Meeting Summary Master Plan of Aligned Use and Water Management at Hiawatha Golf Course Property, a part of Nokomis‐Hiawatha Regional Park

Focus Session Series One ‐ January 9, 2019 – 6:00pm to 8:00pm

Lake Hiawatha Recreation Center

Meeting Goal: A venue for MPRB staff and CAC members to hear from the public and members of the indigenous community.

The following are meeting notes from the focus session. Please email Tyler at [email protected] if you have any corrections. 1. Welcome Members of Dakhta Iápi Okhdakičhiye and Healing Place Collaborative kicked off the event by opening the Water Bar and offered attendees samples of three different waters from various local sources The three sources were tap water sourced from: Minneapolis tap water from the Mississippi River; Mnî Yuska (means pure and clean in Dakota) from the Shakopee Community water bottling; and Mount Simon‐Hinkley aquifer, aka Schmidt Brewery (30,000 year old aquifer). As visitors went through and sampled the water, others were talking with the hosts and each other and viewing the Čhokáta Nážiŋ, the Dakota Language Table. Water Bar Description: Mniwe – “A place for getting water”, is the indigenized adaptation of the well‐regarded “Water Bar.” Learn about indigenous philosophies, language, relationships and practices relating to Mní (water) that have allowed Dakota people to thrive in this area for millennia. Engage in conversations about the ways in which we use and interact with water in our daily lives; often without thinking about where our water comes from. Dakota Language Table Description: Čhokáta Nážiŋ – The Dakota Language Table is a living and traveling gathering space for the Dakota language to be re‐strengthened through a deeper understanding of the interdependent relationships of the land, language and lifeways to the health and wellbeing of people that call Mnísota Makhčhe () home. 2. Presentations James Spotted Thunder, a Dakota musician sang a traditional opening song prior to the presentations. Presenter Ramona Kitto Stately: Introduces herself in Dakota language. I came to share broad information about the Dakota people’s connection to this place. If you look around, we are invisible. We are not called Dakota at Indian Mounds Park, we are called Hopewell, which deems us invisible. If you can make a person invisible it is easier to treat them badly because you are not humanizing them. Think about the history lessons you received in K12 education in Minnesota; did you know that we had the largest mass execution in United States history in Mankato. People don’t know that, and it is purposeful. There is a master narrative to make Dakota invisible. I went into teaching to interrupt what is being taught in our schools, and to teach the truth and guide away

Page 1

from the white master narrative. We need to raise children as good critical thinkers. It took white settlers 160 years to pollute Minnesota’s lakes and rivers because there was no respect for the land. In 1859 my great great grandmother went to Wita Tanka Island renamed Pike Island. Dakota women brought their children into world where it is familiar and near water. The sacred place of Bdote, where the two rivers come together, is the center of our universe. This is where my great great grandmother gave birth to her third child. The young man born in 1859 was my dad’s grandpa. This history is not a long time ago. How can we be so invisible? In 1862 during the US Dakota War, my great great grandmother was force marched 150 miles in the winter after the Dakota US war, ¼ of the women didn’t make it. No provisions were provided. Bdote is the word for throat, or breath or life, it is the most sacred place for Dakota people. Men and women were separated by the military to aid in land theft. This happened across the US and in Minnesota. Governor Ramsey’s plan was to put women on steam boats to drive them forever beyond the borders of this state. An early winter came, and the boats were frozen in place. A concentration camp was created. The women were left there for 6 months until spring came. On average, 4 people died each day during this time. This story is told to remind you of the sacredness of our story and our children and the breath of life. This knowledge should be important to you, as we’ve systematically poisoned every lake in this state. If you are a pregnant woman you are told not to eat walleye. Ms. Stately thanked the listeners for coming. Presenter Ethan Neerdaels: Introduces himself in Dakota language. We are the original people of this place. I want to talk about international law, in this place near lake Hiawatha or Minneapolis. Anyone familiar with the US Constitution? How about Article 6? Treaties are the supreme law of the land. Treaties can only be made between two nations. In this place there were treaties made between the US and the Dakota, or falsely called the Sioux. The land we are occupying right now is land of the 1805 Zebulon Pike treaty. This is the first treaty between Dakota and US and is important because it allows the establishment of and the nine‐mile strip to St Anthony Falls. The treaty included usufructuary rights for Dakota to continue to fish, gather, and do as formerly done without hindrance. Subsequent treaties were signed that allegedly ceded 54 million acres of our land in this territory. And in 1862 after the war the treaties were said to be abrogated by Sibley and Ramsey. This means that we returned to the first treaty of 1805. So, all land west of the Mississippi is Dakota land by law today. The City of Minneapolis doesn’t see it this way. They squat on our land under the assumption they are land owners. As Dakota people we know you can’t own land, the land owns us. Series of laws made our ways illegal. People were put in concentration camps, what we call today reservations. They exiled our people to Canada. But our people were resilient and still are today. Our language was made illegal until 1978, and because of that there are very few Dakota speakers that are under the age of 70. US and Canadian governments continuously created policies to make the Dakota way of knowing invisible. There are many Dakota in the room tonight; and we have a message for everyone: this is still Dakota Makhoche. Dakota means friendly or ally. When you read about the Dakota they were called warlike savages. But in our own language Dakota means friendly people. Because we are relatives to all of life. The table behind you is a way of orienting yourself to north America. Today it is called a medicine wheel, it represents the universe, everything about the table is intentional. There are no petroleum products and no metal. It is finished with beeswax. The woods that are used orient us to this place. In the west we have the cedar tree, which represents the unknown. Then there is the cottonwood tree, the sundance tree, the doctor, and grows along river and gives health to other trees and helps people. Next is the Sugar maple, it represents a spring and a coming of new life. Then we have the white ash tree, one of the hardest woods, and used by our people to make bows, Page 2

