Center of the American West Event Podcast

FrackingSENSE: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and What We Hope to Learn about Natural Gas Development. The Center of the American West, CU Continuing Education, Boulder County, and the AirWaterGas Research Network invite you to a new lecture series. Beginning on February 26th, on Tuesday nights through May, a speaker with substantial expertise on natural gas development will provide a measured, honest exploration of this controversial topic. Each presenter will be scrupulous about acknowledging areas of uncertainty (“What We Don’t Know”), and emphasizing open questions that require careful deliberation. Throughout the series, CU historian Patty Limerick will act as moderator. Recognizing that many members of the audience will hold strong opinions, we look forward to honest – and civil and respectful – discussions of a crucially important topic.

FrackingSENSE: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and What We Hope to Learn about Natural Gas Development. The Center of the American West, CU Continuing Education, Boulder County, and the AirWaterGas Research Network invite you to a new lecture series. Beginning on February 26th, on Tuesday nights through May, a speaker with substantial expertise on natural gas development will provide a measured, honest exploration of this controversial topic. Each presenter will be scrupulous about acknowledging areas of uncertainty (“What We Don’t Know”), and emphasizing open questions that require careful deliberation. Throughout the series, CU historian Patty Limerick will act as moderator. Recognizing that many members of the audience will hold strong opinions, we look forward to honest – and civil and respectful – discussions of a crucially important topic.

FrackingSENSE: What We Know, What We Don’t Know, and What We Hope to Learn about Natural Gas Development. The Center of the American West, CU Continuing Education, Boulder County, and the AirWaterGas Research Network invite you to a new lecture series. Beginning on February 26th, on Tuesday nights through May, a speaker with substantial expertise on natural gas development will provide a measured, honest exploration of this controversial topic. Each presenter will be scrupulous about acknowledging areas of uncertainty (“What We Don’t Know”), and emphasizing open questions that require careful deliberation. CU historian Patty Limerick will launch the series with a talk placing natural gas development in the history of Western American extractive industries. Throughout the series, Limerick will act as moderator. Recognizing that many members of the audience will hold strong opinions, we look forward to honest – and civil and respectful – discussions of a crucially important topic.

The Center of the American West is proud to present Josh Garrett-Davis, author of Ghost Dances: Proving up on the Great Plains, for a reading and book signing. There are places in America that have long held our collective imagination for their timeless beauty and mystery. The gifted young writer Josh Garrett-Davis takes a singular journey back to his native Midwestern American Plains and gives us a striking portrait of a unique American place. Politics and prairie, art and religion, all combine into a new picture of the region—one that is quite different from the long-standing images of the area as either a wasteland or a heroic frontier.

The Center of the American West is proud to announce the release of A Ditch in Time: The City, the West, and Water, written by the Center's very own, Patty Limerick with Jason Hanson. Water holds an under-exploited capacity to show the connections tying together distant places and seemingly unrelated groups. This book traces the history of water in Denver, using this case study to explore important and often under-recognized patterns in regional and national history. Energized by a quality of wit and humor rarely encountered in books about natural resources and bureaucracies, and enriched with photographs and maps, this book raises questions of consequence about the complex relationship among cities, suburbs, and rural areas, the crucial role of engineering in shaping the West, and the varying roles of contention and cooperation, litigation and negotiation, at work in the control of water.

The Center of the American West is proud to present Kent Haruf with its highest honor, the Stegner Award. A self-proclaimed "ministry brat," Kent Haruf grew up in eastern Colorado and was 41 before his first piece of fiction, in Puerto del Sol, was published. Haruf's bestselling novels have won numerous awards and distinctions due to his incredible depictions of the West.

Are you coming out of hibernation? Ready for spring? So, too, are the bears in our environs. And really, how much do you know about the bears that occupy our state? Laura Pritchett, author of the new book Great Colorado Bear Stories, and Jeff Mitton, University of Colorado Professor of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology and Daily Camera columnist, will weave stories and science to create a portrait of the human-bear intersect. They will talk about the grizzlies that once roamed here, and the black bears that still do, augmenting the evening with images and lively discussion.

The Words to Stir the Soul events spotlight some of the region's best writing by providing a unique opportunity for both readers and attendees to deepen their appreciation of the region in which we live. This year, the Center of the American West will feature the work of Boulder-based poet and essayist, Reg Saner. His writings and poems have been featured in more than 140 magazines and 40 anthologies. His most recent book, The Four-Cornered Falcon: Essays on the Interior West and the Natural Scene, was published in 2011. In 1999, Mr. Saner became Boulder's first poet laureate.

The Center of the American West is proud to award John McPhee its highest honor, the Stegner Award. 2011 marks the fortieth anniversary of the publication of John McPhee's extraordinary work, Encounters with the Archdruid. Patty Limerick has long heralded this book as the Center of the American West's "founding text" because of its inspiring demonstration of civil dialogue on contentious issues. In addition, McPhee's excellence in journalism, as marked by both his Pulitzer Prize and his frequent contributions to The New Yorker, also reflects the Center's commitment to lively and personable communication that clarifies, educates, and entertains.

