Publications of the Minnesota Historical Society

Vol. 6 includes the 23d Biennial report of the Society, 1923/24, as an extra number.

"In 1886 a small group of Hidatsa Indian people left their earth lodges in Like-a-Fishhook Village on the Fort Berthold Reservation in western North Dakota. Pushed by U.S. government policies and pulled by new opportunities, they moved up the Missouri River and built homes on the reservation at an isolated spot they called Independence. About 20 years later, Gilbert L. Wilson, and anthropologist with an insatiable interest and an a tireless pencil, went to Independence to record information about traditional Hidatsa life. There three members of one family--Buffalo Bird Woman, her brother Wolf Chief, and her son Goodbird--agreed to tell him their stories. This book is based on the memories of Buffalo Bird Woman's family shared with Wilson and on the cultural artifacts that they sold him. It is a powerful and personal description of one family's journey from a traditional, clan-oriented society ot the industrialized, individualistic world of 20th-century America. Their stories speak for the thousands of other Indian families whose experiences were never recorded"--Book cover.

Describes voyages through northern U.S. and southwestern Canada.

History in words and pictures.

This is the narrative of a canoe trip by renowned news commentator Eric Sevareid (1912-1992). After graduating from Minneapolis High School, he embarked with his classmate, Walt Port, on a journey that would take them up the Minnesota River to Big Stone Lake and from there to the Red River of the North and Lake Winnipeg. They paddled along the eastern shore of Lake Winnipeg to Norway House and then through five hundred miles of wilderness to York Factory, the historic trading center at Hudson Bay. They succeeded in becoming the first Americans on record to complete the route, which was over 2,250 miles long and required an entire summer, and their regular dispatches were published by the Minneapolis Star. Though aided initially by conveniences available at towns and settlements along the river banks, their route became progressively wilder and more challenging. During the last leg of the trip, when they found themselves ill-equipped to endure the climate, scarcity of food, and unanticipated hazards, they depended heavily on assistance from traders and the Cree, of whom Sevareid sometimes speaks disparagingly. The book focuses on adventure and personal experience rather than natural description or ethnographic information. Severeid himself viewed his journey as a rite of passage from adolescence into manhood.