and other sacred items. And down below you see the white pine legs, intentionally hidden below reflecting the clear‐cut white pine forests in our state. Minnesota is a Dakota place. The Dakota language is all around us. Minnesota is the land where the water reflects the sky and clouds or sometimes people say smoky waters. Chanhassen is for tree with the cream‐colored bark or birch tree. Wayzata is for towards the pine trees. Thousands of Dakota names for places in Minnesota. There are very few Dakota speakers here, and right now Minnesota does not recognize Dakota as a language. So, our children are not allowed the birthright to learn their own language. Historically the language was passed by family, not by classrooms which was foreign to us. Today we see the school system fail to teach respect of the world around them. Mr. Neerdaels thanked everyone and offered the room for questions from the attendees. 3. Questions and Comments Question: Would some of the Dakota living in other places be open to coming back to Minnesota if we created a new fund for repatriating people back here? Response: I would say probably. Right now, we own 1/100th of our original land base. So, there is 54 million acres to be accounted for and I think it could be taken back one acre at a time. [Chuckles] In some way. Question: The best solution would be to transfer ownership in some way and this park is under a planning process and what would it look like if the whole plan was led by Dakota people? Response: After 1862 a lot of our relatives ended up in Canada. So that’s where a lot of our culture and language is. As Ethan was saying there is a minimal amount of speakers here if any. Those political questions haven’t been challenged by the nation yet. None of the four tribes in Minnesota have challenged those laws and policies. As far as I know, it’ll take a political movement to challenge the State. Tribes don’t want anything to do with bringing our people back to this land. Shakopee is the richest tribe in the US, they have the money to challenge us if we tried to get the people back. There needs to be a movement more powerful than the Dakota people here who have money. Question: There was legislation introduced in the Minnesota House last year by Karen Clark about reparations for Native Americans and African Americans. And there was a hearing on reparations on Friday and supposedly it’ll be re‐introduced again. There is some political action happening that we can get our voices behind. Response: Reparation in the context of what? Say for instance in theory if you overturned this policy what does that mean politically? Does it mean now the treaties are enacted and alive now? Do we have a standing political ground for us to carry out, are they not null and void now? What they’re scared of is actually overturning that law. Question: Why would the Shakopee Mdewakanton not want Dakota people to come back? Response: I’ve been asking myself that for a long time. I don’t know, maybe money? They have 330 members, and they are all owners of that casino. Question: In Canada they have some co‐management of natural resources with the tribes and the Canadian government. And there are some lakes up north that are co‐managed between the tribes and the DNR. And so, could you have a co‐management of this resource here with the Dakota people and the Park Board? Response: You have to look back at the Park Board. Who are they controlled by? As far as my people in Canada they are considered refugees because the so‐called war of 1862. They are controlled by the Indian Act. I’m a refugee in Canada, but when I come here to my homeland I am abolished. So, what am I? Politically I am invisible.

