A NONPROFIT, TAX DEDUCTIBLE ORGANIZATION P.O. Box 3, Kasota, Minnesota  56050
NEWSLETTER
Vol 25, No. 1	January, 2001

Prairie Dirt

Well, I guess it’s my task to write something even when I haven’t been doing anything to write about. I’ve been looking around for something I’ve read recently that had some relationship to the Prairie or to sitting around in a bar talking about the Prairie, or something else connected to this organization, and to tell the truth I wasn’t having a lot of luck. Then my eye fell on my first-edition copy of Meridel LeSueur’s North Star Country, published the year I was born:

The ice ages left the rich soil that has been depleted so quickly by man. The first sheet, entering the northeast, carried the red drift from Lake Superior beyond the present course of the Mississippi. A later sheet advancing from the northwest and entering the Red River Valley spread a gray drift over the red. It is good on the gray drift. But the earth, like man, is moving. The earth is not everlasting, nor the hills. The soil?the living surface of the earth?dies, is replenished; the river run through it, take it along, the land returns in the wind, and the sun combines many kinds of energy in earth and man. The land moves. Man moves.

In a short space of time man has defaced and destroyed this earth, wounded the farm land, in what is called ‘accelerated erosion.’ The destruction of the prairie grass, which with finger-like roots clung to the rich topsoil, holding it to the skull of stone, has let the soil blow away. Natural prairie fires also once refertilized the earth with ash and humus every year; now no longer.

The glacial movement created abrupt transitions from the forests of the northern ridges and the great deposits of iron ore under the lake scalp down to the broad prairies with their rich residual soils.

To the southwest rising four hundred and fifty feet above the level of the prairie is the Coteau des Prairies, called by Carver the ‘Shining Mountains,’ a wall of compact quartz rising gradually from the prairie in swells and terraces, one above the other, running from north to south for nearly two miles, where it disappears at both ends again under the prairie.

At the base of this wall stand five stupendous boulders, leaning against each other like brothers, composed of feldspar and mica of an exceedingly ancient appearance. There is not another boulder within fifty miles. The Indians regarded them with awe. Countless small groups of stones of incredible variety and beauty are scattered about. Carver said a man could travel the continent without being able to find where they came from, and come at last to the conclusion that numerous chains of primitive rocks had reared their heads on this continent, whose summits have been swept away by the force of the diluvial currents and their fragments strewn like foreigners in a strange land, the only remaining evidence of their native ledges which have been submerged and lost.

From the heights of this grass-covered mound you may look out over the most sublime and unbounded view of?nothing at all, only the boundless ocean of prairie vanishing into the far horizon, and above it the answering disk of sky swinging upon it.

The low-pressure area created by the Mississippi digging its way to the Gulf makes one of the finest skyscapes in the world, with constantly veering winds passing from east to west and back, sudden storm riding up from the southwest into the wide funnel with a roar, sometimes gathering up a cyclone.

The great thunderheads, birds of wind in the sky, were thought by the Indians to be giants who dug the ditches of the rivers, and when they died became thunderbirds, the lightning the flash of their eyes, the thunder the sound of their terrible song. Those that did not live in the sky became the lonely boulders found standing without reason upon the plains.

Ah, now there was a woman who paid attention to the world around her, and learned from what she observed throughout a long life.

Not to claim more than an apprentice portion of this quality, but driving home from Iowa over the stony hills between Okoboji and the Minnesota line a month back, I noticed a flight of geese gliding flaps down in landing mode, diverging slightly from the road towards a small, ice-covered lake. A ways farther another descending flight was crossing the road, and I reckoned the point they would converge and looked off to the left to see open water smoking in the cold air just beyond the trees and brush, a beacon that would be visible for many miles from the sky. I told Marilynn, my traveling companion, of my theory that the naming of the Minnesota?rendered “cloudy water” by most?was not from the silty water as has been claimed?before the plow the water was described as wonderfully clear?but from the way the many springs smoked in clear, cold, calm weather, an indicator of water, shelter, and plentiful game in hard weather. A week or so later, at the Mankato library, I saw a Dakota-English dictionary and found that “-sota,” used as an adjective, is usually translated, “smoking.” The dictionary also defined “kasota” as “a place that has been cleared of trees,” suggesting that the Prairie was as it is, a place created and preserved by human effort and ingenuity to be a special place of beauty and pleasure.

