Land Grab Podcast
by John Hooks and Matt Neuman
Land Grab is a podcast about Montana, the place and the idea. Montana is in the midst of a period of profound change, with a huge influx of new residents and a housing crisis placing the state on the cusp of a transformative phase of development. But for Montana, none of this is new. In Land Grab, hosts John Hooks and Matt Neuman take a look at how the long arc of history influences some of the biggest issues facing the state today. Our first series focuses on Montana’s housing crises- old and new. We’re winding the clock back more than 100 years to the early days of statehood, the last time housing issues were talked about so breathlessly in the state: the homestead boom and the drive to throw the state’s indian reservations open to white settlement over the objections of the indigenous nations inhabiting those reservations. Whether your family has been in Montana for generations, or you just moved from California, Land Grab brings you an important history lesson on how our ideas of w
Episodes
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Chapter Ten: The Big Store
In the last episode of Land Grab, we try- as best we can- to unravel the twisted up tentacles of the Missoula Octopus. As the Great Depression washes over Montana, one organization seems remarkably immune: the Missoula Mercantile Company, which imbedded within every industry in the county, and...
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Chapter Nine: Under Ditch
In the penultimate episode of Land Grab, we conclude our narrative on the ground on the Flathead Reservation with the story of the Flathead Irrigation Project and the construction of Kerr Dam. After tracing the path of multinational corporations like Standard Oil and Amalgamated as they took over...
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Chapter Eight: Kicked by a Copper Boot
In Chapter Eight of Land Grab, we take a deep dive into the takeover of the Anaconda Company by Standard Oil, and the vicious decades of hegemonic corporate rule that followed in the 20th century. We look at how this reviled villain in “The Company”, and the devastating bust that brought an end…
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Chapter Seven: Making Checkers
The Flathead Allotment Act was passed in 1904, but the reservation was not opened until 1910. But those 6 years were far from idle. This chapter of Land Grab looks at how the white community of Missoula circled around the reservation, smelling a profit, while the native Salish, Pend D’Oreille…
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Chapter Six: Savage Habits
Land Grab is back with the first episode of the second part of our series on the history of the Missoula Mercantile Company, corporate control of Montana, and the allotment of the Flathead Indian Reservation at the turn of the 20th century in Western Montna. In this chapter, we look at the rise…
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Chapter Five: The Missoula Octopus
In the cumulative chapter of the first half of our season, we find Andrew Hammond at the peak of his powers in Missoula in the 1890’s. The Bitterroot Salish have left the valley and Marcus Daly’s Anaconda Company fills the vacuum. Statewide, the Capital and the University are up for grabs, and...
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Land Grab – Chapter Four: Exodus
In the fourth chapter of Land Grab, 20 years of pressure comes to a head, as Charlo’s bands of Salish people in the Bitterroot valley are finally forced out by troops from Fort Missoula, and make the long walk through downtown Missoula and up to the Jocko Reservation. We go deep into the...
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Land Grab – Chapter Three: Depredations
Welcome to Land Grab chapter three! In this chapter, the political intrigue really takes off on another level. Last episode, we laid out the formation of the Montana Improvement Company: a massive timber monopoly created to build the transcontinental railroad and the Anaconda Company smelter. In...
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Land Grab – Chapter Two: The Big Deal
In chapter two of Land Grab, our narrative for the season kicks off in earnest. We meet the key figure for the rest of the show: Andrew B. Hammond, and chart his journey from teenage lumberjack to prospector to partner in the corporation that will become the Missoula Mercantile. In the Bitterroot...
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Land Grab – Chapter One: Foreign Country
Welcome to the first season of Land Grab! In this first chapter, we’re laying out the terms of the story we’re going to tell in this season: the story of the opening of the Flathead Indian Reservation to white settlement; and the real foundations of Missoula and Western Montana. This first…
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An Introduction to Land Grab
Welcome to Land Grab! In this introductory episode, hosts John Hooks and Matt Neuman lay out the terms of the housing crisis that is currently engulfing the state, and explore how the roots of the issue lie deep in Montana’s self mythology, formed more than 100 years ago in the early days of...
About this show
Land Grab is a podcast about Montana, the place and the idea. Montana is in the midst of a period of profound change, with a huge influx of new residents and a housing crisis placing the state on the cusp of a transformative phase of development. But for Montana, none of this is new. In Land Grab, hosts John Hooks and Matt Neuman take a look at how the long arc of history influences some of the biggest issues facing the state today. Our first series focuses on Montana’s housing crises- old and new. We’re winding the clock back more than 100 years to the early days of statehood, the last time housing issues were talked about so breathlessly in the state: the homestead boom and the drive to throw the state’s indian reservations open to white settlement over the objections of the indigenous nations inhabiting those reservations. Whether your family has been in Montana for generations, or you just moved from California, Land Grab brings you an important history lesson on how our ideas of w
Hosted by
John Hooks and Matt Neuman
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