In 2007, we hosted a 2-day summer school on the environmental history of the prairie grasslands just prior to the Canadian Historical Association and Canadian Association of Geographers' meetings in Saskatoon on May 26 and May 27. Focused on the environmental history of prairie grasslands, faculty members, graduate students, and independent scholars from across Canada rendezvoused at the University of Saskatchewan before traveling five kilometers north of the city to the Wanuskewin Heritage Park. Wanuskewin is a 240 hectare grassland preserve and indigenous interpretive centre. A total of 38 participants were treated to: an archaeological tour of Wanuskewin led by Dr. Ernest Walker; discussions on various prairie history topics, such as the role of fire or the destruction of the bison; a keynote address from Dr. Theodore Binnema titled, “A Pictorial Tour of 200-year-old Blackfoot and Gros Ventre Maps,” a fieldtrip to St. Denis National Wildlife Area hosted by Dr. Dan Pennock and Dr. Marley Waiser; a historical GIS presentation by Dr. Geoff Cunfer and some of his graduate students; and much more.

Roundtable Discussions

Each day of the NiCHE Summer School began with two-hour roundtable discussions about the environmental history of prairie grasslands. Roundtables addressed a conceptual question and centered around a short list of shared reading materials that each participant had read prior to the meeting.

Day 1: Environmental History of Natives in the Grassland (to c.1800)
Roundtable 1: Did Paleo-Indians cause the Pleistocene extinctions?

• James E. Mosimann and Paul S. Martin, “Simulating Overkill by Paleoindians,” American Scientist 63 (1975): 304-313.
• Paul S. Martin, “Prehistoric Overkill: The Global Model,” in Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, Paul S. Martin and Richard G. Klein, eds. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1984), 354-403.
• R. Dale Guthrie, “Mosaics, Allelochemics and Nutrients: An Ecological Theory of Late Pleistocene Megafaunal Extinctions,” in Quaternary Extinctions: A Prehistoric Revolution, Paul S. Martin and Richard G. Klein, eds. (Tucson: University of Arizona Press, 1984), 259-298.
• Donald K. Grayson and David J. Meltzer, “A Requiem for North American Overkill,” Journal of Archaeological Science 30 (2003): 585-593.

Roundtable 2: To what extent did natives “manage” grasslands with fire?

• Carl O. Sauer, “Grassland Climax, Fire, and Man,” Journal of Range Management 3 (1950): 16-21.
• Stephen J. Pyne, Fire in America: A Cultural History of Wildland and Rural Fire (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press, 1982), 66-90. Reprint (Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1997).
• W.F. Rannie, “‘Awful Splendour’: Historical Accounts of Prairie Fire in Southern Manitoba Prior to 1870,” Prairie Forum 26 (Spring 2001): 17-45.

Roundtable 3: What caused the collapse of bison populations on the plains?

• Dan Flores, “Bison Ecology and Bison Diplomacy: The Southern Plains from 1800 to 1850,” Journal of American History 78 (Sept. 1991): 465-485. Revised reprint in Dan Flores, The Natural West: Environmental History in the Great Plains and Rocky Mountains (Norman: University of Oklahoma Press, 2001), 50-70.

• James E. Sherow, “Workings of the Geodialectic: High Plains Indians and Their Horses in the Region of the Arkansas River Valley, 1800-1870,” Environmental History Review 16 (Summer 1992): 61-84.
• William A. Dobak, “Killing the Canadian Buffalo, 1821-1881,” Western Historical Quarterly 27 (Spring 1996): 33-52.
• Pekka Hamalainen, “The Rise and Fall of Plains Indian Horse Cultures,” Journal of American History 90 (Dec. 2003): 833-862.

Day 2: Environmental History of Newcomers in the Grassland (Since c. 1880)
Roundtable 4: How have farmers manipulated soil, nutrient, and energy processes in agricultural systems?

• M.M. Boehm, S. Kulshreshtha, R.L. Desjardins and B. Junkins, “Carbon Sequestration and Agricultural Greenhouse Gas Emissions in Canada Based on CEEMA Analysis,” in Changing Prairie Landscapes, Todd A. Radenbaugh and Patrick C. Douaud, eds. (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 2000): 159-175.
• D.G. Hopkins and G.L. Running, “Soils, Dunes, and Prairie Vegetation: Lessons From the Sandhills of North Dakota,” in Changing Prairie Landscapes, Todd A. Radenbaugh and Patrick C. Douaud, eds. (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 2000): 39-57.
• Bob Stirling, “Energy Trends for Saskatchewan Farming, 1936-1991,” in Managing Changing Prairie Landscapes, Todd A. Radenbaugh and Glenn C. Sutter, eds. (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 2005), 23-39.
• Geoff Cunfer, “Manure Matters on the Great Plains Frontier,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 34 (Spring 2004): 539-567.

Roundtable 5: How has farming affected biodiversity in prairie habitats?

• Alan R. Smith and Todd A. Radenbaugh, “Historical and Recent Trends in the Avifauna of Saskatchewan’s Prairie Ecozone,” in Changing Prairie Landscapes, Todd A. Radenbaugh and Patrick C. Douaud, eds. (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 2000): 73-93.
• Clinton L. Evans, “Conclusion,” in The War on Weeds in the Prairie West: An Environmental History (Calgary: University of Calgary Press, 2002), 179-190.
• K.G.A. Hamilton, “Abundant Endemic Bugs and Canadian Plains Conservation,” in Managing Changing Prairie Landscapes, Todd A. Radenbaugh and Glenn C. Sutter, eds. (Regina: Canadian Plains Research Center, 2005), 101-115.
• Geoff Cunfer, “Pasture and Plows,” in On the Great Plains: Agriculture and Environment (College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 2005), 16-36.

Thanks to Geoff Cunfer for a wonderful job organizing everything.

Schedule of Events (pdf) | Recap