November 6, 2003

Plains Folk: Buffalo Again

Tom Isern, Professor of History
North Dakota State University

It came from the New York Times, and now it’s papering the country, the opinion piece by one Nicholas D. Kristof, "Make Way for Buffalo." There’s nothing new in it. It’s a rehash of the Popper buffalo commons idea from 1987. The piece has a certain purity, however, that I can’t help but admire. I’ve never seen a writer distill so perfectly every patronizing misconception about life on the plains.

A brief summary, if you haven’t seen the piece. The author visits a North Dakota town, population 6; talks to three of the residents; and concludes it would be best for the people of the plains if they would all leave and the country be given over to free-ranging buffalo as a tourist attraction. A briefer summary: I’m from the New York Times, and I’m here to help.

The argument rests on a notion so naïve it is embarrassing to see it printed in a publication that regards itself as the nation’s newspaper: the notion of wilderness. "The rural parts of the Great Plains are emptying," we are informed, "and in some cases reverting to wilderness." "Wilderness" was a label invented by Euro-Americans in order to designate land as vacant and going to waste. This justified taking it away from the natives. Think about that.

The Great Plains were occupied and husbanded long before Europeans arrived. Bison prairie is, to put it in ecological terms, an induced formation, the product of native range management. There was no wilderness on the plains, and never will be.

The author concludes, "The oversettlement of the Great Plains has turned out to be a 150-year-old mistake, one of the longest-running and most costly errors in American history." The basis for this statement is that for the past half-century people have been leaving the plains. If people are leaving, then this must mean failure. The image is of the Joad family piling their pitiful belongings onto their rickety truck and, dispossessed, taking flight.

It’s time someone, me, turned this whole line of thought inside out. For too long we people of the plains have nurtured this self-pitying image of ourselves as afflicted by all sorts of distant demons; the federal government, the Chicago Board of Trade, the railroads, the millers, Daylight Savings Time, the New World Order, name your favorite bad guy. We like to say we have been driven from the land and it has broken out hearts.

In some cases this is true, but by and large it is false. What we did was we sold out at a profit. We left by choice. If you’re a reader, then recall the pitiful conclusion of John Ise’s book, Sod and Stubble, when poor Rosie has to sell off the farm in western Kansas. It’s so sad. Well, do you know what Rosie Ise did after that? She followed her kids to Lawrence, since they all were going to college and ran a boarding house for KU men. People who knew her in Lawrence say she loved her life there. Her children made distinguished lives for themselves.

Or consider the family featured in Kathy Plotkin’s memoir, The Pearson Girls. It seems sad that all the kids leave the North Dakota farm, so the folks have to sell out. Why did they sell out? Because their kids were all living successful lives as professional people.

The depopulation of the plains is a story of unremitting success. People prospered, seized opportunities, and moved on. Success wrought depopulation because of a ratchet effect. It is easy to leave, difficult to re-enter farming or another enterprise in the region. United States senators from the plains states promoting the New Homestead Act may have something to say about that.

The Times author could wring tears from a hedge post talking about the "warm, hard-working, honest farmers and ranchers who are having their hearts broken." Nice people, but stupid. Dupes. Victims. This is all so 80s.

Bison are such wonderful animals. It is a shame, and disrespectful, to use them this way.

###

Source: Tom Isern, (701) 799-2942, isern@plainsfolk.com
Editor: Rich Mattern, (701) 231-6136, richard.mattern@ndsu.nodak.edu 

Click here for a TIF photo of Tom Isern that is suitable for printing. 
(1.5MB b&w photo)

Click here for a TIF photo of Tom Isern wearing a hat that is suitable for printing.
(1.3MB b&w photo)