.......................................The Coldwater Spring Deception

................................................by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer

---------------------------------Deceptive Protesters at Coldwater Spring ----------------------------------- ----------------------------------

In the National Park Service's Coldwater Spring report Sacred Site and Traditional Cultural Property Analysis there are a couple of statements by Gary Cavender. He was a Dakota elder at the time of his NPS testimony. He is now deceased.

"There are seven groups of Dakota [Mdewakanton, Wahpekute, Wahpeton, Sisseton, Yankton, Yanktonai, and Teton]. There are seven stars in the constellation of Orion. We are the spirit beings from the constellation of Orion and those seven stars. This whole area [Mdote] is important to us because this is where we first came as spirit beings - to the confluence of the Mississippi and Minnesota rivers. We spread out from there becoming human beings as we spread out from there."

"The water from Coldwater Spring comes out from underneath the land and some of the spirit beings that arrived went into the water and they appeared on earth here and so became Dakotahs."

--------------------------------Mdote area (Coldwater Spring) --------------------------------------------------------------------------

The original and authentic Dakota origin creation story actually says the Dakota's place of origin is near Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake), or "about the lakes at the head of the Rum River." A related Dakota origin creation story says that after a flood some of the people entered into Mille Lacs Lake and lived underwater, and later emerged from the sacred lake. Today's Dakotahs are descendants of the Mille Lacs Lake underwater people who emerged from the sacred lake as human beings into this world.

-------------------------------------Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------

In the book Lakota Society by James R. Walker, Raymond J. Demallie (Editor), there are quite a few reference books sited that bear fruit on the issue of place of Lakota/Dakota/Sioux origin. One of them is The Mysterious Lake, by Elaine Jahner, a former professor of English and Native American studies at Dartmouth College, who comments on Walker's work.

"The second of Walker's publications on Lakota society is a brief section in 'The Sun Dance' (1917, pp. 72-78). Here the focus is on political organization. He discusses the Origin of the Sioux near Sacred Lake (Mille Lacs, Minnesota), their subsequent division into the Seven Council Fires, and the continued division of each of the Fires (otonwepi), divisions) into tribes (ospayepi) and bands (ti-ospayepi)." ref.

The Lakota/Dakota/Sioux (or, Oceti Sakowin 'Seven Council Fires') call the "Rum River" Wakpa Wakan (Spirit River). This river is Mille Lacs Lake's outlet river. For several hundred years there were Dakota or Oceti Sakowin 'Seven Council Fires' villages located at Mille Lacs Lake. On a Mille Lacs Kathio State Park interpretive sign Chief Leonard E. Wabasha is quoted as saying:



"Father Louis Hennepin visited the Sioux at Mille Lacs Lake in 1680 and reported that it was the sacred lake of these Indians and the focal point of the whole nation, from which the tribes and bands spread out over a wide area. (Wilford 1944:329)." ref.

"In 1656, the Dakotas were living near Mille Lacs in five villages numbering about 5,000 people. It is possible that the Tetons and Yanktons had at this point already began migrating west, although Hennepin found them above the Falls of St. Anthony on the Mississippi River in 1680. In 1701, they were at Lake Traverse. The Yankon and Yantonai left Mille Lacs at about this time." (Flandreau Santee Sioux website) ref.

"From what was written on this subject by Hennepin, La Hontan, Le Sueur, and Charlevoix, and from the maps published under the superintendence of these authors, it is sufficiently clear that in the latter part of the 17th century the principal residence of the Isanyati Sioux [Mdewakanton, Wahpeton, Wahpekute, and Sisseton] was about the headwaters of Rum river, whence they extended their hunts to St Croix and Mississippi rivers, and down the latter nearly or quite as far as the mouth of the Wisconsin." (Minn. Hist. Soc. Coll, I, 295, 1872.) ref.

The Dakotas' values began to change when they learned about the European East Coast invasion and brutal westward incursions into Native territory. The Europeans were causing intertribal wars by promoting the fur trade. Eastern tribes were being armed with guns, and alcohol addiction was causing the armed eastern tribes to move west and force the unarmed western tribes from their homelands, so as to get more furs to trade for more alcohol. These imposing imperialistic policies of the Europeans caused many tribes to decide that their new guiding principle would have to be "survival of the fittest, take what you can from others." At the time, many tribes abandoned their respect for the property rights of other tribes.

At the time, the Dakotas abandoned their respect for the Iowa tribe's property rights, whose homelands were about 100 miles south of Mille Lacs Lake, including the land at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers (the Mdote area). In 1685, the Dakotas invaded and forced the Iowa from their Minnesota homelands and then some of the Dakotas took up residence in those Iowa ancestral/traditional homelands, including the "Mdote" area.

In 1745, after most of the Dakotas of the four tribes of the "Isanyati Sioux" were forced from their Mille Lacs homeland by the French, who armed and used a displaced East Coast band of Ojibwe to do the actual fighting, some of the exiled Mdewakantons moved to the confluence of the Minnesota & Mississippi rivers, causing the Mdewakanton population of the "Mdote" area to increase.

Years later, when Mdewakantons were still living in the Mdote area, missionary Gideon Pond was editing a monthly newspaper named the Dakota Friend, published by the Dakota Mission. A purpose of the paper was to pass on information about the tribe to the Whiteman. In May 1851, Pond wrote in the Dakota Friend, "The Mdewakantonwan tradition asserts that they sprang into existence about the lakes at the head of the Rum River." In 1851 where was no Mdewakantonwan nor Lakota/Dakota creation story in the Mdote area. All seven bands had the same Dakota origin creation story/site/tradition.

In a video by Twin Cities Public Television, a video titled The Past Is Alive Within Us: The U.S. ~ Dakota Conflict, there are the following incorrect statements. "Coldwater Spring is a very significant site to the Dakota...Creation stories that draw us to this location..." In response to these statements John LaBatte, a renowned historian who is part Dakota, wrote:

Incorrect ~ It is not significant to all Dakota.

Incorrect ~ These creation stories are very recent. Lake Mille lacs has been for many years the Dakota place of creation.

When referring to the Mdote area, Labatte also wrote: That this was the Dakota place of creation is a relatively recent belief by a few. For more than 150 years the Mille lacs Lake area has been the Dakota place of creation.

There is a 150 year old written account that says that the Mille Lacs Lake area is the Dakota place of origin. In the Dakota's oral tradition the Mille Lacs Lake area has been known/confirmed to be their place of creation for hundreds of years.

I am an activist who is working with four other historian activists to expose a group of deceptive Minnesota Dakota activists and their white historian supporters who, together, created and are promoting a deceptive revision of history that steals the sacred site history from Mille Lacs Lake and other sacred Dakota places and moves it to the confluence of the Minnesota & Mississippi rivers and Coldwater Spring. The reason why they are doing this despicable act is to gain leverage to accomplish their activist goals in the Mdote area.

Fort Snelling is located at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers. The deceptive Dakota activists and their allies believe that the fort is an icon of American colonialism, and a symbol of American imperialism and oppressive domination over this land's indigenous peoples. The leaders of this group of deceptive Dakota activists are leaders of an Indigenous decolonization movement of North America and have gained U.S. national recognition.

