Media Portrayals of Culture

COMM 536

Critical  Thinking Paper 3: Media Portrayals of Culture

Kathleen Norris is a renowned American poet who has authored several nonfiction reflections on spirituality and life.  Her work is described as being, “at once intimate and historical, rich in poetry and meditations, brimming with exasperation and reverence, deeply grounded in both nature and spirit, sometimes funny, and often provocative” (Steven Barclay Agency, 2013, paragraph 1).  She shares deep truths through stories of her own self-discovery, her interactions with neighbours and friends, and the traditions of places that either have been passed down to her or that she herself has studied.

In the opening chapter of Dakota: A Spiritual Geography, Norris (1993) introduces her memoir by sharing that, “This book is an invitation to a land of little rain and few trees, dry summer winds and harsh winters, a land rich in grass and sky and surprises” (p. 2).  The story is of her reflections on small town living, her exposé of rural American culture.  As she later recounts, “Where I am is America’s outback, the grasslands west of the 100th meridian that constitute the western half of North and South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas […] there are far more cattle than people” (p. 107), and the small town of 1,600 people that is her residence was and is one of the largest in northwestern South Dakota.

She writes first of the early 1970s when she returned to her roots after having lived in Virginia, Illinois, Hawaii, Vermont, and New York; her roots being the 1923 homestead of her mother’s family in Lemmon, South Dakota, where the population shrank from “3,400 in 1964 to around 1,600” (Norris, 1993, p. 47) in 1991, with a current population of 1,227 (City Data, 2012).  The time period of the book then covers a span of 25 years on the frontier: “Frontier has all too often been romanticized in American culture by movies and novels glorifying the violent and often ugly code of the West.  The fact that one people’s frontier is usually another’s homeland has been mostly overlooked” (Norris, 1993, p. 127).  This ignorance, or rather a conscious misrepresentation of culture, is why Norris (1993) that her stories of Dakota are so valuable: They reveal a people and place distinctly different from any other.

The book’s content concerns the impact of the isolation of the Great Plains on how Norris (1993) identifies herself as an American writer and on how she sees the world through the lens of American asceticism, which is, contrary to mainstream American culture, the idea that giving up some things results in others of greater worth.

One of her touchstone topics is the idea of a story: “real story is as hardy as grass, and it survives in Dakota in oral form.  Good storytelling is one thing rural whites and Indians have in common” (Norris, 1993, p. 6), and where she is “is a place where Native Americans and whites live alone together” (p. 108).  Though, “for white settlers, the period since the end of the “Indian Wars’ has been marked by the slow death of their towns, churches, schools, and way of life” (Norris, 1993, p. 120).  Only in culture-shaping and preserving stories can what is lost be remembered.  

Through her stories, Norris (1993) shares a glimpse into the interweaving of lives between the grade-school children she interacts with, the old-guard townspeople and farmers she knows through church and community, as well as the order of Benedictine monks who have established a monastery in a nearby county, referring to Assumption Abbey in North Dakota (Barclay Agency, 2013, paragraph 3).  These three groups of people share with her, in different ways, what it means to be a Dakotan, American.  She compares their experiences to say that, none of these groups “are frontier people in the exploitative sense of the word - those who take all there is from a place and then move on” (Norris, 1993, p. 119).  Rather, they belong to the group of those who stick it out hoping for better times; their patience is exclusive to their prairie heritage.

In summary of what a Plains person really is, Norris (1993) refers to the words of one of the monks, Kardong, who writes, “We have become as indigenous as the cottonwood trees … If you take us somewhere else, we lose our character, our history - maybe our soul” (p. 9).  Looking at what it means to be American and what American culture really is, I think these wise words apply: the name is inherent to the place and one cannot exist without the other. 

This is not unlike the experience of the First Nations, and Norris (1993) is “haunted by the sense that we are all Indians here, as much in danger of losing our land as the Indians of one hundred years ago” (p. 36).  This idea relates to her reference to the Native American writer Paula Gunn Allen, who said, “that the longer Europeans remain in America, the more Indian they will become” (Norris, 1993, p. 128).  The connection to land is called into question, because it is the primary source of food, wealth, and progress.  

Norris (1993) examines the enterprising nature of the local American Indians, who set up casinos and novelty stops to attract attention from those passing through.  She worries that, “there’s always the danger that in selling Dakota to tourists, we’ll destroy it;” she writes of having lived in Hawaii and seeing “what tourism can do to the soul of a place” (Norris, 1993, p. 34).

