By Griff Wigley
The group of Dakota people who marched and protested last weekend (see my blog post/photos) also staged a protest on Sunday evening during the Sesqui ceremonies.
Media coverage:
(more…)
ALL,
Tonight, around 8:15 PM, one of our attorneys (in the 1805 Treaty litigation), Barb Nimis, called and said that my younger daughter, Waziyata Win (Dr. Angela Cavender Wilson) had been arrested, again. Waziyata Win told the officers that she is a Dakota person, that Minnesota is Dakota land, and that she was only telling the truth. In addition, two other Anishinabe persons had been arrested, Steve Blake, and a woman called Flower.
These people were peacefully protesting, with signs, posters, banners, drums, and a gallows with 38 nooses hanging from it. Angela was arrested for Disorderly Conduct and let go. Steve Blake, with a hand drum, was singing a honor song for the 38 Dakota (hence, the 38 nooses) men who were hanged at Mankato, MN on December 26, 1862 in what was and is the largest mass execution in the history of the United States. Four officers descended upon Steve and attacked him, who is a sickly man and had just gotten out of the hospital. The woman named Flower rushed to help and, apparently, hit an officer. Steve, now, is in the hospital and Flower is in Ramsey hospital.
It seems that these officers have instructions to harass, intimidate, and arrest Dakota People, with the apparent blessing of the Sesquicentennial Commission, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the other white supremacists and racists who do not want to hear the TRUTH about bounties, concentration camps, forced marches, forced removals/ethnic cleansing; warfare, massive land theft, broken treaties, genocide, etc.
I urge all of our friends, supporters, and allies to be there with us when we peacefully demonstrate, show our posters, carry our banners, and hand out our pamphlets and flyers to tell the TRUTH. We need all of our allies - white, black, Mexican, other Indigenous Peoples - to stand there in support and solidarity, to be there with their cameras, the video cameras, to observe what happens to the Dakota People and their supporters when they tell the TRUTH.
We need white people to march with us. The cops will think twice before bashing our heads with their batons, before arresting us, before saying some of the racist and intimidating things they are fond of saying, if some white people are there with us. The cops know that if it is an “Indian’s” word agasint the word of a white cop that there will be NO credence given to the Native person. However, if a white person sees what is happening, the cop will fear, or at least think twice before he does what he wants to do to Native Peoples. That is to hit them, beat them. One cop, at Ft. Snelling, on Sat. 5/10 was heard to say that he was looking forward to do a little “thumping”, meaning beating the crap out of the Dakota People.
It seems that the arrests are increasing and the violence is intensifying against our Dakota People and their Anishinabe supporters and other allies. I see this trend continuing as we implement and execute our other planned and peaceful activities. As Dakota People, who comprise about 5 10-thousandths of a percent of the total population of approximately 5-and-a-half million people in the state of Minnesota. We are struggling against overwhelming odds - “they” have the troops and cops, the horses (like at Ft. Snelling), the guns, the tanks, the tasers, and their law, especially their law which is their legal ideology which is used to enforce the exploitation of the Indigenous Peoples and their continued oppression.
However, many of us Dakota feel we have TRUTH and our spirituality to fight against these overwhelming odds, and we are optimistically believing that TRUTH will prevail.
I wish to thank all the allies and supporters out there who have supported our efforts and activities to highlight the Dakota voice, to get the Dakota perspective out there. We thank you for being at our EVENT ONE activities: 1A - the posters and banners on the Mendota bridge during rush hour, 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM, on Fri. 5/09; 1B - the greeting of the wagon train at Ft. Snelling, on Sat. 5/10, at which seven people, including me, were arrested; 1C - the public rally at the State Capitol, on Sun. 5/11.
We are going to need all of you at the remaining four (4) activities that we have planned for the Sesquicentennial year of 2008 in our efforts to get the TRUTH out there, the TRUTH of what really happened in this state between the stealers/settlers and the Dakota People: EVENT TWO - the exercising of our original and traditional fishing rights in one of the lakes in the ceded area, 155,000+ acres, of the Treaty of 1805; EVENT THREE - the trial of Ramsey and Sibley for Genocide and Crimes Against Humanity; EVENT FOUR - which we will mention later; and EVENT FIVE - a legislative activity.
Thank you for listening to me.
Chris Mato Nunpa
320.981-0206 (cell)
” matonunpa@earthlink.net “
Subject: [oceti_sakowin] VISIT/Ihantunwan Dakota/Resistance/Hog FarmHau Mitakuyapi, “Hello my relatives”
Owasin cantewasteya nape ciyuzapi do! “With a good heart, I greet all of you with a handshake.”
I just returned from a visit to the Ihanktunwan Dakota Reservation, May 01-03, 2008. The purpose of the visit was to stand in support and solidarity with the Ihanktunwan against the hog farm that will soon start operations. However, it rained on Fri 5/02 so there was no standing and watching the invaders build their pig farm. I wish to share some thoughts, observations, and reactions.
1.) As I approached the Ft. Randall Casino Hotel on Th. 5/01 I wondered what I should do first, who I should call, and who could tell me exactly where the site of the hog farm is. I was registering at the hotel desk and there comes Faith Spotted Eagle. We exchanged greetings and she said she would show me around.
I mention this because I have noticed that as I have been following, learning, and practicing our ancient spiritual ways, that things seem to fall into place. And this happens when I have prayed about what I am going to do. Faith came along and answered all my questions. This has happened many times for me.
2.) I met some young people from Haskell Indian Nations University, Lawrence, Kansas. These young people were very intelligent and talented. It was they who created the videos about the Resistance to the hog farm.
The names and email addresses of these young people are:
Carlos Cariaga
primitivesun@yahoo.com
Diane Sampson sun_shyne25@yahoo.com
Jon Ray jonra505@yahoo.com
Chris Ross native_prophecy@yahoo.com
It was a pleasure to eat the evening meal with them. 3.) That evening, Th. 5/01, the Longest Walk Talk Radio show hosts - Govinda Dalton and Brenda Norrell - interviewed Faith Spotted Eagle and her son, Glen. The interview was very fascinating and informative.
Both Faith and Glen stressed that it was the Ihanktunwan Dakota who were in charge and had jurisdiction over the road BIA #29. Glen talked about the “animal nations” who would be impacted negatively by the hog farm. He talked of the false arrests and how the police and the state troopers were the trespassers. Faith stressed that these young men were not “protestors” but “protectors” of the People and of the Ihanktunwan land. She also mentioned that the governor of South Dakota had NOT communicated with the Ihanktunwan Dakota People. She talked about the passing of the guard from the older activists, like herself, to the younger activists, like her sons Glen and Kip, and John Zephier.
4.) It was my pleasure to have breakfast with Brenda Norrell. She was a writer for “Indian Country Today“. They told her not to write of grass-roots movements and genocide. She did, and was fired. she has 25 years of experience. She was, then, blackballed. She couldn’t get a job. No one would pay her for her expertise and skills. Now she is working for the Longest Walk.
She told me that the Colorado legislature had passed a resolution about genocide and holocaust of the Indigenous Peoples of the U.S. That this action had created much controversy.
5.) That Friday morning, 5/02, I was interviewed by Govinda and Brenda re: the Sesquicentennial, the 150th birthday of Minnesota as a state. This interview can be found at:
http://www.earthcycles.net under “Genocide. 6.) That afternoon, Fri. 5/02, I was invited to participate in a talk show with Govinda and Brenda. This also can be found at
www.earthcycles.net
However, I am not sure which topic it is under. 7.) That evening, Fri. 5/02, Govinda and Brenda interviewed Faith Spotted Eagle, her son, Kip Spotted Eagle, John Zephier, John’s wife, and Joan Olive, who described herself as “the token white woman.”
This was when I found out about all 45 state trooper cars in the state of South Dakota were there at Marty, South Dakota, along with the local police, the county sheriff and his deputies, 2 SWAT teams, and 2 snipers. In my opinion, these supposed “law enforcement” officers were there to shoot and kill “Indians.” I have always viewed South Dakota as an extremely racist state, a state where there is so much racial hatred.
John talked about the bullying,” and intimidating behavior of the officers. There was a front-loader that knocked over a Dakota youth.
Then, there was the incident in which John’s 24-year-old son was “chain-sawed” in the back of his legs and left bleeding alone in the field. The son is alive but can’t walk right now. The sheriff says it was “an accident.” John mentioned that the BIA police “would not protect us.” As I listened to Kip and John, I wanted to cheer, to cry, and was so damn angry at these hate-filled racists.
John said, “we have alwaysd been in a fight with South Dakota. We stood our ground. We’re still standing our ground.”
The “token white woman” was very knowledgeable about the toxic substances that come from a hog farm and how these poisons harm the children, the people, the water, and the earth.