This group of deceptive Dakota activists and their allies are wrongly claiming that the Dakota are the original people of Minnesota, especially including (1.) Mdote (the confluence) and the Coldwater Spring area, and (2.) the "sacred" land that the replica of the original military fort at Fort Snelling is now setting on. They want the replica fort demolished and the land returned to a pristine condition. They also want the land turned over to the care and jurisdiction of Dakota people. They also want Coldwater Spring and the land surrounding it turned over to the care and jurisdiction of Dakota people.

The Mdote area initiatives of the deceptive Dakota activists are intertwined with their leaders' nationally recognized leadership role of an Indigenous decolonization movement. Some of these deceptive Dakota activists also want to gain federal recognition as a tribe and have a casino in the Mdote area. This is what is causing this group of deceptive Dakota activists and their allies to steal sacred site history from Mille Lacs Lake and other sacred Dakota places. It gives them leverage to accomplish their activist goals in the Mdote area - and it also helps them to promote their importance in a growing Indigenous decolonization movement.

There is no written/documented account of a, combined, confluence of the Minnesota & Mississippi rivers and Coldwater Spring, Dakota origin creation story or tradition. And there is no written account of a Dakota creation story that states Dakota origin was at either the confluence or the spring.

In the NPS report there are joint letters presented from the four registered Minnesota Dakota tribes. In the letters these tribes did not state that the Mdote area is the sacred site of Dakota origin, or that there is a Dakota creation story associated with the Mdote area, or Coldwater Spring. Plus, in one of the joint letters, the letter that addressed the importance of Coldwater Spring to the Dakota, the spring was not declared sacred, or a sacred site. And the newly made up Mdote area oral "creation story" that Carvender presented to the NPS is contradicted by credible written and traditional oral creation storys that say the Dakota's Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) ancestral homeland-including "about the lakes at the head of the Rum River," is the sacred place/site of Dakota origin.

Some historians and other people who know Minnesota Native history have written reviews that state that Gary Cavender's NPS testimony about the Dakota's origins is a newly made up (fake) creation story, and that it is propaganda that helps promote a deceptive Dakota group's agenda in the Mdote area.

Bruce White is a historian who supports the deceptive Dakota group's agenda, he wrote: "The fact that the Bureau of Mines site is important historically and culturally to the Dakota--as the site of creation for the people--is an important aspect of the site...Yet the agency that refuses to recognize the Dakota importance of the site has now been given the property." In other words, the National Park Service believes there is NOT an authentic/valid creation story at Coldwater Spring, or the story is a deceptive ploy, and therefore it believes that the spring and surrounding land (or Bureau of Mines site) is NOT "the site of creation for the people." ref.

Dave Fudally is a historian who is opposed to Bruce White's and the deceptive Dakota group's agenda. He has an Amazon.com on-line book review about this topic for the public to read. Mr. Fudally's Amazon.com name is starsailing. He has 26 years of study on Coldwater Spring since 1986 when he discovered the site. He continues to work to preserve the spring and educate the public about the true history of the spring and the entire Mdote area.

Fudally met Gary Cavender back in 1991 after he had a Minnesota Historical Society marker ceremony at Coldwater Spring. Cavender learned about the spring from Fudally. When the Dakota Society first met, Cavender heard Fudally talk about the spring at that meeting and then at other DS meetings as well. For years, Fudally never heard Cavender say anything about the spring. What Cavender presented in his NPS testimony was a "creation story" - made up after he and his co-conspiring associates became interested in the Coldwater Spring site, which was Bureau of Mines Property (federal land), knowing that natives had (under certain circumstances) the first right to claim land if it was to leave federal ownership.

For years, Cavender never said one word about Coldwater Spring site to Fudally, and then after the site was potentially going to be available for Dakota natives to claim, he claimed that the Coldwater Spring-confluence of the Mississippi & Minnesota rivers site (or the Mdote area) was the site/area of Dakota origin.

According to Fudally, the only documented/written account, an invalid account, of a so-called "Dakota creation story and origin site" (probably a Cheyenne creation story) that could possibly be within the Mdote area was by an unknown Frenchman. I believe that an unknown Frenchman's inaccurate and invalid 1720 written account of a so-called "Dakota creation story" is not a credible source to base a people's creation origin tradition on. And the story says nothing about Mdote (the confluence) or Coldwater Spring.

Bruce White quoted the story in his latest book, but stated in the book that he doubts the accuracy of the French manuscript, and says it "may be a mixture from various native groups."

This 1720 document was criticized in the late 1800's for its inaccuracy.

The French writer "seems to have had some informers" who were not Dakota, and who were "not clear to distinguish between Dakota customs and those of other tribes."

Reference:
MACALESTER COLLEGE CONTRIBUTIONS:
Department of History, Literature and
Political Science.

MEMOIR OF THE SIOUX: A MANUSCRIPT IN
THE FRENCH ARCHIVES, NOW FIRST
PRINTED, WITH INTRODUCTION AND NOTES.
by Edward D. Neill D.D. 1890

available online Here... Pages 239 and 240

Here's the inaccurate and invalid written account: A 1720 French manuscript states "the first Sciou and the first woman of their tribe came out of the earth, which brought them forth on a prairie south of St. Anthony Falls, and that the earth was made by a turtle, to which they assign no origin."

Did the "informers" tell the Frence writer about a Cheyenne creation story and origin site located south of St. Anthony Falls and mistakenly refer to it as a "Sciou" creation story and origin site?

In the Dakota creation story a [muskrat] arose from the beneath the water and brought dirt to the surface, not a [turtle], as stated in a Cheyenne creation story.

Cheyenne creation story: [The earth was made by a turtle] The veteran Sioux missionary, Williamson, says that according to concurrent and reliable Sioux tradition the Cheyenne preceded the Sioux in the occupancy of the upper Mississippi region, and were found by them already established on the Minnesota. ref. In one of the creation stories told by the Cheyenne, neighbors of the Lakota, before people lived on the earth it was covered by water. The Creator wanted to use mud from under the water to make solid ground, but needed a place to put the mud on top of the water. Turtle rose to the top of the water to carry the mud that became earth. ref.

Dakota creation story: [The earth was made by a muskrat] At a time when all that was visible in the world was water, Unktehi, a water monster, sent various animals down into the water one by one to reach the bottom and find a piece of dirt and proclaimed death to the disobedient. The beaver and others forfeited their lives. After many animals tried and died in the effort the muskrat arose exhausted from the water carrying some dirt that became earth. ref. [see page 267]

The inaccurate 1720 written account of a so-called "Sioux creation story" (probably a Cheyenne creation story) that states that the "Sioux"/Dakota [came out of the earth] contradicts the newly made up oral ["out of the water"] creation story, which says the confluence of the Mississippi & Minnesota rivers and Coldwater Spring is the place of Dakota origin. And these so-called "creation stories" are refuted by the Dakota themselves.

