Glossary

The 151st Field Artillery is one of the oldest, most decorated units in the Minnesota National Guard. Its performance in combat during World War I as part of the Forty-second “Rainbow” Division, and during World War II with the Thirty-fourth “Red Bull” Division, drew high praise from senior Army commanders and remains a source of pride to the soldiers in its ranks.

Jack Johnson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/151st-field-artillery-regiment

African Americans have lived in Minnesota since the 1800s. The local African American population developed from individuals who were born in the state as well as those who migrated to Minnesota from other states in search of a better life. Despite being subjected to discrimination and inequality, African Americans established communities and institutions that contributed to the vibrancy of the state. This article defines African Americans as Americans who are descendants of enslaved black Africans in the U.S. and does not include immigrants or refugees from Africa (for example, Somali and Oromo people.

Tina Burnside, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/african-americans-minnesota

Minnesota farmers enjoyed a period of prosperity in the 1910s that continued through World War I. Encouraged by the US government to increase production, they took out loans to buy more land and invest in new equipment. As war-torn countries recovered, however, the demand for US exports fell, and land values and prices for commodities dropped. Farmers found it hard to repay their loans—a situation worsened by the Great Depression and the drought years that followed.

Linda Cameron, MNOpedia Agricultural Depression, 1920–1934 | MNopedia

Formed in August of 1968, the American Indian Movement Patrol (AIM Patrol) was a citizens’ patrol created in response to police brutality against Native Americans in Minneapolis. Patrollers observed officers’ interactions with Native people and offered mediators that community members could call on for help. As of 2016, a similar but separate group operates under the same name.

Brianna Wilson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/aim-patrol-minneapolis

The American Indian Movement (AIM), founded by grassroots activists in Minneapolis in 1968, first sought to improve conditions for recently urbanized Native Americans. It grew into an international movement whose goals included the full restoration of tribal sovereignty and treaty rights. Through a long campaign of “confrontation politics,” AIM is often credited with restoring hope to Native peoples.

John Lurie, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/american-indian-movement-aim

Albert Alonzo Ames, called “Doc,” was mayor of Minneapolis four times, between 1876 and 1903. Though he earned notoriety as "the shame of Minneapolis" for his involvement in extortion and fraud during his last term in office, Ames also won praise for his work as a doctor and an advocate for veterans.

Tamatha Pearlman, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/ames-albert-alonzo-doc-1842-1911

Saint Paul College has updated its mission, vision, and value statements to boldly reflect the College’s commitment to racial equity, community vibrancy, and economic vitality and to create a clear and intentional guide for its future. The Minnesota State Board of Trustees voted unanimously to approve the revisions in May 2022.

"We are proud to publicly unveil Saint Paul College’s bold new mission, vision, and value statements," said Saint Paul College president Deidra Peaslee, EdD. "Our College community collectively created statements that are sustainable, inclusive, accessible, and transformative. These reaffirm our commitment to becoming an anti-racist, trauma-informed institution."

Saint Paul College Mission - https://www.saintpaul.edu/aboutus/mission-vision-values

During the Second Indochinese War between communist North Vietnam and US-backed South Vietnam (1955‒1975), the US government escalated American involvement in Southeast Asia. In response, anti-war activists and university students in Minnesota, along with demonstrators across the nation, took to the streets to protest.

Sharon Park, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/anti-vietnam-war-movement-1963-1973

The Arrowhead Region is located in the northeastern part of the U.S. state of Minnesota, so called because of its pointed shape.

Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arrowhead_Region

In 1971 and again in 1972 the student body at the University of Minnesota elected Jack Baker as the Minnesota Student Association President - making him the first openly gay president of a large state university’s student association.

The Barker‒Karpis gang, a revolving cast of Midwestern criminals, shuttled in and out of St. Paul in the 1930s, committing robberies and kidnappings under the protection of a corrupt police force.

Emma Dill, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/barker-karpis-gang

The Battle of Birch Coulee, fought between September 2 and 3, 1862, was the worst defeat the United States suffered and the Dakotas' most successful engagement during the US–Dakota War of 1862. Over thirty hours, approximately 200 Dakota warriors pinned down a Union force of 170 newly recruited US volunteers, militia, and civilians from the area, who were unable to move until Henry Sibley's main army arrived.

Eric Weber, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/battle-birch-coulee-september-2-3-1862

On September 23, 1862, United States troops, led by Colonel Henry Sibley, defeated Dakota warriors led by Ta Oyate Duta (His Red Nation, also known as Little Crow) at the Battle of Wood Lake. The battle marked the end of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.

Iric Nathanson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/battle-wood-lake-september-23-1862

Elmer Benson was elected in 1936 as Minnesota’s second Farmer-Labor Party governor with over 58 percent of the vote. He was defeated only two years later by an even larger margin. An outspoken champion of Minnesota’s workers and family farmers, Benson lacked the political gifts of his charismatic predecessor, Floyd B. Olson. However, many of his proposals—at first considered radical—became law in the decades that followed.

-Tom Oconnell, MNOpedia https://www.mnopedia.org/person/benson-elmer-1895-1985

Harriet Bishop, best known as the founder of St. Paul’s first public and Sunday schools, was also a social reformer, land agent, and writer. In the 1840s, she led a vanguard of white, middle-class, Protestant women who sought to bring “moral order” to the multi-cultural fur-trade society of pre-territorial Minnesota.

Mary Wingerd, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/bishop-harriet-e-1817-1883

In the annals of Minneapolis crime one man occupies the place held by Al Capone in Chicago and Meyer Lansky in New York and Miami: Isadore Blumenfeld, also known as Kid Cann. He was a lifelong criminal who made fortunes in liquor, gambling, labor racketeering (all protected through political corruption), and real estate. Only late in life did he serve more than a year in prison. He retired in Florida and died rich.

Paul Nelson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/blumenfeld-isadore-kid-cann-1900-1981

The Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness is located in the northern third of Superior National Forest. It is the most heavily used wilderness in the country, with about 250,000 visitors annually.

Julia Lavenger, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/place/boundary-waters-canoe-area-wilderness-bwcaw

Jonathan Carver was an explorer, mapmaker, author, and subject of controversy. He was among the first white men to explore and map areas of Minnesota, including what later became Carver County. While French explorers had been in the area earlier, they did not leave behind detailed maps or journals of their travels as Carver did.

Heidi Gould, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/carver-jonathan-1710-1780

One of America's first celebrity architects, Cass Gilbert is best known as the architect of the Woolworth Building in New York City. Completed in 1913, it was a pioneering design—a soaring steel frame clad in a lively, neo-Gothic shell. Gilbert might not have received this plum commission, however, were it not for one of his earlier designs—the third Minnesota State Capitol, commissioned in 1895 and completed ten years later.

Kate Roberts, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/gilbert-cass-1859-1934

There have been four Roman Catholic cathedrals in St. Paul. The first three were built between 1841 and 1858. The fourth, and the most architecturally distinctive, opened in 1915. Since then, no building in the Twin Cities has approached it in ambition or magnificence.

Paul Nelson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/structure/cathedral-st-paul

When migrant workers from Mexico began to look for homes in Minnesota in the mid-twentieth century, many joined a growing enclave in Westside St. Paul. In spite of challenges, they sought opportunities to create a strong community and build a brighter future. They saw the Chicano Movement of the 1960s and 1970s as a means to that end.

Shirley Saldivar, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/thing/chicano-movement-westside-st-paul

The U.S. Congress paved the way for the Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) when it passed the Emergency Conservation Work (ECW) Act in March 1933, at the height of the Great Depression. This New Deal program offered meaningful work to young men with few employment prospects. It resulted in a lasting legacy of forestry, soil, and water conservation, as well as enhancements to Minnesota's state and national parks.

-Linda Cameron, MNOpedia Civilian Conservation Corps in Minnesota, 1933–1942 | MNopedia

Between 1933 and 1943, Native Americans worked on their lands as part of the Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division, run by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA). More than 2,000 Native families in Minnesota benefited from the wages as participants developed work skills and communities gained infrastructure like roads and wells.

