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News headlines from Indian Country TodayIn today’s Strib: Conflict looms as Indians’ protest permit expires today.
The permit that Dakota Indians protesting in Minneapolis were given — but didn’t ask for — expires this afternoon. The two dozen or so protesters erected two teepees and a couple of modern-day tents Tuesday in a bid to reclaim land for the Dakota. But the showdown on the abandoned federal land near Minnehaha Park was put off when federal officials issued a four-day permit.
Mona Smith has 3 photo albums of the Coldwater occupation posted to her gallery. And on her Allies YouTube page she has two videos of the occupation:
Here’s the press release posted to the MINN-IND email list:
Back in April, I blogged about the importance of Coldwater Spring and posted a photo album of the site in winter.
The photo on the left is from when I visited again in June. (Click to enlarge.)
In today’s Strib: Permit delays Dakota fight for Coldwater Spring site.
Organizers said they don’t plan to leave after the permit expires, and that’s when a confrontation could come. They said they will maintain the occupation until Dakota rights to the land are fully restored and the federal government cleans up toxic waste on the 28-acre site.
Here are the press releases that were posted to the MINN-IND email list:
My wife Robbie and I spent a couple hours at the end of the day on Sunday at the Minnesota Historical Society’s Lower Sioux Agency historic site:
Established by the U.S. government in 1853 as an administrative center, the Agency became the scene of the first organized attack in the 1862 U.S.-Dakota War.
We spent most of our time in the Lower Sioux Agency interpretive center exhibit. A sign inside (above photo) at the entrance reads:
THIS EXHIBIT WAS MADE POSSIBLE THROUGH THE ASSISTANCE OF DAKOTA ADVISORS
Ernest and Vernell Wabasha, Lower Sioux Community
Joe Campbell, Prairie Island Indian Community
Harold St. Clair, Upper Sioux Community
Glynn Crooks, Shakopee Sioux CommunityAND THE SUPPORT OF MINNESOTA’S FOUR FEDERALLY RECOGNIZED DAKOTA COMMUNITIES
Lower Sioux Community Tribal Council
Roger Prescott, ChairPrairie Island Indian Community Tribal Council
Audrey Kohnen, PresidentUpper Sioux Community Tribal Council
Dallas Ross, ChairShakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community Tribal Council
Stanley Crooks, ChairShakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community Archives Staff
Jim Warren, ArchivistJune, 2000
The displays in the Lower Sioux Agency interpretive center exhibit are impressive. My only complaint is that the MNHS web page for the exhibit gives no clue at how impressive it is. People checking it out the web site before deciding to visit could benefit from more visuals.
See the album of 100+ photos or this slideshow:
On Sunday we stopped at the Renville County Historical Museum in Morton, MN and met volunteers Chris Hettig and Steve Hettig (right photo, click to enlarge). They’re standing in front of a display about Joseph Renville, my great, great, great grandfather. Chris showed me a folder of miscellaneous research papers and newspaper clippings about Joseph Renville.
In the museum gift shop, I browsed through their booklet, Historic sites of the Conflict of 1862, described as
… a self guided tour to the historic sites of the 1862 Conflict in the Renville County area.
It includes old and new photos of each site along with directions and the historical significance of the site, the people involved, and personal stories told by survivors.
Page 6 of the booklet (left photo) features the Loyal (Faithful) Indians Monument, and when Chris noticed me reading it, she told me that it was located just up the hill above Morton, along with the Birch Cooley (Coulee) Monument. We drove up Monument Drive to take a look it (center).
The words ‘Patriotism, Courage, Fidelity, and Humanity’ are on the four sides of the monument and on the ‘Humanity’ side, the inscription (right photo) reads:
Erected A. D. 1899 by the Minnesota Valley Historical Society to commemorate the brave, faithful, and humane conduct of the loyal Indians who saved the lives of white people and were true to their obligations throughout the Sioux War in Minnesota of 1862 and especially to honor the services of those here named.
Other Day - Ampatutokicha
Paul - Mahzakutemanne
Lorenzo Lawrence - Towanetaton
Simon - Anahwangmanne
Mary Crooks - Mahkahta Heiya win,
Maggie Brass - Snana win
My wife and I camped at Fort Ridgely State Park last weekend so we could visit the MNHS Fort Ridgely Historic Site within the park, as well as other historic sites in the area.