I believe that when either one of these so-called "Dakota origin creation stories," the "south of St. Anthony Falls" story or the "confluence of the Minnesota & Mississippi rivers and Coldwater Spring" story, is claimed to be the "Dakota creation story and origin site", or the "first Dakota creation story and origin site" this is deceptive and very wrong. And I also believe that it is wrong to claim there is a "Mdote area Dakota origin creation site." In addition, I believe that it is also wrong to claim that the Mdote area is the "Mdewakanton's place of origin."

There are several Dakota creation stories. Some of these stories mention where the Dakota's place of origin is located, the others do not. There is a creation story that says the Dakota came into exsistence about the lakes at the head of the Rum River (near Mille Lacs Lake). Another related creation story says that after a flood some of the people entered into Mille Lacs Lake and lived underwater, and later emerged from the sacred lake as human beings into this world. And another creation story, a recently made up creation story, says the Dakota people came from the Black Hills in South Dakota, literally emerging from the Earth at a place called Wind Cave.

Here's the Bde/Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) Dakota (Oceti Sakowin 'Seven Council Fires') creation story: After the flood, some of the people lived under the water at Bde Tanka of Bde Wakan. One day a young boy and his sister were walking together. The boy looked up and saw mniyomni to, a blue whirlpool, above them and reached up for it. The whirlpool pulled him up to the surface and threw him out onto the shore. A beautiful place of trees and hills. His sister followed the bubbles of the mniyomni, reached up, and was also thrown ashore. She followed her brother's footprints, eating roots and berries along the way, and picked up a small stone to suck in order to quench her thirst. Amazed at the beauty of the place, she was distracted and swallowed the stone. It traveled through her body and was born a child called Inyan Hoksida, Stone Boy. This is how the people walked out of the lake and became people who walk on the land again."

The following interpretation of the name Mdewakanton, an interpretation that incorporates the Dakotas' origin creation story at Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake), is displayed on the Prairie Island Mdewakanton Dakota Community website. "The Mdewakanton, 'those who were born of the waters'" ref.

On the Prairie Island Mdewakanton Dakota Community website there are the words: "For many hundreds of years we have inhabited this area of Minnesota. The Prairie Island people are part of a larger group called the Dwellers of the Spirit Lake, in our language the Mde wakan ed otunwahe. Over the years this name has been shortened to Mdewakantonwan or Mdewakanton (M'DAY-wah-kahn-tahn)." The Mdewakanton 'Dwellers of the Spirit Lake' are the people who were 'born of the waters' of Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake).

Today, all the people of the seven groups of the Oceti Sakowin are descendants of the original Mdewakantons, who lived in villages located near or on the shore of Mille Lacs Lake and in other northern Minnesota areas, and considered Mille Lacs Lake (Mde Wakan) the center of the world and their Mille Lacs Lake area homeland the place of their creation origin. ref... ref... ref... ref... ref.

Historian John LaBatte wrote: There are several Dakota creation stories. A sign, in Kathio State Park, authored by Leonard Wabasha, Lower Sioux Community, states that Mille lacs Lake is our Dakota place of creation. In recent years, this history has been revised to claim that the mouth of the Minnesota River was the Dakota place of creation. ref.

The first [Mdota area] deceptive and controversial Dakota activist initiative began in 1988. A group of Dakota activists were trying to stop the construction of the rerouted Highway 55. They claimed that "four sacred trees" were in the path of the planned construction of Highway 55 and that these trees were "sacred" because they were planted there to mark the burial grounds of some of their Dakota ancestors. After this activist initiative of theirs failed they started to claim that the near by Coldwater Spring site was sacred to the Dakota people and that they, therefore, wanted it to be designation as a Traditional Cultural Property and then turned over to the care and jurisdiction of the Dakota people.

After a thorough review by the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, which is made up of the tribal chairs of the State's eleven federally recognized tribes and is responsible for determining the cultural significance of such sites, it was determined that no substantial evidence exists that the proposed Highway 55 rerouting would directly impact any such site... (T)o attempt to exploit a piece of land for the purpose of simply stopping the rerouting of a highway, is not only wrong, in the long run it hurts our efforts to protect sites that are truly sacred and culturally significant. -Minnesota Indian Affairs Council, letter to the St. Paul Pioneer Press, October 5, 1998.

When addressing the controversial activist initiative associated with the ~ mouth of the Minnesota River and Coldwater Spring ~ so-called "Dakota creation story and origin site", a very recently made up story, Sheldon Wolfchild, former Chairman of the Lower Sioux Mdewakanton Dakota Community, gave a speech (recorded in a video) to a group of people and said that there is a lake under the Wakan Tipi/Coldwater Spring area that is called "Spirit Lake" and that this lake is where his people came from (emerged from it and came up through Coldwater Spring), and that it was not Mille Lacs Lake (Mde Wakan - Spirit Lake) that his people emerged from. This is an example of a deceptive revision of history that takes/steals the Mille Lacs Lake creation story and moves it to the Mdote area. [Evidence that future proves Wolfchild's claim is false is presented in the following pages.]

In the Star Tribune article Coldwater Spring debuts with a new look its author Tom Meeksman wrote: Wolfchild said the Interior Department should give the land back to the Dakota. Spiritually and historically, he said, it has been a place of origin, creation and beginning for Indian people.

Nowdays, Wolfchild is saying that the Dakota sprang into exsistence from a Mdote area mound located south of Saint Anthony Falls.

It seems to me that the above information presents evidence that proves that the first Dakota origin creation stories place the Dakotas' origins at Mille Lacs Lake (Mde Wakan - Spirit Lake) and that there is not even an authentic/valid Dakota creation story that places the Dakotas' origin in the Mdote area.

[Note: Mendota is a city in the Mdote area and the word Mendota is sometimes used to describe the Mdote area.]

A comment by a Dakota elder:

"The natives of Mendota are called Mdewakantons for a reason."

"In all my travels amongst the people I personally have never heard it said that Mendota was credited with being the 'Center' of Dakota origins. Mendota was given this particular spelling and pronunciation by the American Fur Company who established a fur trading post there and the word itself comes from the Dakota word 'mdote' meaning where 'one river joins another or meets another' (the St Peters River now called the Minnesota R., and the Miss. R.) Ft. Snelling was established by the American gov't near that location to claim, protect, and establish their influence in the region. The natives of Mendota are called Mdewakantons for a reason. When working amongst my Lakotah brothers even they referred to their place of origins as 'Spirit Lake' (Mille Lacs Lake). More can be said of the above issue but will let this suffice for now."

[Note: The name Lakotah (Lakota) is sometimes used to refer to only the Western Dakota.]

Bruce White is a co-author of a book titled Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota. He is a white man who is being accused, by historians, of co-conspiring with a deceptive group of Dakota natives who have a Mdote area propagandizing agenda.

White and the deceptive group of Dakota natives keep spreading their propaganda, so as to mislead people into believing that the Mdote area was, and still is, the Dakota people's most sacred site, "where the Dakota would return, as prophesied by elders generations ago, to bring Dakota culture back to its place of origin and protect its sacred sites." Oh! And most of these deceptive natives, a group of Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota, also want to gain land from the U.S. government and have a casino there, where they can make a lot of MONEY! White and a deceptive group of Dakota natives demean and desecrate other sacred Dakota sites, even the Dakota's most sacred site in Minnesota, Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake), the Dakota's place of origin, to promote their scandalous agenda. (Some Lakota/Dakota natives believe that their people's most sacred Minnesota site is the Pipestone Quarry near Pipestone, MN.)

