The State We’re In: Creative and Critical Approaches to Minnesota History at 150

May 28-30, 2008 in Collegeville, Minnesota
Preliminary Schedule of Events (subject to change) 

WEDNESDAY – May 28

1:00 – 4:15 p.m.  Collegeville  

      1:00-1:15  Welcome

      1:15-1:45  "There is Magic in the Web: Wabasha's Prairie to Winona 1845-1863"   William Crozier

      1:45-2:15  “ Thawing a Frozen Moment:  A Photograph and the Diary that Brought It to
                      Life”   Emily Ganzel

      2:15-2:45  “using the campus   Campus Ecology”   James Farrell

      Break

      3:00-3:30  “using artifacts”   Marcia Anderson

      3:30-4:00  “using performance”   Chuck Chalberg  Linda Louise Bryan

      4:00-4:30  “using history day themes”  Tim Hoogland  

      4:30-5:00  “syllabus exchange, questions, brainstorming, etc”

6:00 p.m.  Reception at Stearns History Museum, Saint Cloud:  Beer, Brats, and Bundts

THURSDAY – May 29, Collegeville

      EXHIBITS: 

           8 a.m. – 2:30 p.m. -- Creating Minnesota Reflections: Providing access to Minnesota’s Primary
                                         Historical Resources: a project of the Minnesota Digital Library   
                                         Marian Rengel

          10:45 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. & 1:45 p.m. – 3:30 p.m.-- 
          An Introduction to National Archives Resources Relating to Minnesota   Donald Jackanicz

          12 – 1:45 p.m. -- Making MN150    Kate Roberts & Andy Wilhide

8:30 a.m.  Plenary Session     Annette Atkins

Critical and Creative Approaches to Studying Minnesota History
Annette Atkins, a professor of History at College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University, is the author of Creating Minnesota: A History from the Inside Out (Saint Paul: Minnesota Historical Society Press, 2007).              

9:15 – 10:45 a.m.

Remembering Our Past      Chair/Commentator  Greg Schroeder

• The U.S. -- Dakota War in Public Memory and Public Spaces:  Mankato's Journey toward Reconciliation     Melodie Andrews
• Reconciling the Past in Minnesota: The Duluth Clayton Jackson McGhie Memorial   Jay Busby
• Telling River Stories: Telling Minnesota Stories    Pat Nunnally

Conflicts In the Land      Chair/Commentator   Michael Lansing

• Ending the Great Barbeque:  The Environmental Debates Associated with the  Chippewa National Forest, 1898-1992   Mark Davis
• Is This Land, My Land?   Nora Murphy
• The Anti-Discrimination Policies of the Civilian Conservation Corps and the CCC in Minnesota, 1933-1942      Barbara Sommer

Disasters:  Minnesota August 2007    Chair/Commentator   Ann Meline

• Efforts by the Minnesota Historical Society to Identify and Collect Three-Dimensional Objects  and to Respond to the Media      Matt Anderson
• Efforts to Assist Heritage Organizations in their Recovery Efforts Following the Floods   Robert Herskovitz            

10:45 a.m.  Break

11:00 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.

Mapping the Place   Chair/Commentator  Carroll Engelhardt & Jean Lavigne

• Mapping Minnesota's History in the Époque of Google Earth   Lesley Kadish
• Discover Our Beginning:  Minnesota's First Settlement    James Ramstrom   
• When Where Matters as Much as Why     Terry Shoptaugh

Minnesota’s Historic Bridges:  What They Are, Where They Are, How They Work,
and How We Can Save Them      Chair/Commentator  

• Saving Historic Bridges: Mn/DOT’s Statewide Effort     Robert Frame
• Wood, Concrete, Stone, & Steel:  Minnesotas Historic Bridges   Denis Gardner
• Historic Bridge Engineering for Non-engineers   Steve Olson
  

