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Welcome to the future.

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PBS Digital.

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"There seemed to
be nothing to see.

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No fences, no creeks or trees,
no hills or some fields.

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There was nothing but
land, not a country at all,

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but the material out of
which countries are made."

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Willa Cather.

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It's almost an expressway.

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I make my living doing
things with words.

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But I've come to realize
there's some things that words,

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and science, and reason
can't entirely express.

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Sometimes you're
walking along, and you

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think you see something over
there, and then you look

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and it's not there.

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And that's what
prairie does to me.

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There's an intangible
something about the prairie.

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It takes that gentleness,
what I consider gentleness

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of a rolling prairie
in the plain,

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and adds to it its
own sense of wildness,

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which is this rich
diversity of plant life.

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Which can only be
appreciated up close,

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rather than taking
in the broad vista.

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It's a very personal,
religious experience.

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It's a part of my spirituality.

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It's a place that
I think could best

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be described as a sacred place.

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It's a place that is
a very rare thing.

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It's like a thread of
a fabric that was once

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covered the entire landscape
of Iowa and beyond.

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And so it's a very, very
special and rare place.

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On the one hand, it's
this jaw-dropping expanse

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of openness.

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And on the other hand, it's
this very intimate landscape

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that is best viewed up close.

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Major funding for
America's Lost Landscape,

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The Tallgrass Prairie,
has been provided

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by the R. J. McElroy
Trust; the Young Family

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Foundation of Waterloo, Iowa;
the Iowa Resource Enhancement

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and Protection Conservation
Education Program;

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the Iowa Living Roadway Trust
Fund; the Wallace Genetic

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Foundation; the United States
Department of Agriculture,

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Natural Resources Conservation
Service; the Truax Company;

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Pioneer Hi-Bred Brad
International, Incorporated;

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the Federal Highway
Administration;

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and by the following
individuals, Roger Maddux;

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G. David and Barbara Hurd;
Ike and Emile Leighty;

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William and Stephanie Clohesy;
Charlotte Shivvers; Katherine

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and William Calhoun,
Jr.; and others.

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A complete list is
available from PBS.

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The Tallgrass Prairie once
stretched from southern Canada

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to the Gulf of Mexico.

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From the Western bluffs of the
Missouri River to the Eastern

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shores of the Wabash in what
is now the State of Indiana.

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A sea of grass covering
400,000 square miles

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of some of the most
fertile land on Earth.

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Its stark beauty and
boundless horizons

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mapped a rich complexity
of plant and animal life

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that had taken millions
of years to evolve.

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And for hundreds of
generations more,

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native peoples
called it their home.

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But between 1830 and 1900, in
the space of a single lifetime,

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as thousands of new people
claimed it for their own,

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the Tallgrass
Prairie was steadily

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transformed to cropland.

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It was one of the most
astonishing alterations

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of nature in human history.

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Think of the State of Iowa
as a 1,000-piece puzzle.

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And that's the amount
of original prairie.

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28 million acres represents
that 1,000-piece puzzle.

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Today, we have one of
those pieces remaining

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and that piece is not intact.

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Today, rows of corn
and soybeans grow

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where the tallgrass
was once firmly rooted.

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Hogs, cattle, and
other livestock

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inhabit places where bison
and elk once freely roamed.

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The vast open space
that once seemed

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so limitless has been cut
up, divided, and occupied.

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And now the Tallgrass Prairie
is, in essence, extinct.

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I think that it's
important for Americans

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to understand that this
is a national treasure.

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It was massive, and for it to
have disappeared and shrunk

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to the place where most
people have never even been

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to a prairie, perhaps,
is a real loss.

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If we think that it's
important for people

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to understand tropical
rainforests and their demise

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and the global impacts,
how much more important

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it is for us to understand that
a major ecosystem in the heart

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of this country is nearly gone.

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For us to understand
what was here

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and to embrace it
and preserve it.

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It's no less important
than the redwoods

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in the Western part
of this country.

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It has a uniqueness and
a stature all its own.

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In some ways, I sort of
share a nostalgic kinship

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with Jon Madsen, who
relates his feelings

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about the prairie
to a young man who

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falls in love with a woman's
picture on a faded tintype.

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And basically, all that remains
are the frame and the plate.

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And the images is faded.

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It was faded before we were
born, as was the prairie,

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so we never had
a chance to touch

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or feel or experience the
vibrancy of the prairie.

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We just have memories
and faded images,

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an illusion that remain.

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Creation of a landscape as vast
and complex as the Tallgrass

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Prairie require the
right combination

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of climate, soil,
and eons of time.

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To the West, the Rocky Mountains
rose 25 million years ago,

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creating a rain shadow that
extended beyond the Mississippi

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River.

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From the North, glaciers
advanced and retreated

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scouring the hills and leaving
behind large deposits of till.

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And from the South, winds
from the Gulf of Mexico

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brought just enough grain to
permit the growth of vegetation

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taller than the shorter prairie
grasses evolving on the Great

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Plains.

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But the extremes of
weather, periodic droughts,

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and harsh winters discourage
the growth of trees.

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Tallgrass Prairie owes its
existence to hot, dry summers

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and to cold dry winters.

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Fire played a role as well.

00:08:14.770 --> 00:08:17.130
Touched off by violent
lightning storms,

00:08:17.130 --> 00:08:21.160
and whipped by
the constant wind,

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wildfires would spread unimpeded
for miles further preventing

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encroachment of
forests from the East.

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In the place of trees,
an incredible variety

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of plants and grasses evolved.

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Turk's cap and Meadow Rose,
Blazing Star and the Butterfly

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Milkweed, Prairie Clover
and pale purple cornflower,

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Creamy Indigo, Sneeze
Weed, Silphium,

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Grey-headed Coneflower,
Lady's Slipper, Shooting Star,

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and the White-Fringed
Prairie Orchid.

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And the most dominant plant
of the Tallgrass Prairie,

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the big bluestem, which
could go to heights

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from five to 10 feet,
and which at one time

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blanketed nearly
three-fourths of the prairie.

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The Bluestem Turkey
Foot, I think

00:09:52.010 --> 00:09:57.360
of Aldo Leopold's
description of the plover.

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He says, when the plover
set wings for the Argentine,

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all the Bluestems wave goodbye.

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I think that's one of
the most poetic lines.

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When I think of the Bluestem, I
think of fat cattle, fat bison.

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It's a totem species of
the prairie, if you wish.

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That's big Bluestem.

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The tough, deep
roots of the grasses

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created the prairie's
deep, rich topsoil.

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And prairie plants called
legumes injected growth

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promoting nitrogen into it.

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Above ground, prairie
insects fed off the plants,

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pollinating the next
generation as they

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moved from plant to plant.

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Feeding off it all, an equally
complex variety animals

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evolved.

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Elk, coyotes, and badgers,
a myriad of insects,

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over 100 species of birds, and
the most magnificent animal

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North America ever
produced, the bison,

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the Titans of the prairie.

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Millions of them roamed freely
throughout the Tallgrass.

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It's difficult to imagine
a grassland ecosystem

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without grazers.

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They performed a number of
functions in the system.

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But the biggest
part of that would

00:11:50.140 --> 00:11:53.200
be catastrophe, disturbance.

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When bison would come through
in their enormous herds,

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their hooves would tear
up the soil quite a bit

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and turn things over,
and cause some aeration

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in the soil that was necessary.

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It was that balance.

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And so they're part
of that endless cycle

00:12:07.880 --> 00:12:10.742
of cycles that
maintains the prairie.

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Che is what we called the bison.

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In fact, one of
our months, August,

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was called Che Kiruxe, the
month of the buffalo breeding.

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We use their roads.

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We used every item on the
buffalo and nothing was wasted.

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The roads that they
made in their movement

00:12:29.020 --> 00:12:33.990
across the landscape were
used by us as we move camps.

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Buffalo defined the
Ioways and their life

00:12:36.850 --> 00:12:38.090
on the Tallgrass Prairie.

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The great spirit
created this country

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for the use and
benefit of his children

00:12:50.070 --> 00:12:53.400
and placed them in
full possession of it.

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The prairies teamed
with buffalo.

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While the soil uncultivated
produced corn, beans, pumpkins,

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and squash of the finest
quality and largest quantities.

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Black Hawk.

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It is believed that humans
first moved into the Tallgrass

00:13:14.430 --> 00:13:18.150
Prairie region about
10,000 years ago

00:13:18.150 --> 00:13:22.680
as the glaciers of the last
Ice Age were retreating North.

00:13:22.680 --> 00:13:25.285
They developed their own
languages and cultures.

00:13:31.970 --> 00:13:35.380
Some became farmers.