On the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community's website there are the deceptive words: "Many generations ago, our elders prophesied that a time would come when their descendants would return to the birthplace of the Dakota Nation to protect its sacred sites and bring Dakota culture back to its place of origin. This place is the Mendota area..." The "birth place of the Dakota Nation" and "the origin of Dakota culture" is NOT the Mendota area, it is the MILLE LACS LAKE AREA.

In the book Landscapes of Clearance: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives, two professors of anthropology, Angele Smith and Amy Gazin-Schwartz, wrote: Gibbon (2003: 38-46) proposed a model for the origin of the Dakota out of a wild rice-gathering complex called Psinonani near Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota, area which he says "suddenly replaced this Terminal Woodland lifeway about AD 1300" (Gibbon 2003:38). ref. Guy Gibbon is professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Minnesota. He is the author or editor of several books, including The Sioux: The Dakota and Lakota Nations and Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia.

The Dakota are returning to their sacred Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) ancestral homeland, the birth place of the Dakota Nation, to bring Dakota culture back to its place of origin and protect its sacred sites, as prophesied by elders many generations ago. ref... ref.

In a Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota book review Fudally wrote: "Instead of presenting all the facts, the author presents half truths in an attempt to convince those who don't know their history, that the stories of other areas and other places, actually happened at Camp Coldwater instead!" [ Camp Coldwater includes Coldwater Spring, Mdote (confluence) and the surrounding land. It's the Mdote area.]

Lance M. Foster, an Iowa tribe historian, wrote: "Our traditions hold that our Iowa and Otoe peoples were the first people in southeastern Minnesota, from at least A.D. 900 to 1700, from the maps and oral testimonies by our Ioway elders No Heart and Waw-no-que-skoona, documented in the 1830s and 1840s. Our Sioux brothers and sisters at that time were further north, towards Mille Lacs, until the late 1600s. Until that time, we had been friends and allies. We have stories about that. In fact, when the French came to the area looking to establish trading posts in the 1680s, the Sioux told them that the Minnesota River, Blue Earth area, and so on, was the land of the Iowas (ah-yo-way: spelled Ayoes, Ayavois, or pa-xo-che: spelled Paotet, etc.). ref.

After the French tricked and assisted a band of Ojibwe to force most of the Isanti Dakota to leave their sacred Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) homeland ref., some of the exiled Dakota moved south to "the country about the mouth of the Minnesota river" (the Mendota/Mdote area), an area that belonged to the Iowa tribe until the Dakota forced them from it in 1685. Now some deceptive Dakota natives claim their people (the Oceti Sakowin or Sioux) were the original people of the Mdote area and it's their people's place of origin and the central place for the Dakota to return to, reclaim and regain.

Coldwater Spring and the surrounding land should be given back to the Iowa tribe. The Iowa were there first. And the Iowa tribe declared Coldwater Spring sacred five years before the Lower Sioux Indian Community did, and the other three federally recognized Minnesota Dakota bands did not even declare the spring sacred. And only two bands of the fourteen Dakota bands located in other states have declared it sacred. And as far as I know, no Dakota bands in Canada have declared it sacred. ref. ref. ref.

It was a part of the colonization process for European colonists to use newly arrived eastern tribes that had been forced from their homelands (by colonists and their alcohol manipulated "Indian" allies) into western tribes' territories-to violently force long established tribes from their sacred ancestral homelands, which they had strong pagan/heathen religious attachments to. The European colonists and Euro-American "settlers" wanted to Christianize and "civilize" the "savages" - and forcing them from their sacred homelands made it easier to accomplish this goal of theirs. ref.

The Christians' Lord said [Num. 33:51] "You must drive all the natives of the land before you. If you do not drive the natives of the country before you then those who remain will become disgusting to your eyes and a thorn in your side. They will harass you in the land where you live, and I will deal with you as I meant to deal with them." The Christians' Lord also said [Psalm 2 KJV]..."I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession. Thou shalt break them with a rod of iron; thou shalt dash them in pieces like a potter's vessel."

A statement on the Minnesota DNR website reads: Early White/Indian intervention played an important role in the settlement of the area by white men. The French, instigated fights between the Ojibwe and Dakota so as to ally themselves with the Ojibwe. ref.

Dutch and British colonists used the Iroquois to force the Ojibwe from their East Coast homeland. ref. ref. ref. The French then tricked and used a band of newly arrived Ojibwe to force most of the Dakota living in the Mille Lacs area from their sacred homeland ref.. In 1685, the colonizing influences caused the Dakota to force the Iowa from their sacred homeland at the mouth of the Minnesota River. Decolonization justice demands that the Dakota help the Iowa tribe regain this sacred site of theirs, including Coldwater Spring.

If the Dakota bands give due respect to, both, the Iowa tribe and the sacred Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) Dakota origin creation story and site, then I support the Dakota bands declaring the Mdote area sacred. The Iowa and Dakota people can share the true sacred site history of this area. The Iowa people having paramount or superior rights to the area's shared sacred sites.

Here's another historian's Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota book review statement that accuses the book's authors of being intentionally deceptive:

Titled: History or not history, that is the question

The more you look into the sources, the more apparent the removal of history is the norm in this book. The Dakota, the predominant Indian culture here today were originally from Northern Minnesota. Why is this important? Because the book goes out of its way to establish the Dakota creation story south of St. Anthony Falls. It does so at the expense of removing entire other tribes, such as the Iowa, from the history of Minnesota. ref.

Fudally's Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota book review is titled Agenda in book causes history to be told as it wasn't. His Amazon.com book review and comments expose the disgraceful agenda of a group of deceptive Dakota natives and their chief white historian and author, Bruce White.

Fudally wrote: "The agenda of this author is quite clear to this historian, that in order to lay claim to the mouth of the Minnesota river to be the new Dakota creation site, facts of the Ayavois and Octatas living in the area up to 1700 must be eliminated." [Ayavois is another name for the Iowa]

"Ask yourself, why did author just leave out those facts that state during the year 1700, the Ayavois and Octatas were in possession of the Minnesota River per Mantanton Dakota, and LeSueur was expecting to find them there? [Ref: Memoires de Mr. Le Sueur and History of Hennepin County 1881 Rev Neil.]"

In an Amazon.com book review comment, Fudally wrote: "....the Dakota themselves document taking the land from the Iowa while the Dakota lived in the region about Mille Lacs Lake." ref.

On the Preserve Camp Coldwater website there are the following statements:

Black Tomahawk, Dakota Indian historian early 1800's, documents the Dakota taking the lands of the Iowa Indians in 3 battles along the St Peter (now Minnesota) River Near Quinn's home (East Bloomington), Grey Iron's planting field (South of St Peter R. present Burnsville/Eagan border) and at Pilot Knob hill Mendota. Ref: Mn Historical Collections, Iowa Indians and the Mounds by Gideon Pond. The battles would be about the year 1685.

