Come to Decorah Public Library Tuesday November 13 at 6:30 pm to hear David Faldet present “Emma Big Bear: Reversing Winnebago/Ho-Chunk Removal.” Big Bear (1869-1968) was the last member of the Winnebago / Ho-Chunk tribe to live a traditional lifestyle in northeast Iowa. Faldet’s illustrated talk will look at her life in the context of the removal period (1825-1875). The event is free and open to the public.

The Winnebago were forcibly moved to Iowa in one of ten relocations that took place as settlers and the United States federal government cleared desirable lands for westward expansion by European Americans. The move to Iowa away from the traditional homeland in Wisconsin was a particularly painful one because it was based on dishonesty on the part of the government and created the initial division between the treaty-abiding Winnebago tribe of Nebraska, and what is today the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin.

Emma Big Bear, who lived in Wisconsin as well as Nebraska, was part of a healthy resistance to colonization and assimilation when, halfway through her long life, she, her husband, and daughter moved to Allamakee County to live a life of hunting, fishing, gathering, traditional handicraft, and trade. The many removals of the tribe can be put up against the efforts of Emma Big Bear and other Ho-Chunk people to stay in Wisconsin or to return to the region after being displaced elsewhere.

Emma Big Bear is also known for the handcrafted baskets she created and sold. Her baskets are considered collector items and are widely viewed as the creations of an American Indian artisan.

For more information, call the Decorah Public Library at 382-3717.

The Happy Hour Book Group will meet at Rubaiyat on Wed. Nov. 14^th at 5:15 p.m. to discuss Taylor Brown’s “Gods of Howl Mountain.” Rory Docherty has returned home to the fabled mountain of his childhood, where he runs bootleg whiskey for a powerful clan in a retro-fitted ‘40 Ford coupe. But his grandmother, Maybelline “Granny May” Docherty, harbors an explosive secret about Rory’s mother—the truth behind her long confinement in a mental hospital, during which time she has not spoken one word. When Rory’s life is threatened, Granny must decide whether to reveal what she knows…or protect her only grandson from the past.