(Spencer)– A series of events this summer along the Little Sioux River will celebrate it’s cultural history, water quality, geology, recreation opportunities and plants and animals. John Wenck, Water Trails Coordinator for the Iowa Department of Natural Resources, says the events will serve another purpose as well…
“We’re working on a water trail plan for the Inkpaduta Canoe Trail which is what it’s been called since the 1980’s. In the process of developing the plan, we do a lot of research and pull information together. We engage experts in the field to find as much information out as we can and that also includes some public meetings that we’ve had with stakeholders like law enforcement and landowners and what not, so. This is an opportunity this summer to sort of report out or have some events, an opportunity to get this information out to the public and share this cool information that we found.”
One of those events will be held at 6:30 pm this coming Tuesday, June 24th, at the Clay County Heritage Center in Spencer. Wenck says it will feature Dr. Kevin Mason, an Iowa Environmental Historian and a professor at the University of Northern Iowa…
“One of the things we tasked Kevin with is identifying the public lands along the river and kind of writing, looking at the history of those and how those came to be.”
Another event locally will focus on past and present water quality on the Little Sioux. That will be held at 7:00 pm the same evening, Tuesday, June 24th, at Lakeside Laboratory in Wahpeton. A presentation titled “Riverside Chat” will be held at 6:00 pm the following evening, Wednesday, June 25th, at the Clay County Heritage Center in Spencer.
Wenck says several of the sessions will also pay tribute to the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota…
A lot of the Dakota, of the Wahpekute band of the Dakota are up in that area and this was their home. Iowa was their home for a long period of time, hundreds of years prior to Euro American contact. As a result, we wanted them to be part of the project, and they have been. They’ve been great partners. A couple of these events actually will involve Dakota native speakers to come and present to us about their story. Often their story is told from a Euro American standpoint but we don’t really have the fortunate opportunity to actually have them tell us their story.”
The local events are being put on by the Iowa DNR, the Iowa Lakeside Laboratory, Buena Vista County Conservation and the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe of South Dakota.
Find a complete list of events at: www.inkpadutacanoetrail.org/
