For Immediate Press Release

Colin Mustful
Founder and Editor
History Through Fiction

History Through Fiction is proud to announce that this fall we’ll be publishing Reclaiming Mni Sota: An Alternate History of the U.S. - Dakota War of 1862 by HTF founder and editor Colin Mustful. 

Before launching History Through Fiction in 2019, author Colin Mustful published three historical novels related to the U.S. – Dakota War of 1862, a tragic and complicated history that resulted in the largest simultaneous mass execution in U.S. history. Years of research and writing on the topic has helped Mustful and his readers understand and confront this history. With his new novel, an alternate history that sees the Native Dakota and Ojibwe people join forces to defeat the U.S. Army and exile the white settler-colonialists, Mustful hopes to move beyond acknowledgment of the history and toward empathy—not just for the heinous missteps of the past, but for the legacy it has left us with today. 

Told through the dual perspectives of Waabi, a Native Ojibwe from Mooniingwanekaaning-minis, and Samuel, a white settler from Vermont, Reclaiming Mni Sota shows what happens when two cultures meet—one striving to maintain its homeland and traditions, the other trying to create a life of freedom, prosperity, and abundance. When the Dakota and Ojibwe join forces to fight back against the white settlers of Minnesota, Samuel and Waabi find themselves on opposite sides of a war years in the making. Thrown together by battle, they discover a common grief binds them. While the past cannot be changed, in Reclaiming Mni Sota, the true and lasting results of history are challenged. What if the defeated became the victors? What would that mean for the world today and how would that illuminate the wrongs of the past?

In addition to the publication of the novel, set for release October 10, 2023, Mustful and History Through Fiction will be launching the Reclaiming Mni Sota Indigenous Writers Grant. With donations made from the sale of the novel and other sources, Mustful and History Through Fiction seek to fund and distribute a $10,000 grant for one Indigenous writer from Minnesota to pursue a career in storytelling. Mustful is hopeful that such an effort will broaden the scope of historical storytelling while dismantling a legacy of historical and cultural appropriation. More information about the grant will be forthcoming.