00:13:35.380 --> 00:13:39.850
Others were nomadic relying on
the abundant game, especially

00:13:39.850 --> 00:13:41.480
the bison for their food.

00:13:44.450 --> 00:13:47.220
And all of them
learned to use fire

00:13:47.220 --> 00:13:51.850
to manipulate the environment
for their own benefit.

00:13:51.850 --> 00:13:54.910
They deliberately burned
parts of the prairie landscape

00:13:54.910 --> 00:13:58.650
in order to plant crops,
to control animal movement

00:13:58.650 --> 00:14:03.170
while hunting, to encourage
the growth of fresh grass

00:14:03.170 --> 00:14:06.150
that would attract
bison and elk.

00:14:06.150 --> 00:14:09.214
Even to create blackened
campsites as safe havens

00:14:09.214 --> 00:14:10.380
from the frequent wildfires.

00:14:18.110 --> 00:14:20.620
Their use of fire
was so extensive

00:14:20.620 --> 00:14:23.660
that it altered the landscape.

00:14:23.660 --> 00:14:26.600
Native American burning
expanded and maintained

00:14:26.600 --> 00:14:29.460
the Eastern portion of
the Tallgrass Prairie

00:14:29.460 --> 00:14:31.460
and checked the spread
of forest vegetation.

00:14:35.050 --> 00:14:38.720
Eventually, at least 30 tribes
called the Tallgrass Prairie

00:14:38.720 --> 00:14:40.878
home.

00:14:40.878 --> 00:14:57.880
The Dakota and the Kiowa, the
Ioway, the Kansa, the Omaha,

00:14:57.880 --> 00:15:02.080
the Ojibwa, and the Sac and Fox.

00:15:04.437 --> 00:15:06.270
It's really important
to stress that there's

00:15:06.270 --> 00:15:08.575
a lot of diversity
within this region.

00:15:08.575 --> 00:15:12.180
You have groups, for example,
like the Ojibwa and the Dakota

00:15:12.180 --> 00:15:14.450
who are immediate
neighbors but have

00:15:14.450 --> 00:15:17.060
languages that are literally
as different as Chinese

00:15:17.060 --> 00:15:17.640
and English.

00:15:17.640 --> 00:15:19.610
And you have groups
like the Dakota, which

00:15:19.610 --> 00:15:23.480
have a language which
is highly gendered.

00:15:23.480 --> 00:15:26.780
They're different ways that
men speak and that women speak.

00:15:26.780 --> 00:15:31.250
So, too, do you have dramatic
differences in culture.

00:15:31.250 --> 00:15:34.050
There are certain things about
the landscape of the Tallgrass

00:15:34.050 --> 00:15:37.490
Prairie region that tied
all native people who

00:15:37.490 --> 00:15:40.180
lived there together,
and certain ways in which

00:15:40.180 --> 00:15:43.905
the land would
dictate livelihoods.

00:15:43.905 --> 00:15:46.930
The Ioway had always been
comfortable with the prairie.

00:15:46.930 --> 00:15:49.799
They new the various plants.

00:15:49.799 --> 00:15:51.090
They knew the various features.

00:15:51.090 --> 00:15:52.756
How the wind would
move across the grass

00:15:52.756 --> 00:15:54.540
would tell what
direction they were in.

00:15:54.540 --> 00:15:56.320
When they would look
at certain plants,

00:15:56.320 --> 00:15:58.060
such as the compass
plant, they could

00:15:58.060 --> 00:16:01.720
tell what direction
they needed to move in.

00:16:01.720 --> 00:16:05.850
This was a land where
people farmed extensively,

00:16:05.850 --> 00:16:08.570
especially in the Eastern
part of the Tallgrass Prairie

00:16:08.570 --> 00:16:13.730
region, farming predominantly
corn, but other vegetables as

00:16:13.730 --> 00:16:16.430
well.

00:16:16.430 --> 00:16:20.210
For the most part, native
people lived in relative harmony

00:16:20.210 --> 00:16:21.920
with the Tallgrass Prairie.

00:16:21.920 --> 00:16:24.750
According to their religious
beliefs, the Earth was alive,

00:16:24.750 --> 00:16:29.210
and nature was a divine order
that was to be respected.

00:16:29.210 --> 00:16:31.190
Plants and animals
were often seen

00:16:31.190 --> 00:16:34.330
as brotherly manifestations
of the great spirit.

00:16:34.330 --> 00:16:36.950
Killing them was done
carefully and ritualistically.

00:16:39.570 --> 00:16:42.770
For hundreds of generations,
Native Americans

00:16:42.770 --> 00:16:45.940
had the Tallgrass to themselves.

00:16:45.940 --> 00:16:49.270
But in the late 1600s,
that began to change.

00:16:54.370 --> 00:16:58.440
My great grandfather,
Nanimake, was told in a dream

00:16:58.440 --> 00:17:03.060
by the great spirit that
he should see a white man.

00:17:03.060 --> 00:17:06.150
Nanimake went alone and
found that a white man

00:17:06.150 --> 00:17:08.813
had arrived and
pitched his tent.

00:17:08.813 --> 00:17:11.550
The white man took
him by the hand

00:17:11.550 --> 00:17:15.910
and told him that he was the
son of the King of France.

00:17:15.910 --> 00:17:18.530
That he, too, had been dreaming.

00:17:18.530 --> 00:17:21.829
That the great spirit had
directed him to come here.

00:17:21.829 --> 00:17:24.670
Where he should meet a nation
of people who had never

00:17:24.670 --> 00:17:29.500
seen a white man, and that
they should be his children.

00:17:29.500 --> 00:17:30.760
And he should be their father.

00:17:30.760 --> 00:17:31.259
Black Hawk.

00:17:36.820 --> 00:17:41.540
In 1673, a Jesuit priest
named Jacques Marquette,

00:17:41.540 --> 00:17:45.030
a fur trader named Louis
Joliet, and a party

00:17:45.030 --> 00:17:48.360
of five men traveling
in two bark canoes,

00:17:48.360 --> 00:17:50.940
began exploring the upper
reaches of the Mississippi

00:17:50.940 --> 00:17:52.810
River.

00:17:52.810 --> 00:17:55.370
Like all other white
people of the time,

00:17:55.370 --> 00:17:58.600
they believed that the Eastern
forests extended all the way

00:17:58.600 --> 00:18:00.870
across North America.

00:18:00.870 --> 00:18:03.420
And when Indians told them about
the prairies they would soon

00:18:03.420 --> 00:18:07.330
encounter, Marquette and
Joliet discounted the stories

00:18:07.330 --> 00:18:09.120
as tall tales.

00:18:09.120 --> 00:18:10.950
Then, they entered
the Tallgrass.

00:18:23.350 --> 00:18:25.330
For the next century
and a quarter,

00:18:25.330 --> 00:18:29.500
France, Spain, and
England each laid claim

00:18:29.500 --> 00:18:31.930
to different parts of
the Tallgrass Prairie.

00:18:31.930 --> 00:18:36.030
And each sent representatives
to trade with Native Americans.

00:18:36.030 --> 00:18:38.840
The, at the start
of the 19th century,

00:18:38.840 --> 00:18:41.660
a newly formed nation
on the Atlantic Seaboard

00:18:41.660 --> 00:18:44.730
turned its eyes Westward.

00:18:44.730 --> 00:18:48.000
In 1803, President
Thomas Jefferson

00:18:48.000 --> 00:18:50.590
agreed to purchase the
vast Louisiana Territory

00:18:50.590 --> 00:18:53.270
from Napoleon the
first of France.

00:18:53.270 --> 00:18:56.940
For $15 million Jefferson
doubled the size of the United

00:18:56.940 --> 00:18:59.750
States, and brought most
of the Tallgrass Prairie

00:18:59.750 --> 00:19:02.720
within the boundaries
of his young nation.

00:19:02.720 --> 00:19:06.580
At the same time, Jefferson
also dispatched the explorers

00:19:06.580 --> 00:19:09.710
Meriwether Lewis
and William Clark.

00:19:09.710 --> 00:19:11.830
The Lewis and Clark
expedition was

00:19:11.830 --> 00:19:15.810
expected to map the recently
acquired lands, catalog

00:19:15.810 --> 00:19:19.490
the plant and animal life,
and establish trade relations

00:19:19.490 --> 00:19:21.660
with Native Americans.

00:19:21.660 --> 00:19:24.280
Jefferson also hoped
that this new landscape

00:19:24.280 --> 00:19:26.120
would be a place
where sturdy yeomen

00:19:26.120 --> 00:19:31.990
farmers, his ideal Americans,
would be able to thrive.

