Her family farm once belonged to the Kaw Indians. She decided to pay them back.

Northwest Iowa Center for Regional Studies

Back in 1879, Henrich Gronemann was a German Lutheran who homesteaded on the far southeast corner of McPherson County, near the borders of Harvey and Marion County.

His 320-acres of prairie was filled with creeks and rolling hills that previously had been the hunting grounds of the Kaw, or Kanza, Indians.

Now, 140 years and five generations later, his great-great granddaughter has done something unthinkable.

So begins Becky Tanner’s story for the Wichita Eagle. You may read the rest of the story here.

View original post

Omaha tribe works to save historic Walthill hospital built by first Native American doctor

Dolly A. Butz has a report in the Sioux City Journal about efforts to fundraise and restore a historical hospital on the Omaha Reservation in Walthill, NE. Dr. Susan LaFlesche Picotte, a Presbyterian, built it in 1912. You can read more about it all here.

Also, see my earlier post on Susan LaFlesche Picotte.

Where to Find God

Northwest Iowa Center for Regional Studies

I grew up in Rapid City, South Dakota, near the edge of the Black Hills. Just behind my home was a church building that housed a number of different congregations over the years – a white evangelical church, a Native Christian church, a Lutheran church, and now, the last I checked, an Orthodox church.

As I grew up, the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit met me in conversations with my parents, in an Evangelical Free basement after Awana, during an Assemblies of God worship service, and at youth group meetings at Hope Christian Reformed Church. While the Reformed tradition has a hold on me, these other traditions (and more) also play a role in how I see God at work.

So begins Northwestern College alum Keith Starkenburg’s reflections on “place” and the sacred. You may read his entire piece at The Twelve here.

View original post

The First Native American to Receive a Medical Degree

In case you’ve missed reading Joe Starita’s 2016 book A Warrior of the People, a concise introduction to Susan La Flesche Picotte of the Omaha Nation is here.

On Willa Cather, by Jane Smiley

Northwest Iowa Center for Regional Studies

Jane Smiley is, of course, a novelist who is place-conscious. Her introduction to Willa Cather, another place-conscious writer, is at The Paris Review; you may read it here.

View original post

Faithland: What’s the Most Highly Religious Part of America?

via Faithland: What’s the Most Highly Religious Part of America?

Siouxland and the Sioux

Northwest Iowa Center for Regional Studies

“So what’s the story of the Sioux?” she asks me. The question comes whistling out of the blue, or so it seems, and catches me off guard. “What do you mean?” I say. “I mean, I see the name all over the place—Sioux Falls, Sioux Center, Sioux City, Sioux County…so where are they? I don’t see many …

Read more of Brian Keepers’ post, and my comments on it, here at The Twelve: The Question She Asked Me – THE TWELVE

View original post

A Walk in Willa Cather’s Prairie

Alex Ross provides a wonderful report-essay in the New Yorker on Willa Cather and the new National Willa Cather Center: A Walk in Willa Cather’s Prairie | The New Yorker

Solomon D. Butcher’s Photographs Celebrate the Pioneer

Carson Vaughan at the Paris Review has a fascinating piece on Nebraska photographer Solomon D. Butcher. Read it here, and see some of Butcher’s photographs: The Paris Review – Blog Archive Solomon D. Butcher’s Photographs Celebrate the Pioneer

International Church of Cannabis – Denver, Colorado

Northwest Iowa Center for Regional Studies

Learn about Elevationism, in the Mile-High Metropolis: International Church of Cannabis – Denver, Colorado – Atlas Obscura

View original post