Local author/historian John J. Koblas will give a slide presentation on his new trilogy of books entitled Let them Eat Grass, Thursday, August 14, at the Northfield Historical Society. The three-part series is broken into different areas about the conflict. "Smoke," the first book, published in 2006, details American Indian history from earliest times, carefully setting up the climate of inevitable confrontation with the arrival of white settlers in Minnesota. The second book, "Fire," chronicles early attacks on small settlements to the attacks on Fort Ridgely, New Ulm, and the Battles of Birch Coulee and Wood Lake, culminating in the surrender of the Sioux at Camp Release. The final book in the series, "Ashes" focuses on the trials of Dakota leaders, the mass hanging at Mankato, the death of Little Crow, the pursuit of the Sioux into the Dakota and Montana Territories, and the war on a bigger scale—Fetterman, Custer, Wounded Knee, Sugar Point. Whether genocide or accident, if there is a villain in the story it is not peevish old Sitting Bull, or the yellow-haired boy general, but the American people and their never-ending list of places which the Indians 'did not need.'
Mr. Koblas will be signing books before and after the presentation. Refreshments will be served. The book signing and presentation will start at 6:30 p.m. at the Northfield Historical Society; we are located at 408 Division Street, in downtown Northfield.
