Prologue: Sometimes Little Towns Die. Sometimes Little Towns Thrive. Today, Little Towns Must Change to Survive
On the western slope of the Alexandria moraine, in west central Minnesota, lies the little town of Pelican Rapids. Rolling hills with thick topsoil cover the rock piles left by glaciers. Sparkling blue lakes fill pot holes, also left by the glaciers. Hardwood forests of maple, oak, and ash shelter the lakes. Summers are hot and winters are bitter cold. Half an hour from Fergus Falls, or Detroit Lakes, a one hour commute to Fargo, North Dakota, and a three-hour drive from Minneapolis and St. Paul; Pelican Rapids is rural without being isolated.
Many waves of immigration have washed over the area in its long history. The oldest record of human life was the bones of a young woman unearthed in a road cut during maintenance work on a highway through Pelican Rapids in 1931. First labeled the Minnesota Man, these bones were later classified as female and dated to a time from 6000 BC to 10,000 BC. The Minnesota Woman is believed to be a part of a migratory group of native Americans skirting the southern edge of Glacial Lake Pelican. The shell pendant and the tool, made from an elk antler, unearthed with her bones are all that is left to tell her story.
Lake Pelican is long gone, but migrants continued to move to the area over the following centuries. The Dakota, or Sioux Indians, descendants of those first native Americans, settled in west central Minnesota. These people probably moved with the seasons, depending on wild food for sustenance. They returned to the maple woods to harvest maple sugar in March and April, fished the lakes in summer and winter, harvested wild rice from the rivers in the autumn, and hunted the woods for berries, deer and wild birds. In the early 1700’s, The Anishinabe Indians moved into the area from the east and the Dakota began moving west into the prairies of what is now North Dakota.
The native Americans were supplanted in the late 1800’s by Yankees from the east coast of the United States. These adventurers settled on land given away free by the Homestead Act of 1862. Any man could claim 160 acres of land if he built a house and lived on that land for five years. The Yankees were followed by Norwegians and Germans, fleeing poverty or conscription in their own countries. The immigrants homesteaded here on the rich farmland at the edge of the lakes. Mark Hanson, a child born in Pelican Rapids in 1906, remembered his father’s story that he bought the land they lumbered and later farmed, because it reminded him of Norway, all rocks and hills and trees.
Almost far enough west to farm the flat, rich topsoil of the prairies, area farmers instead struggled with rocky, glacial hills planted to small fields of alfalfa, wheat, corn and oats. In spite of the rocks, Pelican Rapids became a thriving agricultural town, with farm implement dealerships, an elevator, a creamery and a poultry processing facility. It also had all the other businesses necessary for survival in a rural community, hospital, hardware stores, furniture stores, clothing stores, grocery stores, pharmacies, car dealerships, and restaurants. Over the years, the town was home to a famous con-man, a woman legislator, several murderers, an opera singer, a contestant on “The Wheel of Fortune”, several state championship basketball teams, and a lot of nice ordinary Minnesota folk. By 1982, the population was 1835 and the business directory listed eighteen churches in the area, thirteen of which were Lutheran.
Economic conditions became increasingly hostile to small, family farms. Farmers sold their land, especially their lakeshore, to upper middle class Americans from other parts of the state and the country. Pelican became a tourist community; the population surged during the summer months to many times normal. Gift shops, antique stores, and restaurants emerged and died. Along with a dwindling number of anchor stores, these shops did most of their business during the tourist season. Pelican Rapids residents didn’t necessarily like the influx of lake people every summer, but they appreciated their patronage and their tax dollars.
No matter what happened to the other businesses in Pelican Rapids however, the turkey processing facility grew. It became the backbone of the community’s job market. The plant was a magnet for the next wave of immigrants, a source of jobs for people with little or no training, or for those who couldn’t speak English. In the 1970’s, the complexion of the community began to change. At first slowly, and then more rapidly, migrant workers from Mexico and south Texas came to work in the turkey plant.
