The Land of Everlasting Sky: A Memoir

Hello and welcome to a chilly Saturday here at the Wannaskan Almanac. Today is September 19th.

Today, I'm packing my bags and heading over to Bayfield, Wisconsin for the week, making Chairman Joe's post yesterday, Madeline Island, perfect timing.

Wisconsin also makes me think about my friend Jill Swenson, who grew up in the Twin Cities, but now calls Appleton home. This past summer, Jill published her memoir, The Land of Everlasting Sky: A Memoir of Loss and Legacy on Lake of the Woods. The journey of this book started in the summer of 2014, when she returned to Warroad to visit her mother's childhood hometown. For folks in Wannaskaland, it's no surprise when I tell you that it was our beloved local librarian at the time, Barb Larson (aka "Babs" to her closest friends and in William Kent Krueger's Northwest Angle novel of the Cork O'Connor series), who connected Jill and me. "Kim, there's a lady in town you have to meet." And to Jill: "I've got just the gal for you."

Jill's book is a beautiful tribute and love story to land - to place as home, family, and legacy. 

Here's the official back cover blurb: 

When Jill Swenson returns to her mother’s hometown after her funeral, she finds a new Seven Clans Casino under construction in Warroad, Minnesota, on Lake of the Woods. There, she learns, Red Lake Nation has recently dispossessed descendants of Ojibway spiritual leader Kakaygeesick from their land—land where the family has lived for the last two centuries—and has also denied them tribal membership. 

In searching for answers, Jill meets the great-grandson of Kakaygeesick. Over weeks, months, and years, a friendship forms between them, and Jill gradually discovers what allotments, blood quantum, and the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs have to do with her, the great-granddaughter of immigrants who homesteaded on reservation land. Estranged from her father, still mourning the suicide of her husband and the loss of their farm in upstate New York, and now grieving her mother’s death, Jill has spent decades trying to put the past behind her—but discovers the only path forward is to reckon with history.

Clear-eyed and yet deeply personal, The Land of Everlasting Sky is a compelling exploration of the history we inherit and our relationships to land and each other.

I love that last description - "Clear-eyed and yet deeply personal." It perfectly sums up Jill as a human being and her memoir. Jill did a hard thing, which was to use her lens as an educated white woman to understand the complexity of land ownership and familial relationships, not only of her own, but that of the Kakaygeesick family of Lake of the Woods. 

Since the time we first met, Jill and I, as writers, have grappled together with the question of what it means to write about the non-white experience. Is it our place to write these stories and experiences? Are we taking something away from these people with our well-intentioned desire to tell stories that we have not lived? Some people say no. Some people said it couldn't be done. But Jill decided to try - to juxtapose her personal story of love, loss, and grief on Lake of the Woods with that of the Kakaygeesicks. Having read the earlier drafts, I can tell you that she succeeded.

In a radio interview I listened to this week about Germany's conservative right winning a key election, a guest speaker shared his thoughts about what it would mean for immigration policy. To summarize, he made a point that land ownership was pretty clear in Europe; that land hadn't been taken by the people for centuries. "Germans are from Germany. English are from England." I know this is a generalization, and there's been plenty of conquering in Europe. But his point was that Europe is pretty stable in terms of geographic borders. And then he said this: "But in the U.S., we know who the land was taken from and who did it."

Land ownership is an uncomfortable topic. I witnessed this discomfort in the audience when I emceed a book talk with Jill and Don Kakaygeesick at the Warroad Public Library this summer. There were as many head nods as head shakes, and just as many head scratches in between, as Jill and Don invited people to openly ponder and discuss the idea of relationship to land. There were both angry reactions to Jill's book and praise for Jill's book. Some people saw themselves in Jill's story. Some in Don's story. Some didn't see themselves at all in either story. And all of this is good. Wonderful, actually. An invitation to speak about that which makes us uncomfortable creates space for understanding.

Jill has been on a whirlwind book tour since her pub date and has had many surprising and unexpected encounters with people who have sought her out to share their own stories of love, loss, and legacy on Lake of the Woods. You can read these amazing tales on Jill's Substack On Lake of the Woods, where her following has grown immensely in the last years as she's shared her diligent research and fact-finding on the Kakaygeesick side of her memoir.

And the book world has been responding positively to this complex memoir, which has already received praise as a 2026 Kirk Indie Award finalist and a 2026 Living Now Book Awards Gold Medalist in Outstanding Books.

While you can absolutely buy the book online, I'm pretty sure the Warroad Heritage Center and the Roseau County Museum (places where Jill spent hours researching) would be happy to sell you a copy as well. 

Jill Swenson, John Kakaygeesick Jr., and Karen Kakaygeesick-Dethmers, July 8, 2026