-Harlen LaFontaine and Margaret Vaughan, MNOpedia Civilian Conservation Corps-Indian Division | MNopedia

Nina Clifford, a child of immigrants who evolved into the “richest woman of the underworld,” made a name for herself as an affluent sex worker who contributed to the buildup of St. Paul’s downtown Red Light District in the late 1800s. She invited other women to establish their businesses nearby while police sanctioned an environment in which vice could thrive. In spite of a lack of preserved records, standing buildings, and extant photographs related to her business, Nina Clifford remains a legendary madam of St. Paul.

Alexandra Scholten, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/clifford-nina-1851-1929

The worst natural disaster in Minnesota history—over 450 dead, fifteen hundred square miles consumed, towns and villages burned flat—unfolded at a frightening pace, lasting less than fifteen hours from beginning to end. The fire began around midday on Saturday, October 12, 1918. By 3:00 a.m. on Sunday, all was over but the smoldering, the suffering, and the recovery.

-Paul Nelson, MNOpedia, https://www.mnopedia.org/event/cloquet-duluth-and-moose-lake-fires-1918

The Cuyuna Iron Range is a former North American iron-mining district about ninety miles west of Duluth in central Minnesota. Iron mining in the district, the furthest south and west of Minnesota’s iron ranges, began in 1907. During World War I and World War II, the district mined manganese-rich iron ores to harden the steel used in wartime production. After mining peaked in 1953, the district began to focus on non-iron-mining activities in order to remain economically viable.

Fred Sutherland, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/place/cuyuna-iron-range

The footprint of the Dakota people, past and present, is evident throughout Minnesota. Mni Sota Makoce, the land of cloudy waters, has been the homeland of the Dakota for hundreds of years. According to the Bdewakantonwan Dakota creation story, Dakota people and life began in Minnesota, and despite a tumultuous history, they continue to claim this land as their home.

Teresa Peterson and Walter LaBatte Jr., MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/land-water-and-language-dakota-minnesota-s-first-people

From the 1890s through the 1950s, Frances Densmore researched and recorded the music of Native Americans. Through more than twenty books, 200 articles, and some 2,500 Graphophone recordings, she preserved important cultural traditions that might otherwise have been lost. She received honors from Macalester College in St. Paul and the Minnesota Historical Society in the last years of her life.

-Frederick L Johnson, MNOpedia Densmore, Frances (1867–1957) | MNopedia

Ignatius Donnelly was the most widely known Minnesotan of the nineteenth century. As a writer, orator, and social thinker, he enjoyed fame in the U.S. and overseas. As a politician he was the nation's most articulate spokesman for Midwestern populism. Though the highest office he held was that of U.S. congressman, he shaped Minnesota politics for more than thirty years.

Rhoda Gilman, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/donnelly-ignatius-1831-1901

Lynching is widely believed to be something that happened only in the South. But on June 15, 1920, three African Americans, Elias Clayton, Elmer Jackson, and Isaac McGhie, were lynched in Duluth, Minnesota.

Tina Burnside, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/duluth-lynchings

Famed author and lecturer Charles Eastman (Ohiyesa) was raised in a traditional Dakota manner until age fifteen, when he entered Euro-American culture at his father's request. He spent the rest of his life moving between Native American and settler-colonist worlds, achieving renown but never financial security.

Molly Huber, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/eastman-charles-alexander-ohiyesa-1858-1939

Seventeenth Minnesota governor Adolph Olson (A. O.) Eberhart lived the classic American story of an immigrant who achieved success through hard work and ability.

Minnesota Historical Society, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/eberhart-adolph-olson-1870-1944

Prohibition

Sec. 1 - After one year from the ratification of this article the manufacture, sale, or transportation of intoxicating liquors within, the importation thereof into, or the exportation thereof from the United States and all territory subject to the jurisdiction thereof for beverage purposes is hereby prohibited.

Sec. 2 - The Congress and the several States shall have concurrent power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

Sec. 3 - This article shall be inoperative unless it shall have been ratified as an amendment to the Constitution by the legislatures of the several States, as provided in the Constitution, within seven years from the date of the submission hereof to the States by the Congress.

Minnesota's Farmer-Labor Party (FLP) represents one of the most successful progressive third-party coalitions in American history. From its roots in 1917 through the early 1940s, the FLP elected hundreds of candidates to state and national office and created a powerful movement based on the needs of struggling workers and farmers.

Tom O'Connell, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/minnesota-farmer-labor-party-1924-1944

The Farmers' Alliance in Minnesota thrived from 1886 to 1892. During this time, the organization achieved the most progress toward its political goals in the state. These included greater regulation of the railroad industry as it impacted the wheat market, elimination of irregularities in the grading of wheat, and minimization or elimination of the middleman in the wheat trade.

Molly Huber, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/farmers-alliance-minnesota

Founded in 1932, the short-lived Farmers' Holiday Association (FHA) is remembered for successfully fighting against farm foreclosures. The FHA also unsuccessfully lobbied Congress for a federal system that would pay farmers for their crops based on the cost of production.

-R. L. Cartwright, MNOpedia Farmers' Holiday Association in Minnesota | MNopedia

The Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project was a New Deal relief program to fund the visual arts. From 1935 to 1943, the Minnesota division of the FAP employed local artists to create thousands of works in many media and styles, from large works of public art to posters and paintings.

-Katherine Goertz, MNOpedia WPA Federal Art Project, 1935–1943 | MNopedia

At the height of the Great Depression, nearly one in four Americans was unemployed. Under President Franklin Delano Roosevelt, the federal government created the Works Progress Administration (WPA) to employ millions of jobless Americans. The WPA hired men and women to do white collar work like writing, as well as manual labor and construction. In Minnesota, the WPA's Federal Writers' Project was marked by controversy and tension with the federal government, but it created state guidebooks and ethnic histories that are still read widely today.

-R.L. Cartwright, MNOpedia https://www.mnopedia.org/thing/wpa-federal-writers-project-1935-1943

The Fifth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment's Civil War service included participation in thirteen campaigns, five sieges and thirty-four battles, including duty on Minnesota's frontier during the US–Dakota War of 1862. They were the last of the state's regiments to form in response to President Lincoln's first call for troops.

Matthew Hutchinson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/fifth-minnesota-volunteer-infantry-regiment

The First Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment holds a special place in the history of Minnesota. It was the first body of troops raised by the state for Civil War service, and it was among the first regiments of any state offered for national service.

Hampton Smith, MNOpeida - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/first-minnesota-volunteer-infantry-regiment

Author F. Scott Fitzgerald is a cultural icon of the Roaring Twenties and the Jazz Age. His work, although largely under-appreciated during his lifetime, reflects the thoughts and feelings of his generation.

Thomas Backerud, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/fitzgerald-f-scott-1896-1940

In September 1903, workers in the Minneapolis flour milling industry coordinated a strike that halted production in fourteen different mills. The striking workers fought for higher wages and an eight-hour day. Though their effort failed, it marked a turning point in the city’s labor history by spurring mill owners and other business leaders to limit unions through the Citizens Alliance, an anti-worker organization.

Molly Jessup, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/minneapolis-flour-mill-strike-1903

The U.S. Army built Fort Snelling between 1820 and 1825 to protect American interests in the fur trade. It tasked the fort’s troops with deterring advances by the British in Canada, enforcing boundaries between the region’s Native American nations, and preventing Euro-American immigrants from intruding on Native American land. In these early years and until its temporary closure in 1858, Fort Snelling was a place where diverse people interacted and shaped the future state of Minnesota.

Matthew Cassady and Peter DeCarlo, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/place/fort-snelling-expansionist-era-1819-1858

Since 1929, the Foshay Tower has been a vital part of the Minneapolis skyline. When it was built, the thirty-two-story tower was the tallest building between Chicago and the West Coast. In the 1970s and 1980s, much taller skyscrapers were built, but the attractive Foshay Tower remained a crowning glory of Minnesota architecture.

Britt Aamodt, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/structure/foshay-tower

In 1932, singer Bing Crosby had a major hit with his recording of E. Y. Harburg and Jay Gorney's song "Brother, Can You Spare a Dime?" Its lyrics could have been the story of Wilbur B. Foshay: "Once I built a tower up to the sun/ brick and rivet and lime/ Once I built a tower, now it's done/ Brother, can you spare a dime?" Foshay built a fortune, built a tower in Minneapolis—and then lost it all in the stock market crash of 1929.

