Priorities on the River

Prairie Island
During our fifth day on the river, we landed on Prairie Island and got hit with a tornado so ended up staying there for a few more nights than expected. Prairie Island is a reservation for the Mdewakanton Sioux people along the Mississippi near Red Wing. I had never really spent a long period of time on reservations before.
At Prairie Island, there were big debates between Xcel Energy and the Native Americans that live on Prairie Island of why they should and should not put the power plant there. I didn’t get to hear too much about it but what I did hear was the arguments of Xcel saying that it’s not their land and they can do what they want because they’re the one that purchased it. While the people at Prairie Island argued more about how the river should not be treated as a wasteland and should be respected more. It was interesting to see how the two differed in how they saw the land and hearing how frustrating it was to the US side not understand the importance of the river to them and just brushed it off because they don’t understand the meaning of the river like the people at Prairie Island.
This just kind of brought me back to my other independent study for International Relations where I am focusing on the displacement of people on the river, more focusing on locks and dams. Right away at all the locks and dams, I have looked at the most affected people are indigenous communities. This fact does not surprise me at all because it is always communities of minorities that get the short end of the stick for a lot of the time. It just pains me to hear that Xcel just wanted to make even more money and continued to ignore the environment and what the community that had been living there for so long in what they needed.

While we were at Prairie island we also were able to talk to ecologist and water specialist that works for the reservation there. We were able to talk about their struggle of going between what the community and elders want to see and what was best for the environment of the water. There were some gaps in the conversation, especially to why there was a power plant right next to the reservation at Prairie Island.

Quick Update: Boat crash!

Week three we made it to Wabasha which is right after Lake Pepin. In Wabasha, we were met with so many Eagles, which turned out to also be where the National Eagle Museum is. We saw a few eagles close up that were tied down, most of them were brought to the eagle museum because of an irreparable injury and will have to stay at the National Eagle Museum. Bald Eagles migrate to Wabasha in the winter to take advantage of open waters and incredibly abundant resources. - Chippewa River comes in causes a natural dam due to its high content of sediment. Warmer, denser water hits dam caused by Chippewa, which is an upwelling of warming water that hits natural dam which causes an open water area that does not freeze over. During the struggle with DDT, the only place in the United States where one could reliably view a Bald Eagle was in Wabasha, MN.
    In Wabasha, we got to see how much the Eagles presence influence the community because most of the city of Wabasha was cover in eagles, from the post office to murals on the street. There was a plentiful of eagles even now before the winter season has even started. Even when the water was a bit high with all the water that may have made it harder to fish they still were in the area.
    From Wabasha, we headed to an Island and were trying to make it to Winona. On our way to Winona, we hit a bump in the road, literally. To no one person's fault but...they got a hole in one of the boats from a rock that no one could see. We were 5 miles from getting to our campsite in Winona. It was a very eventful time on the island though, people walked in on me going to the bathroom, Peter (ecology prof.) helped with dinner that became a disaster and other random fun times.

For the Rare River Rats!

My name is R. Gail and I am a Mexican American woman majoring in International Relations and Communications. I am paddling down the Mississippi River for 100 days with 14 other students, two professors, and two guides. This is a program through Augsburg University in Minneapolis Minnesota. We take 24-foot voyage canoes with all of our gear, tents, food, clothing, and paddle down the Mississippi River for 100 days while also taking a full course load of college classes.
I am partnering with Mississippi National River and Recreation Area to talk about my experiences going down the Mississippi River.
I will be looking at engaging the communities that are not always represented in the outdoors and natural world through social media and my own experience going down the Mississippi River.
I will be seeking out people of color, people in the LGBT+ community, and people that who have some power of connecting people to the outdoors.
I will also be talking to my classmates who also are “Rare River Rats” themselves.