00:19:31.990 --> 00:19:35.910
In the early summer of
1804, Lewis and Clark

00:19:35.910 --> 00:19:38.580
entered the heart of
the Tallgrass Prairie.

00:19:38.580 --> 00:19:41.180
Like everyone else
before them, they

00:19:41.180 --> 00:19:43.020
were overwhelmed
by what they saw.

00:19:48.550 --> 00:19:52.570
One day William Clark was
out hunting an elk in 1804

00:19:52.570 --> 00:19:55.920
that led him out of the
trench of the Missouri

00:19:55.920 --> 00:19:57.690
where it's heavily wooded.

00:19:57.690 --> 00:20:00.250
And he came across
this prospect,

00:20:00.250 --> 00:20:04.690
he wrote in his diary, that he
said was a boundless prairie.

00:20:04.690 --> 00:20:07.990
He said, boundless because
the grass was two feet high,

00:20:07.990 --> 00:20:10.600
and it stretched as
far as he could see.

00:20:10.600 --> 00:20:14.140
And he said that the sight was
so sudden and entertaining,

00:20:14.140 --> 00:20:16.820
in his words, that
I briefly forgot

00:20:16.820 --> 00:20:20.690
the object of my mission,
that is, to find that elk.

00:20:20.690 --> 00:20:23.450
Now William Clark
is not a guy who's

00:20:23.450 --> 00:20:27.970
likely to forget the
object of his mission

00:20:27.970 --> 00:20:29.910
Meriwether Lewis wrote
back to his mother

00:20:29.910 --> 00:20:32.980
that this river of
the Missouri waters

00:20:32.980 --> 00:20:35.560
one of the fairest
portions of the globe.

00:20:35.560 --> 00:20:38.600
Nor do I believe there
is in the universe,

00:20:38.600 --> 00:20:40.192
a similar extent of country.

00:20:40.192 --> 00:20:41.650
I always like to
think he's talking

00:20:41.650 --> 00:20:43.820
about Iowa in that line.

00:20:43.820 --> 00:20:45.790
Nebraskans might
think otherwise.

00:20:45.790 --> 00:20:50.130
But they all saw, I think,
in the Tallgrass Prairie,

00:20:50.130 --> 00:20:53.340
not just the captains, but the
members of the expedition all

00:20:53.340 --> 00:20:55.650
mentioned about how
beautiful the prairie was.

00:20:55.650 --> 00:20:58.310
But they are I had
farming roots themselves,

00:20:58.310 --> 00:21:03.060
and they could see fertile soil
and tell it when they saw it,

00:21:03.060 --> 00:21:05.820
and they knew that
this was the real deal.

00:21:10.800 --> 00:21:15.150
My reason teaches me
that land cannot be sold.

00:21:15.150 --> 00:21:17.570
The great spirit gave
it to his children

00:21:17.570 --> 00:21:22.960
to live upon so long as they
occupy and cultivate it,

00:21:22.960 --> 00:21:25.810
they have the right to the soil.

00:21:25.810 --> 00:21:30.413
Nothing can be sold but such
things as can be carried away.

00:21:30.413 --> 00:21:30.913
Black Hawk.

00:21:34.860 --> 00:21:37.750
The Ojibwa word to
sort of own something

00:21:37.750 --> 00:21:40.160
or have possession
of a piece of land,

00:21:40.160 --> 00:21:43.740
it really doesn't have
any meaning at all.

00:21:43.740 --> 00:21:45.440
When you say
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE]

00:21:45.440 --> 00:21:50.180
dog when the land is owned or
[SPEAKING FOREIGN LANGUAGE] he

00:21:50.180 --> 00:21:55.000
owns a piece of land, it
doesn't have that same meaning.

00:21:55.000 --> 00:21:58.010
It means more to measure
something in your mind.

00:21:58.010 --> 00:22:00.070
What is the
relationship someone has

00:22:00.070 --> 00:22:02.560
with that thing, or
that piece of land,

00:22:02.560 --> 00:22:04.250
or whatever it happens to be?

00:22:04.250 --> 00:22:08.580
For Ojibwa people, the
relationship to land

00:22:08.580 --> 00:22:10.410
was really important.

00:22:10.410 --> 00:22:13.190
It wasn't just about
feeding families.

00:22:13.190 --> 00:22:15.990
There were a sacred places
way out on the prairies,

00:22:15.990 --> 00:22:18.890
places of great significance.

00:22:18.890 --> 00:22:21.320
You have Pipestone,
Minnesota, being

00:22:21.320 --> 00:22:25.050
a place where most of the tribes
in the entire region from as

00:22:25.050 --> 00:22:29.690
far South as Texas, to
as far West as Montana,

00:22:29.690 --> 00:22:31.780
and as far East as
Pennsylvania end up

00:22:31.780 --> 00:22:34.660
traveling for the purpose
of harvesting Catlinite

00:22:34.660 --> 00:22:37.690
for the manufacture of
ceremonial prayer pipes.

00:22:40.480 --> 00:22:42.420
I think sometimes
that the differences

00:22:42.420 --> 00:22:45.220
between how the European
cultures viewed land

00:22:45.220 --> 00:22:48.980
and how the Indians saw
it can sometimes get

00:22:48.980 --> 00:22:50.316
stereotyped an oversimplified.

00:22:53.400 --> 00:22:58.030
People, regardless of their
culture, respond to landscape.

00:22:58.030 --> 00:22:59.970
And people, regardless
of their culture,

00:22:59.970 --> 00:23:04.220
see in land opportunity
and exploit it.

00:23:07.650 --> 00:23:10.260
The Americans moving
West brought with them

00:23:10.260 --> 00:23:13.290
views of nature and the
land heavily influenced

00:23:13.290 --> 00:23:19.820
by the European philosophers
Francis Bacon and John Locke.

00:23:19.820 --> 00:23:24.400
Bacon argued that nature was
hostile, evil, and chaotic,

00:23:24.400 --> 00:23:26.150
and that it was a
moral imperative

00:23:26.150 --> 00:23:28.840
for civilized societies
to conquer and subdue

00:23:28.840 --> 00:23:31.950
nature in order to
understand its secrets.

00:23:31.950 --> 00:23:34.720
Locke believed that
the land was derived

00:23:34.720 --> 00:23:37.170
from labor required
to improve it

00:23:37.170 --> 00:23:39.920
and the benefits that
resulted from this labor.

00:23:39.920 --> 00:23:44.460
He considered wilderness or
uncultivated land synonymous

00:23:44.460 --> 00:23:47.010
with waste.

00:23:47.010 --> 00:23:48.970
The flood of white
settlement first

00:23:48.970 --> 00:23:52.100
pushed into the Eastern edge
of the Tallgrass Prairie

00:23:52.100 --> 00:23:56.320
after the War of 1812 when the
federal government initiated

00:23:56.320 --> 00:23:59.000
a series of peace and
friendship treaties

00:23:59.000 --> 00:24:01.540
that, in reality,
steadily dispossessed

00:24:01.540 --> 00:24:04.640
Native Americans of their land.

00:24:04.640 --> 00:24:08.540
By 1821 these treaties had
created the fault lines

00:24:08.540 --> 00:24:11.920
upon which a major conflict
would emerge some years later.

00:24:11.920 --> 00:24:15.150
A conflict that would radically
alter the lives of thousands

00:24:15.150 --> 00:24:18.600
of Native Americans and forever
change the landscape they

00:24:18.600 --> 00:24:21.010
called home.

00:24:21.010 --> 00:24:23.710
One of the treaties
called for the Sac and Fox

00:24:23.710 --> 00:24:27.410
to abandon their ancestral
villages and fertile fields

00:24:27.410 --> 00:24:30.470
along the Rock River
in Illinois and move

00:24:30.470 --> 00:24:34.460
West across the
Mississippi River.

00:24:34.460 --> 00:24:38.510
A tribal elder and respected
war chief named, Black Hawk,

00:24:38.510 --> 00:24:42.360
believed that the treaty allowed
the Sac and Fox the right

00:24:42.360 --> 00:24:45.270
to farm their lands in
the East and to live

00:24:45.270 --> 00:24:47.390
in their seasonal
ancestral villages

00:24:47.390 --> 00:24:48.860
as they had for
hundreds of years.

00:24:51.410 --> 00:24:56.500
In April of 1832, Black Hawk
and his son, Whirling Thunder,

00:24:56.500 --> 00:24:59.830
led a large group of followers
back across the Mississippi

00:24:59.830 --> 00:25:01.960
River to plant corn
in their fields

00:25:01.960 --> 00:25:06.090
along the Rock River in what
is now the State of Illinois.

