In his introduction to Heartland River , Midwest/Great Plains historian and son of the Big Sioux River valley Jon K. Lauck, writes, "Recognizing the Big Sioux River is not only a critical exercise in finding a place in an increasingly digital and placeless world, but also an important exertion of cultural identity, a quest for the recognition of a lost watershed in the center of our nation during an era when the coasts dominate our society and the American interior remains neglected." In the 19 essays that follow, readers will find a cornucopia of delights and warnings. From "A River Through Time" to "Don't Drink the Water," for example, the writers document early river cultures and bacterial contamination today. The collection's six sections cover almost every conceivable aspect of this 420-mile-long prairie river dividing South Dakota and Iowa and Minnesota and a major tributary to the Missouri River, never before the subject of a book: Natural History and Indigenous Peoples; Explorers, Settlers, Outlaws, and War; Writers, Scholars, and Artists; Politics; Water Quality; and Personal Reflections. "Whether the Big Sioux River runs through your land, or you live on the fringes of its valley, Heartland River will help shape your understanding of this waterway's critical importance throughout hundreds of years of history and into the future." --South Dakota Magazine (July/August 2022) "This collection of essays thoroughly examines the 520-mile-long prairie river, from a review of its geography and glacial origins, to the pipestone trade and the significance of its diminution, to post-contact history and Euro-America exploration, to modern-day politics and water quality issues. This book reminds readers of the river's historical significance and its role in the present." --Minnesota History (MHS magazine, Fall 2022) Published in 2022, Heartland River is the first full-length treatment of the Big Sioux River, which courses through the states of Minnesota, South Dakota, and Iowa. In one of the earliest reviews, published in South Dakota History (Spring 2023), Marc Carpenter, of the University of Jamestown (ND), calls the book “a labor of love” by editor Jon K. Lauck. The reviewer finds Joshua Jeffers’ chapter on Indigenous trade in pipestone and firearms in the region “particularly striking” but remarks that the book “would have benefitted from drawing on more contemporary Indigenous voices.” Carpenter notes the book’s interplay between chapters by ecologists and microbiologists on “challenges to river health” and chapters on the writers and artists influenced by the Big Sioux River when its waters ran clear. “On the whole, Heartland River achieves its goal,” observes the reviewer, “bringing together many different voices to speak to the beauties and challenges of the Big Sioux River Valley.” --South Dakota History (Spring 2023) Recent books by Jon K. Lauck, University of South Dakota, are From Warm Center to Ragged Edge: The Erosion of Midwestern Regionalism, 1920-1965 (2017) and The Lost Region: Toward a Revival of Midwestern History (2013). He is also editor of The Interior Borderlands (2019), winner of a 2020 Midwest Book Award, and co-editor of The Plains Political Tradition: Essays on South Dakota Political Culture (2011, 2014, and 2018).