Theses and Dissertations at Montana State University (MSU)
Permanent URI for this collectionhttps://scholarworks.montana.edu/handle/1/733
Browse
123 results
Search Results
Item To hell, heaven, and back again: language, religon, and the varied meanings of Yellowstone(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2024) Taylor, Joshua James; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mark FiegeThis thesis examines the history of language and Yellowstone National Park from the early nineteenth century through the second decade of the twentieth century. I examine how the language used to describe Yellowstone's many features changed over time and how that language reflected the larger culture and the change that took place over time.Item Rivers of resistance: resource conflict and rural organizing in the Americas(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2024) Anderson, Jacey Christine; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Molly ToddIn the last half of the twentieth-century, historians of every specialization framed their studies by national boundaries, and environmental historians of the so-called "global north" separated the domain of human culture from the domain of physical nature. For decades, scholars widely accepted and repeated these arrangements, but the lines of separation and division turned out to be far more effective as obstructions to understanding than as paths to insight. This transnational research sets a consequential example by removing those obstructions and by mapping those paths. This is an environmental history of two river basins in the Americas. The following chapters unpack parallels between these places, specifically, how people along the Rio Lempa in El Salvador and the Tongue River in Montana used their local knowledge of the land to successfully prevent mining projects in the late twentieth and early-twenty first centuries. I examine the environmental, societal, and cultural factors that led to these successes from different scales--the global to the local--and highlight common themes they shared. Both movements focused on defending their watersheds from mining projects that would have damaged water quality and altered locals' ways of life. The leaders of both movements were not traditional environmentalists and did not consider themselves to be; rather, they were ordinary people who were fighting for what they valued--a life of dignity and respect for their surroundings. By examining two distinct case studies, I show that "success" stories are not singular anomalies. They serve as models for future action.Item Firescapes and the birth of a genre: an environmental and literary history of 1910(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2023) Wood, Amelia Anne; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mark FiegeThis thesis discusses the unique interplay of the historic fires occurring in Montana and Idaho in the summer of 1910, the prominent ideologies of the American West and the Conservation Movement at the time, and the life and work of contemporary Idaho author, Edward Elmer Smith. The purpose and driving question behind this study is to examine the various means by which a communal environmental consciousness is culturally produced. In addressing this question, the fires of 1910 serve as a useful case study. By exploring the mutual influences of the 1910 fires (an environmental event), the ideologies of the time (the prevailing culture), and the content of Smith's popular science fiction trilogy, The Skylark, (a tangible vessel by which one culture is carried into and made part of a future culture), we can begin to see how communal environmental ideas and ethics are birthed and carried into new generations. This thesis argues that Smith, residing in Idaho during the fires, allows dominate ideas of fire, wilderness, frontiers, masculinity, and more, to shape the characters and plot of his fiction. In this manner, the trilogy should be understood as an example of literature shaped by an environmental event--in this case fire, and subsequently as a powerful tool used to shape an aspect of an on- going communal environmental consciousness as his works grew in popularity.Item A tangled path to extremism: desperation, resentment, and rebellion in rural Montana(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2023) Dunn, Jennifer Anne; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Michael ReidyIn the closing decades of the twentieth century, the American West saw an increase in anti-government and white supremacy extremism. Montana had a number of events where residents resisted the federal government culminating in the Montana Freemen, a group who engaged in an 81-day armed standoff with the FBI in the spring and summer of 1996. Why were western residents so angry at the federal government who they believed was, at best, ignoring rural western communities, and at worst, threatening their liberty and their lives? To answer this question, I examined three rural Montana communities - Denton, Jordan and Libby - each of whom clashed with the government at the end of the century. While these conflicts developed for different reasons, residents' responses to the encounters and the regulations imposed on them illustrate a continuum ranging from resigned irritation, to urgent pleas for help, to outright rebellion. In this dissertation, I argue that the study of the 1990s in Montana reveals the development of anti-government extremism. To understand how western residents' frustrations and concerns coalesced into this directed anger, I examine three rural communities in Montana - Libby, Jordan, and Denton - whose residents were frustrated with federal regulation and believed not only that they had been forgotten by the government, unions, academics, and urbanites but that those groups were working against them. The residents of these towns lived and worked in resource communities and supplied the materials that built post-World War II America. They believed that their communities and economies had been sacrificed and forgotten. The residents in these rural town expressed their anger in different ways, but it did not dissipate after the decade ended. Their responses reveal the mounting tension, frustration, and anger that existed in the last decade of the twentieth century and highlight a throughline of connection and historical significance to anti-government extremist groups that continue to threaten democracy today.Item Gichi Bizhiki (Grandfather Buffalo): Anishinaabe