PUBLICATIONS
October 1999 Issue
The Geographical Review
October 1999, Vol. 89 (4), pp. 469-490
REGIONAL IDEAS AND THE MONTANA-ALBERTA BORDERLANDS
PETER S. MORRIS
Keywords: chinook, 49th parallel, Great Plains, regionalism, U.S.-Canada borderlands.
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.
Keywords: chinook, 49th parallel, Great Plains, regionalism, U.S.-Canada borderlands.
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.