Discover the Little Sioux River as a living thread connecting centuries of Dakota presence, environmental stewardship, and contested frontier memories. This talk unpacks the deeper story behind the Spirit Lake events of 1857, revealing how sustained Indigenous land management, broken treaties, and ecological upheaval converged to shape a complex legacy far beyond the simplistic “attack” narrative. You’ll journey through Dakota concepts like “wita” (places of refuge), learn how Inkpaduta’s leadership embodied both resilience and tragedy amid environmental collapse, and see how settler expansion remade landscapes and lives. By tracing these intertwined ecological and cultural histories, the presentation invites audiences to confront difficult truths and to reimagine the Inkpaduta Canoe trail not just as recreation but as a vessel for honest remembrance.

Kevin Mason is a rural and environmental historian of the American Midwest. After earning his PhD at Iowa State University, he served as an Associate Professor of History at Waldorf University. Mason will join the University of Northern Iowa in fall 2025 as an Assistant Professor of History. Mason also runs the digital humanities project Notes on Iowa, serves on the Board of Directors for Humanities Iowa, and serves on the Board of Trustees for the State Historical Society of Iowa. An award-winning author, Mason's forthcoming book Fields of Change: The 1st United States Dragoons and Iowa's Environmental Transformation is due out on Michigan State University Press in 2026.

Dr. Kevin Mason