Prairie

Prairies are ecosystems considered part of the temperate grasslands, savannas, and shrublands biome by ecologists, based on similar temperate climates, moderate rainfall, and a composition of grasses, herbs, and shrubs, rather than trees, as the dominant vegetation type. Temperate grassland regions include the pampas of Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay as well as the steppes of Eurasia. Lands typically referred to as "prairie" tend to be in North America. The term encompasses the area referred to as the Interior Lowlands of Canada, the United States, and Mexico, which includes all of the Great Plains as well as the wetter, somewhat hillier land to the east. In the U.S., the area is constituted by most or all of the states of North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska, Kansas, and Oklahoma, and sizable parts of the states of Montana, Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Missouri, Iowa, Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, Wisconsin, and western and southern Minnesota. The Central Valley of California is also a prairie. The Canadian Prairies occupy vast areas of Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.

Little House

Little House may refer to:

Hospital

Books, TV, and song

Places

Little House on the Prairie

Little House on the Prairie is a series of American children's novels written by Laura Ingalls Wilder based on her childhood in the northern Midwest during the 1870s and 1880s. Eight were completed by Wilder, and published by Harper & Brothers from 1932 and 1943, of which the last covers her courtship with Almanzo Wilder and one covers his childhood. The first draft of a ninth novel was published posthumously in 1971 and is commonly included in that Little House series.

Little House on the Prairie is also the title of the third-published book in the series and it may refer to the American media franchise that includes the fiction series, screen and stage adaptations, related non-fiction books by Ingalls Wilder, perhaps some books by her daughter Rose Wilder Lane (who assisted with the Little House series), several subseries by later writers featuring descendants, and some tourist attractions.

History

The Little House series is based on decades-old memories of Laura Ingalls Wilder's childhood in the northern Midwest region of the United States late in the 19th century. The books are narrated in the third person with Laura Ingalls as the central character and protagonist, and are generally classified as fiction rather than as autobiography in libraries and bookstores. Wilder's daughter Rose Wilder Lane assisted her mother with the editing of the works. The depth of her involvement, and the extent of her influence on the theme and content of the books, has been the subject of some scholarly debate in recent years. Almost all Wilder scholars and her biographers consider that the writing of the books was a tense but ultimately effective continuing collaboration between mother and daughter, with Wilder writing the books and her daughter editing them.

Prairie dog

Prairie dogs (genus Cynomys) are mostly herbivorous burrowing rodents native to the grasslands of North America. The five species are: black-tailed, white-tailed, Gunnison's, Utah, and Mexican prairie dogs. They are a type of ground squirrel, found in the United States, Canada and Mexico. In Mexico, prairie dogs are found primarily in the northern states, which lie at the southern end of the Great Plains: northeastern Sonora, north and northeastern Chihuahua, northern Coahuila, northern Nuevo León, and northern Tamaulipas. In the United States, they range primarily to the west of the Mississippi River, though they have also been introduced in a few eastern locales.

Etymology

Prairie dogs are named for their habitat and warning call, which sounds similar to a dog's bark. The name was in use at least as early as 1774. The 1804 journals of the Lewis and Clark Expedition note that in September 1804, they "discovered a Village of an animal the French Call the Prairie Dog". Its genus, Cynomys, derives from the Greek for "dog mouse".

American Dream

The American Dream is a national ethos of the United States, the set of ideals (Democracy, Rights, Liberty, Opportunity, and Equality) in which freedom includes the opportunity for prosperity and success, and an upward social mobility for the family and children, achieved through hard work in a society with few barriers. In the definition of the American Dream by James Truslow Adams in 1931, "life should be better and richer and fuller for everyone, with opportunity for each according to ability or achievement" regardless of social class or circumstances of birth.

The American Dream is rooted in the Declaration of Independence, which proclaims that "all men are created equal" with the right to "Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness."

History

The meaning of the "American Dream" has changed over the course of history, and includes both personal components (such as home ownership and upward mobility) and a global vision. Historically the Dream originated in the mystique regarding frontier life. As the Royal Governor of Virginia noted in 1774, the Americans "for ever imagine the Lands further off are still better than those upon which they are already settled". He added that, "if they attained Paradise, they would move on if they heard of a better place farther west."