains. Others will talk of the common ground between Native American and Western medicines.

And one of the conference's first sessions points to the path ahead for many rural communities. "Miner County, South Dakota: An Illustration" will address how the small town of Howard is preparing for the future.

"It's an example of how to confront the challenges of the present," director Thompson says, "and that's very much in keeping with what we'd like to see here. I'm sure the people involved with that revitalization project would say that what they're doing can be used as a model for other communities."

If You Go

What: "The Great(er) Plains: Land and Water Issues for the 21st Century," the theme of the 36th annual Dakota Conference on Northern Plains History, Literature, Art and Archaeology.

When: April 23-24. Sessions run every 30 minutes, 10 a.m.-8:15 p.m. April 23 and 7 a.m.-5:15 p.m. April 24, with an awards banquet and conference theme session 5:30-7 p.m. April 24.

Where: Center for Western Studies, inside the Fantle Building, and the Mikkelsen Library at Augustana College.

Keynote Speakers: David Allan Evans, South Dakota poet laureate; James E. Sherow, Kansas State University environmental historian; Craig Ryan, author of "Magnificent Failure," Robert C. Steensma, University of Utah scholar on Wallace Stegner; and Lydia Whirlwind Soldier, a Lakota poet and teacher.

Schedule & Registration: Available for download at www.augie.edu/CWS/dakotaconf.html online.

Cost: $25-$45 for adults, depending on number of days and time of registration. Price increases for those reserving places later than Friday. Full-time students with valid ID attend free.

free event: Autograph party with nearly 30 regional and national authors, 10:50 a.m.-12:20 p.m. April 24.

Meals: On your own or by ticket, which must be purchased in advance. $8-$11 for each individual meal or $45 for the conference meal package.

Learn more: Call 274-4007 or e-mail cws@augie.edu

Reach reporter Jennifer Sanderson at 575-3629.