blackfoot-valley

mid-latitude grasslands (such as those described earlier that cover a vast area of interior Eurasia) the only truly suitable economic use of the land is for graz- ing, provided overgrazing is constantly guarded against. The two great regions of continental steppes are those in Eurasia stretching west to east from the Ukraine and southern Russia through a large strip of central Asia, including Mongolia and almost to parts of north China’s Pacific coast; and, the American Great Plains extending south to north from Texas well into Sasketchewan and Alberta (and of which Montana has a great- er area than any other state or province). Despite great cultural differences, both of these huge regions have much in common. Both face basic limita- tions of underlying drought - and in large parts of both, a series of wetter- than-normal years has tempted extensive agricultural development, followed by great suffering when drought inevitably returned. Moreover, during the century just ended, farming expansion took place under two very different political-economic systems. In the United States, dreams of land of one’s own to farm prompted many individuals in the early 20th century to flock into the Great Plains to make their claims under the Homestead Act and other offer- ings of cheap land. In Central Asia, the Soviet regime sponsored large collec- tive farms and mass settlement, the latter forced under the Stalin regime and induced under Krushchev. In several cases, whole ethnic groups, of which Chechens and Volga Germans were only two, were banished from their home- lands for political reasons and forcibly resettled in Central Asia by Stalin. 94