Preserving the Midwest

Midwest identity suffers from a dearth of education about its history and heritage

Regionality has been a hallmark of American culture — as varied and textured as the people who were attracted to each diverse land. The West is inextricable from the cowboy myth: the wild frontier and its war with man finally tamed by way of the gun and barbed wire. The East has the laced-up formality of Anglo-Saxon civility and self-proclaimed, aged sophistication. And the South, haunted by Gothic mystery and defeat, weaves together tradition and superstition.

For Midwesterners, our contributions to America go far beyond the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. From the headwaters of the Mississippi River, the waterways of the Great Lakes, to vast agricultural riches, and people who abide by a code of hard work, quiet determination, and humble demeanor, the Midwest has traditions and a legacy that deserve to be preserved and passed down.

Unfortunately, the Midwest and the Plains states are the most consistently misunderstood and oversimplified of the great American regions. So, people who consider themselves sophisticated dismiss their temperament as slow, their interests as boring, and their tastes as mundane.

Sadly, there seems to be no desire in our institutions of higher education to preserve the Midwest’s, or Minnesota’s, history — at least at the University of Minnesota, which has the 12th-highest public university enrollment in the nation, behind only Ohio State University and Michigan State University in the Midwest.

A public university should wholeheartedly embrace the opportunity to shape ongoing perceptions of its region and to promote academic knowledge of its culture, heritage, and political foundations. But the University of Minnesota, rather than explore its state’s and its region’s rich history, has chosen to dismiss or to ignore the Midwest’s rich history.

When I asked via email to the University of Minnesota’s history department whether it offers a “History of the Midwest” or similar course, or considers offering this course, and why it doesn’t currently offer this course, the response was:

Our course offerings are dictated by the faculty and their research specialties, and at this time we do not have any professors who would be excited or able to teach such a course. The other factor which controls the classes offered is undergraduate interest. There are more specific offerings which cover the indigenous history of the area, but “History Of ___” courses can actually be hard to fill with undergraduate students, depending on the topic.

I unfortunately do not have an answer on if we ever would offer such a course, as that would depend on the faculty on staff at the moment.

The university’s lack of interest is particularly curious, given that the overwhelming majority of enrolled students are from Minnesota and surrounding Midwest states such as Wisconsin, the Dakotas, and Iowa, according to the University’s Institutional Data and Research tool.

It is stunning that a major university will not devote comparatively minor resources to at least make a general history of the Midwest course available. It appears from the history department’s email that currently, only indigenous history is featured in course offerings. At the same time, that department offers courses such as, “A History of Evil: From the Babylonians to Hitler,” “Radical Environmentalism in the United States,” “History of Sexuality in Europe,” and “Magic and Medicine.”

A generation of Midwesterners and Northern Plains inhabitants are becoming disconnected from their place of origin — from the very soil that gave rise to great swaths of agriculture, cities with burgeoning innovations, and landscapes with subtle nuance and distinction — because they haven’t been taught about it. Perhaps the creeping power of a homogeneous culture, pushed inland from the coasts via media, entertainment, and migration, has eroded any sense of regional distinctiveness.

When the region essentially gives up on itself by failing to teach its history even in the broadest sense, or ignoring the traditions, people, places, and customs that made that region what it is, how can we expect anything other than to be ignored or overlooked by the rest of the country and absorbed by the “stronger” narratives that surround it? We cannot. Instead, Minnesota adopts a new state flag that more closely resembles a corporate logo than anything representative of its people. Native Americans are removed from the region’s most prominent brands, such as Land O’Lakes.

We need to reassert a distinct regional character and creed or risk being lost to whatever narrative is convenient — truthful or not. As writer and Ohio native Sherwood Anderson states, “People who believe in themselves make others believe.”

While the Midwest may not appear to have the exciting personalities, tragic characters, or sweeping myths that readily capture attention and serve as seeds for grandiose tales, that’s not what this region is about. That would be against its humble, simple nature. What sets it apart is that it serves as an ever-present anchor. It is the home to which you can always return. It is where hard people have soft hearts, and common sense is a common trait.

The Midwest is an indispensable part of the American story. It is a place where a premium is placed on stability, humility, and rootedness in an increasingly chaotic, egoistic, and commercialized world. That doesn’t make its people uninteresting, boorish, or “slow.” It makes them the backbone of a society that is often unsettled and quick-tempered. The Midwest is part of what makes America America, and should be celebrated as such.