KFAI’s Indian Uprising for May 4, 2008 from 7:00 – 8:00 p.m. CDT #264
Statehood – now reaching one hundred and fifty years. “On May 11, 2008, Minnesota will reach its 150th anniversary as the 32nd state in the United States of America. Beginning in January 2008, the Sesquicentennial will be a year long, statewide commemoration and a catalyst, to learn from our past and connect all of us as Minnesotans in creating a thriving, innovative future.” – 2007 Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission.
The public’s knowledge about the Indigenous people of their homeland, Mini Sota Makoce (land where the waters reflect the skies), and their true history before and after Minnesota statehood proclamation and how it came to be, is abysmal.
• What about the gallows where the 38 Dakota men were hung in Mankato, Minnesota, on December 26, 1862, for defending their homeland? It was the largest mass hanging in the U.S.
• What about the Treaty of 1805? Most of St. Paul and Minneapolis are on this land. The land is Dakota land and was not compensated for.
• What about the 1,700 Dakota people, primarily women, children, and elders who were force-marched 150 miles from southwestern Minnesota to the concentration camp at Ft. Snelling in 1862-1863? Many were killed during the march and others died at the camps.
“My grandmother was bayoneted in the stomach by a soldier on horseback. Then, hundreds more were killed in concentration camps during the cold Minnesota winter of 1862-63.” – Chris Mato Nunpa (Dakota)
“My grandfather spent his third birthday at the concentration camp at Fort Snelling, which ironically was only a few miles from his birthplace on Nicollet Island in the Mississippi River. My great grandfather, Mazaadidi, was one of the warriors condemned to hang at Mankato but was instead sent to prison.” – Reuben Wambdi Kitto, Jr. (Dakota)
Letter to the Editor excerpt, Mpls Star Tribune: “The decision of the Legislature whether to fund a project concerning Fort Snelling is a golden opportunity for Minnesota to take a leadership role in the nation in dealing with the legacy of the genocide of indigenous peoples in the Americas. We can renovate the fort or we can imagine something better. I propose that the state appropriate funds for the removal and reconstruction of Fort Snelling on more neutral ground and to turn the reconstructed site into the Minnesota Museum of Genocide. The original site would be turned into a state park in which the DNR and the Dakota communities of Minnesota, both federally recognized and non-federally recognized, would come to an agreement on the design and management.” – Jeffrey Kolnick, Associate Professor of History, Southwest Minnesota State University and Augsburg College. See complete letter: http://www.startribune.com/opinion/commentary/15679667.html
Guests are:
Chris Mato Nunpa (Dakota), Ph.D., Associate Professor, Indigenous Nations & Dakota Studies (INDS), Southwest Minnesota State University
James Anderson (Dakota), Cultural Liaison, Mdewakantunwan Dakota Community Center, Minnesota
Waziyatawin Angela Wilson (Dakota), Ph.D., AAUW American Postdoctoral Fellow, former Associate Professor of Indigenous History, Department of History, Arizona State University; Editor, In the Footsteps of Our Ancestors: The Dakota Commemorative Marches of the 21st Century, Living Justice Press