My initial impression wasn’t good. The MNHS marker for Fort Ridgely (left center photo) at the entrance paints a one-sided view:
When the Sioux Uprising began in 1862, Fort Ridgely assumed great importance as the only military post in the valley and a vital defense point against the Indians.
Likewise, the Fort Ridgely State Monument in the center of the grounds:
… the Sioux indians of the Upper Minnesota river, in violation of their treaties, broke into open rebellion, and within a few days thereafter, massacred about one thousand citizens…
But given that the monument was erected in 1896 and the MNHS marker in 1971, it’s not surprising.
These two large markers (above) near the flagpole tell a more balanced story of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.
And once inside the visitor’s center, a much more complete picture of the war emerges.
I thought these war-related storyboards were well done but the story was incomplete… nothing about trials of the captured Indians, the mass execution at Mankato, the forced march of 1800 women and children to the concentration camp at Fort Snelling, nor the ethnic cleansing of the Dakota from the state. However…
this display told the story of how Henry Sibley and others pursued the fleeing Dakota into the western Dakotas and slaughtered them.
The MNHS has a page on its website about Fort Ridgely but there’s very little information there, just three short paragraphs of text. There’s no link but digging deeper into the MNHS website, I found a ‘media room’ set of pages on Fort Ridgely that has more information… but still, nothing close to what’s at the historic site itself.
Yesterday after I visited the MNHS roadside historical marker on the Sandy Lake Tragedy (blogged here), I drove about a mile north on Hwy 65 to the town of Libby, MN and the entrance to the Sandy Lake Recreation Area. Near the dam is the Mikwendaagoziwag Memorial, constructed by Ojibwe Tribes in 2001, commemorating the Sandy Lake Tragedy (’Wisconsin Death March”).
The sign below the memorial (right photo) reads:
The Memorial on this glacial mound remembers about 400 Ojibwe Indians who died and thousands of others who suffered during what is known as the Sandy Lake Tragedy. Constructed by Ojibwe Tribes from Minnesota, Wisconsin and Michigan, the Memorial was completed in 2001. It is a sacred remembrance of the many sufferings endured to preserve the Ojibwe’s homelands and way of life.
Mikwendaagoziwag means “we remember them” in the Ojibwe language. At least 400 grandfather stones are embedded in the Memorial to represent those who died.
The tragedy unfolded when U.S. government officials attempted to illegally relocate a number of Ojibwe Bands from their homes in Wisconsin and Upper Michigan to northern Minnesota. In late autumn of 1850, thousands of Ojibwes had assembled at Sandy Lake for their annual treaty annuity payments. As the Ojibwe waited nearly six weeks for the payments, they suffered from illness, hunger and exposure. Many died from dysentery and measles. The promised annuities were never fully paid and, after the last of the meager provisions were distributed on December 2, the Ojibwes began an arduous journey home. Harsh winter conditions had already set in, and many more died along the way.
The outer circle of plaques on the Memorial commemorates the 19 Ojibwe Bands whose treaty annuities were to be paid at Sandy Lake in 1850. Today, these 19 Bands are succeeded by the 12 federally-recognized Ojibwe Tribes who built this Memorial and are commemorated by the inner circle of plaques.
Back in early July, I blogged about the Sandy Lake tragedy, the death of approximately 400 Ojibwe in 1850 resulting from the federal government’s attempt to remove them from northern Wisconsin and upper Michigan to Minnesota.
I paid a visit to the site yesterday, first stopping at a roadside rest with two Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) road markers.
The roadside rest is on Hwy 65, about 15 miles north of McGregor, a mile south of Libby (image on the right is a screenshot with an arrow pointing to the approximate location. See the live Google map here.)
The left and center photos are two sides of the same marker sign. Together, it reads:
“Tell him I blame him for the children we have lost” - Aish-ke-bo-go-ko-zhe (Flat Mouth), December 3, 1850
In late 1850, some 400 Ojibwe Indians perished because of the government’s attempt to relocate them from their homes in Wisconsin and Upper Michigan to Minnesota west of the Mississippi River. The tragedy unfolded at Sandy Lake where thousands of Ojibwes suffered from illness, hunger and exposure. It continued as the Lake Superior Ojibwe made a difficult journey home.
