Regional Ideas and the Montana‐Alberta Borderlands^*

* This article stems from field and archival research conducted in 1998, which was partially funded by a dissertation travel grant from the Canadian Embassy; I gratefully acknowledge the support. I presented an earlier version of this paper at the 1998 annual meeting of the Association of Pacific Coast Geographers.

Abstract

The borderland concept is not often applied to the U.S. West's northern boundary, but the northwestern Great Plains have been the subject of at least two border‐straddling regional conceptions: Whoop‐Up Country, based on a shared regional history; and Chinook Country, based on a shared natural environment. Both ideas can be found to varying degrees in northern Montana and southern Alberta, but as expressions of regional distinction, their significance and meaning differ sharply north and south of the international boundary. In borderlands such as these, nationalism and regionalism intersect.

• chinook
• 49th parallel
• Great Plains
• regionalism
• U.S.‐Canada borderlands

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Peter S. Morris

Mr. Morris is a doctoral candidate in geography at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin 53706–1491.