00:25:06.090 --> 00:25:09.580
They had been across the river
perhaps maybe just a couple

00:25:09.580 --> 00:25:13.370
of hours, not very long
at all, and some settlers

00:25:13.370 --> 00:25:15.502
had spied them and reported
them to the militia.

00:25:15.502 --> 00:25:19.150
And the militia came riding up.

00:25:19.150 --> 00:25:23.360
Black Hawk had sent out riders
with a white flag of truce

00:25:23.360 --> 00:25:27.500
to tell them we're just
here to plant corn.

00:25:27.500 --> 00:25:30.402
And they were fired
upon by the militia.

00:25:30.402 --> 00:25:34.290
And the Black Hawk war started.

00:25:34.290 --> 00:25:38.560
Relentlessly pursued across
Illinois and Wisconsin,

00:25:38.560 --> 00:25:42.030
Black Hawk would prove to be a
brilliant military strategist.

00:25:44.710 --> 00:25:48.566
He and his followers engaged in
a successful guerrilla campaign

00:25:48.566 --> 00:25:49.850
that lasted for months.

00:25:52.880 --> 00:25:55.390
Finally, Black Hawk
and his followers

00:25:55.390 --> 00:25:58.220
found themselves surrounded
by American soldiers

00:25:58.220 --> 00:26:02.600
and, ironically, their Dakota
allies at the confluence

00:26:02.600 --> 00:26:05.180
of the Mississippi
and Bad Axe Rivers

00:26:05.180 --> 00:26:07.330
in what is now the
State of Wisconsin.

00:26:07.330 --> 00:26:11.390
As he attempted to
rally his warriors,

00:26:11.390 --> 00:26:14.510
Black Hawk instructed the others
to swim across the Mississippi

00:26:14.510 --> 00:26:17.533
to safety, but many
of them drowned.

00:26:23.930 --> 00:26:26.712
And those who made it across
were killed by the Dakota.

00:26:29.540 --> 00:26:31.880
Hundreds of the
Sac and Fox died.

00:26:36.390 --> 00:26:40.420
Somehow Black Hawk and a small
group of about 40 followers

00:26:40.420 --> 00:26:43.360
escaped, and for a
time found refuge

00:26:43.360 --> 00:26:45.520
in other native communities.

00:26:45.520 --> 00:26:49.320
But eventually, to save
the lives of his people,

00:26:49.320 --> 00:26:51.780
he surrendered to the
United States Government

00:26:51.780 --> 00:26:55.160
and signed the Black
Hawk Treaty of 1832,

00:26:55.160 --> 00:26:57.510
the first of many
Native land sessions

00:26:57.510 --> 00:26:59.620
that would clear the
way for white settlers

00:26:59.620 --> 00:27:00.670
on the Tallgrass.

00:27:00.670 --> 00:27:04.470
A lot of people have
painted the Black Hawk was

00:27:04.470 --> 00:27:10.300
as sort of a pivotal, seminal
event in the history of opening

00:27:10.300 --> 00:27:13.460
up the Tallgrass Prairie
region to white settlement.

00:27:13.460 --> 00:27:16.090
And it was, more
than most any event,

00:27:16.090 --> 00:27:20.010
except for America gaining
its own independence,

00:27:20.010 --> 00:27:21.560
this would open the way.

00:27:27.240 --> 00:27:29.650
When they landed
on our territory,

00:27:29.650 --> 00:27:33.410
the white men were received
as long absent brothers whom

00:27:33.410 --> 00:27:36.670
the great spirit
had returned to us.

00:27:36.670 --> 00:27:40.510
Food and rest were freely
given them by our fathers.

00:27:40.510 --> 00:27:43.910
And yet, from the day
when the palefaces landed

00:27:43.910 --> 00:27:48.954
upon our shores, they have been
robbing us of our inheritance.

00:27:48.954 --> 00:27:53.645
And slowly, but surely,
driving us back,

00:27:53.645 --> 00:27:56.754
back towards the setting sun.

00:27:56.754 --> 00:27:57.698
Black Hawk.

00:28:03.840 --> 00:28:09.020
There are moments in history
where great tragedy can occur

00:28:09.020 --> 00:28:14.320
where hope is
colliding with hope.

00:28:14.320 --> 00:28:19.410
Where the purposes and the
plans of the native peoples

00:28:19.410 --> 00:28:23.050
who had lived there
collided with the individual

00:28:23.050 --> 00:28:28.350
hopes of white settlers
whose basic business

00:28:28.350 --> 00:28:33.630
was hoping to do something
better for their families.

00:28:33.630 --> 00:28:36.740
There's a long history of
that in the United States.

00:28:36.740 --> 00:28:38.800
And there certainly
is quite a few people

00:28:38.800 --> 00:28:42.360
whose opinion of
Indians at that time

00:28:42.360 --> 00:28:46.280
was certainly
debasing and racist.

00:28:46.280 --> 00:28:48.680
But on the whole,
for many of them,

00:28:48.680 --> 00:28:52.770
they were coming out to try to
make things a little bit better

00:28:52.770 --> 00:28:56.150
for the succeeding
generations, and therein lies

00:28:56.150 --> 00:29:07.040
both tragedy on the one hand
and who we are on the other.

00:29:07.040 --> 00:29:09.650
The first land rush
in North America

00:29:09.650 --> 00:29:12.410
occurred in what is
now the State of Iowa

00:29:12.410 --> 00:29:16.730
when the eastern portion of
the Sac and Fox session of 1842

00:29:16.730 --> 00:29:27.530
was opened on April 30, 1843.

00:29:27.530 --> 00:29:30.230
Soldiers stationed
along the border

00:29:30.230 --> 00:29:36.010
fired their guns and thousands
dashed into the Iowas Tallgrass

00:29:36.010 --> 00:29:37.390
Prairie to stake their claims.

00:29:50.650 --> 00:29:54.700
By 1846, Iowa was
admitted to the Union

00:29:54.700 --> 00:29:58.160
and had just over
96,000 residents.

00:29:58.160 --> 00:30:01.270
Minnesota gain
statehood in 1858.

00:30:01.270 --> 00:30:07.880
Kansas in 1861 and
Nebraska in 1867.

00:30:07.880 --> 00:30:12.010
Soon railroads had spread
across the Tallgrass

00:30:12.010 --> 00:30:16.430
bringing in even more people,
not just from Eastern states,

00:30:16.430 --> 00:30:20.760
but from every nation in Europe.

00:30:20.760 --> 00:30:25.150
Emancipated African
slaves and immigrants

00:30:25.150 --> 00:30:27.750
from Asia and the
Middle East also

00:30:27.750 --> 00:30:30.646
came seeking opportunities
and new beginnings.

00:30:30.646 --> 00:30:34.210
For all of them, the
settlement of the Tallgrass

00:30:34.210 --> 00:30:39.537
was seen as a mark of progress,
the turning of wilderness

00:30:39.537 --> 00:30:40.620
into something productive.

00:30:47.430 --> 00:30:52.400
In 1867, Charles Miller,
an immigrant from Prussia

00:30:52.400 --> 00:30:58.330
came to America at the age
of 21 seeking a better life.

00:30:58.330 --> 00:31:01.620
When he arrived, like many
other German immigrants,

00:31:01.620 --> 00:31:04.010
he made his way to
Chicago and spent a year

00:31:04.010 --> 00:31:06.060
working various jobs.

00:31:06.060 --> 00:31:08.390
Eventually, he made
his way to the prairies

00:31:08.390 --> 00:31:10.640
of Black Hawk County Iowa.

00:31:10.640 --> 00:31:17.120
And in 1868 paid $700
for 80 acres of land.

00:31:17.120 --> 00:31:20.440
He came primarily, I think,
because many people that

00:31:20.440 --> 00:31:24.360
were in his hometown in
Prussia had preceded him.

00:31:24.360 --> 00:31:27.070
And there was, I'm sure,
a comfort zone out here

00:31:27.070 --> 00:31:30.960
of going in and joining
at least the community

00:31:30.960 --> 00:31:32.350
that those people were in.

00:31:32.350 --> 00:31:37.660
So the original 80 acres
goes back to him in 1868.

00:31:37.660 --> 00:31:41.280
And then it goes on down
through history from him,

00:31:41.280 --> 00:31:44.320
to my grandfather,
Henry, to my father, ,

00:31:44.320 --> 00:31:46.560
Earl and to my generation.

00:31:50.270 --> 00:31:54.240
For the settlers trying to make
a new life on the Tallgrass,

00:31:54.240 --> 00:31:59.730
the work never stopped
from sunup to sundown.

00:31:59.730 --> 00:32:05.150
E. D. White said farming is
basically 20% agriculture

00:32:05.150 --> 00:32:07.995
80% fixing something
that got busted.

