Tribes of the Turkey River

Submitted by Terry Landsgaard

      Up to the time of the treaty at Prairie du Chien in 1825, there hadn't been a large council since the one at Clarksville, Ohio, in 1795. 

      At the opening of the Prairie du Chien council, there were many Indian tribes present as well as military detachments from Fort Crawford and other army officers. At 10 a.m., a cannon was fired and a half hour later the council began. Chiefs and orators of each tribe were given time to speak with interpreters and secretaries present to record the various concerns expressed. 

Lent: Repentance and Forgiveness

By Pator Mike Erickson

We are in the forty-day (not counting Sundays) season of Lent. While it is a journey to the cross, it is a time of repentance and forgiveness. Do we really know what that means?

When they think of repentance, most people think only of feeling sorry that they did something wrong. True repentance also calls for a change in direction. Repentance calls for acknowledgement of past wrongs and a change in direction so that the past wrongs will not be repeated. Repentance is both an acknowledgement of guilt and an effort to seek a new path in the future.

Letter to the Editor: Of Carrots, Sticks and Conversation

As I seek to relocate to Iowa soon, I am troubled by how many lakes, rivers and streams across the state – over 750- are polluted by nitrates and other pollutants in manure from industrial livestock operations and commercial fertilizers applied in excess to cropland.

Iowa’s legislators and Congressional delegation see a dilemma in cleaning up the state’s water. Namely, whether to use carrots (incentives) or sticks (regulations) to reverse the diminishment of Iowa’s water quality.

Tribes of the Turkey River

By Terry Landsgaard

      It is important that we write about some of the more interpersonal relationships within the Upper Mississippi River valley and the interconnectedness between the peoples that inhabited what would become the states of Iowa, Minnesota, Illinois and Wisconsin.

     Recently, I attended a talk at Effigy Mounds National Monument led by Dr. Eugene Tesdahl of UW-Platteville.  The content of this talk shed a whole new light on some of the aspects of the relationships between the American and Native American players as well as the European influence that had been present prior to the new "American influence."

Letter to the editor

To the editor,

      We basketball lovers are loving watching the Iowa Hawkeyes women’s basketball team. Caitlyn Clark leads the way—promoting the game, making shots beyond the 3-point arc with ease and breaking records! She and her teammates play at a high level—solid shooting, passing, fast-breaks, and defense! Fun, thrilling to watch! They intentionally give fully to the game and each other.

This is love

By Zachary Smith

“In this is love, not that we have loved God but that He loved us and sent His Son…”
I John 4:10

Well, today is Valentine’s Day. Valentine’s Day is that day that we focus on love.  To celebrate this day of love, we get flowers or cards or chocolates for our spouse and maybe go out on a date together.  We might catch a movie or take some time out to do something special that we otherwise might not do on any other run of the mill Wednesday night.  Some couples make a really big deal of the day and some have it go by without hardly thinking about it.  But today is the one day of the year that the culture celebrates love.  We decorate with hearts and joke about cupid’s arrows striking and we eat a bunch of those strange chalk-textured heart candies (which are pretty great in my book). 

AEA Bill is a DUD

By Mike Van Sickle
Editor

      It was nice last week to finally see several of our legislators listen to constituents on both sides of their respective aisles and exhibit some sense of rationality before pushing through a bill simply because the leadership proposes it. Iowa Governor Kim Reynold’s most recent proposal to make changes to Iowa’s area education agencies (AEA) was tabled Thursday by the House Education Committee. Meanwhile, an amended bill did advance to the full Senate Education Subcommittee.

Letter to the editor

      Do they have these nanny tobacco compliance programs of sending an under-age deceiver into business places to entrap the clerk into a violation in any communist or dictatorship countries such as Russia, or North Korea, or Cuba? Or do we only have them in America, in what we're supposed to believe is the "Land of the FREE?”  

      Did the common citizens initiate and lobby our lawmakers to put such a deceptive practice into law or was this initiated and pushed by "DO GOODERS," who think they know what is best for us? 

Valentine ashes

Pastor Marshall Hahn

“For God so loved the world that He gave His only Son,

that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.”  John 3:16

February 14 is Valentine’s Day.  This day is named after St. Valentine, a 3^rd century Roman priest who was martyred on February 14 under Emperor Claudius II.  Not much is known for certain about St. Valentine, but there are two legends associated with him.  The first claims that Valentine originally got into trouble with the Roman authorities for marrying couples who were in love but could not legally get married.  It seems Claudius had outlawed weddings in an effort to recruit men into his army thinking that marriage would be an obstacle to recruiting new soldiers.

A roast, I mean toast, for LA and Connie 

By Editor Mike Van Sickle

      Well, the staff of the Union Echo Leader has survived the first month after the retirement of publisher/advertising director LeAnn Larson and production manager Connie Lauer.

While announcing their retirement in the Dec. 27, 2023, issue of the newspaper, we let them speak briefly about their experiences at the local office.

      Today, it’s my turn.