The Senior Art Show will be on display at the library until Friday, May 10th.  Everyone is encouraged to stop in and see the creative works of the local high school seniors.                                                           

Monday, May 20th @ 7:00 p.m.

Joe Starita, author of I Am a Man will be at the library for a Humanities Program on Chief Standing Bear

Joe Starita was an investigative reporter and New York bureau chief of The Miami Herald, where one of his stories was a Pulitzer Prize finalist.  He is now a professor at the University of Nebraska's College of Journalism and the author of The Dull Knifes of Pine Ridge, which garnered a second Pulitzer Prize nomination and won the Mountain and Plains Booksellers Association Award.  He is also author of I Am a Man that was the 2012 One Book One Nebraska selection. 

In 1877, Chief Standing Bear's Ponca Indian tribe was forcibly removed from their lands in Nebraska and marched south to Indian Territory.  A third of the tribe died on the march, including Standing Bear's only son, and many more succumbed to disease and hunger after they arrived.  I Am a Man chronicles what happened when Standing Bear set off on a 600-mile walk to return his son's body to the Ponca's traditional burial ground.  It shows his efforts to reclaim his lands and rights, culminating in Standing Bear's successful use of habeas corpus to gain access to the courts and ultimately his freedoms.  This is a story of survival that explores fundamental issues of citizenship, constitutional protections, and the nature of democracy--issues that continue to resonate in 21st century America.  Starita's well-researched and insightful account, his careful characterizations and vivid descriptions, bring this piece of American history brilliantly to life.