During the 1980’s refugees began moving to the area from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Then, the trickle of refugees became a flood. In the 1990’s, over 700 new immigrants moved to Pelican Rapids. The refugees chose Pelican for many reasons; they had relatives in town, they had heard that there were jobs, and they had heard that the people were friendly. Reportedly, notes scrawled on the walls of refugee camps told of work and safety in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota.
The population surged by 35% and the 2000 census listed 2500 residents in Pelican. This increase in the population presented many challenges to the community. Suddenly, eleven languages were spoken in town: English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Serbo-Croatian, Somali, Laotian, Ukrainian, Russian, Sudanese, Arabic, and Kurdish. The public school system had to adapt to a student population of which 25% did not speak English as their first language. The number of English as a Second Language (ESL) classes doubled and then doubled again. Lutheran Social Services opened a Refugee Resettlement office in town to work with the refugees. Volunteers tried to help in any way they could; providing rides, explaining the American system, giving advice, finding homes, food, material goods.
The immigrants chose to remain in Pelican Rapids for many reasons also. The hills and lakes reminded them of home, the schools were good, the pay at the turkey plant was better than they had ever had before, the hours at the turkey plant were shorter, and the people were friendly. By 2004, the soccer team went to state more often than the basketball team. The grocery stores stocked molé sauce, pickled Bosnian peppers, tofu, fillo dough, and cilantro. The Lutheran churches were joined by a mosque.
Few communities have responded to change in such a positive way or have been so successful at dealing with social stresses. Whether you step onto an airplane with your children in your arms and all your belongings in a single suitcase, unable to communicate in the language around you, or whether you step into an apartment full of people of a different race who sleep on the floor, cook food that smells strange, and speak a language you can’t understand, change does not come easily. Peaceful change is even harder; it demands courage, patience and perseverance.
This is the story of two decades in the history of a small town, the story of changed lives both for the new immigrants and for the people of Pelican Rapids who interact with them. This is the story of the new faces in town, the faces of change.
"This book grew out of a photo-documentary exhibit created in 2003 for the Pelican Rapids Public Library and Multicultural Learning Center. The project was made possible by a grant from the Minnesota Humanities Commission to the Otter Tail County Historical Society, by donations from Friends of the Pelican Rapids Library, the Pelican Rapids Public Library, and by the Otter Tail County Historical Society. Further funding was provided by the Pelican Rapids Multicultural Committee, The Pelican Rapids Area Economic Development Corporation, and Dianne Kimm.
In 2002, Pam Westby, the library director, wanted to introduce her patrons to each other, to bridge the chasm created by language and culture. Two library board members met with Friends of the Pelican Rapids Library members and decided to create a photo-documentary exhibit using interviews and photographs of new and long term residents. They planned to ask each subject the same set of questions, and to use the answers to introduce them to the rest of the community. A group of local residents, businessmen, educators, historians, and volunteers, compiled a list of over two hundred possible interview subjects. From this list we picked the final interview subjects, representatives of many of the nationalities in town, people from different walks of life, equal numbers of men and women, and young people as well as older people. The only absolute requirement was that the subject had to be willing to speak with me, and to have their photograph taken. I only speak English; so for subjects whose language skills did not include English, we found translators. The result, the Faces of Change exhibit, has been touring since 2003. It has been displayed in libraries, schools, government buildings, and churches in several states.
This book is an expansion of the ninety minute interviews done for that project. Each individual who was interviewed for the Faces of Change donated their time and the story of their life to the project. Without them, we would have had nothing. Special thanks to Dave Ellison, Jim Christianson and the Library and Historical Society staff and volunteers for their editing skills and support. Each participant was also given a chance to edit his or her own essay for facts. Almost far enough west to farm the flat, rich topsoil of the prairies, area farmers instead struggled with rocky, glacial hills planted to small fields of alfalfa, wheat, corn and oats. In spite of the rocks, Pelican Rapids became a thriving agricultural town, with farm implement dealerships, an elevator, a creamery and a poultry processing facility. It also had all the other businesses necessary for survival in a rural community, hospital, hardware stores, furniture stores, clothing stores, grocery stores, pharmacies, car dealerships, and restaurants. Over the years, the town was home to a famous con-man, a woman legislator, several murderers, an opera singer, a contestant on “The Wheel of Fortune”, several state championship basketball teams, and a lot of nice ordinary Minnesota folk. By 1982, the population was 1835 and the business directory listed eighteen churches in the area, thirteen of which were Lutheran.
