Iowa Land--from Dakota and Meskwaki to Vanishing Farmsteads

We started with a discussion of the The Road I Grew Up On: Requiem for a Vanishing Era a recent publication by Helen Gunderson.  Cornelia Flora, author of  Rural Communities: Legacy and Change discussed this important project.  Turning to the history of the Dakota, who left Iowa as it was becoming a state, Kevin Mason, History Professor at Wartburg College, explained their response to US government policies in his upcoming article Inkaputa in Iowa: Dakota Decline, Dispossession and Erasure.  Ray Youngbear, Meskwaki writer, musician, performing artist and American Book Award Recipient (2016) explained how he and his wife are raising their children, passing on their culture and values on the Meskwaki Settlement in Tama County.