One ironic incident, and absurdly humorous, clean water from the Yankton reservation area was piped down to Hull, Iowa, where this pig farm corporation came from. Apparently, the water in Hull, Iowa was to dirty to use with the pigs.
8.) As I was driving home today, I called Faith Spotted Eagle to thank her. She told me that Erin Brockovich was going to defend those arrested, was going to represent the Ihanktunwan Dakota in a class action law suit, and was going to defend the young man who was “chain-sawed” by the Chain-saw Madman. What wonderful news!
However, the Ihanktunwan Dakota People need our help, finances, encouragement, etc. Those of you who follow the ancient traditional ways. Pray for the Ihanktunwan People when you’re at your personal alters. Pray for them when you go into the Inipi. Pray for them when you load your pipe.
That’s something all of us can do, pray for them no matter what our religious/spiritual persuasion is.
Hau, henana epe kte. “Yes, this is all I have to say”
Toksta, ake owas waciyakapi kte. “I will see all of you again, soon.”
Mato Nunpa de miye do! “I am Two Bear!”
http://www.mendotadakota.com/hoipate/Jim_Anderson_Coldwater.avi
Jim Anderson, (Red Sky) of the Mendota Dakota Mdewakanton Community discusses the importance of the sacred “Cold Water” in Pike Island (big island) Minnesota. This starts out in native language and then in English. Very Interesting.
This is a large file, It may take a long time to download, especial if you have a slow connection. RIGHT CLICK HERE and select “SAVE TARGET AS”
As part of my religion I am encouraged to work on and study my genealogy. I enjoy it but I have a big hole in my mother’s side of the family. I am part Cherokee but I don’t know how much as my mother says her Great Grandmother was a full blooded indian. Mother only knew that her Great Granny sat in a rocking chair, had dark hair to the day she died, and that she smoked a pipe. I have no information on this lady’s name and I feel at a loss for not being able to learn more about her or the family from which she came.I did visit the reservation in North Carolina with my husband and I felt like I was treated as family. Daniel, my husband was treated as a white guest. So maybe they knew or felt I was a lost part of the tribe. 
I just wish I could know more of Great Great Grandmother.
Posted on 16 February '08 by admin, under OPINION & COMMENTARY. No Comments.
Written by Wahkon
Regaining the Mdewakanton’s Mille Lacs ancestral homelandOn a Mille Lacs Kathio State Park interpretive sign, Leonard E. Wabasha is quoted as saying: “My people are the Mdewakanton Oyate. Mdewakanton means the People of Spirit Lake. Today that lake is known as Mille Lacs. This landscape is sacred to the Mdewakanton Oyate because one Otokaheys Woyakapi (creation story) says we were created here. It is especially pleasing for me to come here and walk these trails, because about 1718 the first Chief Wapahasa was born here, at the headwaters of the Spirit River. I am the eighth in this line of hereditary chiefs.” (reference 1.)
When referring to the Mdewakanton “Sioux’s” (Dakota’s) Mille Lacs history, Angel Oehrlein wrote, in a Nov. 8th Mille Lacs Messenger letter: “When we attended schools in the 1930’s, we studied actual events, such as French-sponsored Sieur DuLuth’s 1760s Vineland battle, which drove the Sioux from the Mille Lacs area.”
Our state’s DNR website presents information about this topic. “Early White/Indian intervention played an important role in the settlement of the area by white men. The French, instigated fights between the Ojibwe and Dakota so as to ally themselves with the Ojibwe.” (reference 2.)
On a Minnesota Historical Society plaque located near the mouth of “Spirit River” (currently name Rum River) there are the words, when referring to the Dakota’s ancient Mille Lacs village: “About 1750 the Chippewa moving westward from lake Superior captured the village, and by this decisive battle drove the Sioux permanently into southern Minnesota.” (ref. 3.)
On the Lower Sioux Mdewakanton website the Lower Sioux state that: “Long ago, the Mdewakanton Dakota lived around Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota. Around 1750, our ancestors were displaced by another nation, the Anishinnabe, and they relocated throughout the southern portion of the state. This was not the last time the Mdewakantons would be forced into a new home.” (4.)
The S.D. Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe states on a website about their history that” The “Santee Sioux bands” had begun a stage of transition into a new culture with their expulsion from their traditional homeland around Mille Lacs.
