Native

Not unlike Spirit Mound really, save in size. Drive a couple miles north from Vermillion, and there it is, growing as if out of nowhere, towering above an endless stretches of crop land in all directions, a sweetly climbable hump of earth, a grassy bee-hive with no reason whatsoever to be there--there stands Spirit Mound as if the entire seventh grade decided to build a massive model volcano.

Dr. La Flesche Picotte was nothing like the stereotypes that haunt the American imagination. She became the first native doctor and tended to all people in need over a 450 square mile service area.

The grounds of relatively small battle at the end of the Dakota War of 1862 is now a pumpkin patch. It's easy to want to forget, but it is important to remember.

Their land taken, their people persecuted, three young boys, hungry and desperate, do something terrible, and the consequences echo through history. What we must remember is often what we want to forget.

Look, if anything in the vast Powder River neighborhood—out there just beyond the Black Hills—if anything merits the word "monumental," it's this…

They're sweet these days, as long as they stay in their banks. When and if they flood, they're a pain, and most do come spring, unless they're damned up…

It began in the 1830s, when President Andrew Jackson blazed “The Trail of Tears” and deported “the Five Civilized Tribes” (Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw,…

It wasn’t gold the man was after. Made good sense that the Ogallalas were suspicious and angry. Made good sense they wouldn’t tolerate yet another white…

Okay, maybe this isn’t about Christmas, but Christmas is the season for sweetness, so I’m hoping you’ll let me tell a story that fits, even if it’s set so…