Economic conditions became increasingly hostile to small, family farms. Farmers sold their land, especially their lakeshore, to upper middle class Americans from other parts of the state and the country. Pelican became a tourist community; the population surged during the summer months to many times normal. Gift shops, antique stores, and restaurants emerged and died. Along with a dwindling number of anchor stores, these shops did most of their business during the tourist season. Pelican Rapids residents didn’t necessarily like the influx of lake people every summer, but they appreciated their patronage and their tax dollars.
No matter what happened to the other businesses in Pelican Rapids however, the turkey processing facility grew. It became the backbone of the community’s job market. The plant was a magnet for the next wave of immigrants, a source of jobs for people with little or no training, or for those who couldn’t speak English. In the 1970’s, the complexion of the community began to change. At first slowly, and then more rapidly, migrant workers from Mexico and south Texas came to work in the turkey plant.
During the 1980’s refugees began moving to the area from Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia. Then, the trickle of refugees became a flood. In the 1990’s, over 700 new immigrants moved to Pelican Rapids. The refugees chose Pelican for many reasons; they had relatives in town, they had heard that there were jobs, and they had heard that the people were friendly. Reportedly, notes scrawled on the walls of refugee camps told of work and safety in Pelican Rapids, Minnesota.
The population surged by 35% and the 2000 census listed 2500 residents in Pelican. This increase in the population presented many challenges to the community. Suddenly, eleven languages were spoken in town: English, Spanish, Vietnamese, Serbo-Croatian, Somali, Laotian, Ukrainian, Russian, Sudanese, Arabic, and Kurdish. The public school system had to adapt to a student population of which 25% did not speak English as their first language. The number of English as a Second Language (ESL) classes doubled and then doubled again. Lutheran Social Services opened a Refugee Resettlement office in town to work with the refugees. Volunteers tried to help in any way they could; providing rides, explaining the American system, giving advice, finding homes, food, material goods.
The immigrants chose to remain in Pelican Rapids for many reasons also. The hills and lakes reminded them of home, the schools were good, the pay at the turkey plant was better than they had ever had before, the hours at the turkey plant were shorter, and the people were friendly. By 2004, the soccer team went to state more often than the basketball team. The grocery stores stocked molé sauce, pickled Bosnian peppers, tofu, fillo dough, and cilantro. The Lutheran churches were joined by a mosque.
Few communities have responded to change in such a positive way or have been so successful at dealing with social stresses. Whether you step onto an airplane with your children in your arms and all your belongings in a single suitcase, unable to communicate in the language around you, or whether you step into an apartment full of people of a different race who sleep on the floor, cook food that smells strange, and speak a language you can’t understand, change does not come easily. Peaceful change is even harder; it demands courage, patience and perseverance.
This is the story of two decades in the history of a small town, the story of changed lives both for the new immigrants and for the people of Pelican Rapids who interact with them. This is the story of the new faces in town, the faces of change.
"This book grew out of a photo-documentary exhibit created in 2003 for the Pelican Rapids Public Library and Multicultural Learning Center. The project was made possible by a grant from the Minnesota Humanities Commission to the Otter Tail County Historical Society, by donations from Friends of the Pelican Rapids Library, the Pelican Rapids Public Library, and by the Otter Tail County Historical Society. Further funding was provided by the Pelican Rapids Multicultural Committee, The Pelican Rapids Area Economic Development Corporation, and Dianne Kimm.In 2002, Pam Westby, the library director, wanted to introduce her patrons to each other, to bridge the chasm created by language and culture. Two library board members met with Friends of the Pelican Rapids Library members and decided to create a photo-documentary exhibit using interviews and photographs of new and long term residents. They planned to ask each subject the same set of questions, and to use the answers to introduce them to the rest of the community. A group of local residents, businessmen, educators, historians, and volunteers, compiled a list of over two hundred possible interview subjects. From this list we picked the final interview subjects, representatives of many of the nationalities in town, people from different walks of life, equal numbers of men and women, and young people as well as older people. The only absolute requirement was that the subject had to be willing to speak with me, and to have their photograph taken. I only speak English; so for subjects whose language skills did not include English, we found translators. The result, the Faces of Change exhibit, has been touring since 2003. It has been displayed in libraries, schools, government buildings, and churches in several states.