00:32:07.995 --> 00:32:10.660
And so you really
spent a lot of time

00:32:10.660 --> 00:32:14.430
repairing, building,
designing, whatever

00:32:14.430 --> 00:32:16.530
it took to keep the
livestock happy,

00:32:16.530 --> 00:32:21.220
and then to raise row
crops on the side.

00:32:21.220 --> 00:32:23.690
Like the Native
Americans, the settlers

00:32:23.690 --> 00:32:27.910
developed a strong
attachment to the land.

00:32:27.910 --> 00:32:29.490
They brought with
them animals they

00:32:29.490 --> 00:32:33.940
were most familiar with,
hogs, chickens, cattle,

00:32:33.940 --> 00:32:36.660
animals new to the Tallgrass.

00:32:36.660 --> 00:32:39.210
And most of the settlers
decided that the grassland

00:32:39.210 --> 00:32:41.915
be more productive with crops
they had grown elsewhere.

00:32:45.310 --> 00:32:48.510
When my great grandfather
came over to Chicago,

00:32:48.510 --> 00:32:52.150
he was looking to go West
like so many people that day,

00:32:52.150 --> 00:32:53.820
and he went West.

00:32:53.820 --> 00:32:56.190
The Tallgrass
Prairie was strictly

00:32:56.190 --> 00:32:59.600
a grass prairie with
forbs thrown in.

00:32:59.600 --> 00:33:01.900
But if you plowed
it under, there

00:33:01.900 --> 00:33:05.620
was a resource that
generation after generation

00:33:05.620 --> 00:33:08.590
after 100 years
after 1,000 years

00:33:08.590 --> 00:33:12.820
had build itself up to
being very, very fertile.

00:33:12.820 --> 00:33:16.340
When my great grandfather looked
at that with the tools that he

00:33:16.340 --> 00:33:20.040
had, with his economic
situation, his family

00:33:20.040 --> 00:33:22.510
situation, and I'm
sure it was, well,

00:33:22.510 --> 00:33:24.335
if we can just break that sod.

00:33:24.335 --> 00:33:27.480
If we can just get something
that will go through that sod,

00:33:27.480 --> 00:33:31.530
and turn it over, and expose
that rich black resource,

00:33:31.530 --> 00:33:34.760
we can grow something that's
of value, not just the grass.

00:33:38.370 --> 00:33:41.220
Almost all of the Grade
A agricultural land

00:33:41.220 --> 00:33:45.450
in the continental United States
was once the Tallgrass Prairie.

00:33:45.450 --> 00:33:48.300
The rich black soil
of the Tallgrass

00:33:48.300 --> 00:33:51.420
proved to be its own undoing.

00:33:51.420 --> 00:33:55.300
By the 1880s, the last
of the free ranging bison

00:33:55.300 --> 00:33:58.700
had disappeared, not
just from the Tallgrass,

00:33:58.700 --> 00:34:00.270
but from the Great
Plains as well.

00:34:08.070 --> 00:34:11.929
And by 1900, all that remained
at the original Tallgrass

00:34:11.929 --> 00:34:15.520
Prairie were scattered
remnants on railroad and road

00:34:15.520 --> 00:34:18.570
rights-of-way,
prairie hay fields,

00:34:18.570 --> 00:34:22.065
terrain that was too difficult
to farm, and old settler

00:34:22.065 --> 00:34:22.565
cemeteries.

00:34:31.510 --> 00:34:36.440
Today, nine states and provinces
have lost more than 99%

00:34:36.440 --> 00:34:38.850
of their original prairie.

00:34:38.850 --> 00:34:44.030
It had to be one of the most
astonishing transformations

00:34:44.030 --> 00:34:45.566
in our history.

00:34:45.566 --> 00:34:49.040
That within the
lifetime of one person,

00:34:49.040 --> 00:34:53.170
you could have gone from
a sweeping Tallgrass

00:34:53.170 --> 00:34:58.350
Prairie, unfenced,
unplowed, the way

00:34:58.350 --> 00:35:04.140
it had been for centuries,
to almost no Tallgrass

00:35:04.140 --> 00:35:04.912
Prairie left.

00:35:04.912 --> 00:35:09.180
That it was all farming,
and grains were being grown,

00:35:09.180 --> 00:35:13.090
and cattle grazing,
and the long grasses

00:35:13.090 --> 00:35:15.780
had given way to
other plant species.

00:35:15.780 --> 00:35:20.810
And many of the native animals
had given way to other animals.

00:35:20.810 --> 00:35:21.686
It's astonishing.

00:35:21.686 --> 00:35:23.760
I mean, that doesn't
happen very often

00:35:23.760 --> 00:35:27.764
in the history of mankind.

00:35:27.764 --> 00:35:28.305
Breathtaking.

00:35:34.580 --> 00:35:38.390
There were two things
that interest me.

00:35:38.390 --> 00:35:42.250
The relationship of
people to each other,

00:35:42.250 --> 00:35:46.659
and the relationship
of people to land.

00:35:46.659 --> 00:35:47.200
Aldo Leopold.

00:35:49.940 --> 00:35:52.610
Shortly after the turn
of the 20th century,

00:35:52.610 --> 00:35:55.350
a few scattered voices
began to call attention

00:35:55.350 --> 00:35:58.560
to the extensive loss of
the Tallgrass Prairie.

00:35:58.560 --> 00:36:00.660
But one voice would
resonate clearly

00:36:00.660 --> 00:36:06.200
above all the others offering
a new vision for the future.

00:36:06.200 --> 00:36:09.000
Aldo Leopold was born
in Burlington, Iowa,

00:36:09.000 --> 00:36:13.500
in 1887, a native the
prairie landscape.

00:36:13.500 --> 00:36:17.340
He studied forestry at Yale,
gained widespread recognition

00:36:17.340 --> 00:36:21.110
as an expert in game management,
and eventually developed

00:36:21.110 --> 00:36:24.400
a new philosophy of
land use, an alternative

00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:28.280
to human subjugation
of the land.

00:36:28.280 --> 00:36:32.290
In 1933, Leopold returned
to his native Midwest

00:36:32.290 --> 00:36:36.090
to teach wildlife management
at the University of Wisconsin

00:36:36.090 --> 00:36:37.230
Madison.

00:36:37.230 --> 00:36:40.920
That same year, he
wrote Conservation Ethic

00:36:40.920 --> 00:36:43.890
articulating a new
social concept.

00:36:43.890 --> 00:36:46.800
He argued that the continued
stability and advancement

00:36:46.800 --> 00:36:49.495
of human civilization
required an adjustment

00:36:49.495 --> 00:36:53.200
of the relationship
of people to land.

00:36:53.200 --> 00:36:56.360
This new way of thinking
inspired the University

00:36:56.360 --> 00:36:58.860
of Wisconsin
Arboretum to attempt

00:36:58.860 --> 00:37:01.380
the world's first
systematic restoration

00:37:01.380 --> 00:37:03.700
of a lost native ecosystem.

00:37:03.700 --> 00:37:09.800
In 1934, work began on the first
reconstructed Tallgrass Prairie

00:37:09.800 --> 00:37:12.560
later named the Curtis Prairie.

00:37:12.560 --> 00:37:17.380
I think his working on the
Arboretum at the University

00:37:17.380 --> 00:37:20.130
of Wisconsin was a very,
very important time

00:37:20.130 --> 00:37:25.270
in this life where he was
trying to take hold farmland

00:37:25.270 --> 00:37:27.950
and bring it back
to what it looked

00:37:27.950 --> 00:37:30.950
like before white man took
it away from the Indians.

00:37:30.950 --> 00:37:37.480
And this was the very beginning
of the idea of restoration.

00:37:37.480 --> 00:37:41.050
By 1935, Leopold
was firmly convinced

00:37:41.050 --> 00:37:44.820
that America had lost too much
wilderness, and in doing so,

00:37:44.820 --> 00:37:46.700
had lost something
unique, something

00:37:46.700 --> 00:37:49.710
essential to the
American experience.

00:37:49.710 --> 00:37:53.540
Troubled by this loss, he and
seven of the nation's leading

00:37:53.540 --> 00:37:57.330
conservationists founded
the Wilderness Society

00:37:57.330 --> 00:37:59.420
dedicated to the
protection of America's

00:37:59.420 --> 00:38:02.240
remaining wild places.

00:38:02.240 --> 00:38:05.640
That same year, Leopold
bought a run-down farmstead

00:38:05.640 --> 00:38:09.040
near Baraboo, Wisconsin.

