We're catching up on garden work now that the haze and heat have relented. Here's a digest of stories worth following.
At the West Central Tribune last week, Mark Wasson reported in 14 Indigenous students who attended industrial school in late 1800s are buried in a Clontarf, Minn. cemetery; there may be more:
At least 14 Indigenous students who attended the St. Paul Diocese Industrial School of Clontarf in the late 1800s are buried in two plots in the St. Malachy Cemetery in Clontarf, Minnesota. A review of an incomplete list of school documents suggests there were more than 14 student deaths at the school.
A memorial erected during the town’s 1978 centennial describes the people buried there as “Sioux and Chippewa Indian youths” who died while attending the Clontarf Industrial School between 1878 and 1898.
The school, located in Clontarf from 1877 to 1898, taught a mix of Indigenous students from various tribes through a contract with the federal government and also white orphans from Minnesota.
According to Swift County death records, all those listed on the memorial died between 1883 and 1893, mostly from tuberculosis, commonly referred to as consumption at the time.
Those named on the memorial have “Dakota” as their birthplace on county death records. Their ages range from 9 to 22 and are all males. . . .
An incomplete list of quarterly reports from the school, which are part of a collection of documents maintained at the University of Minnesota - Morris, lists at least 18 deaths at the school.
A March 1886 quarterly report lists Isreal Langer, 10, of the Chippewa tribe, and Nicholas Lanninyan Nayi, 14, of the Sioux tribe, as having died that quarter. They are not listed on the memorial.
A June 1889 quarterly reports lists seven deaths that quarter but only Benedict Ahami, 18, whose tribe is listed as Sioux, is on the memorial. The names of the other students who died at the school that quarter are currently unknown.
A 1978 Swift County Monitor article states the students listed on the memorial died during epidemics at the school.
The article also mentions that the school had 108 Indigenous children in 1886 from the Standing Rock reservation, Devil’s Lake (now Spirit Lake) reservation, Pembina Mountain and Turtle Mountain reservations and the White Earth reservation. . . .
The Spirit Lake Reservation was established by the 1867 treaty between the Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate (Dakota) and the United States government. Our partner's great-grandfather Charles Crawford, a SWO member, signed this treaty as a translator.
Clinton fire
Also at the West Central Tribune (and other Forum Communications papers), Tim Speier reports in Gov. Tim Walz visits site of Clinton's grain elevator fire that Browns Valley Republican state representative Jeff Backer is on the scene.
Backer was last seen in the press in late July visit at a Millerville area dairy farm visit by the governor and the ag commissioner. Does this mean Backer will minimize his whining about the Walz administration not caring about his district? Only time will tell.
In the meantime, Speier reports:
After a fire July 25 in Clinton, Minnesota, destroyed the town’s only grain elevator and main economic source, Gov. Tim Walz, State Rep. Jeff Backer and Minnesota Department of Agriculture Commissioner Thom Petersen visited the community Tuesday, Aug. 3, to inspect the damage left in its wake.
Walz’s visit to Clinton started with a walk around town, talking to business owners and residents of the small rural town about what had taken place, hearing how the community came together in a time of need.
“The whole state of Minnesota was watching this,” said Walz. “Our first reaction was relief that no one was killed, but then recognize that a community had lost a major (financial) asset.” . . .
Multiple fire departments responded in an attempt to save the elevator, hauling in water from around the area and later asking residents to restrict their water use as the fire continued throughout the day.
Residents told Walz about how the elevator was not only an economic source but that the farmers, workers and drivers would also stop in town for supplies or a quick lunch. . . .
Clinton is a friendly little town. Here's hoping the co-op rebuilds the elevator.
High Country News: Riverview Dairy
We're been covering the expansion of the Riverview mega-dairy system over the years and have learned to look for Debbie Weingarten and Tony Davis's work on this multi-state farm empire.