The first documented Dakota village, "at the mouth of the river St. Pierre, on the bank of which were Mantantans" in 1689 by Nicolas Perrot. Ref: The History of Hennepin Cty 1881 Rev Neil.

This is the basis of the controversy about where the Dakota's came from. If the Iowa were there, then that brings into question the entire testimony of the elders saying Coldwater is the Dakota "Garden of Eden" and validates the federally recognized Dakota tribes at Mille Lacs Lake and the markers previously placed by them there. In a nutshell the Dakota and Ojibwa were already in a war when the first French trader met the Ojibwa in the 1660 ref; Pierre Esprit de Radisson who left a written account at that time. The French traded with the Ojibwa and they were able to defeat the Dakota and pushed them off of Mille Lacs Lake to the south. The Dakota pushed the Iowa further to the south as well.

It is true that "the Dakota and Ojibwa were already in a war when the first French trader arrived in Minnesota and met the Ojibwa in 1660." However, because of the Dutch, British and Iroquois's heinous activities on the East Coast the Ojibwe, forced from their homelands, were moving west as refugees, and before they invaded the Dakotas' territory they were encouraged by the French to do so. This is what caused the original war between the Dakota and Ojibwe.

The Iowa, the original tribe of the area "about the mouth of the Minnesota river," discovered the area and dwelt there before any of the Dakota (Sioux) ever paddled a canoe into the sacred area. "The Sioux have a tradition (Williamson in Minn. Hist. Coll., 1, 296) that when their ancestors first came to the falls of St Anthony, the Iowa occupied the country about the mouth of Minnesota river." ref.

On the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota website there are the deceptive words: "On Tuesday, September 2, members of the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires) of the Dakota Oyate (Dakota Nation) are reclaiming Coldwater Spring and the surrounding land. As the Original People of Minisota Makoce (Land Where the Waters Reflect the Skies),..."

In the Twin Cities Public Television video, a video titled The Past Is Alive Within Us: The U.S. ~ Dakota Conflict, there is the following incorrect statement, "This was and is Dakota homeland without a doubt. We were connected and tied to this place. We have significant sites, prayer sites, burial sites and gathering sites."

This statement was listed in historian John LaBatte's review of the TCPT video as being in the "Most Objectionable Statements" catagory. LaBatte wrote: Incorrect ~ The Dakota did not originate in Minnesota. Other groups who were here before the Dakota also had significant sites. ref.

The people of the Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires) of the Dakota Oyate (Dakota Nation) are NOT the Original People of Minisota Makoce (or Minnesota, including the Mdote area). Other tribes were living in Minnesota before the Dakota, including the Iowa, Octatas and Cheyenne people. If the tribes that lived in the Mille Lacs Lake area thousands of years ago are not included, the Dakota can claim that they were the original people of the north central part of the state. [ ref. . ref.] The more recent "original people" of Minnesota, especially including the Mdote area, or the part of the state of Minnesota where "Coldwater Spring and the surrounding land" is located were the Iowa, Octatas and Cheyenne people.

The Dakota or Oceti Sakowin (Seven Council Fires) people were NOT, as falsely claimed by some deceptive Dakota activists, the original people of the Mdote area and neither is the Mdote area the Dakota place of origin, as claimed by these same deceptive Dakota people. The Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) area is where the Dakota people were originally located and it is their place of origin. It is their first place of creation, the Black Hills the second place, and there is not even an authentic/valid Dakota origin creation story that places the Dakota origin at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers, nor any other place in the Mdote area.

In a Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota book review comment, Fudally wrote: "The author states in their book, 'The first place of creation is at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers,' This theme is disputed by the Dakota themselves." ref.

There is absolutely no reason or justification (evidence) for Bruce White to be claiming that, "The first place of creation is at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers." White uses James R. Walker's book Lakota Society as a reference in an on-line article of his. So why did he not use Walker's statement about the Dakotas' origin creation story in his book Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota? Walker's text says the Dakota's place of origin was near Mille Lacs Lake and that their Mille Lacs Lake Ancestral Homeland creation story was their original/first origin creation story. ref.

In another book review Lance M. Foster, an Iowa tribe historian, wrote: I unfortunately find some of this book contradicts not only our Ioway history and traditions, it also ignores many established historic records and the archaeological evidence.

In a comment following the book review Foster wrote: So the authors, especially since they aren't even Native themselves and are held to be scholars, should have examined all the facts instead of leaving out inconvenient facts and thus appearing to have a particular agenda. We all have biases. But if we are scholars we need to put those on the table.

In another comment following Foster's book review Fudally (starsailing) wrote, when referring to author Bruce White: The author deliberately short quotes statements repeatedly to create a new creation story that fits his new agenda...This is grossly wrong. It takes away the real history, documented and said with oral traditions years ago, robbing people of their rightful heritage.

On the Preserve Camp Coldwater Coalition website there is a statement about Gwen Westerman and Bruce White's book Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota: "The book short quotes is own sources repeatedly without any critical review, yet cite these shortened quotes as a primary source for credibility." ref.

Another book review statement: "The authors first quote an archaeologist in 1823 "The Dakotas have no tradition of having ever emigrated, from any other place, to the spot upon which they now reside; they believe they were created by the Supreme Being on the land which they at present occupy." Then immediately quotes the Dakota Friend article in 1851 "One great natural fact which perhaps ought to be recognized and recorded at the start, is this, viz: That the mouth of the Minnesota river, lies immediately over the center of earth and under the center of the heavens." There's the deception- it's when you go and read the actual account. This book only lists the first part of the article, when in fact just a few paragraphs later it lists why the story is wrong, and the actual tradition states they 'sprang into existence about the lakes at the head of the Rum River'! (near Mille Lacs Lake)

In respect to the above 1823 reference, Fudally wrote: "This reference has no business being in a book where credibility of the study of Dakota history is taken seriously. To find this as a credible historic statement one would have to ignore all the French religious clergy, and French explorers who found the Dakota village sites at first contact in mid 1600's at about the lakes around Lake Mille Lacs and just east and west of Lake Mille Lacs. One would have to ignore "Modern" archaeology findings that show the oldest Dakota site origination again in the lake Mille Lacs area and NOT at the mouth of the Mn River area. One would have to ignore the documentation of the French finding the first Dakota village that Dakota migrated to at the mouth of the MN River in 1689. As a serious historian of Dakota study...I find this authors statement of zero value and misleading of known facts."

The above 1823 statement, "the Dakotas have no tradition of having ever emigrated to the spot upon which they now reside," was NOT true. One of the Dakota's traditions says they were underwater people and then emerged from Mille Lacs Lake as human beings into this world and then resided in the Mille Lacs area for a long time. Another Dakota tradition says that some of the Mdewakanton Dakota of the Mille Lacs area "emigrated to the spot" (Mdota area) where they were residing in the year 1823. And another Dakota tradition says they were created by the Supreme Being "about the lakes at the head of Rum River." [near Mille Lacs Lake], not in the Mendota/Mdote area.

Elaine Jahner's book The Mysterious Lake (mentioned above) also presents information about the Dakota/Lakota/Sioux place of origin near Mille Lacs Lake.