In the 1840’s, Minnesota politicians began pressuring the U.S. government to remove Ojibwe people from lands the government claimed they had ceded, or given up, in 1837 and 1842 treaties. Territorial governor Alexander Ramsey and others claimed they were acting to “ensure the security and tranquility of white settlements.” But their true motivation was economic. If Indians were moved from Wisconsin and Upper Michigan onto unceded lands in Minnesota, local traders could supply the annuity goods the Government had promised to provide to the Ojibwe under the treaties, and they could trade with the Ojibwe themselves. Minnesotans could also build Indian agencies and schools in return for government funding and jobs.
From the outset, the Lake Superior Ojibwe vigorously opposed removal. They pointed to the promises made at the treaty negotiations that they could remain on ceded lands. Knowing that the Ojibwe would not consent to removal, government officials devised a plan to entice the Ojibwe to Sandy Lake, hoping that they would simply remain here and abandon their homelands in Wisconsin and Michigan.
In 1850, the Ojibwe were told to arrive at Sandy Lake no later than October 25th where their treaty annuities-cash, food and other goods promised in exchange for the land cessions-would be waiting for them. In prior years, these annuities for the Lake Superior Ojibwe had been distributed at La Pointe on Madeline Island in Lake Suprior, a traditional hub of Ojibwe culture and a more accessible location.
By November 10th, some 4,000 Ojibwe had arrived. They were ill prepared for what they faced at Sandy Lake. The promised annuities were not waiting for them, and the last of the limited provisions that were available were not distributed until December 2nd after harsh winter conditions had set in. While they waited the nearly six weeks, they lacked adequate food and shelter. Over 150 died from dysentery caused by spoiled government provisions and from measles. Demonstrating their steadfast desire to remain in their homelands, the Ojibwe began an arduous winter’s journey home on December 3rd. As many as 250 others died along the way. On the same day, Aish-ke-bo-go-ko-zhe, the Ojibwe leader also known as Flat Mouth, sent word to Ramsey that he held him personally at fault for the broken promises that resulted in suffering and death.
As word of the Sandy Lake disaster spread, so did opposition to the government’s removal policy. Non-Indian settlers-including missionaries, newspaper editors, legislators, and local citizens-voiced their support for the Ojibwe. Ojibwe leaders traveled to Washington to secure guarantees that annuities would be distributed at La Pointe and that the Ojibwe could remain in their homelands. In 1852, the U.S. government abandoned its efforts to remove the Ojibwe. And in 1854, Congress passed a law authorizing that future Ojibwe treaties would instead provide for permanent reservations in areas the Ojibwe traditionally occupied.
Erected by the Minnesota Historical Society 2001
From my other readings, this seems to be a fair summary of what happened. But the second sign detailing the miles traveled by the various bands is titled “The Ojibwe’s Sandy Lake Journey.” That seems to be a watered-down title, especially when the other name for the tragedy is the ‘Wisconsin Death March.’ I learned about that name by doing a Google search of the MNHS web site. The only reference I could find on their site was a 2006 prize-winning paper:
This year’s theme was “Triumph and Tragedy,” and the winner is Jacob Nelson, an eleventh grader who wrote his paper for a post-secondary enrollment options class in Minnesota history at Saint Paul College. His essay, “Stained by the Blood of Our Children: The Ojibwa’s Triumph over Bureaucracy following the Sandy Lake Tragedy,” investigates the events and aftermath of what came to be known as the Wisconsin Death March.
A Google search on the phrase “Wisconsin Death March” brings up this 1987 paper titled, Wisconsin Death March: Explaining The Extremes in Old Northwest Indian Removal by James A. Clifton, then a Professor of Anthropology and History at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay. (There are 12 web pages there.)
Also, in the book Chippewa Treaty Rights by Ronald N. Satz, see Chapter 4, titled The removal order and the Wisconsin death march (PDF), pp. 51-59.
