Native American Minnesota

Earlier this evening, I attended the Coldwater Spring open house at the VA Hospital hosted by National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff. (See my January blog post for details.)

The Mississippi National River and Recreation Area web site has a set of web pages titled the Bureau of Mines (Coldwater) Current Status that contains some of the information and images/PDFs that were on display at tonight’s open house.

See the album of two dozen photos from the Coldwater Spring open house, or this slideshow:

 
Three youth from the Boys and Girls Club of the Leech Lake Area (Deer River, Cass Lake, Walker) unveiled a large Native American-themed mural at today’s Sesquicentennial closing ceremony in the Rotunda of the State Capitol.

A reception was held at the State Capitol this afternoon to close out the Sesquicentennial and thank everyone involved.

See the album of 15 photos or this slideshow:

I saw the article in this morning’s StarTribune, Protesters decry ’shameful history’, about how a couple dozen Dakota people halted the sesquicentennial wagon train at Fort Snelling yesterday… and the plans for a march to the State Capitol today where festivities were planned to launch Minnesota’s Sesquicentennial week. 

So I drove up to Indian Mounds Park at about 10 am and took photos and video of the speeches and ceremonies there. I then followed the protestors on their march from the park to Capitol. (The Strib has posted a story tonight on their web site about today’s events at the Capitol titled Minnesota’s Sesquicentennial: Celebration, somber protest.)

 
The protest was organized by leaders of the Take Down the Fort campaign, including Waziyatawin Angela Wilson, Jim Anderson, Chris Mato Nunpa, and Denise Breton.

See the album of 75+ photos or this slideshow:

On April 3, I attended an event hosted at the Minneapolis American Indian Center (MAIC) titled, Close the Gap: End Disparities in the American Indian Community. There were speakers, a panel discussion, and a showing of one of the segments of Close the Gap, a documentary film series by the Minnesota Channel  of Twin Cities Public Television (TP).

Featured presenters:

• Elaine Salinas, President, Migizi Communications
• Jim Clairmont, spiritual leader, educator, elder
• Sandy Vargas, President, Minneapolis Foundation
• Justin Huenemann, President and CEO, Native American Community Development
• Bill Ziegler, President and CEO, Little Earth of United Tribes
• Lee Antell, President and CEO, American Indian OIC
• Noya Woodrich, Executive Director, Division of Indian Work, Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches
• LeMoine LaPoint, Healthy Nations Director, Minneapolis American Indian Center (MAIC)

See the album of photos or this slideshow:

It was at our initial committee meeting that first I heard about the spiritual significance of Coldwater Spring/Camp Coldwater (adjacent to Ft. Snelling) to native Minnesotans.

I read about the area on the Friends of Coldwater web site and on historian Bruce White’s web page on Camp Coldwater: The Birthplace of Minnesota and then in mid-Feb, my son Graham and I paid a visit to the site.

(Click the screenshot of a zoomed-in Google map on the left.)

I was surprised to see how dilapidated the area is, especially the buildings for the Bureau of Mines Twin Cities Research Center which has been closed since 1995. That web page says:

The purpose of the project is to consider alternatives and potential impacts of alternative future uses of this federal property on the natural, historic and cultural resources. The former Research Center is located within two historic designations: the Fort Snelling National Historic Landmark, the Fort Snelling National Register Historic District.

The site includes the Camp Coldwater Spring and the Springhouse and pond. The buildings have been determined eligible for inclusion on the National Register of Historic Places.

I noticed that the Coldwater web sites didn’t have any current large/high-res photos of Coldwater Spring and the area around it, so I took a couple dozen.  See this album of 18 Coldwater Spring photos or this slideshow.

Back in February, my wife Robbie and I did the candlelight walk at Fort Snelling State Park under a bright moon. I was thrilled to see that park’s visitor center, AKA the Thomas C. Savage Interpretive Center, has a fabulous display on the Dakota Conflict Concentration Camp, the prison camp where hundreds of Mdewakanton Dakota were imprisoned at Ft. Snelling during the winter following the 1862 Dakota War.

Click the photo thumbnails to enlarge. The photos of displays with descriptive text pop up to versions large enough to read.

In the Feb. 1 StarTribune: Land purchase saves a slice of state’s past: Pilot Knob now has 25 acres of land preserved as a permanent natural resource.

Eighteen acres of Pilot Knob, a cherished tract of Minnesota history that was under threat of townhouse development just a few years ago, will be preserved as open space in a deal completed Thursday.

The nonprofit Trust for Public Land conveyed the land to the city of Mendota Heights, which will manage that tract and 8 1/2 acres purchased two years ago. The land will be returned to its natural state with prairie grass and oak trees for use as a passive-use park, said Bob McGillivray, the TPL’s senior project manager.

Riverboat pilots hauling supplies to nearby Fort Snelling gave Pilot Knob its name. The Mdewakanton and Wakpehkute Dakota tribes named it Oheyawahi, meaning "the hill much visited," and consider the land sacred ground because they buried their dead there. It’s also where they signed the Treaty of 1851 that ceded 35 million acres of Dakota land to the U.S. government.

I took some photos of Pilot Knob on Feb. 2. Click thumbnails to enlarge.

The sign says that "the City of Mendota Heights is undertaking a 9 year plan to restore the native prairie and oak savannah that once covered this site."

It also mentions the Pilot Knob Preservation Association as a major partner in protecting the site. The don’t have anything on their home page but they do have a page titled the Oheyawahi/Pilot Knob Burial Register, last updated on Feb. 17, 2004.