All the proceeds from the sale of this book will be shared by the Otter Tail County Historical Society and by Friends of the Pelican Rapids Library.
The entire process of creating the exhibit and the book has been fascinating. First, I had to persuade a person to be interviewed. I often worked through intermediaries, people I knew who had connections with the subject. Usually, the translator was a family member. Sometimes, the interview was a family affair, with siblings, parents, spouses or children adding comments of their own. Then I had to fit each individual story into the context of the times.
In general, I read light, humorous books for entertainment; in preparation for the Faces of Change, I read books that left me weeping. I am an optimist; and yet, for the Faces of Change, I invited people to tell me stories that illustrated the absolute worst traits of humanity.
My life has been irrevocably changed by these interviews. When a simple question “Do you have brothers and sisters?” brings tears to a man’s eyes, you learn to be exquisitely sensitive in your questions. When a woman refugee still fears government reprisals, you choose a slightly different line of questioning. The people I interviewed opened their hearts to me as they shared their stories. I am passing those stories, those open hearts, along to you. Some of their stories will make you weep. And yet, in those stories, you will also find the absolute best of humanity –courage, selflessness, kindness, and simple love."
Chapter One: Elfrieda Senn, 100% American
Chapter Two: Howard Carlson, The Beginning of Change
Chapter Three: José Juan Zavala, From Illegal Immigrant to Community Elder
Chapter Four: Kathy Knuteson Olson, A Mother Who Took a Chance
Chapter Five: Elaine Johnson, A Teacher in Spite of Herself
Chapter Six: Johanna Christianson, An Immigrant of the Old Sort
Chapter Seven: Phil and Cyndy Stotesbery, Greengrocers to the World
Chapter Eight: Phat and Sarah Huynh, The Man Who Carried His Daughter Across Cambodia Chapter Nine: Dianne Kimm, Grandmother to a Community
Chapter Ten: Pam Westby, Small Town Girl, Big City Job
Chapter Eleven: Hank Van Cleef, Dial 911
Chapter Twelve: Dzemal and Izet Hajdar, A Tale of Two Brothers
Chapter Thirteen: James Ruud, The Mattress Man
Chapter Fourteen: Denise Gubrud, Taking her Work Home
Chapter Fifteen: Jim Christianson, He Couldn't Ignore People in Need
Chapter Sixteen: Kosa and Irfan Beganovic, The Other Bosnians
Chapter Seventeen: Glen Larson, Shepherd
Chapter Eighteen: Scott Fox, Chief of Police
Chapter Nineteen: Gladys Salinas: The Lady with a Garage
Chapter Twenty: Len Zierke, Businessman
Chapter Twenty-one, The Pelican Rapids Tigers, From Street to State
Chapter Twenty-two, Mardin Amin, Spokesman for a Family
Chapter Twenty-three, Israel Elizondo, Bridging the Gap Between Hispanics and Americans
Chapter Twenty-four, Abdi Abdi, Out of Nothing, Something
Chapter Twenty-five, Thip Phommachalinh and Brooke Weishair, Just Friends
Epilogue: Faces With Voices
The Faces of Change by Joan Jarvis Ellison, photos by Mel Zierke, published by the Otter Tail County Historical Society. Now on sale for $16.95 at the OTCHS, the Pelican Rapids Public Library and Riverview Place. A pre-publication party will be held in the PRPL Thursday, June 21, 2007 at 7:00 p.m. The author will read and a few chapters will be present to answer questions and sign books.
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