High Plains Study Trip
3 credits STUDIO and/or 3 credits SCIENCE (3000 level)
Humans first encountered the high plains of North America 12,000-20,000 years ago, as they migrated from Asia across the Bering Strait and southward. Their descendants live in the area to this day, members of the Cheyenne, Arapaho, and Lakota Sioux tribes. In our own journey of discovery, we will encounter the landscapes, geology, rivers, mountains and fossil records of the high plains. We will see and document native wildlife such as bison, antelope, bighorn sheep, and prairie dogs. We will attend ceremonial dances of the native Lakota Sioux Indians, and meet some of the ranchers, fur traders, miners, and fossil hunters of South Dakota and Nebraska.
Science credit
We will examine the geological history of the area, and the nature of extinctions. When European settlers arrived in the high plains they encountered a pristine wilderness – or did they? Humans have been occupying this region for 10-20,000 years, changing the landscape and altering the ecology. As the humans arrived many of the large mammal species – mammoths, giant sloths, wolf-bears, and camels - went extinct. Was this the first sign of the Anthropocene of North America? Or were these “natural” extinctions unrelated to human presence?
Studio credit
We will keep journals of writing, drawing, and photography documenting our own discoveries of the physical and cultural landscapes of the American high plains. Photography is a means of discovery. We will make use of photographic techniques such as drone photography, night sky photography, time lapse, and 3-D photography to observe and document our discoveries.
Itinerary and internal transport
Students will fly into the Rapid City, South Dakota airport where they will join their teachers in vans which will be used during the trip to transport the group to and from various sites. At the end of the trip students will be taken back to the Rapid City airport.