Like the phrases ‘concentration camp’ and ‘ethnic cleansing,’ the phrase ‘death march’ has such an associated horror with it that, as Americans — as Minnesotans — we can’t imagine that our government would have ever perpetuated it on a group of people. But all three have happened in Minnesota. And the more that state leaders and organizations like the MNHS help citizens to learn the truth, the more likely the healing will occur.
Yesterday I stopped by the Thompson Hill Travel Information Center/rest stop that overlooks Duluth and noticed this ‘Welcome to Minnesota’ marker erected by the Minnesota Historical Society in 1987. (This sign is replicated at state borders in several places around the state.) It reads:
Known to her citizens as the North Star State or the Gopher State, Minnesota has never claimed to be the Land of giants. But two famous American giants do hail from Minnesota. The giant lumberjack Paul Bunyan cut the pine forest to the north that helped build America’s towns and cities, and the Jolly Green Giant towers over the south’s lush corn, vegetable, and soybean fields, part of the midwest’s fertile farm belt.
Like its neighbors, the thirty-second state grew as a collection of small farm communities, many settled by immigrants from Scandinavia and Germany. Two of the nation’s favorite fictional small towns — Sinclair Lewis’s Gopher Prairie and Garrison Keillor’s Lake Wobegon — reflect that heritage. But the vast forests, the huge open pit iron ore mines, and the busy shipping lanes of Lake Superior attracted different settlers with different skills and made Minnesota a state of surprising diversity.
Best known for its 15,000 lakes. Minnesota has some 65 towns with the word “lake” in their names, not counting those whose names mean “lake” or “water” in the Chippewa or Dakota Indian languages. There are also 13 “falls,” 10 “rivers,” 5 “rapids,” and a smattering of “isles,” “bays,” and “beaches.” Even the state name itself means “sky colored water” in Dakota. The mighty Mississippi River starts as a small stream flowing out of Minnesota’s Lake Itasca, and a Minneapolis waterfall called Minnehaha inspired “the song of Hiawatha,” even though Longfellow never actually visited the falls his poem made known to every schoolchild.
Minnesotans are proud of their state’s natural beauty and are leaders in resource conservation and concern for the quality of life.
It’s too bad that our state’s Native American history is mentioned only in the context of water-related names. It would seem that instead of using the fictional goofballs Paul Bunyan and Jolly Green Giant to let people know about our forested north and farm-belt south, the sign could have informed people about the Ojibwe and Dakota who initially thrived in those regions… and then a bit about the sad legacy of what happened to them as immigrants arrived.
I know these signs serve a ‘rah rah/we’re a great state’ purpose but there’s plenty of that already by the Minnesota Office of Tourism. The Minnesota Historical Society should model our strength of character by doing a little more truth-telling on these historical markers.
I attended an event at Ft. Snelling State Park on Saturday titled, Bdote - Rivers and People Coming Together. The event calendar said:
The area now known as Fort Snelling State Park has worn many titles in Minnesota history, from Dakota homeland to concentration camp, military post to recreation area. Explore the history of this site and its impact, past and present. Begin at the visitor center.
The DNR’s Linda Radimecky, Interpretive Naturalist at the park, led our small group of nine (5 adults and 4 kids) on a 1-mile walk with a 1-hour talk.
"Bdo-te, sacred Homeland of the Joining of Two Rivers" from the display inside the visitors center. Click to enlarge. And see this blog post of my Feb. visit to the park titled Dakota Concentration Camp display at Fort Snelling St. Park for more.
I tried to record as much of Linda’s talk as possible, turning off the recorder during the times when we were just walking. Prepared to hear some jet noise from the nearby airport.
Click play to listen. 1 hour, 14 minutes. Or download the MP3.
While doing a little research about Biauswah, the Ojibewe chief who had the Hwy 23 bridge named after him last week, I notice that the Wikipedia entry said he was "… the principal Chief of the Sandy Lake Ojibwa, whose village was located at either terminous of the Savanna Portage (Sandy Lake & opposite the mouth of the East Savanna River) in Minnesota."
I followed the Sandy Lake of Mississippi Chippewa link and noticed another Wikipedia link to the Sandy Lake Tragedy.
