Jill D Swenson
When her mother died in 2014, Jill Swenson returned to Lake of the Woods in Minnesota where her mother grew up and Jill spent her childhood vacations. Driving into Warroad, she noticed a new Seven Clans Casino under construction and heard Red Lake Nation had taken the allotment land from the descendants of Kakaygeesick, an Ojibway medicine man she had met in 1968 when she was 10 years old. She arranged to meet his great-grandson, Don Kakaygeesick, to find out how this dispossession could happen in 2012. Her research reveals what borders, blood quantum, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs had to do with her, the great-granddaughter of Swedish immigrants who homesteaded on Red Lake Reservation land in 1903.
Forthcoming in June 2026, Dispossessed: A Memoir of Land, Loss, and Reckoning with History will be published by She Writes Press (distributed by Simon & Schuster).
Jill Swenson writes a weekly column on Substack about her ongoing research into the history and culture of the Warroad area on Lake of the Woods.
Forthcoming in June 2026, Dispossessed: A Memoir of Land, Loss, and Reckoning with History will be published by She Writes Press (distributed by Simon & Schuster).
Jill Swenson writes a weekly column on Substack about her ongoing research into the history and culture of the Warroad area on Lake of the Woods.
About The Book
DISPOSSESSED: A MEMOIR OF LAND, LOSS, AND RECKONING WITH HISTORY
by Jill D Swenson
by Jill D Swenson
Returning to her mother’s hometown to learn more about her family history after the funeral, Jill Swenson found a new Seven Clans Casino under construction in Warroad, Minnesota, on Lake of the Woods. Red Lake Nation had recently dispossessed descendants of Kakaygeesick, an Ojibway spiritual leader, from land where the family had lived for two centuries and denied them tribal membership.
In searching for answers to how this could happen, she met the great-grandson of Kakaygeesick who shared his story and she discovered what allotments, blood quantum, and the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs had to do with her, the great-granddaughter of immigrants who homesteaded on reservation land.
Having tried to put the past behind her – estranged from her father since a teenager, still mourning the suicide of her husband and the loss of their off-the-grid farm in upstate New York, then her mother’s death – Jill Swenson discovers her only path forward is to reckon with the past, no matter how distant, shameful, or tragic.
A compelling exploration of the history we inherit and our relationships to land and each other.
In searching for answers to how this could happen, she met the great-grandson of Kakaygeesick who shared his story and she discovered what allotments, blood quantum, and the history of the Bureau of Indian Affairs had to do with her, the great-granddaughter of immigrants who homesteaded on reservation land.
Having tried to put the past behind her – estranged from her father since a teenager, still mourning the suicide of her husband and the loss of their off-the-grid farm in upstate New York, then her mother’s death – Jill Swenson discovers her only path forward is to reckon with the past, no matter how distant, shameful, or tragic.
A compelling exploration of the history we inherit and our relationships to land and each other.
Available June 2, 2026 from She Writes Press (distributed by Simon & Schuster).
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