Laura Ingalls Wilder

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The United States is a nation deeply committed to the proposition that “all men are created equal” and that all lives matter. We are enthralled by tales of individuals willing to take great risks for great rewards, confident in their ability to make their dreams come true, and willing to constantly reinvent themselves in the pursuit of success and personal fulfillment. Laura Ingalls Wilder is just such an individual. As a young pioneer on the Western frontier, she lived a life of great risk, requiring her and her family to rely almost entirely on their own ingenuity and effort to survive. In her later years, she again took great risk and reinvented herself as a children’s writer, sharing her stories of the American Frontier with new generations. Laura Ingalls Wilder has become an American Icon due to her life-long willingness to take risks, practice self-reliance, and repeatedly reinvent herself.

Laura Ingalls was born the child of Charles and Caroline Ingalls on February 7, 1867 (“Laura Ingalls Wilder Timeline”). During her early years, the Ingalls family joined the growing number of Americans pioneering on the Western Frontier. After leaving Wisconsin, they spent time living in the Indian Territory, Minnesota, and Iowa. The family finally settled in DeSmet, South Dakota (“About Laura”). Throughout each of these moves, the family was in the forefront of a wave of settlers moving west. In doing so, they faced the dangers of an unknown frontier, including potentially hostile Native Americans, blinding blizzards in winter, blazing heat in summer, and a degree of isolation that meant any illness within the family or failure in planning or preparation might spell their doom. Yet Laura, along with her family, relished these...

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