As previously stated, Jahner wrote: "The second of Walker's publications on Lakota society is a brief section in "The Sun Dance" (1917, pp. 72-78). Here the focus is on political organization. He discusses the Origin of the Sioux near Sacred Lake (Mille Lacs, Minnesota), their subsequent division into the Seven Council Fires, and the continued division of each of the Fires (otonwepi, divisions) into tribes (ospayepi) and bands (ti-ospayepi)."

"The Origin story of the Lakota, as told by Walker in 'The Sun Dance' and elaborated on in the forthcoming volume, Lakota Myth, asserts that the Lakota were created beneath the present world. There they lived in happiness until Iktomi (Trickster, the Spider) and Anog Ite (Double Face Women) tricked some of them into coming out onto the earth and led them to their first home in the region of the pines near the Sacred Lake. According to Walker's informant Lone Bear, the spirits were angry at the Lakota for leaving the center of the earth; then Bear (Mato) took pity on them and gave them medicines to care for themselves (Walker, Lakota Belief and Ritual, p. 128). Here it was that the people in time divided into Seven Council Fires."

"The Mysterious Lake referred to in the name is Mille Lacs in Minnesota, situated in the midst of the pine forests which extend a short distance southward and terminate along its southern border in a large admixture of deciduous trees while it extends northward as the Lakotas believed, indefinitely. They believed that Mysterious Lake was the center of the world, and north they called waziyata, the region of the pines, because no one had been known to find the end of the pine forests in that direction, and according to their stories and myths they extended to the edge of the earth."

"This indicates that they inhabited this region from remote times, and that the gens occupying this territory was the original from which the other six gents were formed."

This Dakota tradition does not mention the geographic location that is "immediately over the center of the earth," because it was not important. What is important is that it was near Mille Lacs Lake, or "about the lakes at the head of the Rum River." And it is also important to the Dakotas that after coming out onto the earth from the "center of the earth" the people were "led to their first home in the region of the pines near the Sacred Lake" (Mille Lacs Lake), "the center of the world."

One of the Dakota creation stories says the Dakotas emerged from Mille Lacs Lake. It states that "the people lived under the water and that one day a whirlpool pulled them up to the surface and threw them out onto the shore.

Originally the Dakota people came up from the "center of the earth" and found themselves near Mille Lacs Lake, or "about the lakes at the head of the Rum River." Then after a flood they went into Mille Lacs Lake and lived as underwater "people," then a whirlpool pulled them up to the surface and threw them out onto the shore, where they then, as people who walked on land again, explored the area and then began living at the headwaters of the "Rum River," or Wakpa Wakan (Spirit River) and at other places near and around the sacred lake.

As previously mentioned: After most of the Dakotas were forced from their Mille Lacs homeland some of them moved south to the mouth of the Minnesota River, where they began to dwell with other members of the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate (people).

Then later, in order to claim bragging rights as the most important people (more about this below), they began claiming that the Mendota area was "the center of the world." This was a contradiction of their original belief that Mille Lacs Lake was the "center of the world." And they also began claiming that the mouth of the Minnesota River was "immediately over the center of earth" and that this was important, contradicting their original belief that the geographic place that was "immediately over the center of earth" was not important and not where "the center of the world" was located. Their "center of the world" was Mille Lacs Lake.

After the Mendota Mdewakantons made up a new "center of the earth" story (not a new Dakota creation story) two other Dakota/Lakota/Sioux bands contradicted the Mendota Mdewakanton's story and claimed they were located above the center of the earth.

The above quote by Bruce White: "The mouth the Minnesota river, lies immediately over the center of the earth and under the center of the heavens" was never a belief of the Eastern Dakota, as stated by White. It was only a belief of some of the members of one of the four Eastern Dakota bands, the Mdewakantons. Never-the-less, a group of deceptive Dakota activists and their chief white historian, Bruce White, consistently mislead people to believe that it was a belief of the "Eastern Dakota." And some of the deceptive Dakota activists are saying it was, and still is, a belief of the "Dakota people," which could include all seven Sioux bands.

When referring to the Mdote area, Bruce White wrote: "The place you have just passed through is the center of the earth. This is the way the Eastern Dakota viewed the junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers. Many still view it this way." ref. Traditionally, the Dakotas believed that "the center of the earth" was located "below this present world." Therefore, no one traveling on the surface of the earth can pass through it.

Also, in a Lower Sioux Indian Community statement presented to the National Park Service there are the words: "The Coldwater Spring is a sacred spring for the Dakota people...and encompasses part of the center of the earth for the Dakota people." ref. The "center of the earth," as previously mentioned, was believed, by the Dakotas, to be located "below this present world." Coldwater Spring is not located "below this present world," therefore it can NOT encompass "part of the center of the earth for the Dakota people."

Many years ago Missionary Stephen Riggs wrote:

"The Mdewakantonwans think that the mouth of the Minnesota river Is precisely over the center of the earth, and that they occupy the gate that opens Into the western world."

"These considerations seem to give them importance in their own estimation.

On the other hand the Sissitonwans and Ihanktonwans allege, that as they live on the great water-shed of this part of the continent, from which the streams run northward and eastward and southward and westward, they must be about the center of the earth; and they urge this fact as entitling them to precedence.

It is singular that the Ti- tonwans, who are much the largest band of the Dakotas, do not appear to claim the chief place for themselves, but yield to the pretensions of the Ihanktonwans..." ref... ref.

The Mdewakantonwans are one of four Eastern Dakota tribes. Only the Mdewakantonwans, or rather some of the Mdewakantonwans, the Mendota Mdewakantons, believed that the Mdote area was above the center of the earth. However, this was not their first or original belief. Their original belief was that somewhere within their Mille Lacs traditional homeland was the place located above the center of the earth.

The Sissitonwans and two other Eastern Dakota tribes, the Wahpekute and Wahpeton, did not view the junction of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers as being "above the center of the earth." And contrary to what Bruce White claims, only some members of the Mdewakanton Dakota tribe view it this way today. To say many of the Eastern Dakota veiw it this way today is deceptive. I doubt if even a minority of the Mdewakantons veiw is this way today. And there are no Dakotas or "Sioux Indians" who literally view it this way today. No one today believes that the earth is flat and that there is another world below it. And the claim by Sheldon Wolfchild, the tribal chairman of the Lower Sioux Indian Community, that Coldwater Spring "encompasses part of the center of the earth for the Dakota people" is even more so deceptive.

I submitted the above historic statement about the Mdewakantons being the only Dakota sub-tribe that considered the mouth of the Minnesota River to be located immediately above the center of the earth as a comment to one of White's on-line article's but he did not post it. And in an Amazon.com book review comment Fudally wrote that White conveniently and deceptively leaves out this historic statement in his book to assist him in his efforts to create a new creation origin site for the Dakota at the mouth of the Minnesota River. Fudally wrote in his comment, that by doing this, White is trying to create "a false Dakota cultural tradition." This is one way in which White is promoting his and his Dakota allies' scandalous agenda.