Page 3

Question: Has the City Council discussed what to do about being on Dakota treaty territory? Response by Council Member Andrew Johnson: We have worked on passing a resolution acknowledging the 1805 treaty and asking that the rights of the Dakota people are honored, which grants them access to continue using the land as they traditionally have. That treaty was around honoring cold water spring and recognizing that as a sacred indigenous site and we have changed Columbus Day to Indigenous People’s Day. And working with the community on a number of different issues. Question: If the State of Minnesota got rid of the law banishing Dakota people and changed the legal landscape, Minneapolis wouldn’t necessarily have its proper title to this land. What are your thoughts about that? Response by Council Member Andrew Johnson: It starts with first acknowledging the reality that there have been injustices that have occurred along the way, and even the events that subsequent treaties were based on government abuse or unwillingness to honor previous conditions within the treaties. We need to have the conversation of what does the repairing of that harm look like. I don’t think that we’ll say that Minneapolis is no longer going to be incorporated with these borders and everybody’s lost the titles of their homes. That not in my mind realistic, but I think that we should have a conversation about what reparations look like. If you look at what happened with Camp Coldwater Spring, the City of Minneapolis said that the 1805 treaty specifically said that Dakota people have access to continue using that land around Fort Snelling and around Coldwater Spring as they traditionally have. And we go to recognize that day and we’re invited on that land by the Dakota people and they say we are going to do a sacred ceremony here, and what happens? The National Park Service is standing by with law enforcement officers and they make sure that they issue a permit, free of charge, just so they can get the upper hand and say you are now doing this as a permitted activity on our land. And that’s the kind of behavior where there is an avoidance of the issue all together. Let’s acknowledge that this land was stolen and that there are many injustices and atrocities committed against the Dakota people. Let’s be honest, and not play games. Comment: I heard you say perpetration [referencing Council Member Johnson’s comments], and I do a lot of work in historical trauma not only in the American Indian community but also talk about a parallel trauma that exists in white America. And so, if we are all to recover we have to have accountability of the perpetrations and the intentional genocide that has been committed against us if we are all going to recover. We are all two‐leggeds and we all need each other. If we are going to recover as indigenous and Dakota people, we need you to recover with us. We need you to acknowledge the harm that has been done to us. So, we can all move forward. I’ve never heard this [referencing Council Member Johnson’s comments] before. I just blown away that this is something that the Minneapolis City Council is going to move towards, to acknowledge the Dakota people. Question: [to Council Member Johnson] Is the City Council going to move towards having a discussion about reparations? Response by Council Member Andrew Johnson: There is a lot of discussion of racial inequities all together. I know the State should play a role in that because that is where a lot of these injustices were perpetrated. It is something that is very early in the stages of what that could look like. You have to acknowledge your own place in it too, like I’m a white guy that has benefitted from these injustices that have happened to other people and created this opportunity for us to live in this place and to buy our homes. And we see suffering in indigenous communities and communities of color based off of these prior government decisions. Some of the social de facto decisions made by governments, explicit racism, but then the decisions that go on