00:38:09.040 --> 00:38:12.300
His entire family pitched in
to remodel the only remaining

00:38:12.300 --> 00:38:16.270
structure, a chicken coop.

00:38:16.270 --> 00:38:19.850
The chicken coop was transformed
into a small cabin that

00:38:19.850 --> 00:38:23.190
came to be known
simply as the shack.

00:38:23.190 --> 00:38:29.040
When we first viewed the place,
it was barren and destitute.

00:38:29.040 --> 00:38:33.910
It was not in any way glamorous.

00:38:33.910 --> 00:38:36.190
It was corn stubble
and cockleburs

00:38:36.190 --> 00:38:38.080
as far as you could see.

00:38:38.080 --> 00:38:42.640
And nothing on it but the
old chicken coop, which

00:38:42.640 --> 00:38:47.590
was waist deep in frozen manure.

00:38:47.590 --> 00:38:50.640
We first of all, of course,
we started the shack,

00:38:50.640 --> 00:38:52.900
but the main project
was to what to do

00:38:52.900 --> 00:38:56.320
with this piece of abused land.

00:38:56.320 --> 00:39:00.120
And our father didn't
really sit down and tell us

00:39:00.120 --> 00:39:03.510
we are going to try and bring
this back to healthy land.

00:39:03.510 --> 00:39:06.820
But we just got busy
doing it and planting

00:39:06.820 --> 00:39:11.690
this mosaic of prairie
and hardwood and conifers.

00:39:11.690 --> 00:39:14.410
And gradually, over
quite a few years,

00:39:14.410 --> 00:39:17.730
I think we all picked
up and understood

00:39:17.730 --> 00:39:19.690
what Dad was working on.

00:39:19.690 --> 00:39:22.650
And, of course, it became
very much a part of us.

00:39:33.310 --> 00:39:36.170
Leopold also continued
his conservation efforts

00:39:36.170 --> 00:39:39.240
and his writing, combining
a series of essays

00:39:39.240 --> 00:39:43.540
into a groundbreaking seminal
work, a Sand County Almanac.

00:39:46.860 --> 00:39:49.940
In it were Leopold's
observations and philosophy

00:39:49.940 --> 00:39:52.610
on the marvels of
the natural world.

00:39:52.610 --> 00:39:55.890
One essay, in particular,
would revolutionize

00:39:55.890 --> 00:39:58.340
environmental thinking
and give voice

00:39:58.340 --> 00:40:02.350
to the modern
environmental movement.

00:40:02.350 --> 00:40:06.811
He proposed a new perspective
of landscape, a land ethic.

00:40:10.250 --> 00:40:15.740
The land ethic simply enlarges
the boundaries of the community

00:40:15.740 --> 00:40:20.900
to include soils, waters,
plants, and animals,

00:40:20.900 --> 00:40:27.920
or collectively the
land all duly owned.

00:40:27.920 --> 00:40:32.250
Leopold did not live to see a
Sand County Almanac published.

00:40:32.250 --> 00:40:37.100
He died in 1948 while fighting
a wildfire near the shack.

00:40:37.100 --> 00:40:40.720
But he had inspired new
generations of Americans

00:40:40.720 --> 00:40:42.590
to live with an
informed reference

00:40:42.590 --> 00:40:44.460
for the natural world.

00:40:44.460 --> 00:40:49.820
And in doing so, he redefined
the relationship between people

00:40:49.820 --> 00:40:51.310
and the land they live on.

00:41:00.290 --> 00:41:04.460
By the 1960s, although Leopold's
perspective of landscape

00:41:04.460 --> 00:41:07.570
was becoming an important
part of American culture,

00:41:07.570 --> 00:41:11.480
interest in prairie preservation
was steadily increasing.

00:41:11.480 --> 00:41:13.110
And building on what
had been learned

00:41:13.110 --> 00:41:16.730
at the University of Wisconsin
Arboretum, the Tallgrass

00:41:16.730 --> 00:41:20.530
Prairie restoration
movement took shape.

00:41:20.530 --> 00:41:24.870
In 1968, enthusiasts
began meeting biannually

00:41:24.870 --> 00:41:28.430
to discuss issues of Tallgrass
Prairie preservation,

00:41:28.430 --> 00:41:31.550
restoration, and reconstruction.

00:41:31.550 --> 00:41:35.170
Groups interested in prairie
formed across the Midwest

00:41:35.170 --> 00:41:39.980
to share experiences
and to promote prairie.

00:41:39.980 --> 00:41:42.120
Various governmental
agencies started

00:41:42.120 --> 00:41:46.500
acquiring prairie remnants
in order to preserve them.

00:41:46.500 --> 00:41:50.620
In 1974, the Fermi
National Accelerator Lab

00:41:50.620 --> 00:41:53.750
near Batavia, Illinois,
began a restoration project

00:41:53.750 --> 00:41:56.290
on 600 acres of its land.

00:41:56.290 --> 00:42:00.090
And soon, private organizations
such as the Nature Conservancy

00:42:00.090 --> 00:42:03.570
were joining the effort.

00:42:03.570 --> 00:42:09.180
Before long the tallgrass was
returning, piece by piece,

00:42:09.180 --> 00:42:11.590
all across the landscape
it had completely

00:42:11.590 --> 00:42:13.205
dominated a century earlier.

00:42:23.300 --> 00:42:27.550
Today, large scale tallgrass
prairie ecosystem preservation

00:42:27.550 --> 00:42:30.482
and restoration projects
are well under way

00:42:30.482 --> 00:42:34.490
at Konza Prairie in the
Flint Hills of Kansas.

00:42:34.490 --> 00:42:37.260
The Tallgrass Prairie
Preserve in Osage County,

00:42:37.260 --> 00:42:43.050
Oklahoma, the Niobrara Valley
Refuge in the Nebraska Sand

00:42:43.050 --> 00:42:47.420
hills, the Loess
Hills in Western Iowa,

00:42:47.420 --> 00:42:49.880
and Prairie State
Park in Missouri.

00:42:52.700 --> 00:42:55.040
Additionally, large
scale attempts

00:42:55.040 --> 00:42:58.580
are being made to reconstruct
tallgrass prairie and savanna

00:42:58.580 --> 00:43:03.130
ecosystems on agricultural
land at the Midewin Tallgrass

00:43:03.130 --> 00:43:07.050
Prairie in Northern Illinois,
and at the Neal Smith National

00:43:07.050 --> 00:43:09.428
Wildlife Refuge in central Iowa.

00:43:12.850 --> 00:43:15.950
Fire, grazing, and
local native seed

00:43:15.950 --> 00:43:20.270
are all being used in this
reconstruction project.

00:43:20.270 --> 00:43:23.340
Fire to control weeds and
stimulate native species

00:43:23.340 --> 00:43:25.050
growth.

00:43:25.050 --> 00:43:28.060
Grazing and browsing
by bison and elk

00:43:28.060 --> 00:43:33.040
to control woody species,
and local native seed sources

00:43:33.040 --> 00:43:37.170
to preserve genetic integrity.

00:43:37.170 --> 00:43:39.220
Neal Smith National
Wildlife Refuge

00:43:39.220 --> 00:43:42.230
was originally intended to be
a nuclear power plant, which

00:43:42.230 --> 00:43:46.040
is why there was a sizable piece
of land available for sale.

00:43:46.040 --> 00:43:48.930
Former Congressman Neal Smith
saw an opportunity there.

00:43:48.930 --> 00:43:52.290
His dream was to be able
to have a refuge that

00:43:52.290 --> 00:43:55.990
could serve as an educational
facility and a place

00:43:55.990 --> 00:43:58.100
where people could
begin to learn

00:43:58.100 --> 00:43:59.580
about their natural heritage.

00:43:59.580 --> 00:44:03.370
The acquisition zone
was set at 8,600 acres.

00:44:03.370 --> 00:44:06.450
It's located about 20 miles
East of metropolitan Des Moines

00:44:06.450 --> 00:44:10.340
right near the town of Prairie
City, appropriately enough.

00:44:10.340 --> 00:44:12.740
Most of Neil Smith
National Wildlife Refuge

00:44:12.740 --> 00:44:15.970
was cropland when
the project started.

00:44:15.970 --> 00:44:18.370
The landscape is
being planted to try

00:44:18.370 --> 00:44:23.190
to emulate historic
natural ecosystems.

00:44:23.190 --> 00:44:25.940
We have right now
about 5,000 acres.

00:44:25.940 --> 00:44:29.290
About two-thirds of that
acquisition goal, and we

00:44:29.290 --> 00:44:32.560
have planted to-date
around 2000 acres

00:44:32.560 --> 00:44:34.300
from locally ecotype seed.