sovereignty, the seasonal round, and resistance to the colonization of the web of life, 1780-1890(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2021) Ramaker, Jill Falcon; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mary MurphyGichi Bizhiki (Grandfather Buffalo): Anishinaabe Sovereignty, the Seasonal Round, and Resistance to the Colonization of the Web of Life is an Indigenous environmental history of the years 1780 through 1890, in which many Anishinaabeg departed the wild rice- centered food system and fanned out across the Northwestern Plains from the Red River Valley to the Rocky Mountains, as they adapted to buffalo culture. The Anishinaabeg practiced the seasonal round, a highly complex pattern of movements on the land to hunt, harvest, cultivate, and trade foods as part of a holistic way of life, patterned on ancestral reciprocal obligations to place. From the 1600s forward, Euro-American colonizers, in support of industrial and capital development in Europe and eastern North America, extracted natural resources from Turtle Island including animal furs and robes, minerals, forests, and overtook land for monocropping. Euro-American colonization of the web of life to which Anishinaabe people belonged rendered the Anishinaabe seasonal round way of life unsustainable. Further, colonial policies attempted to suppress all aspects of Anishinaabe life including language, knowledge, and spiritual life. In response to colonial persecution, Anishinaabeg 'ran with the archives,' (their ceremonies) as it was unsafe for their children to be identified as Anishinaabeg. Following Anishinaabe western movement, this study tells the story of how Anishinaabe resisted colonization. Research methods included drawing on archival sources from Canada and the United States, and culturally-congruent sources including ceremony, traditional stories, ancestral knowledge of cultural leaders, language, and time spent on the land. This history is presented as one Indigenous view contributing to the field of History. This dissertation concludes that Grandfather Buffalo, the one that has stood for Anishinaabeg and their kin for millennia, is a central source of Anishinaabe sovereignty and the center of the Anishinaabe economy, the kinship network of exchange. Further, the Anishinaabe food system, the seasonal round, was sustainable for millennia because it was critically embedded in the holistic Anishinaabe way of life. Worldview is an essential factor in lifeway sustainability. Finally, by their words, deeds, and movement, Anishinaabeg resisted colonization of the web of life, or what Anishinaabeg refer to as 'all our relations'.Item Real Indians making real art: how indigenous artists struggle for creative sovereignty and identity in the contemporary art world and market(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2021) Aspensen, Ceilon Hall; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Walter FlemingThe problem presented is that Indigenous artists have been excluded from mainstream art venues and limited to exhibition in museums that only include collections of Indigenous art primarily limited to the pre-1890s era. Not having Native American artists' work regularly on display in contemporary art museums makes a powerful statement about the validity of contemporary Indigeneous art. This also limits the ability of Indigenous artists to exercise sovereignty over their own work and careers, by limiting their access to mainstream exhibition venues. Many modern Indigenous artists have found their work not taken seriously because of their ethnic identity and the expectations of the field of reception concerning the style of Native American art. Some contemporary Indigenous artists struggle to make a living creating the kind of art they choose to make, despite the general popularity of their work, because of these expectations. Limitations on marketability come from the modern art market itself and collectors who think of Indigenous art from an erroneous definition of 'traditional,' or from local tribal pressures to create only art that preserves the traditional culture of the tribe. The methods employed in this study were two-fold: an investigation of museum practices and available literature on contemporary Indigenous art, and interviews with eleven indigenous artists which served as case studies, employing a central tenet of CRT (Critical Race Theory) by which BIPOC (Black and Indigenous People of Color) people are able to tell their own stories. The results of this investigation are the identification, and legitimization of contemporary indigenous art by Indigenous artists residing in the northern plains, through legal definitions, cultural and ethnic identities, individual artistic identities, and traditional and contemporary art production practices. It also explores how genealogies of concepts as they relate to indigneous art, as well as cultural reception, contribute to diffusing theories of art history where indigenous art is concerned. The author demonstrates and concludes through the findings of this study that the work of modern Indigenous artists qualifies as contemporary art by any definition, and that style is irrelevant when making that determination.Item Patriotic stained-glass windows and the manifestation of American civil religion(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2022) Sward, Sandra Lee; Co-chairs, Graduate Committee: Robert Rydell and David CherryStained-glass windows are a mechanism through which abstract ideas are communicated, often benefitting from their association with European Gothic cathedrals. When church windows include patriotic iconography, the patriotic themes conceivably benefit from this association. Between 1890 and 1950, many stained-glass windows were created for American churches that contain patriotic symbols and images associated with American nationalism. Insufficient research has been published regarding this phenomenon. This dissertation attempts to fill that gap by arguing that these patriotic images represent a manifestation of American civil religion. Over forty churches and cathedrals were surveyed using a methodology based on Erwin Panofsky's framework, which incorporates cultural influences into the analysis of the artistic design. Window themes align with various aspects of America's foundational moments, including those associated with the Pilgrims and Puritans, the War for Independence and the Founding Fathers, America's westward expansion, and the nation's wars. America's civil religion, as