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Prairie grass dividing: The land, life, and people of Sioux County, Nebraska
Abstract
This dissertation is an environmental history of a deep rural county (isolated, with low population and scarce services) of northwest Nebraska, Sioux County. It explores the diverse geological and topographical features of the county, the flora and fauna that have lived on the land since millions of years ago, and the people of Sioux County since the first Native Americans came. While that land has not changed substantially over time, the use of it has. There are few signs of permanent villages of early humans, or their agriculture, and little evidence of anything but hunting and wild food gathering there in semi-permanent homes. This continued after contact with Europeans, through the times of the Plains Apaches, the Gatakas (Kiowa-Apaches), and lastly the Lakota Sioux tribes. When they were displaced and the bison hunted out, they were replaced first by early ranchers and Texas longhorn cattle, then by homesteaders who settled Sioux County later than most of Nebraska. That settlement peaked after the 1904 Kinkaid Act opened up larger homesteads, and the good crops and high prices before and during World War I made farming profitable. The county's highest population was recorded in the 1910 census, and a steady decline in both farming and people followed the drought of the 1920s and the drought and depression of the 1930s. Today, less than 1,600 people live in the county, with Harrison the only town. During the past century, Sioux County has seen a steady economic decline while relying on cattle ranching as a primary source of revenue, population decline and loss of communities, continuous dependence upon public firm subsidies, and intermittent loss of land value. The carrying capacity of the land—its ability to support a given human and nonhuman population—has changed along with natural disasters that determined land uses. Farming died out except in the Platte Valley and many fewer people raise more cattle. Those people, when interviewed, told how ranching has changed over the years, and expressed concerns over a continuing low cattle market, passing their ranches on to their children, and ranch consolidations. In some cases, this has caused them to turn to other income sources, including fee hunting, or raising elk, horses, and bisom. (Abstract shortened by UMI.)
Subject Area
American history|Geography|Environmental science
Recommended Citation
Moul, Francis, "Prairie grass dividing: The land, life, and people of Sioux County, Nebraska" (1998). ETD collection for University of Nebraska-Lincoln. AAI9912690.
https://digitalcommons.unl.edu/dissertations/AAI9912690