Our Impact
OUR WORK, OUR IMPACT, WHAT WE DO
DESPITE our people being here for centuries, we have never been in a
reservation situation. We have remained a Dakota Community despite the
following:
1. The assimilation of two hundred years.
2. The failure of the ratification of the Treaty of 1841, which would have
made the valley of the Minnesota River an Indian Territory much like Oklahoma
became.
3. The failure of the purchase of lands for the Mendota People by the U.S.
Government despite the purchase of four other pieces of land that became the
present Dakota Communities in Minnesota.
We filed for recognition as a federally recognized tribe and have acquired
federal tax-exempt non-profit status as a Dakota Community. Our mission
statement is the protection and preservation of the Dakota culture and
language. It is our dream to establish heath facilities for our people,
establish a learning center for all people, re-establish our language for our
community and our descendants, and establish cultural ties that will not
wither.
Our petition for recognition has regrettably been slowed by struggles against
the development of our ancestral lands and the resting places of our
ancestors. As a result of Department of Justice mediation, a two-day
testimony session was established which brought forth testimony from many
elders from Indian Nations. Dakota, Ojibwe, and people from other nations
historically bound to this area came to testify. The most important part of
this testimony was largely ignored resulting in the Minnesota Department of
Transportation’s decision to eliminate the Four Sacred Grandfather Oaks along
the proposed site of the reroute of State Highway 55 in South Minneapolis.
We have renewed our efforts to gain federal recognition and the regrettable
loss of the trees has given us more time to do this. We no longer have our
spiritual encampment to support and our efforts can be aimed at the
recognition petition.
Go to CAMERAONE.ORG to view story and video of felling of the Four Sacred Oaks.
OUR INTERACTIONS WITH OTHER INDIAN COMMUNITIES
WE were extremely blessed several years ago to make the acquaintance of Chris Leith, a spiritual advisor for the Prairie Island Dakota Community. He has
taught us much of what was missing in our knowledge of Dakota culture. Chris
taught us the sacred Dakota language for months until the grant for the class
was expended. He invited us to our first Sundance in 1997 at the sacred
quarries in Pipestone. We have attended this ceremony every year since then.
We have attended many pow wows, including the past three at the Lower Sioux
Reservation in Morton, Minnesota. We have also gone to pow wows at Prairie
Island, Shakopee and Mankato. Several of our members are dancing.
We were co-sponsors of the First Annual Veterans Pow Wow at the Minnesota
State Veterans Home in Hastings and are working on it again for the second
one. We are also involved in the Gathering of Kinship Pow Wow at Birch
Coulee, honoring the 38 Grandfathers hung at Mankato on December 26, 1862.
Jim Anderson and Michael Scott, our cultural co-chairmen, are on the pow wow
committee, as well as LaRockzana Hop, a former Deputy Mayor here at Mendota.
We were in charge of the kitchen at World Peace and Prayer Day held on June
21, 1998 at the sacred quarries at Pipestone. This was truly a moving
experience. We started with virtually nothing and thanks to members of many
tribes, we had all the equipment and food we could use. Every time we were
in need of something such as fruit juice for the children, someone would
bring in cases. The caring and sharing at the gathering was an incredible
religious experience. At the end of the weekend, we sent extra food home
with many elders. Aho Wasteste!!
Chief Arvol Looking Horse (Keeper of the Sacred White Buffalo Calf Pipe) and
his family led a unity ride along with some of our people from Birch Coulee
to our encampment at the Four Sacred Grandfather Oaks. Ceremonies were also held on Pilot Knob (Oheyawahe- Much Visited Hill) our sacred burial place and where the treaties of 1841 (unratified) and 1851 Treaty of Mendota were
signed. Ceremonies were also held at the Sacred Spring (Mnihdoka Wakan) that
we have so long struggled to protect.
The Reverend Gary Cavender, spiritual advisor to the Shakopee Dakota, and
Bain Wilson, Tribal elder from the Lower Sioux have supported us. Elders and
spiritual advisors from many nations have been in support of our efforts to
protect these sacred places for our ancestors to rest in peace.
We held a ceremony for World Peace and Prayer Day at Coldwater Spring on June 21, 1999 that was attended by several nations. We had a feast afterward at
the site of the Four Sacred Oaks Spiritual Encampment
We have received a resolution from the National Congress of American Indians
supporting our position to protect our sacred sites. The National Congress
is the oldest and largest national organization established in 1944,
comprised of representatives of and advocates for national, regional and
local Tribal concerns. A resolution was also received from the Iowa Tribe of
Oklahoma, a tribe that was historically in the area.
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