Britt Aamodt, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/foshay-wilbur-1881-1957

A movement during the late 18th century to increase the monetary supply (which would make the dollar worth less), by enacting a policy of unlimited coinage of silver. This cause was championed by the Populist Party in 1892 and then the Populist/Democratic Party in 1896. When Republicans captured the Whitehouse and Congress they enacted the Gold Standard in 1900 - limiting the money supply and increasing the value of the dollar.

The North American fur trade began around 1500 off the coast of Newfoundland and became one of the most powerful industries in US history. In Minnesota country, the Dakota and the Ojibwe traded in alliance with the French from the 1600s until the 1730s, when Ojibwe warriors began to drive the Dakota from their homes in the Mississippi Headwaters region. Afterward, the Dakota continued trading in the south while Montreal traders and their Ojibwe allies established a network of trading posts in the north. For the next 120 years, the fur trade dominated the region’s economy and contributed to the development of a unique multicultural society.

Jon Lurie, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/fur-trade-minnesota

St. Paul in the late 1920s and early 1930s was known as a “‘crooks’ haven”—a place for gangsters, bank robbers, and bootleggers from all over the Midwest to run their operations or to hide from the FBI. The concentration of local organized crime activity prompted reformers and crime reporters to call for a “cleanup” of the city in the mid-1930s.

Sharon Park, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/gangster-era-st-paul-1900-1936

The Gateway District was Minneapolis’s original downtown, where life revolved around mills and railroads. As aging buildings became boarding houses for the thousands of temporary workers who spent their off-seasons in Minneapolis, the neighborhood gained a seedy reputation and the nickname “Skid Row.” The twenty-five-block zone was targeted for decades by mission workers, city planners, and police as a hub of vice and firetrap buildings, but the redevelopment of the area failed to mitigate its decline after World War II.

-Samuel Meshbesher, MNOpedia Gateway District (“Skid Row”), Minneapolis | MNopedia

Glacial Lake Agassiz was formed from glacial melt water around 10,000 BCE and covered most of the Canadian province of Manitoba along with parts of Saskatchewan, Ontario along with parts of the American states of North Dakota and Minnesota.

One of Minnesota’s most popular nature areas, Gooseberry Falls was the first of eight state parks developed along Lake Superior’s North Shore. Nearly all of its buildings were constructed by employees of the Civilian Conservation Corps between 1934 and 1941. The collection of stone and log structures presents a distinctively North Shore interpretation of the National Park Service’s Rustic Style of architecture, complementing the park’s river, waterfalls, woodlands, and lakeshore.

-Marjorie Savage, MNOpedia Gooseberry Falls State Park | MNopedia

A graduated or progressive income tax is a tax structure  in-which the rate of tax increases as income increases. Under they concept higher earners pay a higher percent of their income than lower earners.

Grand Portage (Gichi Onigamiing) is both a historic seasonal migration route and the traditional site of an Ojibwe summer village on the northwestern shore of Lake Superior. In the 1700s, after voyageurs began to use it to carry canoes from Lake Superior to the Pigeon River, it became one of the most profitable fur trading sites in the region and a headquarters for the North West Fur Company.

Lizzie Ehrenhault, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/place/grand-portage-gichi-onigamiing

The Grand Portage National Monument in far northeastern Minnesota was established in 1960, after the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Chippewa (Ojibwe) ceded nearly 710 acres of their land to the US government. A unit of the National Park Service (NPS), it consists of the eight-and-a-half-mile Grand Portage trail and two trading depot sites—one on the shoreline of Lake Superior and one inland, at Pigeon River. A partially reconstructed depot sits at the Lake Superior site.

Christopher Homerding, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/place/grand-portage-national-monument

On June 12, 1873, farmers in southwestern Minnesota saw what looked like a snowstorm coming towards their fields from the west. Then they heard a roar of beating wings and saw that what seemed to be snowflakes were in fact grasshoppers. In a matter of hours, knee-high fields of grass and wheat were eaten to the ground by hungry hoppers.

R.L. Cartwright, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/grasshopper-plagues-1873-1877

The Great Northern Railway was a transcontinental railroad system that extended from St. Paul to Seattle. Among the transcontinental railroads, it was the only one that used no public funding and only a few land grants. As the northernmost of these lines, the railroad spurred immigration and the development of lands along the route, especially in Minnesota.

Aaron Hanson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/thing/great-northern-railway

Daniel Greysolon, Sieur du Lhut (also known as du Luth), was born in Lyons, France, around 1639. A nobleman who quickly rose to prominence in the French royal court, he traveled to New France (Quebec, Canada) in 1674 at the age of thirty-eight to command the French marines in Montreal.

Thomas Backenrud, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/greysolon-daniel-sieur-du-lhut-c1639-1710

In 1970, the American Indian Movement (AIM) declared its intention to open a school for Native youth living in Minneapolis. AIM had identified the urgent need for Indigenous children to be educated within their own communities. Two years later, Heart of the Earth Survival School opened its doors, providing hope to Native families whose children had endured the racial abuse prevalent in the Minneapolis public schools.

John Lurie, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/heart-earth-survival-school

With a career spanning fifty years, Anna Arnold Hedgeman was an educator, civil rights advocate, and writer. In 1963, she was the only woman on the planning committee for the March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom.

Tina Burnside - MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/hedgeman-anna-arnold-1899-1990

Father Louis Hennepin, a Recollect friar, is best known for his early expeditions of what would become the state of Minnesota. He gained fame in the seventeenth century with the publication of his dramatic stories in the territory. Although Father Hennepin spent only a few months in Minnesota, his influence is undeniable. While his widely read travel accounts were more fiction than fact, they allowed him to leave a lasting mark on the state.

Kathryn Goetz, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/hennepin-louis-ca1640-ca1701

James J. Hill fit the nickname “empire builder.” He assembled a rail network—the Great Northern (1878), the Northern Pacific (1896), and the Chicago, Burlington and Quincy (1901)—that stretched from Duluth to Seattle across the north, and from Chicago south to St. Louis and then west to Denver. He was one of the most successful railroad magnates of his time.

Paul Nelson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/hill-james-j-1838-1916

On September 3, 1894, a headline of the Minneapolis Tribune screamed, “A Cyclone of Wind and Fire: Northern Minnesota and Wisconsin Bathed in a Sea of Flame and Hundreds of Human Lives are Sacrificed to the Insatiable Greed of the Red Demon as He Stalks through the Pine Forest on His Mission of Death.” In just four hours on September 1, the red demon destroyed an estimated 480 square miles, resulting in massive destruction and over 418 deaths. The fire zone lay within Pine County, which was named for its majestic white pine forests.

Mary Laine, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/great-hinckley-fire-1894

The Hmong first arrived in Minnesota in late 1975, after the communist seizure of power in Indochina. They faced multiple barriers as refugees from a war-torn country, but with the help of generous sponsors, have managed to thrive in the Twin Cities area, a region they now claim as home. Today, many Hmong promote the economic, social, and political diversity of the state.

Mai Na M. Lee, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/hmong-and-hmong-americans-minnesota

The Hmong New Year in St. Paul is a unique annual event encapsulated into a weekend celebration held at the end of November. Since 1977, Hmong people have gathered in the city to meet, eat, celebrate the harvest, and enjoy cultural performances. Though the event is rooted in the agricultural history of the Hmong people and their religious traditions, it has found a new expression in St. Paul—the home of one of the largest communities of Hmong outside Southeast Asia.

Kong Vang, MNOpedia - Hmong New Year, St. Paul | MNopedia

In 1848 the U.S. government removed the Ho Chunk people, who initially lived in what today is Wisconsin, from a newly created reservation in northern Iowa to Long Prairie in Minnesota Territory. In 1855, another treaty moved the Ho Chunk to a reservation in Blue Earth County in southern Minnesota. Then, in 1863 new treaty moved the Ho Chunk out of Minnesota first to Crow Creek, South Dakota and then to Nebraska.

Hubert H. Humphrey, a giant of Minnesota politics, was one of the most influential liberal leaders of the twentieth century. His political rise was meteoric, his impact on public policy historic. His support for the Vietnam War, however, cost him the office he most sought: president of the United States.