discussed by Robert Bellah, includes a set of beliefs, ceremonial rites, and symbols connecting a community that endow a transcendent value on those items. Race, religion, and national identity are foundational elements of that civil religion and are explored here as potential influences in the design process. American civil religion is also typically embraced during times of trial. Therefore, issues of immigration quotas, Indian removal policies, economic turmoil, and military conflicts are considered as well. The windows under consideration here embraced American civil religion, while often whitewashing and sacralizing a view of American history that ignored many of its cultural complexities.Item Perilous propagation: the origins and growth of eugenics in Montana(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2022) Pallister, Casey J.; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mary MurphyWhile Montana is seldom mentioned in broader histories of eugenics in the United States, 'the science of better breeding' appeared in the state in various realms by the early twentieth century, including the legislature, public education, institutions, public health, and the women's suffrage, maternalist, and child welfare movements. Like many states, Montana enacted eugenic laws intended to target 'unfit' persons for policing, segregation, and sterilization. This dissertation examines Montana's multifarious and overlapping experiences with eugenics from the late nineteenth-century to the present. Using various primary sources, including patient records, newspapers, legislative reports, and government documents, this project demonstrates that the origins of eugenics in Montana are much deeper than scientific ideas, faith in scientific expertise, and the tumultuous societal changes of the early 1900s. In Montana, laws intended to regulate, police, define, and separate 'normal' and 'abnormal' bodies predated the arrival of eugenic ideas and policies in Montana by many decades. Investigating this legal foundation allows for a consideration of the topic of eugenics within a larger historical narrative and challenges simplistic notions about eugenic origins. In Montana, a variety of contextual factors interacted to create an environment in which eugenics could at times flourish but at other times diminish. This study of Montana is an example of how to assess the specific political and social factors necessary to implement eugenic practices. Carrying out eugenic actions required a high level of cooperation at the individual, community, state, and federal levels. This project interrogates those different levels and layers of context, demonstrating that a eugenic history of Montana defies any universal 'American' models in terms of origins, growth, development, and decline. Locating Montana's interaction with eugenics in a broader history that accounts for deep origins, continuity, and contextual layers demonstrates the uniqueness and similarity of Montana's eugenic past in relation to other localities. In addition, this dissertation shows that addressing eugenics from a framework based on interconnection helps resurrect 'lost' histories of eugenics in states, such as Montana, where this past is largely forgotten.Item The way of the mountain: powder snow, Dolores LaChapelle, and a search for 'the answers'(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2022) Menzel, Clare Wolz; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mark FiegeLongstanding narratives in Europe and the United States about progress as emancipation from nature construct perceptions of separation between humans and everything else. This separation justifies human mastery of and control over nature, leading to environmental exploitation as well as individual experiences of alienation from place. Dolores LaChapelle, author of 'Deep Powder Snow: 40 Years of Ecstatic Skiing, Avalanches, and Earth Wisdom', countered dominant Eurocentric and anthropocentric ascendancy with knowledge that she argued came from her experiences as a powder snow skier in the western United States during the twentieth century. Using theories of neo-materialism and vital materiality, this study examines relational, more-than-human agency that produced cultural identity and embodied ethical knowledge. In particular, it focuses on LaChapelle's encounters and relationships with mountain places, and transformations in her thinking that occurred after she learned to ski powder in Aspen, Colorado, from 1947-1950, as well as after she experienced a large avalanche in Alta, Utah in 1963. This study argues that LaChapelle is an overlooked, original thinker about the agency and ethical standing of non-human beings in the material world.Item It's all about the dough: food, literature, and the American dream(Montana State University - Bozeman, College of Letters & Science, 2022) O'Brien, Emily Marie; Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Mary MurphyThe intersection of the environment, literature, and the culinary history of the North American West is under-investigated and requires further study to determine the ways in which focusing on these intersections reveals more about American foodways. By examining three community cookbooks, three corporate cookbooks, three works of literary fiction, and the archival contents of America Eats, a subsidiary of the Federal Writers' Project, this paper investigates sociocultural interactions in the United States between 1930 and 1959, particularly in Montana. Research revealed the connection between rural and urban through the presence of advertisements and brand-name products in community cookbooks, while corporate cookbooks displayed the depth of culinary-related gendered ideology in twentieth century America. Further investigation highlighted the interconnections between distinct foodways, the environment, and Western literature during the time period in question. This paper concludes that Montana foodways between 1930 and 1959 exhibit the last remnants of regional uniqueness prior to the widespread culinary homogenization in postwar America. Additionally, this study revealed the importance of preserving culturally and geographically specific foodways to bridge gaps among communities both rural and urban. Ultimately, this study concludes that the food present in Montana between 1930 and 1959 in all its iterations--literary, physical, and in the space between perception and creation in the world of advertising--is representative of the vestiges of a unique regional foodway.