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

• Final BOM DEIS July 2006 (482 pages; alternately, see separated document files below)
• Final Ethnographic Resource Rpt 06_06_06 (228 pages)
• BOM_Archeological Research_2001_final (108 pages)
• Historical Study_Hennings (68 pages)
• Wetland Delineation Report August 2005_final (74 pages)

Final BOM DEIS July 2006 Separated document files

• 1_BOM DEIS July 2006  Cover_Summary_TOC.pdf
• 2_BOM DEIS July 2006 Chapter 1.pdf
• 3_BOM DEIS July 2006 Chapter 2.pdf
• 4_BOM DEIS July 2006 Chapter 3.pdf
• 5_BOM DEIS July 2006 Chapter 4.pdf
• 6_BOM DEIS July 2006 Chapter 5.pdf
• 7_BOM DEIS July 2006 References.pdf
• 8_BOM DEIS July 2006 Schedule of Appendixes & Appendix A.pdf
• 9_BOM DEIS July 2006 Appendix B.pdf
• 10_BOM DEIS July 2006 Appendix C.pdf
• 11_BOM DEIS July 2006 Appendix D.pdf
• 12_BOM DEIS July 2006 Appendix E.pdf
• 13_BOM DEIS July 2006 Appendix F.pdf
• 14_BOM DEIS July 2006 Appendix G.pdf
• 15_BOM DEIS July 2006 back cover.pdf

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:

She wrote: “Attached is the announcement of the public open house for the Camp Coldwater Spring, the property formerly known as the Bureau of Mines.”

See my Dec. blog post National Park Service recommended to manage Coldwater Spring site for background.

Here’s the text of the Coldwater Spring Open House announcement PDF (I’ve added the photo of Superintendent Paul Labovitz):

January 22, 2009

Please provide an email address for future contact if at all possible. This measure saves paper and minimizes the cost of personnel and postage. Your information will be used for the sole purpose of communicating with you about the Bureau of Mines/Cold Water Springs. You can send that information to denise_niedzolkowski@nps.gov.

Dear Interested Party,

In our letter of December 3, 2008, we told you public meetings would be conducted in the winter and spring of 2009 to help determine some of the details for restoration of the site.

An informational open house has been scheduled to give the public an opportunity to provide comment on planning for the reuse and restoration of federal property formally occupied by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines.

The open house will be held Monday February 23, 2009 from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m. in the auditorium on the first floor of the VA Hospital, located at One Veterans Drive in Minneapolis.

National Park Service and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service staff will be available to provide information concerning the DEIS preferred alternative, historical preservation and interpretation, and to gather input to guide planning for the future reuse and restoration of the site.

Sincerely,

Paul Labovitz
Superintendent

As an indigenous person from occupied territory in Minnesota, Obama fever has eluded me. In fact, I find little in Obama’s rhetoric or proposed policies that indicate his presidency will be substantially different from the long list of white guys who have occupied the office before him.

My hope for the future, then, does not stem from my belief that President Obama will address the ongoing denial of freedom to indigenous peoples within our own homelands. Indeed, while many Americans are celebrating what they perceive as a victory over racism in the election of a black man to the White House, my only hope concerning his election is that it will clearly elucidate the difference between racism and colonialism in America.

As he invokes the memory of America’s founding fathers and refers to Americans as the "heirs of those early patriots," he reminds indigenous peoples that America was built at our expense. We paid the price of America’s nationhood with our blood, our lands, and our resources. America lives because indigenous populations were exterminated and dispossessed of much that was dear to us.

WAZIYATAWIN, GRANITE FALLS, MINN.; RESEARCH CHAIR, INDIGENOUS GOVERNANCE PROGRAM, UNIVERSITY OF VICTORIA

See the album of 15 photos or this slideshow:

(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.

Inspired by the 150th anniversary of Minnesota statehood, "States" asserts the primacy of Indians in Minnesota, recalls broken treaties and the bitter hanging of 38 Indians at Mankato in 1862.

A valuable counterpoint to official sesquicentennial celebrations, the show is more educational than confrontational, with flashes of ironic humor and quiet dignity.

The Franklin Area Business Association (FABA) has a blog post titled “States Dates Place” at Ancient Traders Gallery:

The exhibit brings together a group of established and emerging artists whose painting, drawing, photography and digital work present an indigenous perspective in the context of Minnesota’s celebration of 150 years of statehood.

Featured artists include Carolyn Anderson, Andrea Carlson, Gordon Coons, Jim Denomie, Tiffany Eggenberg, Robert Two Bulls, Jonathan Thunder, and Dyani Whitehawk.

and it includes a link to this flyer/poster on the exhibit (PDF):

A group of about 50 Native Americans will ride on horseback into the Mankato area later this week.

Their arrival will mark the end of a nearly 300 mile trip to mark the 146th anniversary of the largest mass execution in U.S. history.

The group has endured blizzards and long stretches of below zero temperatures in their journey from the Missouri River to the Minnesota River.

See the Dakota 38 + 2 Memorial Ride website for more.