Tim O'Connel, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/humphrey-hubert-h-1911-1978

Since the 1970s scholars have been using the term “Identity Politics” to denote groups that form around a shared identity, fight discrimination and advocate for fair treatment. In this chapter we will discuss several of these groups’ experiences in Minnesota from the mid 1940s to the 1970s including: African Americans, American Indians, Mexican American, women, and gays and lesbians.

While moving in and out of politics, Donnelly also became a widely read author. The book that most closely connected to his political outlook was Caesar's Column. Published in 1892, the novel presented a dystopian vision of American in the 1980s - a dismal place controlled by ruthless monied elites. The book was an obvious warning of what Donnelly believed might happen if the political movement of exploited farmers and workers failed.

Some of his other notable works include:

Atlantis: The Antediluvian World, 1882 a pseudo scientific argument that the submerged continent of Atlantis not only existed, but was also the cradle of civilization.

Ragnarok: The Age of Fire and Gravel, 1883 claims that a comet hit ancient earth destroying an advanced civilization and leaving 'drift' layers of gravel in its wake.

The Great Cryptogram, 1888 and The Cipher in the Plays and on the Tombstone, 1899 suggest Francis Bacon wrote plays attributed to William Shakespeare.

The six burial mounds at St. Paul’s Indian Mounds Park are among the oldest human-made structures in Minnesota. Along with mounds in Crow Wing, Itasca, and Beltrami Counties, they are some of the northernmost burial mounds on the Mississippi River. They represent the only ancient Native American burial mounds still extant inside a major US city.

Paul Nelson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/place/indian-mounds-park-st-paul

“I had a little bird, its name was Enza. I opened the window, and In-Flu-Enza!” Children innocently sang this rhyme while playing and skipping rope during the 1918 influenza pandemic, which caused an estimated fifty million deaths worldwide. 675,000 of these were in the United States; over 10,000 were in Minnesota.

Mary Laine, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/influenza-epidemic-minnesota-1918

Born in County Kilkenny, Ireland, in 1838, John Ireland came to St. Paul with his parents in 1852. He was ordained a Catholic priest in 1861, served briefly as chaplain for the Fifth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment in the Civil War, and was appointed bishop in 1875. By the time he was appointed archbishop of St. Paul in 1888, he was one of the city's most prominent citizens, and he was responsible for recruiting Irish immigrants to settle in communities throughout Minnesota, including Clontarf, Adrian, Graceville, and Ghent.

Kate Roberts, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/ireland-john-1838-1918

The Itasca forest during the late nineteenth century contained towering pines and numerous lakes. Individuals like surveyor Jacob Brower became captivated by the region and the wildlife that inhabited it. They recognized that the economic potential of northern Minnesota would change its landscape. Their effort to preserve Lake Itasca led them to contend with the lumber industry, public interests, and the politics that weaved between them.

-Steven Penick, MNOpedia https://www.mnopedia.org/event/creation-itasca-state-park

In December of 1916, mill workers at the Virginia and Rainy Lake Lumber Company went on strike, and lumberjacks soon followed. The company police and local government tried to crush the strike by running the lumberjacks out of town, but when the strike was called off in February, the company had granted most of the workers’ demands.

Anja Witek, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/iww-lumber-strike-1916-1917

Sitting on a bluff overlooking the Mississippi River and the city of St. Paul, the 36,500-square-foot, forty-two-room James J. Hill House stands as a monument to the man who built the Great Northern Railway. It remains one of the best examples of Richardsonian Romanesque mansions in the country.

Eric Colleary, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/structure/james-j-hill-house

Jeffers Petroglyphs is an internationally significant Native American sacred site and the location of the largest group of Indigenous petroglyphs (rock carvings) in the Midwestern United States. Situated in Dakota homeland, it is sacred to multiple Native American nations, including the Cheyenne, Arapaho, Iowa, and Ojibwe.

Thomas Sanders, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/place/jeffers-petroglyphs

John Albert Johnson was Minnesota's first governor born in the state, its first governor to serve a full term in the third state capitol, and its first governor to die in office, making him one of the state's most notable leaders. He also was the first Minnesota governor to bask, albeit fleetingly, in the national spotlight when he sought the 1908 Democratic presidential nomination but lost to William Jennings Bryan.

Minneosta Historical Society, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/johnson-john-albert-1861-1909

Nellie Stone Johnson was an African American union and civil rights leader whose career spanned the class-conscious politics of the 1930s and the liberal reforms of the Minnesota DFL Party. She believed unions and education were paths to economic security for African Americans, including women. Her self-reliant personality and pragmatic politics sustained her long and active life.

Tom Beer, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/johnson-nellie-stone-1905-2002

Oliver Hudson Kelley was a "book farmer," a man who had learned what he knew about agriculture from reading rather than from direct experience. In 1867, he helped found the National Grange of the Order of Patrons of Husbandry, the nation's largest agricultural fraternity.

Kate Roberts, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/kelley-oliver-hudson-1826-1913

The Kensington Runestone is a gravestone-sized slab of hard, gray sandstone called graywacke into which Scandinavian runes are cut. It stands on display in Alexandria, Minnesota, as a unique record of either Norse exploration of North America or Minnesota’s most brilliant and durable hoax.

Paul Nelson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/thing/kensington-runestone

With the fall of Fort Sumter in 1861, Minnesota became the first state to offer troops to fight the Confederacy. Josias Redgate King is credited with being the first man to volunteer for the Union in the Civil War.

Brian Leehan, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/king-josias-r-1832-1916

The Knights of Labor shaped business and political policy in Minnesota communities in the late nineteenth century by working with the Farmers' Alliance and advocating for shorter work days, equal pay for women, child labor laws, and cooperation between workers.

Molly Huber, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/knights-labor-minnesota

Since the early 1900s, Latinos have been a productive and essential part of Minnesota. Most of the earliest Minnesotanos were migrant farm workers from Mexico or Texas and faced obstacles to first-class citizenship that are still being addressed. They overcame the instability associated with migratory work by establishing stable communities in the cities and towns of Minnesota. Latinos faced, and still face, discrimination—both racial and the kinds common to all immigrants, migrants, and refugees.

Jeff Kolnick, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/minnesotanos-latino-journeys-minnesota

Sauk Centre’s Sinclair Lewis, short story writer, novelist, and playwright, was the first American to win the Nobel Prize in Literature.

Patrick Coleman, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/lewis-harry-sinclair-1885-1951

On April 12, 1917, President Woodrow Wilson called upon Americans on the home front to help fight what would become known as World War I. In response, many Minnesotans turned to backyard gardening to increase their food supply. Homegrown vegetables filled pantries and stomachs and allowed “citizen soldiers” to conserve wheat, meat, sugar, and fats that were essential for U.S. troops and their European allies.

Rae Katherine Eighmey, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/liberty-gardens-1917-1919

"Reform!" was the rallying cry of late nineteenth-century America, and John Lind was in the vanguard. His election as the fourteenth governor of Minnesota and the first non-Republican governor of the state in decades heralded a new progressive era.

Minnesota Historical Society, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/lind-john-1854-1930

Charles A. Lindbergh, a native of Little Falls, became a world-famous aviator after completing the first nonstop, solo transatlantic flight in May 1927. Although his flying feats made him an American cultural hero in the 1920s, his links to Nazism, support for eugenics, and publicly unacknowledged children in Germany tarnished his legacy in the decades that followed.

Melissa Peterson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/lindbergh-charles-1902-1974

Charles August (C. A.) Lindbergh, father of the aviator Charles Augustus Lindbergh, was a Little Falls lawyer who represented Minnesota’s Sixth District in the United States Congress for five terms. He was a leader of the progressive wing of the Republican Party and opposed the United States’ entry into World War I. As the nominee of the Nonpartisan League, he waged an unsuccessful campaign to unseat Governor Joseph Burnquist in the bitterly fought 1918 gubernatorial Republican primary.

Greg Gaut, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/lindbergh-charles-sr-1859-1924

A group of American writers who came of age during World War I and established their literary reputations in the 1920s. The term is also used more generally to refer to the post-World War I generation.

Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/topic/Lost-Generation

The Lower Sioux Agency, or Redwood Agency, was built by the federal government in 1853 near the Redwood River in south-central Minnesota Territory. The Agency served as an administrative center for the Lower Sioux Reservation of Santee Dakota. It was also the site of key events related to the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.

Matt Reicher, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/place/lower-sioux-agency

Thomas Lowry was one of the most influential and admired men in Minneapolis at the time of his death in 1909. Streetcars, railroads, libraries, and many other endeavors benefited from his involvement.

Molly Huber, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/lowry-thomas-1843-1909

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Fredrick McGhee was known as one of Minnesota's most prominent trial lawyers. In 1905, he was one of a group of thirty-two men, led by W. E. B. Du Bois, who founded the Niagara Movement, which called for full civil liberties and an end to racial discrimination.

Kate Roberts, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/mcghee-fredrick-1861-1912

The discovery of iron ore on the Mesabi Range can hardly be credited to one person. In 1890, however, it was the family of Lewis Merritt that found merchantable ore and opened the Mesabi to industry. Within three years, they owned several mines and had built a railroad leading to immense ore docks in Duluth. On the cusp of controlling a mining empire in northern Minnesota, they lost everything to business titan John D. Rockefeller.

Peter DeCarlo, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/merritt-family-and-mesabi-iron-range

The Mesabi Iron Range wasn’t the first iron range to be mined in Minnesota, but it has arguably been the most prolific. Since the 1890s, the Mesabi has produced iron ore that boosted the national economy, contributed to the Allied victory in World War II, and cultivated a multiethnic regional culture in northeast Minnesota.

Alex Tieberg, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/place/mesabi-iron-range

During the summer of 1916, the Industrial Workers of the World (IWW) coordinated a strike of iron ore miners on the Mesabi Iron Range. The strikers fought for higher wages, an eight-hour workday, and workplace reform. Although the strike failed, it was one of the largest labor conflicts in Minnesota history.

David Lavinge, MNOpeida - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/mesabi-iron-range-strike-1916

Tired of ethnic discrimination as well as dangerous working conditions, low wages, and long work days, immigrant iron miners on the Mesabi Range in northeastern Minnesota went on strike on July 20, 1907. Their strike lasted only two months before it was suppressed with strikebreakers, but it was notable for being the first organized strike on the state's Iron Range.

R.L. Cartwright, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/mesabi-iron-range-strike-1907

Throughout the twentieth century and into the twenty-first, migrant workers, mainly from Mexico, have played a vital role in Minnesota’s economy, often working in low-wage farming and food-processing industries.

Jessica Lopez Lyman, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/migrant-workers

On February 5, 1924, water from Foley Lake flooded the Milford Mine, killing forty-one miners in Minnesota's worst mining disaster. Only seven miners climbed to safety.

John Fitzgerald, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/milford-mine-disaster-1924

The Minnesota Commission of Public Safety (MCPS) was a watchdog group created in 1917. Its purpose was to mobilize the state's resources during World War I. During a two-year reign its members enacted policies intended to protect the state from foreign threats. They also used broad political power and a sweeping definition of disloyalty to thwart those who disagreed with them.

Matt Reicher, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/minnesota-commission-public-safety

Around midnight on July 10, 1970, four teams of two or three people each broke into Selective Service offices in Little Falls, Alexandria, Winona, and Wabasha, intending to destroy as many military draft files as possible—acts of protest against the war in Vietnam. They mostly failed. Eight of them were arrested and charged with federal crimes. They became known as the Minnesota Eight.

Paul Nelson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/minnesota-eight

When the Minnesota National Guard was federalized in the spring of 1917, the state was left without any military organization. To defend the state’s resources, the Minnesota Commission of Public Safety (MCPS) created the Minnesota Home Guard. The Home Guard existed for the duration of World War I, and units performed both civilian and military duties.

Peter DeCarlo, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/minnesota-home-guard

The Minnesota Motor Corps was the first militarized organization of its kind in the United States. Made up of volunteers and their vehicles, the corps existed for the duration of World War I. It provided disaster relief, transported troops, and aided police. The Motor Corps’ services proved crucial, but many viewed it as a state-sponsored police force that infringed on the rights of citizens.

Peter DeCarlo, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/minnesota-motor-corps

On Wabasha Hill, just north of downtown St. Paul, stands Minnesota’s third state capitol building. This active center of state government was built between 1896 and 1905, and was designed by architect Cass Gilbert. Its magnificent architecture, decorative art, and innovative technologies set it apart from every other public building in the state.

Brian Pease, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/structure/minnesota-s-third-state-capitol

For almost 150 years, the State Grange of Minnesota as an organization has thrived, faded, and regrouped in its efforts to provide farmers and their families with a unified voice. As the number of people directly engaged in farming has declined, the State Grange has shifted its focus toward recruiting a new type of member—often younger—interested in safe, healthy, and sustainable food sources.

Members of the Sunbeam Grange #2, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/state-grange-minnesota

From 1881 to 1920, the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association (MWSA) struggled to secure women's right to vote. Its members organized marches, wrote petitions and letters, gathered signatures, gave speeches, and published pamphlets and broadsheets to force the Minnesota Legislature to recognize their right to vote. Due in part to its efforts, the legislature ratified the Nineteenth Amendment in 1919.

Eric Weber, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/minnesota-woman-suffrage-association

Since the early 1900s, Latinos have been a productive and essential part of Minnesota. Most of the earliest Minnesotanos were migrant farm workers from Mexico or Texas and faced obstacles to first-class citizenship that are still being addressed. They overcame the instability associated with migratory work by establishing stable communities in the cities and towns of Minnesota. Latinos faced, and still face, discrimination—both racial and the kinds common to all immigrants and migrants.

Jeff kolnnick, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/minnesotanos-latino-journeys-minnesota

One of the most accomplished politicians in Minnesota history, Walter “Fritz” Mondale served as vice president under Jimmy Carter and ran an unsuccessful presidential campaign with running mate Geraldine Ferraro in 1984. During his long career, he advanced consumer rights as Minnesota's attorney general, maneuvered civil rights and procedural reform legislation as a US senator, and revitalized the notoriously stagnant vice presidency during the Carter administration.

Samuel Meshbesher, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/mondale-walter-1928-2021

Black students at the University of Minnesota staged a twenty-four-hour protest at Morrill Hall, the school’s administrative building, in 1969. The demonstration led to the creation of the university’s Afro-American Studies Department.

Tina Burnside, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/morrill-hall-takeover-university-minnesota

In a special state senate election held in January of 2002, Mee Moua became the first Asian woman chosen to serve in the Minnesota Legislature and the first Hmong American elected to any state legislature. Her win in St. Paul’s District 67 made national news and had lasting political and cultural impacts on the Hmong community.

Tiffany Vang, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/election-mee-moua-minnesota-senate-2002

A muckraker is a named coined by President Theodore Roosevelt, for a journalist who used investigative reporting to expose the ills of soceity during the early part of the 20th century. In many cases, these journalists drew attention to causes Progressives then championed. A few of the most well known muckrakers include:

Lincoln Steffens, Shame of the Cities (1904)

Ida Tarbell, The History of Standard Oil Company (1904)

Upton Sinclair, The Jungle (1906)

Public art created during the late 1960s and early 1970s responded to the destruction of America’s inner cities. Chicanos painted murals in their neighborhoods to express their cultural pride, to protest injustice, and to celebrate their aesthetic values. While many of the first Chicano murals painted on St. Paul’s West Side are now lost, murals continue to reflect the community’s growth and progress.

Lizeth Gutierrez, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/thing/muralismo-st-paul

In the years leading up to and immediately following World War I, African Americans in St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Duluth established separate chapters of the recently formed National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP).

Dave Kenney, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/origins-naacp-minnesota-1912-1920

National History Day in Minnesota is a co-curricular program for students in grades 6-12, focusing on historical research and analysis about a topic of their choosing.

National History Day in Minnesota

Native American boarding schools, which operated in Minnesota and across the United States beginning in the late nineteenth century, represent a dark chapter in U.S. history. Also called industrial schools, these institutions prepared boys for manual labor and farming and girls for domestic work. The boarding school, whether on or off a reservation, carried out the government's mission to restructure Native people's minds and personalities by severing children’s physical, cultural, and spiritual connections to their tribes.