To force the Ojibwe west of the Mississippi, the BIA made a last-minute change to move the annual annuity payments from a central region around La Pointe, Wisconsin, the economic and spiritual center of the nation, to not-so-central, but well known trade-hub location of Sandy Lake, Minnesota. The BIA hoped to strategically trap the Ojibwe in Minnesota, forcing them to spend their annuity payments in Minnesota rather than Wisconsin, which was both economically and politically beneficial to the BIA.
The Ojibwe were concerned about the issues this move presented, and many bands of Ojibwe gathered together to deliberate their options. Unfortunately, the discussions consumed such a lengthy span of time that the Ojibwe were left with sparse time to plant their spring crops. As a result, they were forced to relocate to Sandy Lake if they wished to survive.
So, in the fall of 1850, representatives from 19 Ojibwe bands packed up and started an arduous journey to the shores of Sandy Lake, where they had been told to gather in late October for their annual annuity payments and supplies. They waited there for several weeks before a government agent arrived and informed them that Congress had been unable to send the appropriate money & supplies.
A small portion of the payment finally arrived in early December, consisting of spoiled food and a small percentage of the promised payment. By this time, around 150 Ojibwe had died of dysentery, measles, starvation, or freezing. The return journey was equally perilous: aside from being weak from sickness and hunger, the Ojibwe were also unprepared for a winter journey. As a result, 200-230 more Ojibwe died on the return journey.
I then discovered the web site of the Great Lakes Indian Fish & Wildlife Commission (GLIFWC), "an inter-tribal, co-management agency committed to the implementation of off-reservation treaty rights on behalf of its eleven Ojibwe member tribes."
Left: They have a detailed, 2-page PDF on the Sandy Lake Tragedy and Memorial
Right: The Army Corps of Engineers has a photo of the Mikwendaagoziwag Memorial on this web page.
I plan to visit the site in late August when I have to be in Duluth. But it’s a shocking discovery for me. And another chapter in our state’s sad legacy that needs to be told more widely if the wounds and pain, referenced here on the MN Sesquicentennial Commission web site are to heal:
“Yet we remain either unaware of or unable to look at our own history and acknowledge the painful wounds of ethnocide and genocide right here in Minnesota. We have a very hard time acknowledging that the pain remains and that it has affected much of our history thru to the present day.”
Back in April, I blogged about the terrific Dakota Concentration Camp display at Fort Snelling St. Park. (The MN Department of Natural Resources (DNR) operates all state parks. They do not operate Historic Fort Snelling, the site of the fort. It’s operated by the MN Historical Society.)
This exhibit, according to one of the display books on the site, "… was written with the advice and contributions of many Dakota people."
I was pleased when MN Sesqui Executive Director Jane Leonard mentioned it in her speech on the steps of the State Capitol on May 18, in part because so few people seem to know about it.
It seems, however, that the DNR is missing a huge opportunity by
For hundreds of years before Europeans arrived, generations of Dakota people lived in villages along the Mississippi and Minnesota Rivers that meet in Fort Snelling State Park. The river confluence was believed to be the place of origin and center of the earth by the bands of Mde-wa-kan-ton-wan Dakota, the "Dwellers by Mystic Lake." By the late 1600s, Europeans had visited the area. In the 1820s, historic Fort Snelling was built on the bluff above the two historic rivers to control the exploration, trade, and settlement on these waterways. The area was established as a state park in 1961. The swimming beach, added in 1970, remains a popular recreation attraction in the park. In 1997, a new visitor center opened to the public.
To its credit, as part of the MN Sesqui, the Park has scheduled an event titled Bdote - Rivers and People Coming Together for Saturday, July 19 at 10 am. The description of the event includes the phrase "concentration camp:"
The area now known as Fort Snelling State Park has worn many titles in Minnesota history, from Dakota homeland to concentration camp, military post to recreation area. Explore the history of this site and its impact, past and present. Begin at the visitor center.
So what could be done?
A couple of weeks ago, my sister and I visited the MN150 exhibit at the Minnesota Historical Society.
The exhibit and book, Minnesota 150: The People, Places, and Things that Shape Our State by Kate Roberts, displays and documents "… responses to the following question: What person, place, thing, or event originating in Minnesota do you think has transformed our state, our country, or the world?" (See the MN150 wiki for nominated answers.)
