This blog has been dormant for over a year, as funding for the project ended when the MN Sesquicentennial (blog) ended.
But with the Sesquicentennial of the U.S. – Dakota War of 1862 less than two years away, I’ll post occasional items as they seem warranted.
To really keep up-to-date, however, historian Bruce White’s Minnesota History blog is the one to watch. Bruce is quoted in today’s Strib, in a column by Nick Coleman titled: Fort Snelling is state’s cradle — and stain.
In this bloody cradle, Minnesota was born. And we’ve been trying to ignore it ever since. Hardly anything was said about Minnesota’s tragic Indian history during the limp observance of the state’s 150th birthday two years ago. And with the 2012 sesquicentennial of the Dakota Conflict coming up, reality is still hard to confront.
…
“Is history entertainment, or can it deal with the hard stuff,” asks St. Paul historian Bruce White, an expert on Indian treaties and a critic of the dumbing-down of history. “People died at Fort Snelling [probably a couple hundred in the 'squaw camp' alone, he notes]. There really isn’t a benign story to Fort Snelling. The historical society is afraid of controversy. It wants to tell a safe, happy story to kids. They have some radical decisions to make about the interpretation of the fort if they’re going to be able to tell the whole story. They’ve been vacillating for years.”
