Mni Wiconi Full Moon Walk
at Sacred Coldwater Springs
Thursday, January 25, 2024
Gather at the park entrance, 7 pm
Park on the Hwy 55 access road
Mni Wiconi is Dakota for “water is life.” It is pronounced minn-knee wa-cho-knee. In Dakota the second syllable is given verbal stress unlike speaking English where the first syllable is emphasized. The letter “c” is pronounced “ch.”
There is no life on Earth without water. In fact if you could wring out a rock you would find water. Space, beyond Earth’s atmosphere, is very wet and space explorers are searching for water on planets out there.
Here enemies of life are denying water to children, women, men, hospitals, kitchens, even plants in an effort to kill non-Jews in Gaza/Palestine. This denial is an illegal act of the “rules” of war. It is a crime against humanity. It is torture.
Nature teaches us to look at Coldwater, for example, and see an outpouring of life-giving water to all. Anybody can drink at Coldwater. There is no you or me. Coldwater Springs has been flowing at least 11,000-years. Thank You, Coldwater.
Friends of Coldwater are grateful that the spring still flows although down from 144,000 gallons per day before the Highway 55 reroute in the 1990s to about 66,000 gpd. Water is what climate change is all about: floods, droughts, warming oceans and devastating storms.
Coldwater is an acknowledged Dakota sacred site. Friends of Coldwater seek to honor our 11,000-year-old landscape ancestor and the people whose dust we stand upon. So we return and return to remember the spirits that feed this Indigenous sacred site.
Full moon walks have been celebrated at Coldwater Springs each month since 2000. Traditional group howl when the moon peeks out.
Sunset 5:10 pm (33-minutes later than last full moon)
Moonrise 5:01 pm (1-hour and 1-minute earlier than last month)
9-hours, 31-minutes of daylight
Moment of the full moon: 11:54 am
Snowflakes take 75-minutes traveling at 1.5 mph to fall to Earth from 10,000-feet.
DIRECTIONS: Coldwater Springs is between Minnehaha Park & Fort Snelling, in Minneapolis, just North of the Hwy 55/62 interchange. From Hwy 55/Hiawatha, turn East (toward the Mississippi) at 54th Street, take an immediate right, & drive all the way down the frontage road where you can park at the pay meters.
Gather at the cul-de-sac, which is the Coldwater Park entrance.
Free. All welcome.