Page 4

today as well which are social. For instance, that we hire a person of color, or where we saw in downtown Minneapolis 46 of 47 people arrested for marijuana possession were African American. Where you can look at it and say this is racist and biased. White people versus black people smoke marijuana at roughly the same levels, yet it is black people being arrested or incarcerated for possession or sale in vastly different proportion to white people. How can legalization reverse that, for instance? How do we reverse or heal communities that have been harmed by such policies? This plays into many different policies as well. Question: Thank you to those who shared. What can we do to help? How can we help get the message out? Response: One thing would be to acknowledge the land that you are on and the treaties relevant to it. But I wonder how that plays out for Dakota people who have been arrested by the City of Minneapolis Police for trespassing in our sacred sites or camping on Hiawatha when there is nowhere else to go. The 1805 treaty is something that all Minnesotans need to look at and examine what it means to Minnesota’s statehood to have a treaty that has never been ratified by congress and has been acted upon since 1805 as if it were a legally binding document, so under international law it is legally binding document. I think there has to be a discussion with all 25 Dakota communities that have been exiled, four are still in the state. But the state never communicates with the 21 exiled communities outside the state. And so, it is time to bring people back, nation to nation relationships, that is what sovereignty looks like. But right now, the way the State or the City treats us as domestic dependent nations, a legal term, they see us as under the foot of the US government, but we existed here before. And like Sheldon mentioned, the Dakota were in Canada before Canada was Canada. And we were here before the US was the US. So, thinking of that, what can we do to bring our languages back? Or to bring the natural bends back to Minnehaha Creek? And to fix these waterways and to have wild rice growing again. Ways to restore these landscapes rather than harm it. And I am here personally because I think the golf course is a harm to this area and is related to cold water spring. Dakota people we don’t just put places as a dot on a map, this whole area is a part of Bdote, a part of Morgan’s Mound, where cold water spring is. I like to study American archaeology and see how they define us in term like Hopewellian. A lot of these academic ways of thinking about indigenous people are making us invisible, by calling them Hopewellian or calling these sites black duck, they use our language to describe archaeology, but they don’t tell our story. They don’t associate it with living Dakota people. Whenever you hear about Indian people you think about us in the past, but there are many of us here today. Comment: Minnesota just moved up here from 49th to 50th of the worst state of all 50 states to graduate black, brown, and indigenous persons. That is a systemic racist system. It is built into the system. There are all kinds of ways you can help but look at the history and what is being taught in schools. There is mandated state law that Minnesota state history must be taught. There’s no way to assess whether or not that is happening. Teachers have the same education that you’ve all had, and this might be new information for you. Ethan and I gave a test in our district recently and every superintendent and every principal and vice principal and the heads of the district office were asked if anyone knows the number of tribes in the state, and nobody knew. That is a 5th grade state standard question. That is how broad that white narrative is. Once you have this conversation you’ll be more aware. The fact is, let’s not grow another generation of people who are ignorant about the true history of their state. Question: This conversation is in light of the fact that there is this planning process for Lake Hiawatha. What if in the design of the park we acknowledge the 1805 treaty, and what if there are Dakota place names around, what if there are places that are designed to bring the people

Page 5

together? Comment: Also, you are talking about the sacred trees and if there were different groves of different kinds of trees or places for maple sugaring or places with different edible foods. Answer: With the 1805 treaty we have the right to go anywhere, we have lots of places to do that. This site doesn’t need to be managed by humans, we already have the beavers managing it, we have the otters and all this wildlife that is documented and still lives here. Those are the people managing it not just the human beings. We are the ones screwing it all up. Really, we could look to them as to how this space needs to look, if it needs to meander more of the creek or if we need to remove pumps. What ever needs to be done, those beavers will let us know. We can look at places like Bde Maka Ska and you have a collaboration with Dakota people to have our people visible and to tell a little bit of our story. It is not going to solve everything, but it is at least making the people visible. It could be a place for students to come and learn, because we know we are invisible in the curriculum here. Comment: The Park Board should be doing this throughout the city and not just this park. If it was all land of the Dakota people, they should really be taking a broader look at how we are going to do this throughout the city rather than just in one place. Every park around is going through a master planning process right now, and there are master planning processes happening along the river and Nokomis has had one. There have been a lot of planning processes that are happening, and it is great that this is happening for this park, but it really needs to go beyond here. Response: Nobody asks us ever. We are always the last one. Question: Can we have a Park Board person talk about this? Response by Commissioner Stephanie Musich: As part of what me and my colleagues are urging the planning staff to do is to talk about the history of the place beyond just European settlement when we are doing master planning processes. We are trying to engage the Dakota community to help us in the planning of the land. I am hopeful to hear from folks tonight is what will responsible land management look like as part of this planning process if we were to look at it with the eye of how the Dakota would want to see the land managed. We want to be sure we are being ecologically responsible and that we are trying to make the space welcoming for everyone and particularly people who have felt excluded from the space under its current use. If anyone could provide a little bit of color to those questions, I would love to here that and I am sure that all my neighbors and colleagues here this evening would also find that helpful as we move through this process. Question: As work with the Upper Harbor Terminal is proceeding, there is talk of giving the river personhood. It is not some fringe idea anymore, for white culture even. How about if we give rights to the wildlife and the lake and the areas that are connected to us and the Dakota? Sean with FOLH: We’ve been doing some work around the lake. We are hoping to see a collaboration with the Dakota people and working on bringing public art, restoring the habitat and protecting the existing wildlife populations and habitat. And working with the master plan and the minimum 9‐hole course and meeting all the different needs but doing it in a way that honors the history, cleans the lake, respects the wildlife, and makes this place better and more welcoming, cleaner and more responsible than previously. Comment: We are hoping as part of that process that it is really inherent in that process that we reconnect. It looks like we have broken our relationship with nature, but it is there, it is just waiting for us to reconnect. I’m speaking from the white culture lens that I’ve grown up in. Comment: I hope that this is an acceptable forum for me to share this. I’ve spoken to Park Board Commissioners and staff to help inform my mission around the parks which currently illegally