00:44:34.300 --> 00:44:40.910
Have about 40 bison and 10
elk, and the process continues.

00:44:40.910 --> 00:44:44.390
An odd thing happened as I was
writing a book about grassland.

00:44:44.390 --> 00:44:47.610
When I went back to Iowa
to do some readings after I

00:44:47.610 --> 00:44:50.160
had written the book, a lot of
people came to the readings.

00:44:50.160 --> 00:44:52.250
I was quite surprised
to see that.

00:44:52.250 --> 00:44:54.560
And I talked to them
afterwards ask them

00:44:54.560 --> 00:44:56.520
why they were so much
interest in grassland,

00:44:56.520 --> 00:45:00.040
and they said, well, we never
knew we had nature before.

00:45:00.040 --> 00:45:02.360
They said, when we
wanted to see nature,

00:45:02.360 --> 00:45:03.860
and these were urban
people largely,

00:45:03.860 --> 00:45:06.282
we went to Yellowstone
were you live out

00:45:06.282 --> 00:45:07.569
in the West of Montana.

00:45:07.569 --> 00:45:09.110
We wanted to see
beautiful mountains,

00:45:09.110 --> 00:45:12.250
and we never thought
of a prairie as nature.

00:45:12.250 --> 00:45:14.750
But the more we think
about it and the more we're

00:45:14.750 --> 00:45:16.620
able to view remnants
which are right here,

00:45:16.620 --> 00:45:19.020
the more we understand
that that's a vital system,

00:45:19.020 --> 00:45:21.400
and we can take some pride it.

00:45:21.400 --> 00:45:23.370
And I think that that
pride will eventually

00:45:23.370 --> 00:45:25.260
come back to those
prairie remnants

00:45:25.260 --> 00:45:28.290
and protect them and the
sanctuaries they ought to be,

00:45:28.290 --> 00:45:31.150
as the monuments
they ought to be.

00:45:31.150 --> 00:45:34.570
All across the Midwest,
individual prairie enthusiasts

00:45:34.570 --> 00:45:37.350
and landowners,
including farmers,

00:45:37.350 --> 00:45:41.480
have also started reconstructing
or restoring native tallgrass

00:45:41.480 --> 00:45:43.920
prairie on their own.

00:45:43.920 --> 00:45:48.140
The tallgrass is also returning
along country roadsides, part

00:45:48.140 --> 00:45:50.930
of an effort to reduce
the use of chemicals,

00:45:50.930 --> 00:45:54.080
curtail expensive
mowing, and to beautify

00:45:54.080 --> 00:45:57.010
the landscape at the same time.

00:45:57.010 --> 00:46:00.290
Vast networks of state and
county roadside stretching

00:46:00.290 --> 00:46:03.660
from Northern Minnesota all
the way to Southern Texas

00:46:03.660 --> 00:46:06.920
contain millions of acres
of land ideally suited

00:46:06.920 --> 00:46:09.130
for tallgrass prairie.

00:46:09.130 --> 00:46:12.770
The great thing about roadsides
for prairie restoration, this

00:46:12.770 --> 00:46:15.970
is a place where
everybody can participate.

00:46:15.970 --> 00:46:20.600
Every county, cities, they've
all got roads with roadsides,

00:46:20.600 --> 00:46:23.620
and this land is out
there where everybody

00:46:23.620 --> 00:46:25.360
can see what's going on.

00:46:25.360 --> 00:46:29.480
So running prairie through
this extensive network

00:46:29.480 --> 00:46:33.300
of right-of-way of way,
it's a stepping stone

00:46:33.300 --> 00:46:37.490
to bringing prairie to
all parts of the state,

00:46:37.490 --> 00:46:39.530
all parts of the Midwest.

00:46:39.530 --> 00:46:41.110
The roadside can
take you everywhere.

00:46:45.080 --> 00:46:48.580
What was once the tallgrass
now produces 9 billion bushels

00:46:48.580 --> 00:46:53.630
of corn, 3 billion bushels
of soybeans each year,

00:46:53.630 --> 00:46:59.320
feeds 44 million hogs, and
57 million head of cattle.

00:46:59.320 --> 00:47:02.940
But current farming methods
are increasingly expensive.

00:47:02.940 --> 00:47:06.490
Monocultural row crops,
like corn and soybeans

00:47:06.490 --> 00:47:09.300
require annual disturbance
of the soil for planting

00:47:09.300 --> 00:47:12.530
and cultivation as well as
the periodic application

00:47:12.530 --> 00:47:16.140
of fertilizers,
herbicides, and pesticides.

00:47:16.140 --> 00:47:19.660
Although these methods produce
a seemingly unlimited supply

00:47:19.660 --> 00:47:23.620
of cheap food, they are
seen as being unsustainable

00:47:23.620 --> 00:47:27.570
both environmentally
and economically.

00:47:27.570 --> 00:47:30.310
The elegant design of
prairie is superior

00:47:30.310 --> 00:47:33.160
to current agricultural systems.

00:47:33.160 --> 00:47:36.610
Perennial plants that
regrow each year.

00:47:36.610 --> 00:47:39.760
Plants that capture
and retain moisture,

00:47:39.760 --> 00:47:41.540
and plants that
develop intricate

00:47:41.540 --> 00:47:43.990
above and below
ground relationships

00:47:43.990 --> 00:47:47.240
that enhance diversity and
maximize water and nutrient

00:47:47.240 --> 00:47:48.850
utilization.

00:47:48.850 --> 00:47:52.260
Prairie plants also
have deep root systems

00:47:52.260 --> 00:47:57.300
that create fertility
and prevent soil erosion.

00:47:57.300 --> 00:48:00.590
There is a growing awareness
that the prairie ecosystem may

00:48:00.590 --> 00:48:03.920
well serve as a model for
new and innovative forms

00:48:03.920 --> 00:48:05.700
of agriculture.

00:48:05.700 --> 00:48:08.330
The industrial model,
especially the industrial model

00:48:08.330 --> 00:48:09.710
of farming, was very linear.

00:48:09.710 --> 00:48:11.587
We'd put fertilizer and
seeds in the ground,

00:48:11.587 --> 00:48:13.045
and we'd take a
crop out at the end

00:48:13.045 --> 00:48:15.850
of the year, that straight
line of production.

00:48:15.850 --> 00:48:17.670
Prairie is not linear at all.

00:48:17.670 --> 00:48:22.080
It recycles its waste,
and its various elements,

00:48:22.080 --> 00:48:26.890
its individuals come together
to support each other.

00:48:26.890 --> 00:48:31.220
So the whole is greater
than the sum of the parts.

00:48:31.220 --> 00:48:34.090
And that's how we have to
redesign our society to work,

00:48:34.090 --> 00:48:37.600
our productive capacity, just
like that to be a prairie.

00:48:37.600 --> 00:48:39.320
So the real
importance of prairie

00:48:39.320 --> 00:48:41.210
is a model for who
we must become.

00:48:44.340 --> 00:48:46.760
Conservation biologist,
Laura Jackson,

00:48:46.760 --> 00:48:48.960
believes that the
agricultural landscape

00:48:48.960 --> 00:48:52.190
can be restored to a healthy
diversity of plant and animal

00:48:52.190 --> 00:48:55.250
life that includes
native prairie remnants

00:48:55.250 --> 00:48:58.380
and a farming system that
relies more on grazing

00:48:58.380 --> 00:49:01.770
and less on modern
row crop production.

00:49:01.770 --> 00:49:03.910
Jackson contends
that prairie can

00:49:03.910 --> 00:49:07.270
be an integral part of
an agricultural landscape

00:49:07.270 --> 00:49:10.470
without diminishing the
nation's food supply.

00:49:10.470 --> 00:49:14.280
Prairie and farming
can co-exist.

00:49:14.280 --> 00:49:18.420
I think we want a place in
which prairie and agriculture

00:49:18.420 --> 00:49:21.900
mix and intermingle
almost imperceptibly

00:49:21.900 --> 00:49:24.340
and really, really dovetail.

00:49:24.340 --> 00:49:27.180
I've worked with a group of
farmers called the Practical

00:49:27.180 --> 00:49:29.420
Farmers of Iowa,
and some of them

00:49:29.420 --> 00:49:31.560
are doing rotational
grazing, where

00:49:31.560 --> 00:49:33.880
they have taken land
out of crop production

00:49:33.880 --> 00:49:36.270
and put it into pasture.

00:49:36.270 --> 00:49:38.580
It's a very profitable
way of doing

00:49:38.580 --> 00:49:42.480
things they report lower costs
and higher profit margins.

00:49:42.480 --> 00:49:43.690
So it's great for them.

