The geography professor’s project, which runs through June 2018, is funded by the Hellervik Prize, St. Cloud State’s top research grant.
Gareth John, geography professor.
John was awarded $8,395 and will be released from one class Spring Semester. He is assisted by Molly Lou Pintok ’16, a geographic information system (GIS) graduate student from Willmar.
The project analyzes Euro-American narratives of Native American culture, as told by plaques, markers and statues in Kandiyohi County, about an hour southwest of St. Cloud.
According to the research proposal, the simplistic idealization of the county as a long-standing Native settlement until the arrival of Euro-Americans can misrepresent Dakota narratives of the region’s past.
John and Pintok are analyzing images and text on plaques, markers and statuary and in museums. They are seeking Native interpretations and narratives. GIS tools in the School of Public Affairs‘ Spatial Analysis Research Center will identify landscape features that indicate Native American activity, such as the Green Lake Burial Mounds near Spicer.
Monument to Guri Endresen, U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 participant. It reads: “Erected by the State in Memory of Her Heroic Deeds During Indian Massacre 1862.”
The bulk of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 was six weeks of late-summer fighting in southern Minnesota. It pitted elements of the eastern Dakota against Euro-American settlers and later, the U.S. Army.
Among the markers in Kandiyohi County are the Isle of Refuge plaque west of New London, a statue depicting a fictitious Chief Kandiyohi in Willmar and the Guri Endresen monuments north of Willmar.
John and Kelsey Young ’12 published an article on U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 memorials in a 2015 issue of Journal of Cultural Geography and a 2016 issue of Social and Cultural Geography. Young is pursuing her doctorate in geography at Syracuse University, Syracuse, New York.
John and Pintok plan to present their findings at the annual meeting of the American Association of Geographers April 10-14 in New Orleans. A public presentation at St. Cloud State is also planned.
“I have benefited tremendously through collaboration, such as that with Kelsey and now again with Molly Lou, in which the roles of teacher and learner are frequently reversed,” said John. “That for me is what scholarship is about.”
A native of Wales, John holds a bachelor’s degree form University of Wales, a master’s degree from Pennsylvania State University and a doctorate from University of Kentucky.
John is in his 12th year with the Department of Geography and Planning. His areas of expertise include cultural geography, historical geography, landscapes, history of geographical thought and practice, geographic education, American popular culture and contemporary British culture and society.
The Hellervik Prize is made possible by a donor, Lowell Hellervik ’56. Hellervik co-founded Personnel Decisions International, a global consulting firm.
The Hellervik Prize is managed by the Office of Research and Sponsored Programs.
