1997 (Volume 9)

 

Siouxland, the area of the Big Sioux River basin in South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa and Nebraska, is our place. Our magazine this issue shows the diversity in Siouxland. We all know the stereotypes of this place — flat land and flat people. Once you've seen one Siouxland, you've seen them all. 

 

No, Siouxlanders are not all alike. Thank God.

 

We see the seeds of diversity planted in Jennie Munoz's reflective piece "I'm Proud to be ..." about her family's move from Mexico to California to South Dakota. She shares her struggle of wanting to be Americanized and yet retaining her own culture. "Karl with a 'K'" by Marilyn Danielson tells of a 16-year-old Laplander with "reindeer blood running through his veins" who came to the U.S. many years ago. Under our Siouxland section, Julie Schoenherr remembers the Sioux City Ghosts, the globetrotters of softball, a black team which began in 1925 and toured the Midwest until 1952.

 

Then there is the Midwest we all know and love. Dave Evan's short story, "Two Eggs Over Easy," shows a familiar scene in a small town cafe in South Dakota where the men love to talk about wrestler Scrappy Paulsen who weighed 130 pounds with his bowling ball. 

 

Lastly, Aaron T. Moore's poem on "The Loess Hills" stirred us when he said, "The absolute truth that I do not tell her, and never will, is that I enjoy Iowa." Yes, yes. So do we.