In the deeply-sourced A mega-dairy is transforming Arizona’s aquifer and farming lifestyles, they report on Arizona--and Minnesota:
. . . Far away in Kerkhoven, Minnesota, farmers Jim and LeeAnn VanDerPol have watched as their community lost many of its residents following decades of shrinking agricultural margins and increased corporate consolidation in the livestock sectors. Their former neighbors have been replaced by the five huge Riverview facilities within 10 miles of their house. In Chokio, Minnesota, about an hour away, locals successfully fought to keep Riverview from building a 9,200-cow dairy, citing concerns about pollution and groundwater decline.
Smaller dairy farmers nationwide have weathered years of milk prices below the cost of production that culminated in an industry-wide economic crisis. Now they face a new adversary: mega-dairies, or dairy CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). In Franklin, southwest of Minneapolis, James Kanne struggles to hang onto his small family dairy even as mega-dairies like Riverview compete for the few remaining milk processors.
This investigation follows Riverview’s rapid expansion in two of the five states it operates in, linking the environmental and economic consequences — and the lives of those who are impacted.
The people we spoke with in Minnesota and Arizona are 1,500 miles apart, connected only by the ever-growing presence and power of Riverview. But their communities have much in common: The local industry and resources have been monopolized by a deep-pocketed entity. The groundwater is being depleted and polluted. Incessant traffic, dust, lights and the stench of livestock cause home values to plummet and strain the emotional ties locals have to the places they call home.
. . .According to research by Dara Meredith Fedrow, a graduate student at the University of Montana, Riverview used more than 570 million gallons of water in 2017 — about one-quarter of the total consumption by hog and dairy CAFOs in Minnesota.
We know the Kannes and the VanDerPols. Good country people in the real sense. Read the entire piece at High Country News.
Drought and the rivers
At Minnesota Public Radio, Kristi Marohn reports in 'You pray for rain': Low rivers stressing irrigators, recreationists — and potentially, critters:
. . . For farmers such as Jacob Wildman, trying to keep crops alive during the severe drought has added another layer of strain to an already challenging profession.
"It's been very, very stressful,” said Wildman, a third-generation farmer near Glenwood and president of the Irrigators Association of Minnesota.
He and other farmers are having to irrigate more because of the lack of rain. Wildman said farmers he knows have been trying hard to conserve water as much as possible. That includes using technology such as moisture sensors to adjust irrigators, and turning them off altogether at the first hint of rain.
But state regulators have started limiting farmers and others from using water from rivers and streams for irrigation in areas where stream flows are low.
"You pray for rain. That's all you can do,” Wildman said. “I feel very bad for the guys that had to shut off earlier in the year and just watch their crop disappear."
The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources said Monday it has suspended or modified more than 80 permits to use surface water in at least 16 watersheds in north-central Minnesota, the Red River basin and near Rainy Lake.
The permit suspensions also affect construction companies, ag producers, sand and gravel operators, and golf courses.
The goal is to ensure that there's enough water available to flow downstream for people who rely on it for drinking water, said Randall Doneen, who manages conservation assistance and regulations for the DNR.
There’s also concern about the impacts of an extended drought and low-flow conditions on aquatic organisms.
While drought is a natural occurrence, its impact on a stream’s ecosystem depends on the drought’s severity and duration, said Jason Moeckel with the Minnesota DNR's ecological and water resources division. . . .
We're watching to see how much haying the drought will trigger on CRP (whatever the FSA restrictions may be) and public land held by the MN DNR
Matt McNeil interviews an ag policy guy
This interview with Austin Frerick is worth your time:
An outstanding interview today with @AustinFrerick, Deputy Director of the #ThurmanArnoldProject and a Fellow at the @HarkinAtDrake. We talked the unsustainable economic model crippling rural America, industrial farming. #Spotlight Interview! https://t.co/4rC1dcPXZ9
— The Matt McNeil Show (@MattMcNeilShow) August 4, 2021
Enjoy. We're off to tend our own gardens in this best of all possible worlds.
Photo: The Clinton, MN elevator fire.
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