Kensington Rune Stone     Master of Ceremonies   Don Shelby   
                                   Chairs/Commentators   Dennis Gimmestad & Jennifer Jones

• The Weight of Probability Concerning Medieval Norse in MN     Alice Kehoe 
• Kensington Runesten (new translation)   Ove Berg  
• The Kensington Rune Stone Inscription: A 19th C. Hoax with a Life of Its Own  Russell Fridley     
• Difficulties and Decisions Involved in the Presumed Forgery of the Kensington Rune Stone   
  Michael Zalar
• Compelling New Evidence for the Authenticity of the Kensington Rune Stone   Scott Wolter        
• Ohman Family Statements Regarding the Kensington Rune Stone     Darwin Ohman   

12:30-1:45 p.m.   Lunch in Saint John’s Refectory    

1:45 – 3:15 p.m.  

Native Stories and Identities      Chair/Commentator  Julie Pelletier

• Dakota Stories and What They Tell Us about Dakota Worldview    Colette Hyman  
• Baseball at Native American Boarding Schools in Minnesota:  A History   David Laliberte  
• Creating Multiracial Minnesota Identities in the Nineteenth Century and Today:  The Bonga Family in Midwestern History and Education    Jennifer Stinson  

Northern Minnesota       Chair/Commentator  Mary Wingerd

• "Only Authentic Indian Stand on the North Shore":  A Case Study of Ojibwe Tradition, Compromise and Survival in Northeastern Minnesota   Linda LeGarde Grover
• ?Duluth?   Linda Schloff     
• “Crow Wing County: A microcosm of Minnesota History”   Pam Brunfelt 

 Minnesota Mid-19th Century     Chair/Commentator 

• Christie Brothers' Civil War Experiences   Hamp Smith  
• Minnesota's Women Homesteaders   Anne Webb  
• Looking forward:  Mid-nineteenth Century Predictions of Minnesota's Future     Bill Wittenbreer    

3:15 p.m.  Break 

3:30 – 5:00 p.m.

The Enduring Legacy of Minnesota's Treaties    Chair/Commentator  Don Wedl

• Talking the Talk: Ojibwe and Anglo-American Use of Metaphors and Imagery in Treaty Negotiations, 1815-1855   Rebecca Kugel
• Treaties with the Indian Nations as Legal Documents: Why Were They Written and What is Their Effect Today?     Howard Vogel
• The Principles of Respect, Responsibility, & Renewal:  Re-examining the Trust Relationship in Federal Indian Law      Heidi Kiiwetinepinesiik Stark 
• The Myth of the Forgotten Treaty   Bruce White

History as Inspiration:  Writers and Artists Panel  Chair/Commentator Anne Dugan

• Writing Area History and the Use of Material Objects in Teaching History    Larry Luukkonen
• Use of History in Documentary and Other Film Projects   Larraine Norrgard
• Using History in Poetry   Jim Johnson
• Use of Historical Images and How History Has Affected her Work as a Photographer Marlene Wisuri
• Using Historical Research and Genealogy in Memoir Writing   Katherine Johnson
• Using History in Fiction and Memoir    Matt Callahan

6:00 p.m.   Dinner:  Home-grown and Cooked in Minnesota served in Saint John’s Refectory

7:00 p.m.   Speakers   

Larry Millett – Writing Minnesota

Larry Millett is the former architectural critic for the St. Paul Pioneer Press and the author of several books on the history of architecture in Minnesota. He has also written a series of Sherlock Holmes mysteries set in the U.S.  and Minnesota in the 1890s.            

Wing Huie – Looking at Minnesota

Wing Young Huie is an award-winning photographer whose projects document the changing cultural landscape of his home state of Minnesota. His best-known work is Lake Street USA and his most recent project is 9 Months in America: An Ethnocentric Tour.

