Galaxy's chrysalis.Galaxy’s State Wings: A True Story of a Monarch, a State Symbol, and the Courage to Ask for Change.
By Lisa Loucks-Christenson
Minnesota calls the monarch its state butterfly. I knew monarchs by name.
For approximately 19 years, I documented life on one property: about four years while it was my sister’s and 15 while it was mine, give or take a couple of months. I watched changes in the land. I recorded fungi, mushrooms, insects, birds and other wildlife. I worked to provide food, water and habitat. Those observations became part of my archive and my Wildly Personable work. I had been planning a documentary for the approaching 20-year mark.
Then came Sept. 9, 2026. Events surrounding my removal from the property ended my work there and, in my account, led to injuries and deaths among monarchs I had raised and documented. Not one. Not two. More. I tried to protect them, and I have my own unredacted footage of what I witnessed. I want the circumstances examined.
Galaxy was one of those monarchs. I had watched him among the other insects and butterflies in my care. To me, he was a protector. After Sept. 9, he could no longer fly. The protector needed protection.
While I was working with Galaxy, a trans man visited and held him. “I’ve never held a butterfly before,” he told me. I will never forget his words. I cannot say what Galaxy meant to him. I can say that I watched someone hold this particular butterfly, whom I knew by name, for his first time holding one.
My Flutterfields series was supposed to end with NINE: My Mistakes, His Grace: How Nine Monarch Caterpillars Taught Me Faith Before Wings. I was documenting lives I hoped to see take flight. Their sudden deaths changed the ending and brought a fourth book I never wanted to write: The Monarch Murders. In it, I will tell what I witnessed, what I can document and what remains unanswered.
One question goes beyond my books. If Minnesota honors the monarch as a state symbol, what should happen when someone raising monarchs for research reports that several died during the enforcement of a court order? I believe the decisions and actions surrounding Sept. 9 failed the monarchs in my care. I am asking for scrutiny, not pretending that every disputed question has already been decided.
I am also proposing that Minnesota reconsider its state butterfly. My choice is the mourning cloak. I observed mourning cloaks on the land, and one came into view for my Spring Bugs cover. Its name expresses grief. Its life offers another image: mourning cloaks may find shelter through winter as adults. I've always loved seeing them in the spring.
“If Minnesota can rule monarchs out of the lives they were growing toward, then I, as an author and illustrator, can draw the change I envision. I can cloak a monarch in mourning-cloak wings and give it, on the page, the unruled flight I wanted it to have in life.”
— Lisa Loucks-Christenson
That image will carry into Galaxy’s State Wings: A True Story of a Monarch, a State Symbol, and the Courage to Ask for Change. It is Book Three in The Adventures of Valentine & Allie, following Book Two, Tending Monarchs. I envision a cover with mourning-cloak wings sheltering a monarch—not erasing him.
The book will ask young readers why communities choose symbols, what those symbols ask of us, and what we can do when we believe a rule or decision should change. Galaxy’s story is a true story. I want to tell it with care.
The monarchs I released taught me that flight can be necessary for survival. The monarchs I lost taught me that I must carry their stories. I spent months helping them grow wings. Now I have to put on my own.
Lisa Loucks-Christenson is an independent author, illustrator, journalist and documentary creator. Her work spans wildlife observation, nature storytelling, books and film, including the Flutterfields series, Wildly Personable and The Allie Institute.
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