I took photos of all the exhibit displays that have some relevance to this blogsite and project, i.e., Native American Minnesota.
But rather than writing about my reaction to/detailed opinion of the exhibit all at once here in a blog post, I’d rather do it a little bit at a time in the comment thread attached to this post. And I’d like to invite visitors to this blog to comment here as well.
I’ve created a Native American Minnesota in the MN150 exhibit photo album, and I’ve uploaded the photos so that most are 1600 pixels wide which allows you to use the Picasaweb ‘zoom’ tool to read the text. (Click the screenshot image on the right to see the red arrow pointing to the zoom icon.)
So when you’re viewing a photo in the album (this one, for example), click the zoom icon to display the larger photo, click and hold your cursor on the enlarged photo, and then drag the image left/right/up/down as desired.
See the album of 42 photos or this slideshow:
On my way down to Winona last week for the Sesqui Capitol for a Day, I stopped by a roadside rest on Hwy 61 between Lake City and Wabasha to read the Minnesota Historical Society marker, erected in 1985, about Lake Pepin.
Nothing struck me at the time about the wording of the marker. But on Friday during the truth and reconciliation talk circle, I heard a couple of stories of how Indian burial grounds, including the park land where the circle was taking place, were destroyed and/or raided by the settlers… and how to this day, people are still looting burial grounds and selling the items on eBay. (See this 2006 Arizona Republic article, Stolen artifacts shatter ancient culture.)
One of the handouts at the Great Dakota Gathering and Homecoming table was a photocopy titled “Skulls of Chief Wabasha’s Children” and its text contains “Leaf No. 49 of Rev. Edward Ely’s Journal 1852-1853 — Extract from Winona Daily Republican June 29, 1867.”
It tells the story of how an “English gentleman and his wife… secured three genuine Indian skulls that belonged to the royal line of sovereigns that had governed this prairie for ages.”
When I got home, I re-read the text of the Lake Pepin historical marker (right photo above). It includes this:
Long before the European explorer Father Louis Hennepin “discovered” what he called the “Lake of Tears” in 1680, it served as a highway for Indian people of many cultures. Their burial mounds and earthworks can still be found along its shores.
That second sentence could easily be interpreted to mean that people today are still hunting for this stuff and finding it, as if that’s a fun hobby one should consider. That’s surely not the intent of the marker but a follow-up sentence that said something to the effect that “these are sacred sites, no different than the cemeteries where your relatives are buried, and should not be disturbed” would be a way to educate the public about the issue. Again, it’s a missed opportunity. Changing or replacing that marker might be prohibitively expensive but adding a new one that’s dedicated to educating the public about Indian burial sites would seem doable.
The more I learn about the history of Minnesota’s indigenous people, the more I start to see examples of things that still exist today that, deliberately or not, misrepresent that history. And among Native Americans, these things can easily be seen as a continuation of the denial or lack of truth-telling about their painful history with whites that’s occurred for decades.
On the bluffs above Winona is a panoramic lookout called Garvin Heights Park. I paid a visit on Thursday evening and took these photos of the educational markers and displays there.
Center: The text on the plaque about Garvin Heights begins:
The city 575 feet below this bluff was founded in 1851 by Captain Orrin Smith on the site of ‘KEOXAH’ the village of Sioux Indian Chief WAPASHA and his band. First called Wabasha’s Prairie, it was later named Winona - - from the Sioux word ‘Wenohan,’ meaning first-born daughter.
Right: The history panel on the three-sided display about the site begins with this text:
Winona has been home to many peoples ever since the the first Native American hunted mammoths and mastodons 12,000 years ago. The Dakota and Ho-Chunk lived here until the 1850s. The Dakota called it "Keoxa," or homeland. Their word "wenonah" means "first-born daughter."
Both texts then continue with economic and cultural narrative about the early Euro-American settlers in the area. There’s no mention of what happened to the Dakota people. One is left with the notion that they somehow became ‘extinct,’ rather than telling the truth of their forced removal to the Lower Sioux Agency in southwestern Minnesota after the Treaty of Traverse des Sioux and the Treaty of Mendota.