Natural influences, like the geography and the weather, impact the type of person and culture that survives on the Plains: “Say what you will about our climate, in Dakota we say it keeps the riffraff out” (Norris, 1993, p. 26).  This quip about the small-town American culture represented hints at a feeling of superior lifestyle when compared to that of the urban centers and more populated areas.

The unfortunate balance of power between coastal and mid-America, Norris (1993) feels, may result in something tragic: “It’s the mythologized Old South that’s acceptable to readers outside that region, and this may prove true for Dakota as well.  We could be facing a situation like that of Native Americans who came to be seen as romantic while their culture was being destroyed” (p. 28).  Further, Norris (1993) has “long had the feeling that our [Dakotans’] inability to influence either big business or big government is turning all Dakotans into a kind of underclass” (p. 30).  In other words, the isolation and financial disparity of the Plains people is a disadvantage to their ability to achieve the American dream or any modicum of national influence whatsoever.  

Norris (1993) notes that “Times were so bad by 1985 that I began thinking of the Dakotas as the new Old South, an image that was reinforced when South Dakota dropped to fiftieth place among the states in average teacher salary, a position that Mississippi had held for years” (p. 27).  Currently, South Dakota ranks “dead last” as far as education is concerned and “The report card takes into account almost every possible metric imaginable in American education, from school finance to environment to grades to equity” (Resmovits, 2013, paragraphs 3, 5).  North Dakota sits just below the U.S. Average with the grade of a C+ while South Dakota has been relegated to the sole assignee of a D+, the lowest grade given to any state. (Hightower, 2013).  In that way, they are isolated by poverty and secluded by choice as the people who live there have no need of any other way of doing things.  

In terms of isolation, Norris (1993) keenly observes that the disconnectedness of America is what results in so many distinctly different cultures being spread out across the large expanse.  In looking at the Plains communities, she writes that “It is a given that [they] cannot hold on to most of the best and brightest who grow up there” (Norris, 1993, p. 50).  Additionally, those who do stay, “stop connecting to the world outside, except through the distorting lens of the television.  They drop subscriptions to national zines and newspapers.  Their curiosity about the world diminishes” (Norris, 1993, p. 50), and that effectively defines their culture.  They are content and not curious, but struggling in the closed-in space.  In the same vein, Norris (1993) notes that, “By the time a town is seventy-five or one hundred years old, it may be filled with those who have come to idealize their isolation” (p. 50).  A culture defined by idealized isolation is unlikely to initiate interaction with others, and may thus be entirely lost if it dies out before being passed on.

A review of the history of settlers on the interior reveals that “the ruggedly independent Dakotas have always been more or less a colony in America” (Norris, 1993, p. 32).  This reflection is supported by the current statistic that shows North Dakota producing more wheat, barley, honey, canola seed, navy beens, oats, pinto beans, rye, soybeans, sugar beats, and sunflower seeds than any other state in the U.S.A. (North Dakota, NetState, 2012).  South Dakota leads the nation in the production of beef cattle, hogs, lambs, sheep, wool, corn, flaxseed, hay, and oats (South Dakota, NetState, 2012).  Each, however, is listed as being one of the five least-populated states, thus boasting a diminishing cultural influence.  Norris (1993) reports that, “America’s agricultural majority of 96 percent in 1790 became a minority of 30 percent in 1920 and a mere 1.7 percent” (p. 52) in 1991, growing slightly to “just 2 percent of the U.S. population” (American Farm Bureau, 2012) twenty years later.

Stemming from the 1980s farming crisis, Norris (1993) remembers several major publications making predictions for the changes that would happen for farmers across America.  One considered that “no town with a population under 1,000 would survive as a viable economic trade center” (Norris, 1993, p. 53).  In 2004, Brian Hayes (2004) wrote a Small-Town Story that looked at the stability and resilience of communities on the verge of collapse.  He cites a study that, beginning in 1940, followed 10,099 town of fewer than 1,000 occupants.  At the end of the period of study, 1960, only 8,363 of the original were still on the list.  Further investigation reported that rather than being wiped out, populations increased: “only 303 of those missing towns dwindled away to nonexistence; the rest departed the data set not by shrinking but by growing beyond the 1,000 person cutoff” (Hayes, 2004, paragraph 3).  While this exponential growth may not be demonstrated by today’s statistics, there is truth to the idea that people are expanding and a new affinity for simple, country living is coming back into vogue.

