Who We Are
WHO WE ARE
The majority of the ancestors of the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community can be traced back to Mendota, Minnesota in the 1700’s.
This non-profit organization is dedicated to preserving our Dakota heritage. We have over 250 known members and meet monthly in Mendota, Minnesota.
The Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community is working on regaining and keeping its culture and heritage so that future generations of people from all races can learn and will know about the Dakota culture.
THE VILLAGE OF MENDOTA
The name Mendota is a French misinterpretation of the Dakota word Mdo-Te.
Mdo-Te (pronounced Bdoh Tay) means the mouth of a river or a meeting of
waters. In this instance it is the Mdo-TE of the Wakpa (River) Mni-sota
(less than clear or smoky water). The French explorer Joseph Nicollet
visited this region in the late 1830’s. Nicollet was told by Dakota Elders
at that time that the area around Mendota was considered by the Mdewakanton
(Bday-wah kahn toon) Dakota People to be the middle of all things and the
exact center of the earth. Our people have been here for centuries but
appear in history in connection with the earliest French and English Traders.
Following the Louisiana Purchase in 1803, President Jefferson sent Lewis and
Clark up the Missouri River, and Lt. Zebulon Pike up the Mississippi to see
what had been purchased. Lt. Pike negotiated a treaty in 1805 with our
people for two parcels of land for the establishment of military posts. The
first parcel was a nine-mile square of land centered on the confluence of the
St.Croix and Mississippi Rivers. The second parcel was an ambiguous piece of
land from just above the falls of St.Anthony to just below the mouth of the
St. Pierre (St. Peters) River (The Minnesota) and extending nine miles on
either side of the Mississippi River.
Despite the huge acquisition of some 100 square miles of land, the army did
not appear here again until 1819. A temporary post was established on the
bottomland of the Minnesota River for the first winter. Because of unhealthy
conditions on the bottomland, a permanent post was established across the
river on the promontory where Fort Snelling now stands. The army was camped
at a sacred spring of the Dakota people (Coldwater Spring) for the time it
took to build the magnificent limestone fort of which today’s fort is a
replica. An Indian Agency was established outside the fort and the traders
from the American Fur Company set up headquarters across the river at
Mendota. This was the beginning of the white man’s history of the area.
Most of the traders, agency employees and military personnel took Dakota
women as wives. This was the beginning of the kinship ties that have bound
our people to this area till the present day. In this setting we have been
much assimilated by white society, but continue to maintain cultural and
religious ties to our Dakota ancestors.
Information is available by e-mail on details of the early French and English
explorers in the area that became Minnesota.
Dakota Families Of Mendota
Descendants of Taoyateduta (Little Crow IV)
The majority of the members of MMDC are from one of the families listed below. The ancestry for most goes back to the French fur traders who married Dakota women. In late 1875, the Reverend David Buel Knickerbacker estimated there were approximately 75 Dakota living in Mendota, on land owned by Henry Sibley. Sibley and others tried unsuccessfully to get the government to grant land or money for the land for the Mendota people. When Sibley died in 1891, our people were made to leave the land. They moved to the old river road in Mendota, but were again forced to move in 1952, when the state acquired the land. Many stayed in the area surrounding Mendota.
In an excerpt from the Hastings Gazette in a column called “Mendota Items” dated Saturday, February 13, 1886, it states “Everybody goes to St. Paul this week to see the carnival. Most of the Indians on the palace grounds are from here (Mendota).” In an interview with Mary Louise Reding Auge in 1961, her recollections include summer church picnics at Duncans Lake (since renamed Augusta Lake). ” The picnic grounds were on the west shore nearest Mendota, while across the lake on ground now occupied by Resurrection Cemetery, were row after row of Indian lodges. The young people would walk along the lake shore and watch the squaws prepare corn meal by cracking kernels between stones, and listen to their strange chatter in the Dakota tongue.” She also stated, without wishing to unnecessarily rattle family skeletons, that many families of French descent in northern Dakota County could boast of more than a little Indian blood in their veins.
| Auge/Albrecht |  |
LeClaire | |
Felix | |
LaBatte | |
Robinette | |
Newcomb |
| Cermak | |
Leith | |
Sherry | |
LaCroix |
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