Dr. Denise K Lajimodiere, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/native-american-boarding-schools

Norwegian immigrant Knute Nelson served state and country throughout his life, first as a soldier and a lawyer, then as a legislator and the twelfth governor of Minnesota. He was the state's first foreign-born governor.

MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/nelson-knute-1843-1923

The World War I draft rally held in New Ulm on July 25, 1917, was an exciting event; it featured a parade, music, a giant crowd, and compelling speakers. The speakers urged compliance with law, but challenged the justice of the war and the government’s authority to send draftees into combat overseas. In the end, people obeyed the draft law, while the state punished dissent. Three of the speakers lost their jobs; the fourth was charged with criminal sedition.

Paul Nelson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/new-ulm-military-draft-meeting-1917

Cecil Newman was a pioneering newspaper publisher and an influential leader in Minnesota. His newspapers, the Minneapolis Spokesman and the St. Paul Recorder, provided news and information to readers while advancing civil rights, fair employment, political engagement, and Black pride.

Daniel Bergin, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/newman-cecil-1903-1976

Women's Suffrage

The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

The Ninth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment played an important role in defending its home state as well as in operations in the South. Its three years of service for the Union culminated in the Battle of Nashville, in which its members fought side by side with men from three other Minnesota regiments.

Matthew Hutchinson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/ninth-minnesota-volunteer-infantry-regiment

Exploited by powerful corporate and political interests in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Midwestern farmers banded together in the early twentieth century to fight for their political and economic rights. Farmers formed the Nonpartisan League (NPL) and wrote a significant chapter of Minnesota's progressive-era history.

Peter DeCarlo, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/nonpartisan-league

A few months before aviator Charles Lindbergh made his record-breaking transatlantic flight, Northwest Airways, Inc. began carrying airmail between the Twin Cities and Chicago. As Northwest Airlines, Inc., the company became a major international carrier before financial troubles forced its merger with Delta Air Lines, Inc. in 2008.

Linda Cameron, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/northwest-airlines

Minnesota's Northwest Angle in Lake of the Woods is farther north than any other part of the contiguous United States. Logically, it would seem that this area of about 123 square miles should be in Canada. But this oddest feature of the entire U.S.–Canada boundary was the proper result of American treaties negotiated with Great Britain.

William Lass, MNOpedia,

The O'Connor layover agreement was instituted by John O'Connor shortly after his promotion from St. Paul detective to chief of police on June 11, 1900. It allowed criminals to stay in the city under three conditions: that they checked in with police upon their arrival; agreed to pay bribes to city officials; and committed no major crimes in the city of St. Paul. This arrangement lasted for almost forty years, ending when rampant corruption forced crusading local citizens and the federal government to step in.

Matt Reicher, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/thing/oconnor-layover-agreement

When I think about how the Ojibwe have helped shape this great state, I tend to separate the ways we have influenced the land from the ways we have influenced its people.

Thomas Peacock, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/ojibwe-our-historical-role-influencing-contemporary-minnesota

The Oliver Iron Mining Company was one of the most prominent mining companies in the early decades of the Mesabi Iron Range. As a division of United States Steel, Oliver dwarfed its competitors—in 1920, it operated 128 mines across the region, while its largest competitor operated only sixty-five.

Alex Tieberg, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/oliver-iron-mining-company

As Minnesota's first Farmer-Labor Party governor, Floyd B. Olson pursued an activist agenda aimed at easing the impact of the Great Depression. During his six years in office, from 1931 to 1936, he became a hero to the state's working people for strongly defending their economic interests.

-Iric Nathanson, MNOpedia Olson, Floyd B. (1891–1936) | MNopedia

After Kenya, which supports about half a million native Oromos, the state of Minnesota has the largest population of Oromo people outside their homeland in Ethiopia. As a result, Oromo people worldwide know the Twin Cities as Little Oromia. The story of how the area came to earn this name is intertwined with Oromo culture, politics, migration, religious faith, and adaptation to life in the United States in the late twentieth century.

Teferi Fufa, MNOpedia - Oromos in Minnesota: The Making of Little Oromia | MNopedia

The giant lumberjack Paul Bunyan—bearded, ax in hand, clad in red flannel and work boots—has come to represent Minnesota’s Northwoods. Folklore credits him and his sidekick, Babe the Blue Ox, with creating the Mississippi River and the Grand Canyon. But his legacy is complicated. While Paul Bunyan myths celebrate Minnesota, they also leave out the facts of the state’s logging history, which led to deforestation and the displacement of Native American histories, places, and people.

-Kasey Keeler, MNOpedia https://www.mnopedia.org/person/paul-bunyan

Pembina was an area in northwest Minnesota, northeast North Dakota and Manitoba, Canada. A metis culture of people of mix European and American Indian ancestry developed in the area. Four-hundred-mile-long ox cart trails connected Pembina to St Paul, which the metis used to transport furs, buffalo hides, pemmican, tallow and other handmade items for trade. Today, the city and county of Pembina are located in the northeastern-most corner of North Dakota.

On the night of July 19, 1967, racial tension in North Minneapolis erupted along Plymouth Avenue in a series of acts of arson, assaults, and vandalism. The violence, which lasted for three nights, is often linked with other race-related demonstrations in cities across the nation during 1967’s “long hot summer.”

Susan Marks, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/civil-unrest-plymouth-avenue-minneapolis-1967

In the late nineteenth century, a movement arose in Minnesota and across the United States to support the interests of working people and to challenge the power of big business and wealthy tycoons. That movement, called populism, shaped the young state's politics for close to three decades.

Thomas Backerud, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/populism-minnesota-1868-1896

The growth of cities and industry in the late nineteenth century brought sweeping changes to American society. Minneapolis and Saint Paul grew rapidly. Urban labor provided new opportunities for Minnesotans as well as new challenges. Business practices and labor rights became topics of heated debate. The Progressive movement spread amid growing concerns about the place of ordinary Americans in the new urban landscape.

Thomas Backerud, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/progressive-era-minnesota-1899-1920

Writers of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution took a little more than one hundred words to prohibit the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. It fell to Minnesota Congressman Andrew Volstead to write the regulations and rules for enforcement. The twelve-thousand-word Volstead Act remained in effect for thirteen years, from 1920 until Prohibition was repealed in December 1933.

Rae Katherine Eighmey, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/thing/national-prohibition-act-volstead-act

Pierre Esprit Radisson’s 1659 expedition to Lake Superior and beyond opened a door to the North American fur trade. Through it, he earned a reputation as a courageous explorer and a cunning merchant. In the 2010s he is remembered as one of the first Europeans to travel to what became the state of Minnesota.

Thomas Backenrud, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/radisson-pierre-esprit-16361640-1710

Alexander Ramsey was Minnesota’s first territorial governor (1849–1853), second state governor (1860–1863), and a US senator (1864–1875). Although he directly contributed to the founding and the growth of Minnesota, he also played a major role in removing the area's Indigenous people—the Dakota and Ojibwe—from their homelands.

Jayne Becker, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/ramsey-alexander-1815-1903

Minnesota’s suffragists worked tirelessly to win the vote beginning in the late 1850s, when Mary Colburn delivered what is believed to be the state’s first women’s rights speech. After a long struggle, the dream of equal suffrage took a big leap forward on September 8, 1919, when the state legislature voted to ratify the woman suffrage amendment, making Minnesota the fifteenth state to do so.

Linda Cameron, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/ratification-nineteenth-amendment-minnesota

St. Paul’s Rondo neighborhood ran roughly between University Avenue to the north, Selby Avenue to the south, Rice Street to the east, and Lexington Avenue to the west. African American churches, businesses, and schools set down roots there in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, creating a strong community. Construction of Interstate-94 (I-94) between 1956 and 1968 cut the neighborhood in half and fractured its identity as a cultural center.

Eshan Alma, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/place/rondo-neighborhood-st-paul

On May 11, 1935, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 7037 to create the Rural Electrification Administration (REA), a New Deal public relief program. The program provided $1 million for federal loans to bring electric service to rural areas. It revolutionized life in rural Minnesota and across the country.