One of the stated benefits of engaging in small town Americana culture, Norris (1993) says, is being in a place “where life is still lived on a human scale” (p. 34).  One of the stories she shares is a comparison of banking in New York City and realizing the value of being able to write a personalized cheque at the counter of any story within 100 miles of her home.  Another benefit to the collaborative culture is a falling crime rate, which Norris (1993) qualifies by saying that, “Of course our population is falling as well, but it can be pleasant to live in a place such as Lemmon, where arrests dropped by a third between 1981 and 1991” (p. 34).  Modern reports indicate that Lemmon, South Dakota boasts far fewer than the U.S. average for crimes with  no murders, robberies, or arson charges in the past decade and the number of burglaries, thefts, and rapes counted together on one hand (City Data, 2012).  

The people of this marginal culture themselves can only be described as salt of the earth.  Norris (1993) illustrates this through the story of an encounter: “In the spring of 1984 a woman in her early thirties said to me: ‘You don’t understand this town because you’re an outsider.  You don’t know what it was like here twenty years ago.  That’s what we want; that’s what we have to get back to’” (p. 45).  This statement epitomizes the insider-outsider dichotomy that exists in every small town or closed community in the United States.  Interestingly, this statement is made to Norris after she and her husband have lived in a generational home for more than a decade.  With roots that go so deep and a 13-year history in the town, Norris is still considered to be “outside” of the culture existing within the town.  This aspect reveals that culture is very exclusive: safe for those within, but closed to those not of the place.  Rather, strangers to small towns are described as “a serpent in her Eden” (Norris, 1993, p. 46), showing the importance of “othering” and the role it plays in creating a community-shared sense of culture.  Norris (1992) suggests, “It is a truism that outsiders, often professionals with no family ties, are never fully accepted into a rural or small-town community” (p. 82).  

Conversely, people feel connected when they know and recognize something in the other.  Norris (1993) records another story of a young woman who came into a local cafe to use the pay-phone.  She was observed and approached by several community elders, women who questioned her merits and connections: “On discovering that she is from a ranch some sixty miles south, they question her until, learning her mother’s maiden name, they are satisfied.  They know her grandparents by reputation; good ranchers, good people” (Norris, 1993, p. 73), and she is accepted and helped on those grounds.  According to Norris (1993), “a small town’s values come to supersede and ultimately reverse those of the world outside” (p. 58), a proposition that succinctly defines the cultural difference between rural and urban America.  Further, she goes on to quote a friend and fellow country-dweller who wrote, “We need outsiders here but often end up repelling them” (p. 60). This reflects a people-oriented culture where trust and goodwill abound for those who can prove their connections.  Others, however kind and good-intentioned, are dismissed and quickly forgotten.

Those from the small, wide spaces are often unaware of the unique realities of their culture.  Rather, they vacillate between trying to not change at all and trying to adopt all the new technologies and fads, however inappropriate for their own circumstances: “conformity at the expense of community” (Norris, 1993, p. 113).  The bottom line is that, “in trying to make this place like the places they had known, they would not allow it to be itself” (Norris, 1993, p. 147).  Norris (1993) blames this contrast of behaviour as being the reason why small towns fail to survive.  She identifies that those who have become extinct, “were indulging in a willful ignorance of their own regional history” (Norris, 1993, p. 47), and it is for this reason that they die out, fail with the land, and are forced to relocate.  This is essentially tragic as it is not only the loss of a town, but the loss of culture, as these are the people who chose the sheltered life having seen beyond the county borders they, regard “the values of the broader, more pluralistic world they had encountered as something to protect themselves and their families from” (Norris, 1993, p. 50). 

Norris (1993) shares a telling story of a time following the 1980s farming crisis when the Lemmon, South Dakota Chamber of Commerce was trying to bolster the community’s morale and economy.  They introduced funding for some nostalgia shops and held a banquet to celebrate the opening of an old-fashioned craft shop, gunsmith, upholsterer, and shoe repair.  The theme of the banquet was “Alive, Well, and Growing” and Norris (1993) reports that, “many were comforted by the boosterism” (p. 48).  This statement alone reveals the integral part that culture plays in forming the identity of a community.  The mid-American Plains are full of hardy, hard-working people who can be expected to turn their circumstances around: axiomatically, the efforts always pay off, even though the financial records may not report this: Norris (1993) calls it “the all-American myth of self-reliance and self-sufficiency” (p. 122). 