Page 6

manages 17 percent of the land in Minnesota and considers it to be their property. My father’s grandmother’s father was a developer of Lake Street. And along with Bill King absolutely desecrated the land that rightfully belongs to many of the folks in this room that I have not had the opportunity to address in this way. I would like to let you know that I am so sorry for the damage that has been done. I am here to learn, and I will continue to do so and ask questions and learn as much as I can to do my part to make sure that your people are visible and that we together can care for this place. Response: This is what healing looks like, thank you. Question: What are the conversations like within your families and within the Dakota community about sharing the values. What are those conversations like that you have with your kids and your relatives? Response: A part of my teaching style is to point out values, because they are almost always contradictory to one another. When you have a child in the classroom and they hear of these white American values that are contradictory to home, they interpret that as shame. So, I point them out. You have to live successfully in two worlds. That’s how we are. We have to be better than everybody else, we don’t just navigate one. My son has to know what kind of medicines he needs to bring for a ceremony and he also needs to make sure he has his homework for college. He has to know both things. Learning his language, taking on a lot of responsibilities. If you understand those two very clearly as a child you don’t grow up with that sense of shame, but it’s very important. Our teachers embed that or press that on our children. They say our children won’t look them in the eye and they say that is disrespectful. And actually, it is respectful. Understanding the different values, including those in these spaces too here will make a big difference. As far as family we talk about it all the time. Response: I want to understand the question better. What kind of conversations are you asking about? Question: Because different communities have different core values, and even with my neighbors and with my close relatives, we share different values that are core to us but we often times have a dialogue about it. I live in a community where we really do value sharing, we share three homes together. That is just my immediate community, but there is my neighborhood who all value a whole range of things. I live in Ventura Village, it is very diverse. What are some of the values that are discussed within your family? Response: I want to reverberate something that I heard in the room earlier about building something that was all inclusive to others. As Dakota people we are the friendly people. We are the kind people, we are generous and humble. We are inclusive, we are friendly to others, so it would only be right that we would include all the different types of people that live in this place in Minneapolis. The values that we have are going to be different for everyone. I have parents who really value education. My mom has a great education, her dad has a great education. He climbed the ranks at Honeywell, negotiating contracts and did a lot of great things and was the 12th Native American to graduate from the U of M. My parents greatly value education, other native kids might not have that. Their parents might not have even graduated high school, so they don’t even care if they graduate high school themselves. At 14 years old they need to get a job. So, it really depends on the family. I am from Red Lake, and actually from five different Indian Reservations, but one of my reservations is Red Lake and that is an Ojibwa reservation, and just like other reservations it has a 90 percent unemployment rate. So, if there are only two places to work on the Indian reservation and you can’t work at either of those places you are going to take risks to make money and you are going to do anything you can to feed your kids. How are you going to make a living for yourself if 90 percent of your Indian reservation doesn’t have jobs? When they say there is no opportunity there, there isn’t. But for the kids here, the only opportunities we get in the city are the bad ones. But people on the res will say the city Indians are privileged. In a way, yeah, we are. Especially myself, my parents put me in a private school, I was more privileged than my native peers that were next to me Page 7