Linda Cameron, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/thing/rural-electrification-administration-minnesota

This turn of phrase is not my own. I have adopted it from the title of a 1985 article written by Woodrow Keljik.

"When the Saintly City Wasn't," by Woodrow Keljik. In ACE (St. Paul Athletic Club), vol. 65, no. 5 (May 1985): pp. 4-23.

African Americans Dred Scott and Harriet Robinson Scott lived at Fort Snelling in the 1830s as enslaved people. Both the Northwest Ordinance (1787) and the Missouri Compromise (1820) prohibited slavery in the area, but slavery existed there even so. In the 1840s the Scotts sued for their freedom, arguing that having lived in “free territory” made them free. The 1857 Supreme Court decision that grew out of their suit moved the U.S. closer to civil war.

Annette Atkins, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/dred-and-harriet-scott-minnesota

The Selkirk Colony or Red River Settlement was established in 1811 by Thomas Douglas, the 5th Earl of Selkirk on a 120,000 square-mile track centered at present-day Winnipeg. The colony was populated mainly by Scottish Highlander and Irish immigrants along with people of mix American-Indian and European ancestry. The colony struggled and many settlers left by way of Pembina, then ox cart trail to the Fort Snelling area in the late 1820s and throughout the 1830s. Many of the families expelled from the Fort Snelling military reservation who then settled Saint Paul were from the Selkirk Colony.

The seven-county metropolitan area includes: Hennepin, Ramsey, Anoka, Washington, Dakota, Scott, and Carver counties.

Direct Election of Senators

The Senate of the United States shall be composed of two Senators from each State, elected by the people thereof, for six years; and each Senator shall have one vote. The electors in each State shall have the qualifications requisite for electors of the most numerous branch of the State legislatures.

When vacancies happen in the representation of any State in the Senate, the executive authority of such State shall issue writs of election to fill such vacancies: Provided, That the legislature of any State may empower the executive thereof to make temporary appointments until the people fill the vacancies by election as the legislature may direct.

This amendment shall not be so construed as to affect the election or term of any Senator chosen before it becomes valid as part of the Constitution.

The Seventh Minnesota Infantry served on Minnesota's frontier in the troubled summer of 1862 and through the first half of 1863. The regiment eventually headed south, taking part in a key battle that virtually destroyed a major Confederate army. They also participated in one of the final campaigns of the war.

Matthew Hutchinson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/seventh-minnesota-volunteer-infantry-regiment

Henry Hastings Sibley occupied the stage of Minnesota history for fifty-six active years. He was the territory's first representative in Congress (1849–1853) and the state's first governor (1858–1860). In 1862 he led a volunteer army against the Dakota under Ta Oyate Duta (His Red Nation, also known as Little Crow). After his victory at Wood Lake and his rescue of more than two hundred white prisoners, he was made a brigadier general in the Union Army.

Rhoda Gillman, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/sibley-henry-h-1811-1891

Federal Income Tax

The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several States, and without regard to any census or enumeration.

Bravery at the Battle of Tippecanoe and during the War of 1812 distinguished the military career of Colonel Josiah Snelling, but he is best known for commanding Fort Snelling in the 1820s. It was the first permanent U.S. government outpost in what would become the state of Minnesota.

Sarah Shirey, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/snelling-josiah-1782-1828

Designed to commemorate people who served in the US military during the Civil War, the Soldiers and Sailors Monument in St. Paul (sometimes called the Josias King Memorial) was erected in 1903. Crowning the monument is a statue of Josias R. King, who is widely regarded as the first US volunteer in the Civil War. King also participated in violent campaigns to punish Dakota people after the US–Dakota War of 1862, known as the Punitive Expeditions. These included the Massacre of White Stone Hill, in which the US military killed hundreds of Native men, women, and children. King's participation in the massacre has complicated his presence in the monument.

Peter DeCarlo, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/thing/soldiers-and-sailors-memorial-st-paul

Although the first Somalis to arrive in Minnesota were students and scholars, the majority of Somalis who live in the state in the 2010s came as refugees fleeing a civil war in their homeland. Like earlier immigrant communities, Somalis have struggled to figure out where they belong and how to maintain cultural traditions as they adjust to living in a new place. They have faced unique challenges as African Muslims living in a historical moment (post-9/11) when their religion is being scrutinized and their home country is in the news for instances of Islamic terrorism and piracy.

Anduin Wilhide, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/somali-and-somali-american-experiences-minnesota

Founded in 1888, St. Peter Claver Church was the first African American Catholic Church in Minnesota. The parish was created by St. Paul’s African American Catholic community and an Archbishop who vowed to “blot out the color line.”

Kathryn Goetz, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/st-peter-claver-church-st-paul

On October 5, 1869, water seeped and then gushed into a tunnel underneath St. Anthony Falls creating an enormous whirlpool. The falls were nearly destroyed. It was years before the area was fully stabilized and the falls were again safe from collapse.

Molly Huber, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/st-anthony-falls-tunnel-collapse-october-5-1869

During a lifetime devoted to public service, Harold Stassen left an indelible mark upon American politics. He first gained national prominence in the 1930s by revitalizing Minnesota’s Republican Party and establishing a progressive, cooperative approach to state government. Although his achievements are often obscured by his seemingly relentless quest to become president, Stassen contributed greatly to the cause of international peace following World War II.

-Steve Werle, MNOpedia Stassen, Harold (1907–2001) | MNopedia

An 1890s populist plan calling for the federal government to construct warehouses (or subtreasuries) where farmers could store their crops and receive an immediate government loan of 80% of their current value. Once the crops were sold (within a year of deposit) the farmer then paid back the loan and 1% interest. This proposal was designed to stabilize the market by providing farmers more control over supply so they could realize higher prices for their crops.

Nestled into a small valley between the mansions of Dayton's Bluff and St. Paul proper, Swede Hollow was a bustling community tucked away from the prying eyes of the city above. It lacked more than it offered; houses had no plumbing, electricity, or yards, and there were no roads or businesses. In spite of this, it provided a home to the poorest immigrants in St. Paul for nearly a century.

Matt Reicher, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/place/swede-hollow

Artist Name: Christine Bauemler
Media: Stone
Date Created: Unknown
Location: Swede Hollow Park
History: In 1841, Edward Phalen, the first European settler to the area, moved into the valley.  In 1844, William Dugus bought Phalen's claim and built on Phalen Creek the first sawmill in Saint Paul.  In 1865, the first train to Duluth chugged through the valley.  Swedish settlers quickly moved in, naming the area Swede Hollow (Svenska Dalen).  However, in 1956, the city Health Department discovered that Swede Hollow contained no sewer or city water service, so they condemned the area, moving out the families and destroying the houses.  In 1973, neighborhood residents and the Saint Paul Garden Club commenced actions to create a park.

Bauemler presently teaches at the University of Minnesota.  She has studied in Japan, she graduated Cum Laude from Yale University, and she received her masters from the Indiana University.  She taught at the Gustavus Adolphus College from 1997 to 1999, when she moved to the College of Visual Arts.  She has traveled widely, producing art based on her experiences.  Her work currently reflects the effect of global climate disruption on rainforests, coral reefs, and the deep sea.

City of Saint Paul, https://www.stpaul.gov/facilities/swede-hollow-park

Lawrence Taliaferro, the wealthy scion of a politically connected, slave-owning Virginia family, was the US government’s main agent to the Native people of the upper Mississippi in the 1820s and 1830s. He earned the trust of Dakota, Ojibwe, Ho-Chunk (Winnebago), Menominee, Sauk (Sac), and Meskwaki (Fox) leaders through lavish gifts, intermarriage, and his zeal for battling predatory fur traders. In a series of treaties, he persuaded these leaders to cede tracts of land in exchange for promises that the government would later break.

Zac Farber, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/taliaferro-lawrence-1794-1871

“No trucks shall be moved! By nobody!” was the rallying cry of Minneapolis Teamsters Local 574 as they struck in the summer of 1934. Their demands were clear: a fair wage, union recognition, and the trucking firms’ recognition of inside workers as part of the union. Despite the violent reaction of the authorities, the 574 won on all these points.