And on Nebraska’s Santee Tribe website there are the words: “The Santee’s defeat by the Chippewas at the Battle of Kathio in the late 1700s forced them to move to the southern half of the state which would bring them into close contact and eventually conflict with the white settlers. From that point on, survival for the Santee Tribe would become a daily struggle. (5.)
As Europeans settled the East coast, they displaced eastern tribes who then migrated to get away from the White civilization, and they, in their turn, with the help of the western-moving Europeans, displaced weaker local tribes they encountered, and pushed many of those tribes farther from their homelands, as they took over their homelands. (6.)
Europeans sought to extinguish the ancestral ties that these local tribes have with the land, their ancestors and the spirit world. Evidence of this practice has shown itself time and time again throughout the Americas and is now facing international pressure in an effort to correct the sins of the present by recognizing and addressing the history of the Americas.
On July 2, 1679 Duluth planted the flag of France on the Dakota people’s sacred Mille Lacs area homeland, where the Dakota had lived for at least a thousand years. What was the significance of this flag planting?
According to a U. N. World Conference On Racism document: “In the fifteenth century, two Papal Bulls set the stage for European domination of the New World and Africa. Romanus Pontifex, issued by Pope Nicholas V to King Alfonso V of Portugal in 1452, declared war against all non-Christians throughout the world, and specifically sanctioned and promoted the conquest, colonization, and exploitation of non-Christian nations and their territories.” In Pope Alexander VI’s papal bull of 1493 (Inter Caetera), he stated his desire that the “discovered” people be “subjugated and brought to the faith itself.” By this means, said the pope, the “Christian Empire” would be propagated. These Papal Bulls, or “doctrines of discovery”, sanctioned Christian nations to claim “unoccupied lands”, or lands belonging to “heathens” or “pagans”. (7.)
Therefore, when Duluth planted the flag of France on the Dakota’s sacred Mille Lacs area homeland he was proclaiming that the Dakota’s Mille Lacs homeland now belonged to France. The indigenous people of the Americas were red pagans, and not white European Christians, therefore, according to fifteenth century papal bulls, they did not own the land that they were living on, nor did they have a moral or legal right to own any land. Therefore, the unoccupied land that the indigenous people discovered and were living on could be claimed by the first European Christian explorer to plant his nation’s flag on it.
The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe oral tradition tells that, by the end of the 1760s Kathio battle, their ancestors had violently forced the Dakota from their Mille Lacs area homeland; and that that is how they took possession of the Mille Lacs area land that they now live on. However, because they were indigenous red pagans they didn’t own the land that they, with the help of the Europeans, took from the Dakota people. And these indigenous red Ojibwe pagans, to this present-day, do not own the land that they are now living on, its U.S.A federal land. The indigenous people of the Americas, still, do not have a papal granted moral right to own land. The papal bull Inter Caetera has not yet been revoked. (8.) I am working to rectify this injustice. At least a part of the Dakota people’s original Mille Lacs area homeland should be give back to them.
Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer
Director of Rum River Name Change Organization, Inc.
Wahkon, Minnesota
References:
(1.)
http://www.towahkon.org/PicLeosign.html
(2.) http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/canoeing/rumriver/index.html
(3.) http://www.towahkon.org/sign2.html
(4.) http://www.jackpotjunction.com/culture/past.html
(5.) http://www.santeedakota.org/points_of_interest.htm
(6.) http://www.aaanativearts.com/article654.html
(7.) http://www.un.org/WCAR/e-kit/indigenous.htm
(8.) http://bullsburning.itgo.com/Index.htm
_________________
I am a Catholic social activist who is spearheading an international movement to revert the profane and derogatory name of Minnesota’s “Rum” River back to its sacred Mdewakanton Dakota name (Wakan).
http://www.towahkon.org/PicLeosign.html
(2.) http://www.dnr.state.mn.us/canoeing/rumriver/index.html
(3.) http://www.towahkon.org/sign2.html
(4.) http://www.jackpotjunction.com/culture/past.html
(5.) http://www.santeedakota.org/points_of_interest.htm
(6.) http://www.aaanativearts.com/article654.html
(7.) http://www.un.org/WCAR/e-kit/indigenous.htm
(8.) http://bullsburning.itgo.com/Index.htm
_________________
I am a Catholic social activist who is spearheading an international movement to revert the profane and derogatory name of Minnesota’s “Rum” River back to its sacred Mdewakanton Dakota name (Wakan).
Posted on 16 February '08 by admin, under OPINION & COMMENTARY. No Comments.