in my age group. That was always the first thing I knew, and it depends on each family. We are very family oriented and we are all about inclusivity of other people, when we are raised the right way. We can’t assume that all native people know their ways. A lot of us are lost out here. I have to be a good American, but I also have to be a good Dakota man. I am walking on a tightrope all the time. I have to figure out which way to walk at what time. When do I need to speak my language to people? That’s like the conversations we have at home. If we really want to do this and rename things the way Dakota people name them it would take forever, years and years. If we really want to get committed to the idea, be open and think about it. I passed James J Hill’s house today and people who are rich like that were capitalizing off of slavery and killing Indians and killing the environment. At Augsburg they have the stolen square in the middle and its named after the guy who stole the land. So why do we have this everywhere? If we really want to be committed to this idea, we are going to have to do this everywhere. The conversations that happen with us is were talking about how blatant it is everywhere. It is important as white allies to be put yourself in our shoes in the best way you can and see things like, this will offend me, or this will rub me the wrong way. Comment: I want to acknowledge that the lake is right there and the park is all around us and the golf course, and even the wetlands that were dredged before the lake and before the golf course. We are in this room, but we are also in a bigger space as well. Question: I wonder would it be practical or possible to try to make this a bilingual city and have more native names? Response: I was thinking along the same lines. For me, learning the language was totally transformative. I connected me to my relatives in a way that I was not able to because of early deaths in my family. When I learned the language, it was because my grandmother who is non‐native, remembered words that my grandfather had said around her. She didn’t know what they meant. I was in my first year of my Dakota language classes and I was on the phone with her and saying Dakota words with her and for the first time I had a conversation with my grandfather. Each person who has spoken Dakota tonight started with a particular word, Mitakyu owasin. That means all my relatives, and there is a reason that Dakota people begin addressing a crowd with that word. It is not just addressing the people in the room, but it is addressing the lake and the park and the things that are made from our resources. It is a bigger idea about a relationship. I would advocate for Minnesota’s heritage language Dakota to be mandatory in every school. There is no better way for people to understand Dakota philosophy and also to understand the relationship with this place and to know that language. I think that is totally something that we should advocate for and we have language tables that are available to communities here in Minneapolis free right now. If you are interested, look into it. It is available. And it can start without going through the legislative process. That is a goal of mine. It starts with education and truth telling. Some of that is happening in the room. There are other places where the door is shut very fast on truth telling. We can talk about these plans that are really beautiful for the space, but as Park Boards and as people move forward there will be really tough resistance to some of these ideas. If you are amenable to some of these things we are talking about tonight, we need voices, we need to educate ourselves. We need to be able to help do the truth telling. That’s part of this first step. If you need book recommendations or resources I am happy to give some. I have a class down at St Olaf College and I am teaching my students about the 1862 war and these are 18‐year‐olds and many of them Minnesotans who are in shock and grief right now because of what was discussed in class today. They say over and over again to me: why do we not know this? Why has nothing been

Page 8

done for justice? It is a real moment of grief to realize and learn and acknowledge. The truth telling has to be done for us to accomplish these things we are talking about. Comment: Last year my wife and I went on a tour of the capitol building and afterwards we were walking around on the grounds and there was a statue of Cristopher Columbus. I was reading about it and I was like whoa. It didn’t mention anything about exterminating the Arawak. And they have Alexander Ramsey there. Why don’t we just change the plaque to be honest? Be honest about every on of those guys that had a statue, there all white men. Just say what the consequences were when making Minnesota white. That’s what those statues are celebrating. Like Trump, “let’s make America white again.” Response: It never was. Question: I am a descendant of settlers whose parents who lived a couple of years on an Indian reservation in a time which they gave me a Lakota middle name, meaning eagle. It is very significant to me, but also the older I become what is the appropriate way from me to bear this name especially as we’ve been invited to picture ourselves in native shoes, even though we are not native. We know that in America we know that white people love to play Indian. I wonder if our indigenous relatives in this room might be able to give us some counsel on how we can somehow picture ourselves in those shoes in a respectful way. Response: I love what you said and love the question. Thank you. I want to remind people, that just like white people like those sitting here, and Donald Trump is a white person, and I asked him something and I asked one of you something you might not have the same opinions. So I want to remind you that Indians are just the same way. We are part of the same tribe but and if you ask something of another Indian in this room is might not be the same answer as mine. Understand the individuality. When you ask any question of indigenous people you are going to get a different answer, even though we are from the same nation or overall the same tribe. Sometimes white people that I don’t know they try to meet me they start off on the wrong foot by saying something ignorant and they don’t know. I know you meant so well but it just hit in the way you don’t even understand. Be mindful of your word choice. Be intentional in what you say and how you act. We love that you ask questions and that we’d rather you ask an ignorant question than never ask it and make an assumption. , Comment: Also, multiple perspectives at the table when making a decision. If everyone at the table looks like you, you need to change who’s at the table. In decision making, bring Dakota people to the table. There’s not a lot of us, but that’s key. Comment: There was a question about the issue of the Snelling site being redone by the History Center and we have all this bonding money to try and redo the area. Are there Dakota people looking at the History Center that they are somehow attempting to have more diverse stories at the place. But I’d like to hear from you guys, how can we be allies and should we just tear Fort Snelling Down? Should we go to more meetings at the History Center? Response: It’d be nice to see it torn down, but I am also interested in turning it into a genocide and holocaust museum. You can go to Washington DC and learn about the Jewish Holocaust, why not come to Fort Snelling to the opening of this western frontier and we could tell it straight. We have a rule in our histories and in our stories called Owthanna, which means we tell it straight. It means when we tell our story we don’t add anything or change anything or leave anything out. A long time ago, they didn’t have time for some stories because they could take several nights to recount these stories and transmitting knowledge. Fort Snelling is our place of genesis and genocide. It is more than just a negative place for us, it is a power place. It is a place where power accumulates and gathers there. Where the rivers come together, there are burials along both sides of the river there that are often