The Center is pleased to announce Dan Wildcat as the ninth guest in the Modern Indian Identity series. Dr. Daniel Wildcat, Ph.D., is a professor at Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, and an accomplished scholar who writes on indigenous knowledge, technology, environment, and education. He is also co-director of the Haskell Environmental Research Studies Center, which he founded with colleagues from the Center for Hazardous Substance Research at Kansas State University. A Yuchi member of the Muscogee Nation of Oklahoma, Dr. Wildcat is the coauthor, with Vine Deloria, Jr., of Power and Place: Indian Education in America (Fulcrum, 2001), and coeditor, with Steve Pavlik, of Destroying Dogma: Vine Deloria, Jr., and His Influence on American Society (Fulcrum, 2006). His most recent book is Red Alert! Saving the Planet with Indigenous Knowledge (Fulcrum, 2009). Known for his commitment to environmental defense and cultural diversity, Dr. Wildcat has been honored by the Kansas City organization Th

The Center of the American West was honored to host Words to Stir the Soul and Reckon with Reality: The Six Month Anniversary of the Fourmile Canyon Fire. The Fourmile Canyon Fire was a devastating event for the Boulder community, directly affecting residents in the mountains and in the city, firefighters, and decision makers. This important event featured members from these communities who selected and read from works of literature that reflect on, wrestle with, or otherwise capture some dimension of their experiences of the fire.

Colorado Public Radio wanted to catch up on the latest news from Shale Country, so Colorado Matters host Ryan Warner sat down with What Every Westerner Should Know About Oil Shale coauthor Jason Hanson to discuss the recent legal settlements and more in an in-depth interview that aired today during Morning Edition and on Colorado Matters.

Charles Wilkinson is Distinguished Professor and Moses Lasky Professor of Law, University of Colorado Law School. He is also the co-founder of the Center of the American West. In his remarkable new book, The People Are Dancing Again: The History of the Siletz Tribe of Western Oregon, Wilkinson brings to life the history of the Siletz people, a history that in many ways reflects the history of all Indian tribes. This account is rich in Indian voices and grounded in extensive research that includes oral tradition and personal interviews. It is a book that not only provides a deep and beautifully written account of the history of the Siletz people, but reaches beyond region and tribe to tell a story that will inform the way all of us think about the past.

We are pleased to announce Walter Echo-Hawk, a lawyer, tribal judge, scholar, and activist, as the eighth guest in our Modern Indian Identity Series. With legal experience including cases involving Native American religious freedom, prisoner rights, water rights, treaty rights, and reburial/repatriation rights, Mr. Echo-Hawk worked as a lawyer for the Native American Rights Fund for more than 35 years. He is a member of the Pawnee Nation, belonging to the Kitkahaki Band, born on the Pawnee reservation in Oklahoma. He received a political science degree from Oklahoma State University (1970) and his law degree from the University of New Mexico (1973). The Center of the American West's Modern Indian Identity series features contemporary Indian speakers telling their stories in ways that confirm the compatibility of tradition with innovation. The speakers have profound ties to their peoples' pasts, and they have also adapted with agility and enterprise to the conditions of our times.

Join us as Center of the American West affiliate and local historian, Buzzy Jackson, releases her newest book, Shaking the Family Tree: Blue Bloods, Black Sheep, and Other Obsessions of an Accidental Genealogist. "Who are you and where do you come from?" As a historian, Jackson thought she knew the answers to these simple questions-that is, until she took a look at her scrawny family tree. With a name like Jackson (the twentieth most common American surname), she knew she must have more relatives and more family history out there, somewhere. In Shaking the Family Tree, Jackson dives headfirst into her family gene pool: flying cross-country to locate an ancient family graveyard, embarking on a week-long genealogy Caribbean cruise, and even submitting her DNA for testing. Through her research, she connects with distant relatives; traces her roots back more than 250 years; and discovers-genetically, historically, and emotionally-the true meaning of "family" for herself. Buzzy Jackson is a Research Associate at t

Join us for a morning of engaging discussion with the 2010 Stegner Award recipient, Ted Turner. Each year, the Center celebrates the life and achievements of an individual who has made a sustained contribution to the cultural identity of the West through literature, art, history, lore, or an understanding of the West. Throughout his career, Ted Turner has used his entrepreneurial acumen, his unprecedented philantropy, and his dedication to build unique alliances focused on land conservation and preservation. His influence on the Western landscape, both cultural and physical, has been profound, and the Center of the American West is honored to recognize him.

The Bureau of Land Management's National Landscape Conservation System - an extraordinary, but under-recognized, collection of treasured public lands - is celebrating its tenth birthday with a signature event at the University of Colorado in Boulder. These uplifting landscapes, often home to rich and intricate ecosystems, have been designated for special care by the NLCS because of their remarkable scientific, historical, or cultural values. Managed cooperatively through unusual partnerships committed to sustaining their unique values, these landscapes are both places of inspiration and crucial undertakings in twenty-first century conservation. Please join us for a day of learning about this great national resource and envisioning its future.

Udall, Interior Secretary under presidents Kennedy and Johnson, died recently in Santa Fe. He was an inspiration to many conservationists. Patty Limerick, of the Center of the American West, talks about her friend with Ryan Warner.

Since 1998, the Mark O. Hatfield Distinguished Historians Forum, presented by the Oregon Historical Soceity, has provided a broad perspective on United States history by presenting the nation's top scholars and writers. Most featured lecturers have won a Pulitzer Prize or National Book Award for their writing, and many are among the most revered academicians in the nation. Patty Limerick was one of the featured guests of the 2010 forum.

Join the University of Colorado's Center of the American West, the Center for Western Civilization and the Denver Museum of Nature and Science as they bring history alive through a series of interviews between Patty Limerick and the historic figures of Thomas Jefferson and Theodore Roosevelt portrayed by actor Clay Jenkinson.