As previously mentioned, there is also a Black Hills Dakota creation story and origin site: "According to tribal history, the Oceti Sakowin came from the Black Hills, literally emerging from the Earth at a place called Wind Cave. The Oceti Sakowin consider the entire Black Hills region sacred and call it Paha Sapa, 'the heart of everything that is.' "

Therefore, Wind Cave is where there is another Dakota (Sioux) creation story and origin site (or "Garden of Eden"). After some of the members of the original Dakota tribe left the Mille Lacs Lake area, a particular group of these Dakota changed their name to Lakota and moved to the Black Hills, where they made up another creation story and used it to claim a cave in the Black Hills as the Dakota origin site. The Lakota settled in the Black Hills in the early 1770s after taking the land by force from the Arikara Indians. The Black Hills Dakota origin creation story initiated the myth of the Dakota first being spirit beings from the constellation of Orion. ref. [Star People] ref. [Oceti Sakowin star knowledge with ties to Black Hills] Gary Cavender and his close associates took that part of the Black Hills creation story and claimed it for their new Mdote area, Dakota origin creation story. The Black Hills creation story is not the original Dakota origin creation story, the Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) area is where the original Dakota origin creation story/site is located.

Covering up the truth about the Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) Dakota origin creation tradition hurts the work of Dakota activists and Dakota rights advocates who are working to rectify injustices being committed against the Dakota in their sacred Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) traditional/ancestral homeland. ref.... ref.... ref. ... ref.

After reading Gary Cavender's statements in the National Park Service's report, I became aware that people who do not know about the Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) Dakota origin creation story would wrongly believe that the Mdote area is the place of the Dakota origin creation tradition. I am trying to rectify this injustice. There is a group of people (mostly made up of Dakota activists) trying to discredit me and my Dakota rights advocacy work in the Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) area, and doing so, because of this initiative of mine.

Bruce White wrote: "Every minute, for thousands of years, 70 gallons or more of cool, pure water have gushed from Coldwater Spring, on the west bank of the Mississippi River just upstream from where the Minnesota flows into the Mississippi. It is a part of the area's complex watershed, a remarkable feature of an area the Dakota people consider to be the center of the world." ref.

The Dakota people do NOT consider the Mdote area to be the center of the world. And the Dakota people have never considered the Mdote area to be the center of the world. A long time ago the Dakota/Lakota or Sioux believed that Mille Lacs Lake was the center of the world, and some of their descendants still believe that it is the center of the world. A minority of the Dakota people, or some of the Mdewakantons, changed their belief and started to believed that the Mdote area was the center of the world. And today, only a small minority of the Dakota people believe it is the center of the world.

In a Twin Cities Daily Planet article about a 2008 Wakan Wakpa ("Rum River") Canoe Expedition that provided a group of inner-city Dakota boys from Minneapolis and St. Paul an opportunity to paddle the natural artery of their ancestors LeMoine LaPointe, director of the Healthy Nations Program at the Minneapolis American Indian Center, is quoted: (1.) "Their 165-mile paddle from Mille Lacs Lake to Minneapolis commemorated many important aspects of Dakota history and culture..." (2.)"The Rum, known for centuries as Wakan Wakpa (Holy River), is an important spiritual and cultural artery to the Dakota who, until 1745, lived at Mille Lacs (Mde Wakan) and considered it the center of their world."

Elaine Jahner's book The Mysterious Lake (mentioned above) presents information about the Dakota/Lakota, or Sioux traditional belief that Mille Lacs Lake is "the center of the world."

"They believed that Mysterious Lake was the center of the world, and north they called waziyata, the region of the pines, because no one had been known to find the end of the pine forests in that direction, and according to their stories and myths they extended to the edge of the earth."

During the Coldwater Spring/Bureau of Mines open house on February 23, 2009, Sheldon Wolfchild, who was representing the Lower Sioux Indian Community, (one of four federally recognized Minnesota Dakota communities), exaggerated the importance of the Mdote area by demeaning the importance that the Dakota place on their Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) ancestral homeland. And did so, by denying that there is a Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) Dakota origin site-based on a creation story. [I consider Wolfchild's denial statement to be the epitome of arrogance and deception.]

The demeaning of the importance that the Dakota people place on their sacred Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) ancestral homeland could be the reason, or one reason, why the registered Minnesota Dakota Communities, as well as many other Dakota communities (located in other states and Canada), did not have representatives at the February 23, 2009 meeting, giving their communities' support behind the remaining Dakota activists who were in the forefront of the movement to try to influence National Park Service officials to give management control of Coldwater Spring and the land surrounding it to the Dakota tribes.

Historian Dave Fudally wrote: The National Park Service's 106 documentation shows, no tribes offered comments on the draft or final MOA that NPS worked out under the section 106 process. The registered Natives tribes understand what happened. No more want of the federal land that might have become available. ref.

The deceptive Dakota activists on the forefront of the propagandizing movement to gain Coldwater Spring management control for the Dakota people are BETRAYING THEIR OWN PEOPLE by radically demeaning the importance that the Dakota place on their sacred Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) ancestral homeland.

Deceptive statements about the nature of the underwater being/god/water-monster UNKTEHI (now deceased) and its traditional dwelling place, where it was once believed to have dwelt.

In a Lower Sioux Indian Community statement delivered to the National Park Service there are the words: "The Coldwater Spring is a sacred spring for the Dakota people the spring is the dwelling place of the underwater spirit 'Uuktehi' and encompasses part of the center of the earth for the Dakota people." ref.

As previously stated (in a NPS report), only one Dakota community claimed Coldwater Spring to be "sacred." Therefore, it is NOT "a sacred spring to the Dakota people" as stated by the Lower Sioux Indian Community. And today only a small minority of the Dakota people believe "the spring encompasses part of the center of the earth." Therefore, the spring does NOT "encompasses part of the center of the earth for the Dakota people." And it is traditionally believed that the "center of the earth" is located "below this present word", so the spring can not encompass part of the center of the earth. If the so-called "the center of the earth" was immediately above the traditional "center of the earth" then it, for some Dakota people, would be located near Mille Lacs Lake and not in the area where Coldwater Spring is located.

And Unktehi is NOT a "spirit". When it was believed to exist it was considered to be a fundamentally evil [material] supernatural being. For a long time, the Dakotas have believed that all of the Unktehi were killed by Thunderbird, a manifestation of Wakan Tanka (God). Now some Dakotas want to resurrect Unktehi in order to acquire leverage to attain their activist goals in the Mdote area. And Unktehi does NOT dwell at Coldwater Spring, and he never dwelt there. The Dakotas have never believed that the most important Unktehi, or "Unktehi," dwelt at Coldwater Spring. It is not a part of their traditional religious beliefs.

Gray Cavender said in an official NPS testimony: "There is that sacred spring that is in negotiation, that sacred spring is the dwelling place of Unktehi, the God of the Waters, and in that spring there is an underground river that goes into the big river, and that is his passageway to get out into the world."

In Cavender's above statement, he referred to the Mississippi as the "big river". Cavender stated that Unktehi goes from Morgan's bluff through a subterranean passage that leads to a "sacred spring" (Coldwater Spring) and he then goes through an "underground river" to the "big river" (the Mississippi) to "get out into the world."

