Wingerd receives award

Mary Wingerd, associate professor of history and author of the award-winng Minnesota history "North Country."

Author and educator Mary Wingerd was honored April 14 by the Friends of the Saint Paul Public Library for her critically acclaimed history of early Minnesota.

This is Wingerd's second Minnesota Book Award for "North Country: The Making of Minnesota," which was published by the University of Minnesota Press in 2010.

"North Country" earned the St. Cloud State history professor a non-fiction Minnesota Book Award in 2011.

Saturday Wingerd was recognized with the Hognander Minnesota History Award, a new, biennial award funded by the Hognander Family Foundation. The award recognizes outstanding scholarly work in Minnesota history.

"North Country," which features 155 illustrations and 17 maps, offers a fresh take on the making of Minnesota. The book describes a racially and culturally hybridized society based on intermarriage, kinship and the fur trade.

Cooperation and reciprocity were key dynamics in the interpersonal and commercial relations among Ojibwe, Dakota, Europeans and Americans, according to Wingerd.

• Read a news story about Wingerd and "North Country"
• Learn more about the Minnesota Book Awards Gala