00:49:43.690 --> 00:49:45.675
They're not usually
putting on much fertilizer.

00:49:45.675 --> 00:49:47.570
They're not putting
on pesticides.

00:49:47.570 --> 00:49:49.870
They're not tilling it
up and exposing the soil

00:49:49.870 --> 00:49:53.670
to wind and water over a
large portion of the year.

00:49:53.670 --> 00:49:56.090
And they're not planting
anymore row crops.

00:49:56.090 --> 00:49:58.040
From the perspective
of a prairie ,

00:49:58.040 --> 00:50:02.460
ecologist it is a structural
restoration of the tallgrass

00:50:02.460 --> 00:50:04.180
prairie.

00:50:04.180 --> 00:50:06.830
Laura's father, west
Wes Jackson founder

00:50:06.830 --> 00:50:10.000
of the Land Institute
in Salina, Kansas,

00:50:10.000 --> 00:50:12.400
envisions an even
greater transformation

00:50:12.400 --> 00:50:16.710
that could result in a totally
new form of agriculture,

00:50:16.710 --> 00:50:17.650
perennial polyculture.

00:50:21.020 --> 00:50:25.030
Since 1976, Jackson
and the Land Institute

00:50:25.030 --> 00:50:29.310
have been engaged in a massive
research effort seeking

00:50:29.310 --> 00:50:32.500
to build an agriculture based
on the way the native prairie

00:50:32.500 --> 00:50:39.190
works, with a diverse mixture of
perennial plants, with sunlight

00:50:39.190 --> 00:50:42.400
rather than oil and gas
as the primary fuel,

00:50:42.400 --> 00:50:45.520
and with fertility renewed
through native plants called

00:50:45.520 --> 00:50:47.975
legumes, instead of
chemical fertilizers.

00:50:50.570 --> 00:50:52.860
There's a redemptive
power that we

00:50:52.860 --> 00:50:56.190
see in that ecological
arrangement.

00:50:56.190 --> 00:51:00.560
We're looking at nature's system
to bring about a fundamentally

00:51:00.560 --> 00:51:04.140
different kind of
agriculture on the landscape.

00:51:04.140 --> 00:51:08.780
Now we're looking at
perennializing the major crops,

00:51:08.780 --> 00:51:12.710
the corn, the wheat, the
soybeans, the sunflowers and so

00:51:12.710 --> 00:51:14.152
on.

00:51:14.152 --> 00:51:16.450
Our next round is
to begin to feature

00:51:16.450 --> 00:51:20.400
graduate students and other
professor types, post-docs,

00:51:20.400 --> 00:51:25.460
to see if we can't enlist
their laboratory facilities,

00:51:25.460 --> 00:51:32.560
there experimental plots, toward
meeting our goal, which is to,

00:51:32.560 --> 00:51:36.340
and over the course of
a quarter of a century,

00:51:36.340 --> 00:51:37.635
have a domestic prairie.

00:51:44.820 --> 00:51:47.270
I think what we need to
understand in understanding

00:51:47.270 --> 00:51:49.180
who we are, is that we're human.

00:51:49.180 --> 00:51:51.590
And that as humans,
we make mistakes.

00:51:51.590 --> 00:51:54.505
But we're also capable of
correcting those mistakes.

00:52:00.180 --> 00:52:03.080
With the tallgrass prairie,
we need it for food.

00:52:03.080 --> 00:52:06.590
And we need it as the base for
a culture and a civilization

00:52:06.590 --> 00:52:10.050
that I do not think
should be denigrated.

00:52:10.050 --> 00:52:12.160
At the same time,
we also need it

00:52:12.160 --> 00:52:17.041
for our future sustenance
as human beings.

00:52:17.041 --> 00:52:21.240
And we've got to make sure
that that land is still

00:52:21.240 --> 00:52:25.162
there for our soul
100 of years from now.

00:52:29.980 --> 00:52:32.610
You don't just stand on
the edge of a prairie

00:52:32.610 --> 00:52:34.570
to begin to understand
and experience it.

00:52:34.570 --> 00:52:37.530
You really have to get into
it and let it get into you

00:52:37.530 --> 00:52:38.760
to get to know it.

00:52:42.190 --> 00:52:44.310
This is not someone
saying let's save

00:52:44.310 --> 00:52:47.490
a few charismatic
megafauna like the bison.

00:52:47.490 --> 00:52:51.260
This is about understanding
the creation's instructions

00:52:51.260 --> 00:52:55.090
to its inhabitants.

00:52:55.090 --> 00:52:57.620
The width of the time
that I farmed it,

00:52:57.620 --> 00:52:59.890
and my father farmed
it, my grandfather,

00:52:59.890 --> 00:53:02.290
and my great grandfather,
I don't know,

00:53:02.290 --> 00:53:04.530
it would probably be a
sliver you could hardly see.

00:53:04.530 --> 00:53:08.700
And so we're occupants here
of this land for a very short

00:53:08.700 --> 00:53:10.710
time, and we can have
a tremendous impact.

00:53:13.470 --> 00:53:15.996
We're at the place where
it's almost completely gone,

00:53:15.996 --> 00:53:17.120
and yet there are remnants.

00:53:17.120 --> 00:53:18.495
So to me, that's
a point of hope.

00:53:21.460 --> 00:53:25.870
There's a circle, and someday,
anything that was at one time

00:53:25.870 --> 00:53:29.010
will again be.

00:53:29.010 --> 00:53:34.550
The culture that was created
by the tallgrass prairie

00:53:34.550 --> 00:53:41.110
survives, and the
ideas about everything

00:53:41.110 --> 00:53:45.420
from buffalo, to corn harvest,
to all the other things that

00:53:45.420 --> 00:53:49.070
were essential and came
from the landscape itself,

00:53:49.070 --> 00:53:49.905
they're still there.

00:53:52.480 --> 00:53:55.370
As traditional
people, we believe

00:53:55.370 --> 00:53:58.980
that prairie is not dead.

00:53:58.980 --> 00:54:01.260
Prairie is alive.

00:54:01.260 --> 00:54:05.670
It may sleep underneath
invasive grasses,

00:54:05.670 --> 00:54:08.430
underneath the carved
up subdivisions,

00:54:08.430 --> 00:54:11.220
that land is still there.

00:54:11.220 --> 00:54:14.650
We have a story that the
first seven feet are the flesh

00:54:14.650 --> 00:54:16.650
and bones of our old
people, the Osage,

00:54:16.650 --> 00:54:22.320
and those old people are not
going to let this place die.

00:54:22.320 --> 00:54:26.060
Someday this culture's
not going to be anymore.

00:54:26.060 --> 00:54:31.080
The culture that we live in
is not going to always exist.

00:54:31.080 --> 00:54:33.150
But the prairie,
as long as there's

00:54:33.150 --> 00:54:36.318
one stem of grass
somewhere, it'll come back.

00:54:48.740 --> 00:54:52.110
To order a DVD of
America's Lost Landscape,

00:54:52.110 --> 00:54:56.950
The Tallgrass Prairie for $24.95
plus shipping and handling,

00:54:56.950 --> 00:54:58.667
call 1-800-937-5387.

00:54:58.667 --> 00:55:00.104
[MUSIC PLAYING]

00:55:51.110 --> 00:55:53.495
Major funding for
America's Lost Landscape,

00:55:53.495 --> 00:55:57.820
The Tallgrass Prairie, has been
provided by the R. J. McElroy

00:55:57.820 --> 00:56:01.840
Trust; the Young Family
Foundation of Waterloo, Iowa;

00:56:01.840 --> 00:56:05.070
the Iowa Resource Enhancement
and Protection Conservation

00:56:05.070 --> 00:56:08.570
Education Program; the
Iowa Living Roadway Trust

00:56:08.570 --> 00:56:12.710
Fund; the Wallace Genetic
Foundation; the United States

00:56:12.710 --> 00:56:15.840
Department of Agriculture,
Natural Resources Conservation

00:56:15.840 --> 00:56:20.170
Service; the Truax Company;
Pioneer Hi-Bred International

00:56:20.170 --> 00:56:23.470
Incorporated; the Federal
Highway Administration;

00:56:23.470 --> 00:56:27.160
and by the following
individuals, Roger Maddux, G.

00:56:27.160 --> 00:56:31.260
David and Barbara Hurd, Ike
and Emile Leighty, William

00:56:31.260 --> 00:56:35.610
and Stephanie Clohesy, Charlotte
Shivvers, Catherine and William

00:56:35.610 --> 00:56:37.930
Calhoun, Jr., and others.

00:56:37.930 --> 00:56:39.950
A complete list is
available from PBS.

00:56:43.550 --> 00:56:46.000
We are PBS.