…author Mary Wingerd describes the relationships between indians and whites in the 200 years before statehood and the early years of statehood.

[...]]]> Mary Lethert Wingerd, author of North Country: The Making of Minnesota, was interviewed on yesterday’s Midday program on MPR: How the land of the Dakota and Ojibwe became the State of Minnesota.

…author Mary Wingerd describes the relationships between indians and whites in the 200 years before statehood and the early years of statehood.

The two-story house in dot-on-the-map Mendota (population: 197) is more ragged than rustic. White paint is peeling off doors. A side porch has collapsed. On the front lawn, weeds have won the turf war against grass.

But on Wednesday nights, supporters of the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota [...]]]> In yesterday’s StarTribune: Mendota tribe struggles to keep language, culture alive

The two-story house in dot-on-the-map Mendota (population: 197) is more ragged than rustic. White paint is peeling off doors. A side porch has collapsed. On the front lawn, weeds have won the turf war against grass.

But on Wednesday nights, supporters of the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community try to forget they have trouble making rent on their ramshackle community center. There is important work to do here along Hwy. 13: There’s a language and culture to preserve.

The band of 200 to 300 people is working locally to increase the dwindling number of people who know the Dakota language and nationally to gain federal recognition as an independent tribe, a designation that would bring much-needed financial help.

See the video, Learning the language.

Bruce is one of the state’s most respected historians and has written extensively about Native Americans.

I’ve added the RSS feed of his blog to the lower right sidebar here.

Welcome to the blogosphere, Bruce!

Coldwater Spring/Bureau of Mines Draft Environmental Impact Statement (EIS) 2006

(The quarterly apparently doesn’t make PDFs of its articles available on its web [...]]]> The current issue (winter 2008-09) of Minnesota History, the quarterly of the Minnesota Historical Society, arrived in the mail today. It contains a 14-page article titled Survival at Crow Creek, 1863—1866 by Colette A. Hyman, a professor of history at Winona State University.

(The quarterly apparently doesn’t make PDFs of its articles available on its web site but individual issues can be ordered for $5.  See the order page for the Winter 2008-09 (61:4) issue.)

  
Here are photo snapshots of the first 4 pages. Click to enlarge as they’re somewhat readable.

I found it interesting that Professor Hyman used terms like “genocidal attacks,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “genocidal policies and actions” early in her article. The Minnesota Historical Society (MNHS) deserves credit for publishing a piece in which those terms are used to describe the state’s treat of the Dakota, particularly in the aftermath of the U.S. – Dakota War of 1862.

Professor Hyman also refers to the concentration / internment camp at Fort Snelling as a “disease-ridden enclosure” and the accompanying photograph of the camp  has the caption, “Tipis of the captive Dakota in a fenced enclosure on the Minnesota River just below Fort Snelling, 1862-63.”

I’ll contact her to see if she’ll comment here about those terms, as well as the larger article and the book she’s working on, tentatively titled Dakota Women in Exile.

In the fall of 2002, Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) (with financial support from the Blandin Foundation) did a six part series on the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 titled, Minnesota’s Uncivil War. The content is still available, including some audio:

Part 1: The remnants [...]]]> Today is the 146th anniversary of the start of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.

In the fall of 2002, Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) (with financial support from the Blandin Foundation) did a six part series on the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 titled, Minnesota’s Uncivil War. The content is still available, including some audio:

Part 1: The remnants of war
Part 2: “Let them eat grass”
Part 3: Broken promises lead to war
Part 4: Hundreds of settlers die in attacks
Part 5: Execution and expulsion
Part 6: The Dakota – still a divided people

See the photo gallery and three supplemental stories:

• Exiled at Crow Creek
• A woman of contradiction 
• What should we call it?

Minnesota-based author/historian John ‘Jack’ Koblas gave a slide presentation at the Northfield Historical Society last night on Let them Eat Grass, his three-volume history of the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862.

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 [...]]]>

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

• Not having anything about the exhibit on its Fort Snelling State Park website; and
• Not even mentioning the existence of the concentration camp on the History section of the park’s website, where the narrative reads:

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?

1. I’d really like to see a multimedia version of the Dakota Concentration Camp exhibit on the Fort Snelling State Park website, or possibly a separate web site altogether. This would be an inexpensive project for the DNR’s web team and make it much easier for many thousands of Minnesotans to discover the exhibit and learn more about the Concentration Camp.
2. I’d really like to see a mobile version of the Dakota Concentration Camp exhibit that could be easily set up at civic events, classrooms, and other temporary locations around the state. Volunteer interpreters could be trained, a DVD with a narrative could be created, and it could be a significant first step towards getting the full story told in the Minnesota History curriculum of our public schools.

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 [...]]]> 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: