Deep Roots, Wide Open Future

Two years ago, I took a walk around a lake. The tallgrass was moving in the wind, and if I was lucky, a red-winged blackbird. That's where this podcast started.

In this episode, I close out Season 2, eight episodes across the Great Plains, from South Dakota to Oklahoma and look ahead to what's coming next. I share a bit about how Rooted in the Plains got started and where I want to see it go. Including something I'm really excited about for this fall.

For photos, maps, and glimpses of the past, follow @rootedintheplains on Instagram.

Want to get involved?

• Partner with the podcast: rootedintheplains@outlook.com or Instagram @rootedintheplains
• Share your Plains story: My Plains Story

Transcript

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Welcome to Read It in the Plains, a podcast about the people, places, and moments that shape the Great Plains. I'm Nicole, and in each episode, I take you back to a time when sod houses lined the prairie, railroads carved through the tall grass, and community meant survival. This season took me all over the Great Plains. From South Dakota to Oklahoma, and a lot of places in between. We found ways people communicated with their neighbors across miles of open prairie. We followed the grassroots work of women's federations who quietly changed what communities looked like. We sat with the weight of mistakes made over the past 130 years, and the hard truth that no effort to make them right will ever fully be enough. Steps forward, but not the same as undoing what was done. Eight episodes. One region that never stopped surprising me. And this is where season two ends. I'm going to take a few minutes before we close out the season to tell you something that I haven't shared before. How this all started. I'm from a small rural town in Nebraska. I was looking at the plat maps or land property maps from around 1900 when I found that all four branches of my family were living within about a 50-mile radius of each other, some even earlier than that. My Great Plains roots run pretty deep, and they run in a lot of different directions. I've always been interested in this region's history, especially from the turn of the century and earlier. The stories that happened right here. In places most people drive through without stopping. The idea for this podcast came to me about two years ago on a walk around the lake. I was listening to the tall grass and the wind, and if I'm lucky, I can hear a red-winged blackbird. It's just something about that sound. About a year ago, I brought this idea to a professor of mine. I described it as a narrative podcast exploring the history of the Great Plains before 1920. The voices, the landscapes, and the movements brought to life through storytelling and research. Eight episodes, and an Instagram account for the visuals. We decided that it would be a great capstone project. The project launched last August. And because I enjoyed it so much, season two started in January. And when this show releases, I will have three more days until I graduate with a degree in history. Thank you for being here. It truly means the world. My goal has always been to make public history accessible, to make it sound like a story, like your friend who spontaneously bursts into historical facts, but cool facts. And with these episodes to fit into your daily life, your commute, your morning routine, your drive across the plains. Long enough to learn something meaningful, but short enough that if it sparked something, you'd go looking for more on the topic. A person, a place. That's the great thing about learning. It should never stop. That's the whole point. That's always been the point. Rooted in the Plains is more than a podcast. It's a community. And I want to see it grow. I want this podcast to be a starting point. Maybe an episode sparks something. A teacher builds a lesson around it. A book club reads the title based on a topic from an episode. A museum pulls something from its collection because it was featured. That's what I'm hoping for. That the history doesn't stop when the episode stops. So if you work in a library, a school, a historical society, a museum, or even run a book club, I would love to get episode materials into your hands. A one-pager, resources, things your community can actually use. If there's a local event, a historic site, a place with a story attached to it, I'd love to talk to you about building something together. A feature, a partnership. Let's discuss. And if you're within a few hours of Lincoln, reach out. I'd love to come out and visit, explore the Great Plains, and bring the community with us. The show's email and Instagram are in the show notes. And now for the part that I'm most excited about. This fall, I'm opening the mic. Rooted in the Plains has been about the people, places, and moments that shaped the Great Plains before 1920. But those roots carry forward. The stories don't stop at an arbitrary date, and neither does this podcast. This fall, the stories won't just come from me, but they will be built around one question. What's your plains story? For those people that have called this land home since long before any borders were drawn, I want to hear your story, your words. What brought your family here? What drew you to this land? What keeps you here? I want to hear from listeners. Stories that when you heard them from family members, you thought, how did they do that? The hard work, the lack of technology, or immediate communication? Email me or fill out the My Plains story form in the show notes if you're interested. Be the first voices for season three. The planes have been here longer than any of the stories I've told this season. Longer than the borders, the land runs, the exclusion acts, and the botanical surveys. It was all here before that. And it will be here longer than whatever comes next. And that's what keeps bringing me back. That's what started this whole thing standing at the edge of the lake, listening to the wind move through the tall grass. And there's still so much to tell. I'll be back in a couple of weeks to kick off the summer season with stories from the field. Thanks for listening to Rooted in the Plains.