SKP Membership meeting

1. Call to order 8:00

2. Approved agenda as written.

3. Minutes of 11-09-00 meeting approved with the following corrections: correction to # 7 last sentence in center column "there was concern that $300 was unaccounted for". #8 top center of column strike "Big Walter Smith". Bottom of same column should say "some members present". Minutes of Board meeting on page 5 should be attributed to Eric Steinmetz.

4. President's report
Eric Steinmetz spoke with Merilee Ricard of KMSU about how the Blues Performance money is spent. All of the money we have pledged has been properly accounted for. We came through the Gambling Control Board compliance review fine. We have increased the size of the type in the newsletter to popular acclaim. Jenny Ward asked for an extra $5.00 for the wolf box which Eric agreed to.

5. Treasurer's report
Mark Halverson reported that we have $17,400 in Checking and $120.27 in savings. Mark will sum up our investments at the next meeting. Kris Higginbotham submitted some newsletter expenses.

6. Gambling Manager's report
Full report available upon request. G.M. Marilynn Chatleain reported that our gambling site at Bowlero Lanes in St. Peter is doing very well. It was suggested that we have one of our meetings there in the near future. Our site at the Blue Moon is continuing to have problems with cash shortages. They have made full reimbursement for all shortages. Marilynn reported on our expenditures for inventory, wages, accounting, rent, taxes and donations. Marilynn recommended approval of expenditures for all the above categories for the coming month. We got thank you notes from the Kasota Cemetery Assn, Project GEM, and Marcie Stoyke. G.M. Report moved by Marilynn. Seconded by Jim Tracy. Motion carried. Eric discussed the prospects of a potential new sited in Mankato in the bar district on South Front Street. Watch this space. More discussion of our successful compliance review.

7. Old Business:
a. UNIMIN negotiations. Nothing new since we made the last move.
b. Yule party. Since we had a binding contract with the band we are proceeding to advertise it and promote it to our friends. We will sell tee shirts and memberships at a table.
c. The type in the latest newsletter is much larger and there were many comments from the members about how good it looks. The many geezers among our members especially appreciated the larger type.

8. New Business none

9. Member Dave Ross thanked the membership for the invitation for his band the Flathead Cats to open our Holiday Concert.

10. Meeting adjourned.

LETTER S TO THE EDITOR

Dear SKP Members:
Thank you ever so much for your generous donation of $400 to help launch our after-school program. We have finally decided on a name for the program, “325,” because it runs from 3:00 to 5:00 on Wednesday afternoons.

We will be putting your donation to use by purchasing study materials such as flash cards, pencils, markers and books. It will also be used for advertising to alert the community of the “325” project.

I will be happy to provide you with updates on the program, and will send a few pictures once they become available.

(s) Marit Honetschlager, 325 Head Coordinator

Project G.E.M. - Growth - Experience - Motivation

We would also like to thank Judy Cooper for the environmental field trips and educational slide presentations offered. Again this year she did an excellent job and we hope to have her remain as our contact for these presentations and field trips. The facilities were very pleased with the services offered by Judy. I will contact her this spring to set up a couple more field trips that could not be done earlier this Fall.

Again, thank you so much for your support in the program and offering financial assistance needed for program such as ours. Sincerely, (s) Alice De Yonge, Executive Program Director

Rt. 1, LeSueur

I will send you a follow-up and more. I will also acknowledge SKP to activity directors who hire me.

OK, so, come see me at these homes and hear the music!

Merry and Calm holidays to you all. Thank you for giving the gift of music.

(s) Marcie Stoyke

Takoma Park, MD

Thanks for another year of preserving a very special part of the planet.

Be on the lookout for some promotional stuff from the Center For a New American Dream. They’re approaching environmental issues from the angle of reducing consumption. They have some cool and creative projects going on. Their motto is, “Less Stuff, More Fun.” I passed your address along.

Merry
everything,
everywhere,
to everyone.
Did I leave out anyone?

Love, (s) Ross Gerston
P.S. I love the mug.

Next Meeting:
Thursday, Jan 11, 2001
At the Blue Moon, Kasota
8:00pm Membership Meeting

2000-2001 SKP Board of Directors
Eric Steinmetz, President
Judy Cooper, VIce President
Mark Halverson, Treadurer
Bob Idso, Secretary
Joyce Eaton
Karen Larson
Jim Tracy