Made by Annette Lee, Ojibwe and D(L)akota, and Jim Rock, Sisseton Dakota, 2012
Dakota Star Map
Do you know what Minnesota means–literally? It’s derived from the Dakota word Mnisota, meaning clear water, that reflects the clouds and the sky above. It’s a beautiful image that we don’t have a word for in English.
The word was appropriated and anglicized to fit into the English lexicon, Minnesota, and became the term what we now call the land between its manmade borders. Supplanting language is just one form of cultural erasure. The Dakota, Ojibwe, and other tribal groups have called this land their home for thousands of years, and still do to this day. The Minnesota History Center’s new exhibit, Our Home: Native Minnesota, speaks to the endurance of Indigenous people, tracing their history in the land of 10,000 lakes through art, clothing, photographs, interactive stations, and other significant pieces.
“We constantly hear from visitors and teachers that Native stories are fundamental to understanding Minnesota history,” says Kent Whitworth, the director of the Minnesota Historical Society. “These are inspirational stories of survival, resistance and resilience that offer hope for the future. These stories show how Native people have retained cultural practices, teachings and values, and an essential connection to home.”
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“Star Knowledge” star quilt made by Gwen Westerman, Sisseton Wahpeton Oyate (Dakota), 2014.
“Star Knowledge” star quilt made by Gwen Westerman
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Ojibwe women at Leech Lake, 1906.
Ojibwe women at Leech Lake photo from 1906
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Photograph by Randolph R. Johnson, June 14, 1912.
Like how water is all around us, Native culture is so embedded into the fabric of our state that it’s easy for non-natives to take it for granted. In fact, water is a sacred symbol of Native society–in Dakota, mni is at the heart of many of their traditions. Bdote, or "where the rivers join," is passed down through oral history as the place where the first Dakota man and woman were created from the earth. The term also describes the land around Fort Snelling State Park. And what not of the water protectors, who protested the Dakota Access Pipeline at Standing Rock, and are still protecting their land?
So what happened to Minnesota's native population? Beginning in the 1850s, Dakota nations were relocated by the U.S. government to land along the Mississippi River as part of treaty agreements. But between 1850 to 1860, as Minnesota's non-native population grew from about 6,000 to 170,000, the influx of people took crucial provisions and resources from the Dakota, and their ensuing hunger and hardship led to the U.S.–Dakota War of 1862.
In a speech on September 9, 1862, Minnesota governor Alexander Ramsey said, "The Sioux [Dakota] Indians of Minnesota must be exterminated or driven forever beyond the borders of Minnesota."
Almost all the Dakota people fled the state, hid, or were forced out. On the day after Christmas in 1862, 38 Dakota men were hanged in Mankato–the largest public mass execution in the history of the country to this day. In November 1965, two other men–Pejuta Ozanzan and Sakpedan–were hanged outside of Fort Snelling, where women, children, and elders were imprisoned in a concentration camp. Hundreds were taken by steamboat to Crow Creek in South Dakota, and then died from a lack of food needed to survive.
Missionaries came in droves to convert Natives to Christianity as the land became colonized. Throughout the 1800s, missionaries taught Dakota and Ojibwe women in sewing circles how to make lace, a "civilized" art form to abandon their "dirty, ugly handicrafts," even though Native women were already proven seamstresses skilled in needle arts. Boarding schools run by the federal government worked to actively assimilate Native youth, disrupting the traditional passing of tribal knowledge in an attempt to "civilize" Natives into American society.
But the story of Minnesota's Native tribes persists, and the legacies and traditions of the people who were displaced live on. Our Home: Native Minnesota will be a permanent gallery in the History Center, with the plan to update it regularly.
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Photograph by Eugene Tapahe, Diné, 2016
Native American in full regalia in a group protest
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Lisa Fifield, Oneida, 2006
Gathering #4
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Avis Charley, Spirit Lake Dakota and Diné, 2012
native American art on a map of North Dakota
The exhibit opens December 7, with free admission all day. Minnesota History Center admission: $12 for adults, $10 for seniors, veterans/active military and college students, $6 ages 5 to 17; free age 4 and under and MNHS members.
