| Heart of the Heartland | |
| Type: | studio album |
| Artist: | Peter Ostroushko |
| Cover: | HeartOfTheHeartlandCover.jpg |
| Released: | 1995 |
| Genre: | Americana, folk |
| Length: | 52:05 |
| Label: | Red House |
| Producer: | Peter Ostroushko |
| Prev Title: | Duo |
| Prev Year: | 1991 |
| Next Title: | Pilgrims on the Heart Road |
| Next Year: | 1997 |
Heart of the Heartland is the first album in Peter Ostroushko's "heartland trilogy", released in 1995. Pilgrims on the Heart Road and Sacred Heart complete the trilogy.
Music from Heart of the Heartland was used by Ken Burns for the PBS documentary and his arrangement of "Sweet Betsy from Pike" was used in Burns' Mark Twain. "Dakota Themes" are a series of pieces Peter originally wrote and recorded for the PBS documentary "The Dakota Conflict" (1993) directed by Kristian Berg. The melody for "Kaposia" (a Dakota village on the Mississippi River near present-day St. Paul, Minnesota) is a variation on a Native American flute piece Peter learned from Dakota flute player Kevin Locke's rendition of "Zuni Sunrise". Music from the album was also later featured in the film Into The Wild (2007).
All songs by Peter Ostroushko unless otherwise noted.