Staci Lola Drouillard
Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand (Nonfiction)

Space is limited; registration is requested. You can register for this event only or any of the other series events below.
(When you enter your email, we can send you important event details and weather updates).

About the Book
Walking the Old Road revisits a time when generations of Ojibwe ancestors called the lost community of Chippewa City home. Staci Lola Drouillard, whose family once lived in Chippewa City, draws on memories, family history, historical analysis, and testimony passed down through generations to conduct us through the ages of early European contact, government land allotment, family relocation, and assimilation.

Documenting a story too often told by non-Natives, whether historians or travelers, archaeologists or settlers, Walking the Old Road gives an authentic voice to the Native American history of the North Shore. This history, infused with a powerful sense of place, connects the Ojibwe of today with the traditions of their ancestors and their descendants, recreating the narrative of Chippewa City as it was—and is and forever will be—lived.

About the Author
Drouillard, a descendant of the Grand Portage Band of Lake Superior Anishinaabe, is the development director at WTIP Community Radio in Grand Marais, Minnesota, and was for many years the producer of two original radio series, Walking the Old Road: The History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Chippewa and Anishinaabe Way, an exploration of contemporary Ojibwe life through interviews and storytelling.

About the Series
With cookies in one hand and coffee in the other, cozy up for six weeks of free readings. The Fireside Reading Series, one of The Friends’ longest-running and most popular events, annually highlights the work of some of Minnesota’s finest writers who have published a new work in the previous year.

This season, we’re asking our Fireside authors to talk about what our natural environment means to them. Our goal is to complement the citywide conversation happening this winter as part of Read Brave Saint Paul, an intergenerational reading program whose 2020 theme is our climate crisis.

This activity is made possible by the voters of Minnesota through a grant from the Metropolitan Regional Arts Council, thanks to a legislative appropriation from the arts and cultural heritage fund.

American Sign Language interpretation will be provided upon request with two weeks advance notice.

2020 Fireside Lineup

Wednesday, January 22
William Kent Krueger, This Tender Land

Wednesday, January 29
John Coy & Gaylord Schanilec, My Mighty Journey: A Waterfall’s Story

Wednesday, February 5
Staci Lola Drouillard, Walking the Old Road: A People’s History of Chippewa City and the Grand Marais Anishinaabe

Wednesday, February 12
Laurie Allmann, An Hour from Now

Wednesday, February 19
Anika Fajardo, Magical Realism for Non-Believers: A Memoir of Finding Family

Wednesday, February 26
Ed Bok Lee, Mitochondrial Night