Appleton Lyceum: Loss and Legacy on Lake of the Woods - Author Talk by Jill Swenson

The Appleton Lyceum is a monthly public lecture series co-sponsored by Lawrence University and the Appleton Public Library. This month, local Appleton author Jill D. Swenson will talk about her new memoir, The Land of Everlasting Sky.

The great-granddaughter of immigrant homesteaders on reservation land in northern Minnesota, Swenson investigates the story of how the descendants of an Ojibwe medicine man, “Everlasting Sky,” were removed from the land where they had lived for the last two centuries in order to build a new casino. In the process of her research, she grapples with her own personal grief and loss, learns about her family history,. and discovers that if we are to mend our relationships to one another and to the earth, we must first reckon with our past, no matter how distant, shameful, or tragic.