September 29, 1975 - Kevin McKiernan spent several weeks in South Dakota reporting on various events in the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation - including the fatal shooting of two FBI agents and an Indian at the end of June. While there, McKiernan recorded the attitudes and feelings of South Dakota residents, both white and Indian. This is an interview with Pine Ridge medicine man Selo Black Crow. Black Crow begins by relating the story of a white sheriff who leased his land to a third party for cattle grazing. Black Crow imprisoned the cattle and was threatened by the FBI with a charge of cattle rustling. Here is his account of the standoff and its resolution.
October 1, 1975 - MPR’s Greg Barron visits Earl Cunningham’s farm in Sleepy Eye, which has been organic since 1964. Tours come to see this revolutionary way of farming for the 20th Century. Barron interviews Cunningham, who is passionate about organic practices and talks about how it's done.
October 2, 1975 - Organic farmer Earl Cunningham equates natural soil "with the Creator" and chemically treated soil as "prostituted." He takes John Gostivitch, an agricultural economist from the University of Minnesota; and Charles Reinert, a citizen member of the state's pesticide task force, on a tour of his crops.
October 10, 1975 - Professor Fremling talked with reporter Dan Olson and described how he became interested in the Mississippi. Fremling, a biology professor at Winona State College in Southeastern Minnesota, has explored and researched the Mississippi, and his firsthand knowledge of the waterway has made him a respected commentator on the life and health of the river.
October 10, 1975 - When harvest time arrives in the northern plains, farmers go into the fields to harvest the crop. This story is primarily a montage of sounds of the harvest including combines, farm machinery, and a farmer’s reflections.
October 13, 1975 - MPR’s Steve Monroe interviews Jerry Perkins, a farmer near Worthington about the corn yield this year. Perkins discusses various harvesting challenges, including weather and where do you cut down on the use of fuel at the expense of crop loss in the field?
October 15, 1975 - MPR’s Dick Daly interviews U.S. Representative Jim Oberstar about his proposed idea to expand the Boundary Waters Canoe Area that would comprise both a wilderness and a national recreation area by act of Congress.
October 18, 1975 - An interview with June Sochen, feminist historian of Illinois State University, who talks about the life and challenges of women in the frontier and on the prairies.
October 18, 1975 - Mary Lynn Myers, director of the South Dakota Human Rights Commission, speaks about the National Organization of Women, and her candidacy for president of organization.
October 18, 1975 - Leona Hansberger, a life-long resident of Worthington, shares her remembrances on the passage of the Women’s Suffrage Amendment (19th Amendment of the United States Constitution).