Their written records reveal what one man called, “the way they wished it had been instead of the way it was” (Norris, 1993, p. 81), characterizing a type of idealistic culture in which perseverance is celebrated and failure is forgotten.  Norris (1993) writes of the local histories that have been written about the Plains saying that, “In North Dakota, most homesteaders failed to remain on their land after proving up a claim, and the 1920s and 1930s brought farm bankruptcies and political upheaval, but you would lever know it to read local histories, centered on those who made it” (p. 81).  Emphasis on the unmistakable success of a few overshadows the downward spirals a community may have faced, which shows how Norris (1993) perceives the culture of mid-America.  Within a greater story of success and the myth of prosperity and opportunity, she demonstrates that even the smaller towns buy into the larger tale, and a subculture is defined by the idealized, unrealistic idea of what American culture is overall.

Ultimately, what makes Dakota different is the noticeable differences that can be seen in a study of its population.  Norris (1993) asks: “What does status mean in a world so at odds with American society? […] The divisions created by status stand out so starkly in Dakota if only because its population is so sparse.  In a way, we are a microcosm of the tribalism that is reasserting itself in the world” (p. 137).  In that way, the experience of Plains people is an important addition to Americana as they can reflect on a smaller scale the same cultural dynamics that play out over all of the country and any that share Western culture.  People of the Dakotas can relay something no one else can.  Norris (1993), however, sees an obstacle to that culturally-ingrained value for stories as she shares that, “Dakota can be terrifying enough without the loss of one’s cultural context […] I can’t help but connect the fact that so many Dakotans have been denied access to their culture with the fact that they don’t trust that their own stories are worth much” (p. 138).  They have been taught that their experiences are not as valuable as those of someone from a large economic center.  Their lives are not lived with the same kind of vitality because they are from the country.  Relating to this cultural picture, I reflect on my own rural childhood and would propose that primarily because of the country culture, these people live in more colour and contrast than their city counterparts.

Throughout Dakota, the author portrays a culture that is both rich and deprived, full of holes and yet whole, conflicted and also resolved.  The simple life is complicated, but also realized in real lives.  Norris (1993)  identifies a subculture of rural American life that is marginalized and yet so vital to the existence of mainstream U.S.A.  Her stories and reflections reveal an insider’s glimpse of small-town living where people care for one another and learn from the past, while also experiencing obstacles and limitations to their future.  The values of this way of living are rooted in the people who live in community, and who will defend their way of life and the dream for which it stands.  With consideration for the culture of the Plains and their people, Norris (1993) concedes, “I’m well aware that ours is a privileged and endangered way of life, one that, ironically, only the poor may be able to afford” (p. 35).

Works Cited:  

American Farm Bureau (2012). The Voice of Agriculture.  Retrieved from: www.fb.org Accessed: March 19, 2013.  

City Data (2012). Lemmon, South Dakota.  Retrieved from: City Data South Dakota  Accessed: March 17, 2013.

Hayes, Brian (2004).  Small-Town Story.  Computing Science.  Retrieved from: Small Town Story  Accessed on: March 19, 2013.  

Hightower, Amy M. (January 4, 2013).  States Show Spotty Progress on Education Gauges.  Education Week.  Retrieved from: Ed. Week  Accessed on: March 19, 2013.  

North Dakota, NetState (August 7, 2012).  North Dakota Economy.  Retrieved from: Net State Economy  Accessed on: March 19, 2013.  

Norris, Kathleen (1993).  Dakota: A Spiritual Geography.  New York, NY: First Mariner Books. 

Resmovits, Joy (January 10, 2013).  Quality Counts 2013 Education Rankings Come In: Maryland First, South Dakota Last.  Huffington Post, Retrieved from: Quality Counts Education  Accessed: March 19, 2013.  

South Dakota, NetState (August 7, 2012).  South Dakota Economy.  Retrieved from: Net State South Dakota Economy Accessed on: March 19, 2013.  

Steven Barclay Agency (2013).  Kathleen Norris.  Retrieved from: Kathleen Norris Accessed: March 19, 2013.