-Eshan Alam, MNOpedia Minneapolis Teamsters’ Strike, 1934 | MNopedia

By the summer of 1862, it was clear that the Civil War would not be over quickly. In July and August, President Lincoln called for several hundred thousand additional men to enlist for the Union cause. In response, the Tenth Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment formed between August and November of that year.

Matthew Hutchinson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/tenth-minnesota-volunteer-infantry-regiment

The Third Minnesota Volunteer Infantry Regiment's record of service varied greatly. The regiment endured a controversial surrender in Tennessee, played a decisive role in the climactic battle of the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862, and helped win Union control of the vital Mississippi River.

Matthew Hutchinson, MNOpeida - https://www.mnopedia.org/group/third-minnesota-volunteer-infantry-regiment

The Treaty of Mendota was signed between the Mdewakanton and Wahpekute bands of Dakota and the United States government in 1851. By signing it and the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux the same year, the Dakota transferred ownership of much of their lands to the United States. The treaties of 1851 opened millions of acres to white colonization, but for the Dakota, they were a step towards the loss of their homeland and the US–Dakota War of 1862.

Peter DeCarlo, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/treaty-mendota-1851

The Treaty of Traverse des Sioux (1851) between the Sisseton and Wahpeton bands of Dakota and the US government transferred ownership of much of southeastern Minnesota Territory to the United States. Along with the Treaty of Mendota, signed that same year, it opened twenty-four million acres of land to settler-colonists. For the Dakota, these treaties marked another step in a process that increasingly marginalized them and dismissed them from the land that had been—and remains—their home.

Eric Weber, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/treaty-traverse-des-sioux-1851

Wage cuts to employees of the Minneapolis and St. Paul streetcar companies in 1889 prompted a fifteen-day strike that disrupted business and escalated into violence before its resolution. In spite of public support for the strikers, the streetcar companies succeeded in breaking the strike with few concessions.

Linda Cameron, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/twin-cities-streetcar-strike-1889

When the Twin City Rapid Transit Company (TCRTC) refused to recognize the newly formed streetcar men's union, employees took to the streets of St. Paul and Minneapolis in the fall of 1917 to fight for their civil liberties. The labor dispute challenged state jurisdiction and reached the White House before finding settlement the following year.

Linda Cameron, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/twin-cities-streetcar-strike-1917

Though the war that ranged across southwestern Minnesota in 1862 between settler-colonists and a faction of Dakota people lasted for six weeks, its causes were decades in the making. Its effects are still felt today.

Peter DeCarlo, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/us-dakota-war-1862

Clara Ueland was a lifelong women’s rights activist and prominent Minnesotan suffragist. She was president of the Minnesota Woman Suffrage Association when the nineteenth amendment was passed in 1919. That same year, she also became the first president of the Minnesota League of Women’s Voters.

Elizabeth Loetscher, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/ueland-clara-1860-1927

In 1888, a St. Paul Globe exposé of women's working conditions penned by "Eva Gay" launched the career of Eva McDonald Valesh, a young writer. During the time that she lived in the state, Valesh left a big impression on Minnesota journalism, politics, and labor organizing.

R. L. Cartwrite, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/valesh-eva-mcdonald-1866-1956

The Old Norse word saga means 'story', 'tale' or 'history' and normally refers specifically to the epic prose narratives written mainly in Iceland between the 12th- and 15th centuries CE, covering the country's history as well as Scandinavia's legendary past. A few sagas were also written in Norway but in either country their usually anonymous writers shaped their stories in high-quality, nuanced prose, leading the saga to now be considered one of the prime vernacular literary genres of Medieval Europe.

Emma Groeneveld, World History Encyclopedia - https://www.worldhistory.org/Saga/

Writers of the Eighteenth Amendment to the Constitution took a little more than one hundred words to prohibit the manufacture, sale, and transportation of alcoholic beverages. It fell to Minnesota Congressman Andrew Volstead to write the regulations and rules for enforcement. The twelve-thousand-word Volstead Act remained in effect for thirteen years, from 1920 until Prohibition was repealed in December 1933.

Rae Katherine Eighmey, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/thing/national-prohibition-act-volstead-act

Voyageurs National Park is located on the Minnesota–Ontario international border and is Minnesota’s only national park. Established in 1975, it is a 341-square-mile network of lakes and streams surrounding the Kabetogama Peninsula. Though the region has been home to various Indigenous nations for countless generations, the park is named for the predominantly French Canadian voyageurs (travelers) who transported furs and other trade goods between hubs like Montreal and points further west.

Karl Nycklemoe, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/place/voyageurs-national-park

On the evening of May 2, 1878, the Washburn A Mill exploded in a fireball, hurling debris hundreds of feet into the air. In a matter of seconds, a series of thunderous explosions—heard ten miles away in St. Paul—destroyed what had been Minneapolis' largest industrial building, and the largest mill in the world, along with several adjacent flour mills. It was the worst disaster of its type in the city's history, prompting major safety upgrades in future mill developments.

Iric Nathanson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/washburn-mill-explosion-1878

Paul Wellstone once described himself by saying, “I’m short, I’m Jewish, and I’m a liberal.” He was also a Southerner, a college professor, and a rural community organizer who became a two-term U.S. senator from Minnesota. He inspired a passionate following, in Minnesota and among liberals nationwide. Wellstone died in a plane crash while running for a third term.

Paul Nelson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/wellstone-paul-1944-2002

From the 1850s to the 1960s, St. Paul’s West Side Flats was a poor, immigrant neighborhood—frequently flooded but home to a diverse group of Irish, Jewish, and Mexican workers and their families. In the early 1960s all residents were moved out to make way for an industrial park.

Paul Nelson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/place/west-side-flats-st-paul

Frederick Weyerhaeuser was a prominent, self-made lumber capitalist and millionaire in the Midwest during the Gilded Age. Nicknamed "the Lumber King" and "the Timber King" during a time when lumber ranked alongside iron and the railroads as a source of industry, Weyerhaeuser created a syndicate that controlled millions of acres of timberland. The syndicate also controlled sawmills, paper mills, and processing plants.

Courtney Gregar, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/weyerhaeuser-frederick-1834-1914

Henry Benjamin Whipple, the first Episcopal bishop of Minnesota, is known for his missionary work among the Dakota and Ojibwe and his efforts to reform the U.S. Indian administration system. After the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862, Whipple was one of the few white men to oppose the death sentences of 303 Dakota.

Sharon Park, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/person/whipple-henry-benjamin-1822-1901

The worst natural disaster in Minnesota history—over 450 dead, fifteen hundred square miles consumed, towns and villages burned flat—unfolded at a frightening pace, lasting less than fifteen hours from beginning to end. The fire began around midday on Saturday, October 12, 1918. By 3:00 a.m. on Sunday, all was over but the smoldering, the suffering, and the recovery.

Paul Nelson, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/event/cloquet-duluth-and-moose-lake-fires-1918

Wild rice is a food of great historical, spiritual, and cultural importance for the Ojibwe people. After colonization disrupted their traditional food system, however, they could no longer depend on stores of wild rice for food all year round. In the late 1950s and early 1960s, this traditional staple was appropriated by white entrepreneurs and marketed as a gourmet commodity. Native and non-Native people alike began to harvest rice to sell it for cash, threatening the health of the natural stands of the crop. This lucrative market paved the way for domestication of the plant, and farmers began cultivating it in paddies in the late 1960s. In the twenty-first century, many Ojibwe and other Native people are fighting to sustain the hand-harvested wild rice tradition and to protect wild rice beds.

Jessica Milgroom, MNOpedia - https://www.mnopedia.org/thing/wild-rice-and-ojibwe

Roy Wilkins, who spent his formative years in the Twin Cities, led the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) from 1949 to 1977. During those years, the NAACP helped achieve the greatest civil rights advancements in U.S. history. Wilkins favored new laws and legal challenges as the best ways for African Americans to gain civil rights.

-John Fitzgerald, MNOpedia https://www.mnopedia.org/person/wilkins-roy-1901-1981#

The Wisconsin Ice Stage is the most recent period in which glaciers covered parts of what today is the northern United States (including Minnesota). This last glaciation period lasted from about 73,000 BCE to about 9,000 BCE and left the most last impact on Minnesota's geography.