From the Minnesota Book Awards newsletter:

The Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library is pleased to announce Mary Lethert Wingerd, author of North Country: The Making of Minnesota, as winner of the first-ever Hognander Minnesota History Award. This new honor, a biennial distinction of the Minnesota Book Awards supported by the Hognander Family Foundation, is bestowed in recognition of outstanding scholarly work exploring some facet of Minnesota’s rich history.

North Country (University of Minnesota Press) is a comprehensive and unflinching account of how the land the indigenous Dakota named Mini Sota Makoce ultimately became the State of Minnesota, as well as of the people who, at one time or another, have called this land home.

Wingerd will be honored at the Minnesota Book Awards Gala. At last April's Gala Wingerd was presented with the 2011 Minnesota Award for North Country.

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"North Country by Mary Lethert Wingerd is a long overdue book. It illustrates the historic and cultural richness of the land that straddles the source of the Mississippi River and became known as the state of Minnesota. By teaching us the story of this land, Professor Wingerd tells us where we are today, and by opening up this neglected and hidden history of its native people, she helps us to understand the debt and respect that we owe them and points the way for us to make a better future for our children."
—Jack Weatherford