FRIDAY – May 30, Collegeville

      EXHIBITS: 

            8 a.m. – 3 p.m. -- Creating Minnesota Reflections: Providing access to Minnesota’s Primary
            Historical Resources: a project of the Minnesota  Digital Library     Keith Ewing

           9:45 a.m. – 11:30 a.m. -- An Introduction to National Archives Resources Relating to
           Minnesota  Donald Jackanicz

           12 – 1:45 p.m. -- Making MN150     Kate Roberts & Andy Wilhide

8:30 – 9:45 a.m.  Plenary Session   

 Jim Madison:  State History in Regional Perspective

James H. Madison is a professor of History at Indiana University focusing his teaching and research on twentieth-century United States history. His most recent publication is Slinging Doughnuts for the Boys: An American Woman in World War II (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2007).                     

Paula Nelson:  State History in Local Perspective

Paula M. Nelson is a professor of history and chair of the Department of Social Sciences at University of Wisconsin – Platteville.  Among her publications is The Prairie Winnows Out Its Own: The West River Country of South Dakota in the Years of Depression and Dust (Iowa City:  University of Iowa Press, 2005).

9:45 a.m.  Break

10:00 – 11:30 a.m.

Publishing Minnesota History     Chair/Commentator   Patrick Coleman   

• Ann Regan of Minnesota Historical Society Press 
• Moira (Molly) Harris of Pogo Press
• Patricia McDonald of Afton Press  
• Todd Orjala of University of Minnesota Press 

On Earth as It Is in Heaven     Chair/Commentator  Tony Amato

• Early Catholic Minnesota:  New Sources and New Questions     Tangi Villerbu
• "Dutch Mike's Katzenmusik: Order, Disorder and the Catholic Imagination"  Stephen Gross
•  On Earth as It Is in Heaven: Fr. Francis Pierz and the Settlement of Central Minnesota      
  Tim Hoheisel

How Public is Public History?      Chair/Commentator  Marcia Anderson

• Dan Bergin
• Julie Davis
• Realities of the Field    Steve Penick
• Where History on the Web is Going Next    Rose Sherman

11:30 a.m. – 12:30 p.m.  Lunch in Saint John’s Refectory

1:00 – 2:30 p.m.

Eating Minnesota       Chair/Commentator   Anne Kaplan

• Minnesota Food as History:  A View from the 1958 Statehood Centennial  Debbie Miller  
• Minnesota History and Food Studies   Steve Trimble   
• Compiled Cookbooks Resisting and Embracing their Roles as Historical Documents  Traci Nathans-Kelly

Politicians Whose Names Start with S   Chairs/Commentators   Steve Keillor    Rhoda Gilman

• Charlie Stenvig and the Insurgent Political Roots of Minnesota Exceptionalism Jeffrey Bloodworth  
• "To sound my trumpet":  Henry Hastings Sibley, Minnesota, and the Rise of a National Identity     
  J. Thomas Murphy
• Son of the Middle Way:  The Political Rise, Demise & Redemption of Harold E. Stassen (1907-2001)    Steven Werle

Wildness and Wilderness in 20^th Century Minnesota Chair   Lori Lahlum  Commentator   Mark Harvey

• Rise of Suburban Environmentalism and the Founding of the Minnesota Valley  National Wildlife Refuge    John Crampton
• “Unnatural” Wilderness:  The Boundary Waters   Reed Petersen   

2:30 p.m.  Break                 

2:45 – 3:45 p.m. 

Summing Up, Taking Stock and Future Research Agenda
Post-conference Activities:

4:00 p.m. – TOURS      Participants will be able to select from among a variety of tours:

• St. Benedict’s Monastery Art and Heritage Place (with its collection of early 20^th century embroideries and 19^th and 20^th Ojibwe art and artifacts)
•  Marcel Breuer Buildings at St. John’s
• Grasshopper Chapel, Cold Spring

Dinner on your own – in the environs of your tour, perhaps?

7:00 p.m.  A Public Reading about Place: Fiction, Poetry, Creative Non-Fiction