For a thousand years the Plains Indians, the American buffalo, and the native prairie grasses co-existed. Then came the Homestead Act of 1862, thousands of pioneer families, and the plow. The Dust Bowl followed, and then big agriculture and technology killed the small farm and the small town. Now, heat and drought again threaten the region. The Great Plains today is a place of vast beauty and deep sadness, and it warns us about its own future.