Born into slavery but destined to help build a city, James Thompson’s journey from bondage to freedom is one of resilience, skill, and courage. As a carpenter, interpreter, and early settler, he helped lay the literal and cultural foundations of St. Paul, Minnesota. His story reminds us that the roots of our cities are richer—and more diverse—than most history books tell.
As an author exploring the history of Native displacement in Minnesota, I’ve relied heavily on Indigenous voices to guide my storytelling. On Indigenous Peoples’ Day, I’m highlighting a few essential works by Dakota and Ojibwe authors—books that reveal resilience, culture, and history too often overlooked.
Discover the sources that have shaped my understanding and informed my novels.
Laura Duley’s life was marked by extraordinary hardship and resilience. A wife and mother of eight, she endured the tragic loss of six of her children, captivity during the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862, and the lasting trauma of frontier violence. Yet she also lived to rebuild her life with her husband, William, and their surviving children, moving from Minnesota to Alabama and finally to Washington. Her story, reimagined beautifully in Pamela Nowak’s novel Never Let Go, remains a powerful reminder of survival against all odds. In my own writing, I hope to continue exploring Laura and William’s lives in the years after the Lake Shetek Massacre, uncovering the complicated legacies they left behind.
Five women. One deadly attack. Endless courage. In Never Let Go, Pamela Nowak brings to life the true stories of survivors of the Lake Shetek Massacre during the U.S.–Dakota War. Based on meticulous research, this novel follows Laura Duley, Lavina Eastlick, Almena Hurd, Christina Koch, and Julia Wright as they fight to protect their families and endure unimaginable trials.
“More than 130 years ago, Minnesota politician Ignatius Donnelly imagined an alternate 1988 New York ruled by brutal oligarchs and torn apart by revolution. His novel Caesar’s Column is one of the 19th century’s starkest dystopian visions: airships patrol the skies, rebels build a monument of corpses, and civilization collapses in fire and blood.
In my latest post, I explore Donnelly’s radical, unsettling book—and why I see it as an early masterpiece of alternate history with lessons that still resonate today.”
The grasshopper plague in Minnesota from 1873 to 1877 devastated crops and tested settlers’ resilience post-U.S.–Dakota War. Efforts to combat the swarms were largely futile, and Governor Pillsbury’s controversial mandate for men to destroy locust eggs marked a shift in state response. The event left a lasting cultural impact on the region’s memory.
Reclaiming Mni Sota has been reviewed by Capt. Rebecca Layng in War, Literature & the Arts. Her analysis emphasizes the novel’s exploration of empathy through contrasting narratives of an Ojibwe boy and a settler-colonialist. Layng examines themes of historical reimagination and the juxtaposition of beauty and brutality, raising profound questions about the past and present.
The U.S.–Dakota War of 1862 didn’t end on the battlefield—it set off a wave of political strategy and negotiation among Indigenous leaders and U.S. officials alike. One of the most powerful voices to emerge from this moment was Bagone-giizhig, leader of the Mississippi Bands of Ojibwe. In a compelling 1863 letter to President Abraham Lincoln, he challenged a treaty that threatened his people’s land and autonomy. His advocacy didn’t stop with words—it reshaped reservation boundaries and forced the U.S. government to reconsider its position. This is the story of one letter, one leader, and a pivotal turning point in U.S.–Ojibwe relations.
Treuer’s teen fiction novel tells the story of Ezra Cloud, a fifteen-year-old boy from Northeast Minneapolis. After a dangerous encounter with a bully, Ezra temporarily moves to live with his grandfather on the Red Gut Reservation. There, he learns traditional trapping methods from his grandfather, Liam.
Discover the intense atmosphere following the U.S. – Dakota War of 1862. Explore how Governor Alexander Ramsey’s December 6 proclamation sought to balance justice and order amid rising tensions and calls for retribution against the Dakota people.