The State We're In: Reflections on Minnesota History

by Annette Atkins (Editor), Deborah L. Miller (Editor)

Overview

On the occasion of Minnesota's 150th anniversary of statehood, more than a hundred historians and other writers assembled to discuss the subjects they had been studying, thinking, and writing about. This book presents the best of that work, including nineteen essays on topics as varied as baseball at Native American boarding schools, nineteenth-century predictions for Minnesota's future, Native American tourist goods, the Kensington rune stone, and a memoir of growing up in Marshall. Bringing together some of the most recent and best thinking about Minnesota's past and its people, The State We're In demonstrates the history of this place, in all its rich complexity, before and after statehood.

Contributors include Melodie Andrews, Annette Atkins, Marge Barrett, Matt Callahan, Emily Ganzel, Linda LeGarde Grover, Louis Jenkins, David J. Laliberte, James Madison, J. Thomas Murphy, Nora Murphy, Traci M. Nathans-Kelly, Paula Nelson, Patrick Nunnally, Linda Schloff, Gregory Schroeder, Hamp Smith, Barbara W. Sommer, Tangi Villerbu, Howard J. Vogel, Steven Werle, Bill Wittenbreer, and Michael Zalar.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780873518024
Publisher:	Minnesota Historical Society Press
Publication date:	06/01/2010
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	352
File size:	3 MB

About the Author

Annette Atkins, author of Creating Minnesota, Harvest of Grief, and We Grew Up Together, teaches at Saint John’s University/College of Saint Benedict.
Deborah L. Miller, reference specialist at the Minnesota Historical Society and coauthor of Potluck Paradise, is an expert on Minnesota ethnicity and community cookbooks.

Table of Contents

Welcome to Minnesota: The State We're In Annette Atkins 3

State History in Regional Perspective James H. Madison 18

State History in Local Perspective Paula M. Nelson 25

Memory

Remembering Our Past Gregory Schroeder 35

The Myth of the "Forgotten" Treaty: Traditions about the St. Peters Treaty of 1837 Bruce White 39

The U.S.-Dakota War in Public Memory and Public Space: Mankato's Journey Toward Reconciliation Melodie Andrews 50

Telling River Stories: The Mississippi River Runs Through All of Us Patrick Nunnally 61

The Maples: Is This Land My Land? Nora Murphy 69

The Flood Marge Barrett 85

Up North

Duluth Louis Fenkins 99

The History of Duluth as I Recall It Louis Fenkins 101

Kosher with a Modern Tinge: Two Generations of Jewish Women in Virginia, Minnesota, 1894-1945 Linda Mack Schloff 102

The Stone Tomahawk: Ojibwe Tradition, Resourcefulness, and Survival in Northeastern Minnesota Linda LeGarde Grover 118

"We Had this Opportunity": African Americans and the Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota Barbara W. Sommer 134

The Case of the Inept Forger Michael Zalar 158

Identity

Early Catholic Minnesota: New Sources and New Questions Tangi Villerbu 173

"To Sound my Trumpet": Henry Hastings Sibley, Minnesota, and the Rise of a National Identity J. Thomas Murphy 196

The Christie Brothers' Civil War: A Reflection of Minnesota's Experience Hampton Smith 211

Baseball at Native American Boarding Schools in Minnesota: A History David J. Laliberte 232

Method

The Public Side of History: Museums, the Recent Past and Possible Future Steven Penick 245

Thawing a Frozen Moment: A Photograph and the Diary That Brought It to Life Emily F. Ganzel 259

Embracing Compiled Cookbooks as Historical Documents Traci M. Nathans-Kelly 271

Looking Forward: Mid-Nineteenth-Century Predictions for Minnesota's Future Bill Wittenbreer 281

Eden Matt Callahan 295

Biographies 319

Index 325

Picture Credits 337