UNL to host national conference on homesteading May 17-19

What were the ecological impacts of homesteading on the natural environment? How did the 1872 Dominion Lands Act contribute to the development of Indian farming on the Canadian Prairies? What were the disastrous effects of the 1862 Homestead Act on the Omaha Tribe? Why did the media promote women as homesteaders?

These questions and more will be discussed May 17-19 at "Homesteading Reconsidered," the 33rd interdisciplinary symposium sponsored by the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's Center for Great Plains Studies. The focus of the symposium will be the Homestead Act of 1862 in the United States and the Dominion Lands Act of 1872 in Canada, which fundamentally shaped the pattern of non-Indian settlement on the Great Plains. By the time the acts were repealed, more than 270 million acres in 30 U.S. States and 118 million acres in Canada's western provinces had been distributed.

"Historians' views of the two laws have ranged from viewing them as the culmination of the 'Jeffersonian ideal' of land ownership to questioning the wisdom of implementing them at all," said Todd Arrington, a historian in the National Park Service based at the Homestead National Monument of America, who serves as co-chair of the conference with UNL geography professor J. Clark Archer. "Ecologists associate homesteading with the loss of prairies and introduction of invasive species, while agriculturists view it as the birth of modern farming."

The Homestead National Monument and the Center for Great Plains Studies have worked in partnership to produce a forum for research exchange, cultural discussion, and educational enrichment among U.S. and Canadian scholars, educators, and interested members of the Great Plains community.

The conference will open with a reception and keynote talk by UNL English professor Frances W. Kaye the evening of May 17 at the Great Plains Art Museum, 1155 Q Street. Kaye will speak on "Privatizing the Public Domain."

Kaye teaches Great Plains studies, Canadian studies, and Native American studies at UNL. She is the author of "Hiding the Audience: Viewing Arts and Arts Institutions on the Prairies" (University of Alberta Press, 2003) and co-editor of "Mapping the North American Plains" (University of Oklahoma Press, 1987).

Other keynote speakers include Gerard Baker (Mandan-Hidatsa), National Park Service superintendent at Mount Rushmore National Monument on May 18; and Yale University history professor John Mack Faragher, director of the Howard R. Lamar Center for the Study of Frontiers and Borders on May 19.

Baker, who recently served as Superintendent of the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail and the mobile exhibit "Corps of Discovery II: 200 Years in the Future" will present a talk titled, "The Dawes Act: A Loss of Land" May 18. Baker has been with the U.S. government for 27 years, most of that time in the National Park Service. Baker is a full blood member of the Mandan-Hidatsa Tribe of the Fort Berthold Reservation in Mandaree, N.D.

Faragher will discuss the "Homestead Act in American Myth and History." He is the author of "Women and Men on the Overland Trail" (Yale University Press, 1979); "Daniel Boone: The Life and Legend of an American Pioneer" (Henry Holt & Co., 1992); and with Robert V. Hine, "The American West: A New Interpretive History (Yale University Press, 2000). The latter book has been updated and condensed by Faragher and Hine into a newly released book, "Frontiers: A Short History of the American West (Yale University Press, 2007).

On the evening of May 18, conference participants will attend a sneak preview evening reception and tour at the newly completed Homestead Heritage Center, the National Park Service's new interpretive and museum facility at the monument west of Beatrice. The Heritage Center will be officially dedicated and opened to the public May 20.

The conference is open to everyone, but advanced registration is recommended. Complete conference registration is $75 before May 4. The fee includes a May 18 Homestead Event ticket, May 19 lunch, and conference materials. Single day rates are available. There is a reduced-rate registration for students. A block of lodging rooms is reserved at Holiday Inn Downtown, 141 N. Ninth St., until May 1. Call (402) 475-4011.

To register for the conference or for additional information, visit www.unl.edu/plains, or contact the Center for Great Plains Studies at (402) 472-3082.

CONTACTS: Todd Arrington, Homestead National Monument of America, (402) 223-3514
James Stubbendieck, Director, Center for Great Plains Studies, (402) 472-3082
Kim Weide, Events Coordinator, Center for Great Plains Studies, (402) 472-3964