Page 9

overlooked by the church and Pilot Knob Hill. This entire area to be acknowledged as a Dakota place would be a powerful thing. Comment: The founder of MHS was Alexander Ramsey and Sibley. These are Indian haters, they were the ones who orchestrated this. The purpose for Columbus is from east coast to west coast is to make you think that all this happened in 1492. He never set foot on the continental United States. But we still say it and we still fight over the land. One of the most healing things we could do is to acknowledge that place as a place of our creation. There is no reason they need to take millions of dollars and redo it and continue that white narrative that’s destroyed this whole place. Question: Can you share a little bit about the genesis and the importance of the confluence of the rivers? Response: That is the center of our universe, our birth place. Question: What opportunities are there for us to experience each other on a human to human level? Response: There is so much going on in this city which we can participate in. There is a man named Tom LeBlanc who does what is called the Buffalo Show that takes place once a month at Bryant Lake Bowl. There is a phenomenal series of people that participate in that. Back in the mid‐ 1980s I became part of a group of people who started [indecipherable name], because at that time the Minneapolis Police Department started throwing drunk Indians into the trunks of their cars and taking them to wherever. I was so outraged by that. I became part of the Big Mountain Support Group in the mid‐1980s which was a group of non‐Indian people who were fighting for the rights of the Navajo Indians in the four corners area. The government was coming after them and moving them off their land and taking the uranium for their war machines. My son is one eight Native American and his grandmother, she was a Native American, was adopted into a white family. My son is a native boy and a school teacher in Roseville. There is an event that Tom LeBlanc is doing on Franklin Avenue called the Unholy Tour of Franklin Avenue. Franklin Avenue used to be the native corridor. There is a newspaper called the circle newspaper. It has a lot in it. Comment: Get involved. Comment: You can go to the Minneapolis American Indian Center. We’ve been talking about seeing us in the past and in history, but we are here today. You can see people today, they run a kitchen there. There is healthy traditional foods. I eat lunch there every time I can. They have this bison melt, and other natural foods that our genes are used to. Comment: There is also the awesome gift shop. It’s got to be one of the oldest American Indian owned business in Minneapolis. There are definitely things to be involved in there. Question: Is there a way to create an email list for those who want to be in touch to keep the conversation going? Response: Sign in to the meeting out front and place a star next to your name if you want to be contacted by email. Question: What is the name of your organization? Response: There are several here. One is Dakota Language Society. You can find us on www.dakhota.org, with an h after the k. The table and the water bar are collaborations with the Healing Place Collaborative, an indigenous led organization focusing on renewing our relationship with this place and to each other. It is made of indigenous and non‐indigenous allies from a variety of organizations and institutions, including the Park Board and the U of M, and all sorts of different folks from different backgrounds. The water bar is from Works Progress, that’s a collaboration between three groups. And what this is, is three different waters. One from the Schmidt Brewery from the aquafer there, it is a glacial water, one of the oldest waters you can obtain in the state. The second is City of Minneapolis tap water which comes out of the Mississippi River and is treated, and they add a variety of things to it after it has been treated. The third water is from Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. That water is

Page 10

reverse osmosis water. So, everything is taken out of it to make it the purest form of water and then they choose what they’re putting back into it. That has the least amount of contaminants, but also the least amount of minerals. You can taste these waters and you can see if you can tell a difference. Comment: Relating to the land and the Park’s use of the land, I want to put an invitation out to join a group of folks who are working on getting the pesticides out of our park system. Tomorrow night is our next meeting at the Park Board Headquarters at 5pm and we’ve got an official park board advisory committee. 4. Closing Folks were instructed to leave their emails with Tyler Pederson, MPRB staff person, or to send him an email if they are interested in continuing the conversation.

James Spotted Thunder shared a last song with the group.

Page 11