Freedom of Information Act documents from request filed by Angel Cushing, April 2021 with the National Park Service, received July 2021, posted to Western Region Property Rights Coalition Facebook page: July 24-August 2, 2021.
I have printed off all of the documents in the Angel Cushing FOIA and organized them by month and year. The FOIA Pdf did not capture documents in chronological order, hence I had to go through all the documents and organize them for 2017, 2018, 2019, 2020 and 2021, more than 400 pages. After I organized the documents by year, I began my analysis with 2017 then went through the rest of documents by year. Fascinating reading.
Norman Kincaide Ph.D., July 23, 2021
No documents prior to 2017 were captured by the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request made by Angel Cushing, Allen, Lyon County, Kansas, to the National Park Service in April 2021. The origin of Kansas Nebraska Heritage Area Partnership, as far as it is known, began in October 2015 when the Responsible Design: Architecture, Interior Design, and Landscape Architecture Learning Community, participated in a service-learning trip to Red Cloud, Nebraska. Professor Kim Wilson, Director of the Landscape Architecture Program, University of Nebraska, Lincoln, faculty sponsor for the group, led an architectural tour of Red Cloud. For many years, Red Cloud was home to Nebraska author Willa Cather.
In June 2016, Professor Wilson received a Rural Futures Institute Teaching
Engagement grant: CEEM Project: A New Community Engagement Education Model. Collaborating in this endeavor were: Nebraska Extension, Center for Rural Entrepreneurship, Willa Cather Foundation, City of Red Cloud, and Red Cloud Chamber of Commerce.
From 2016 through 2017, the Landscape Architecture Service Learning studios partnered with Jarrod McCartney, Willa Cather Foundation, Heritage Tourism Development Director. The objective of the Service Learning studios was to assist in the development of a regional cultural heritage tourism initiative focusing on Red Cloud and Webster County, Nebraska. These Community engagement projects taught students the art of creating sustainable communities through appreciative inquiry and asset mapping, applying community input processes while applying planning and design principles and strategies.
In the Spring of 2017, the Landscape Architecture Program signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the National Park Service Midwest Region office to support student learning and community engagement. No Memorandum of Understanding with the National Park Service (NPS) and University of Nebraska, Lincoln, was captured in the April 2021 FOIA nor was one captured in the September 2021 FOIA request.Grant funding resulted in the Regional Cultural Heritage Tourism study of 2017, a massive document detailing the National Heritage Area (NHA) initiative for central northern Kansas and central southern Nebraska. This document did not become widely publicized until it was disclosed at a NHA opposition meeting in Norton, Kansas, April 15, 2021. Whether the NHA concept originated with students or with Professor Wilson and Jarrod McCartney or the NPS is unknown.
The 2017 documents, though sparse, provide an adequate indication of the
Norman Kincaide Ph.D., April 16, 2022
connection between the partners in the NHA initiative and the NPS. Christopher Stein, NPS, gave a prescient warning to Professor Kim Wilson on November 22, 2017: “In the end, it is all about politics.”