In the grand mythology of American history, the Great Plains are the symbol of opportunity and starting fresh, of success through rugged individualism. Yet the harsh climate and isolation have made it difficult for any one group to settle and stay for long: to “prove up,” in the terms of the 1862 Homestead Act. “Coming and going is the only thing native to the Plains,” Josh Garrett-Davis writes, which makes him a South Dakota native through-and-through. When he left for college on the East Coast, the author had every intention of leaving South Dakota behind in a cloud of dust; but the myth of the Plains kept calling him back. Ghost Dances: Proving Up on the Great Plains is a reckoning of Garrett-Davis’ troubled relationship to the land he called home but in which he never felt he belonged.
