Back to your roots

MOSES LAKE — Discovering local history and getting it down will be the subject of two lectures, one Tuesday and one Wednesday, at local public libraries.

Admission is free.

LLyn De Danaan, Shelton, will talk about “History in Your Backyard” at 7 p.m. Tuesday at the Ephrata Public Library, 47 West Alder St., and 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at the Moses Lake Museum & Art Center. 401 South Balsam St. The Moses Lake lecture is sponsored by the Moses Lake Public Library.

De Danaan is the author of “Katie Gale: A Coast Salish Woman’s Life on Oyster Bay.” That book tells the true story of Katie Gale, a Salish woman born in the 1850s who founded her own business and had to fight with her estranged husband to keep it.

De Danaan found Katie’s grave in a local cemetery and became intrigued by the woman behind it. But Gale left no letters or other writings and little personal information. De Danaan followed the clues from the graveyard, from contemporary accounts and memories handed down from generation to generation. Over time she learned enough to write a biography of Katie and her world.

Her lecture uses artifacts and information she gathered during the search to show how researchers, writers and residents can find and document interesting historical stories in their own communities.

De Danaan is an anthropologist and an emerita professor at Evergreen State College.

The North Central Regional Library is sponsoring a series of lectures in the Columbia Basin during April and May. Antonio Gomez will talk about the intersection of cultures in 14th- and 15th-Century Spain. “Saffron and Honey: Muslims, Jews and Christians in Medieval Spain” is scheduled for 7 p.m. May 11 at the Ephrata Public Library.

Yesenia Hunter will talk about – and demonstrate and teach – fandango dancing at 4 p.m. May 11 at the Royal City Public Library, 136 Camelia St. “Fandango and the Deliberate Community” will be outside, so there’s more room to dance. Participants are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets.

Author Jack Nisbet will talk about artist and sculptor Leno Prestini in a lecture at 6 p.m. May 24 at the Moses Lake Public Library. Prestini worked from the late 1920s to the early 1960s, focusing on the Inland Northwest. Nisbet also will talk about his new book, “Ancient Places: People and Landscape in the Emerging Northwest.”

Cheryl Schweizer can be reached via email at education@columbiabasinherald.com.