someone to be sent to write a book about her people and their removal from their homeland in
Minnesota. Ken was so impressed with her dedication to her people's history that he decided to
write KUNU, in Winnebago meaning firstborn son. Caught up in the Sioux people's fight against
oppressive Indian agents, over two thousand Winnebago people were taken by force by the
United States Army from their farms near Mankato, Minnesota. They were transported by
steamboat and cattlecars by train to be dumped in a death camp at Crow Creek, South Dakota
to die of starvation. Over six hundredWinnebago people die, before the survivors begin walking
south along the Missouri River to escape. Kunu and his aged grandfather who cannot walk,
secretly make a dugout from a cottonwood tree for an escape attempt on the river. This all takes
place during our Civil War as Kunu's father fights for the Union Army. For Alberta Day and her
people, KUNU:WINNEBAGO BOY ESCAPES, is keeping a story alive that had almost been
forgotten. Most readers reaction is, "I never knew all of this happened to these innocent people".
A boy, his loving grandfather, and their family are examples of Indian people and their struggle to
survive horrible atrocities that were be committed against Indian people during our early history.