Debra Bolton
Program Contributor (Cantigas de Santa Maria); Facilitator, One Small Step / StoryCorpsDebra Bolton began in public radio in 1980 as a classical, jazz, and folk music hosts, at different times and in the role of news reporter. She produces about two radio shows annually, one with a focus on Geography Awareness Week in music and the annual production of Cantigas de Santa Maria, which combines her passion for history and music of medieval times.
Bolton has served positions in higher education as an English teacher, a cultural geographer, an Indigenous educator, and as director of intercultural learning and development these past 25 years. Currently, she serves as director of intercultural learning with an academic appointment in Geography and Geospatial Sciences at Kansas State University and American Ethnic Studies. A National Geographic Society Explorer, Bolton continues her research in multilingual, multiethnic, and multicultural communities situated in rural regions of Kansas.
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Despite significant omissions from our nation’s history books, early women settlers across the High Plains and the mountain states, recorded their experiences as participants in the transformation of the U.S. We find their words in diaries, in letters sent east, and in memoirs which we pick up today like heirlooms from an attic trunk. -
Settlers in the American west traveled far to reach their new homes, and when they staked a claim, all members of the family, expectedly, became part of the homesteading workforce. Children had many chores – watering and feeding the stock, sweeping the dugout floors, helping with the cooking, washing dishes, or punching clothes on laundry day, an activity requiring the use of a plunger to agitate garments in a tub. -
Baca County in Southeastern Colorado has a colorful history that includes a wide diversity of cultures, landscapes, and ownership. Around 1000 A.D., a culture of hunter/gatherers named Apishapa (uh-PISH-uh-puh) roamed the grasslands and desert-like terrain. They fished in the rivers and streams that had carved out rock-lined canyons, and gathered seeds and grains from the High Plains. They left behind pictures, etched into the canyon walls, and their civilization was ultimately replaced by the nomadic Plains Indian tribes. -
In the early 1900s, automobiles were just beginning to appear on the scene of rural America, and few people could imagine the changes the ‘horseless carriage’ would be bringing to the high plains. There were probably no cars in the Garden City area until 1906, and for the next ten years people were pretty skeptical about the future of those noisy metal horses. The automobile was thought by many to be a passing fancy, and the new machines were often the brunt of jokes. -
In the decades after the Louisiana Purchase, the U.S.’s economic frontier expanded westward. In 1833 the military built a fort on the north bank of the Arkansas River, then the boundary between the U.S. and Mexico. First called Fort William and later renamed to Bent’s Fort, after William and Charles Bent, two brothers from St. Louis who led a trade caravan to Santa Fe in 1829. -
In the late 1800s, thousands of European Americans attempted to establish permanent settlements in Northwest Kansas. Among those who survived and prospered were the Pratts, a family of immigrants from Yorkshire County, England. Between 1878 and 1882, Abraham Pratt and his two sons, Fenton and Tom, settled on adjacent tracts of land in the South Solomon valley. The Pratts were ambitious, hardworking, and inventive, and unlike many, when they came to this country, they had money. -
Perhaps no single plant was more useful to the early day inhabitants on the High Plains than the spiky yucca, or soap weed, as it was commonly called. Pioneers learned from the Native American tribes that the roots could be used as soap, especially good for hair shampoo. The process of making the soap was a long one, involving digging the sticky green roots, then pounding them on a wooden board until they were softened. The resulting pulpy mass was put into water to soak. The juice and water mixture that was drained off became soap in a community where store bought goods were rare and costly. -
In collaboration with StoryCorps, High Plains Pubilc Radio is taking part in the One Small Step project, pairing up High Plains residents with differing views and bringing them together in conversation. Today, we hear from two Kansas residents originally from India as they discuss their views on politics and religion.