Mary Eastman writes in 1849 on page 156 about Morgan's Bluff, Unktahe, the god of waters, is much reverenced by the Dahcotahs, Morgan's bluff, near Fort Snelling, is called God's House, by the Dahcotahs; they say it is the residence of Unktahe, and under the hill is a subterranean passage, through which they say the water-god passes when he enters the St Peter's. He is said to be as large as a house." Fudally wrote: This clearly eliminates Coldwater Spring as being "the spring" that is "the dwelling place of Unktehi", as Coldwater Spring flows into the Mississippi River and NOT INTO THE ST PETER RIVER (now known as the Minnesota River) as Mary Eastmans states water god enters. ref.

Fudally also wrote: There are 2 subterranean spring/caves just one-half mile (Lincoln) and 1 mile (Bergen) east of the sacred hill (Morgans Bluff), and one-half mile east another open spring closer to the sacred hill. Why aren't any of those springs made the "sacred spring" with the subterranean passage from Wakan Tipi (God's House/Morgans mound, Morgan's bluff) by the authors? They are just as close and even match the story better that Mary Eastman tells. WHY?...because the land at those other springs were not Fed land going to possibly be available if the Feds no longer wanted the land. ref.

Morgan's Mound/Wakan Tipi was believed to be the dwelling place of Unkethi, Dakota monster/god of waters and of the underworld. According to the missionary Gideon Pond, bubbling springs were considered "breathing places of the wakan." The water gods referred to by Pond as "the wakan" were the Unktehi.

Wakan Tipi translates as Unktehi's House, or Water Monster's House or Mysterious House not "God's House." Unktehi is not Wakan Tanka (God). The Dakotas believed that Unktehi was a fundamentally evil supernatural being who occasionally did some good things when placated.

In a Coldwater Spring [Ethnographic Resource Study] Michael J. Evens, a Park Service Senior Cultural Anthropologist, stated that: The discussion of this religious being [Unktehi] in Dakota cosmology should probably also include the information presented by Walker for the Lakota. In brief, [James R.] Walker's texts indicate that Unktehi was a malevolent being (but not a spirit being) that was perceived as being dangerous and to be avoided.

In 1914, Finger, a distinguished shaman, said: The Unktehi or Monsters, are material gods, whose substance is visible, but they hide under the deep waters. Their forms are those of huge reptiles with horns that can be projected to the Clouds and tails that beat down forests. They tear the ground with their claws and make deep ravines; they defile waters and make then unfit for use by mankind; they lurk near shore to capture children, and in deep waters to take adults. These they hold in bondage under the waters or transmogrify them to water animals. The Winged God (Thunderbird) is forever at war with them and in battle with them they gore the ground making the bad lands, where may be seen the bones of Unktehi that were slain. A Shaman whose fetish is of the highest potency can subdue the Unktehi and drive them away and can undo their magic deeds. ref.

Lame Deer wrote: "This story was told to me by a Santee grandmother. A long time ago, a really long time when the world was still freshly made, Unktehi the water monster fought the people and caused a great flood. ref.

The Dakotas believed strongly in the existence of supernatural beings, both "good" and "evil". However the concept was not quite as cut and dried as the Judeo-Christian ideas many of us are familiar with. Evil supernatural beings were feared, yet their existence was vital for the balance of all things. They were considered a necessary evil. Without the negative there could be no positive.

There was Iya, the Dakota "storm monster", and there was Unktehi, the Dakotas "water monster". While the destruction these evil supernatural beings could bring was feared, it was also respected. Much care was taken to show reverence, so not to incur their wrath. Many Dakota believed that Iya was a head-hunter, using human beings as trophies. Unktehi ate people. However, when Iya and Unktehi were pleased, protection was offered. Unktehi even gave gifts occasionally, such as the medicine lodge. As much as they feared Iya and Unktehi they believed that the destruction was part of the life cycle. In respect to the acceptance of Unktehi's destructive ways, this Dakota belief changed.

An important figure in Native American mythology, the Thunderbird represents the natural forces of thunder, lightning, and storms. It is also believed to protect humans by fighting evil spirits. A Sioux myth says: The water monster Unktehi thought the people were lice, and she and her followers tried to drown them. The people retreated to the highest hill they could find and prayed for help. Wakan Tanka, as Thunderbird, came to fight Unktehi and sent lightning crashing to earth. The ground split open, and Unktehi and her followers drained into the cracks. As a result, humankind was saved. ref.

In the book Lakota Myth, by James R. Walker, Edited by Elaine A Jahner, there is a quote by the Dakota storyteller Left Heron, documented in Walker's unpublished writings, that says that the dwelling place of Unktehi is in Mille Lacs Lake. Heron told Walker the story about how the battle between the Thunderbird and Unktehi began in Mille Lacs Lake. [The Thunderbird eventually won the battle and Unktehi is now dead. Heron was a storyteller and not a holy man. Therefore, Heron's story about the Thunderbird and Unktehi at Mille Lacs Lake can not be classified as a credible or valid Dakota tradition.]

According to Sioux belief, the Unktehila are dangerous reptilian water monsters that lived in ancient times. They were of various shapes. In the end the Thunderbirds destroyed them, except for small species like snakes and lizards. This belief may have been inspired by finds of dinosaur fossils in Sioux tribal territory. ref.

The Great Unktehi and her offspring were said to have been the source of many floods when they "puffed" up their bodies, causing lakes, streams, and even the whole Missouri river to overflow. The Thunderbirds protected humans from these "water monsters" in an epic battle to make the world a safer place for people to live, and in doing so gained the water power by taking it from Unktehi. ref.

In one story, Eya, the West Wind, son of Tate, the breath of life encounters Thunderbird...Thunderbird then invites Eya to place his tipi beside Thunderbird's lodge on Thunderbird Mountain. "Together with you, I will purify the world from all filthy things. We will sweep it and wash it and water the ground. We will cause all that grows from the ground to flourish and bear leaves, flowers and fruits. We will give nourishment to all that breathes and cause their growth. We will combat the Unktehi the monsters that defile the waters." ref.

I believe that, according to the Dakota, the Unktehi were evil supernatural beings who occasionally did some good things when placated. And I believe that now-days some of Minnesota's Dakota activists and their white historian allies are distorting the truth about the Unktehi for the purpose of gaining leverage to accomplish their activist goals. They distort the truth by saying that the Unktehi are still alive and that they are "good" or "sacred" and have always been so. And that when some Unktehi have been traditionally/historically, and are currently, believed to be located in a particular sacred place (by some Dakota) this makes that place "more sacred."

Sheldon Wolfchild contradicts the Dakotas traditional belief and says in a video that the Unktehi are still alive and are "sacred." Not profane/evil with a streak of sacredness/goodness in them, but "sacred." He has also stated that "Unktehi" dwells in Coldwater Spring. Think about how much leverage he is trying to gain for his activist initiatives in the Mdote area by creating and promoting these deceptions.

If an area is believed to be sacred (by some of the Dakota people, and for other reasons than the presents of Unktehi), as are the Mendota and Mille Lacs Lake areas, and some of the Unktehi are believed (by some of the Dakota people) to be alive and still located in those areas I believe that their belief that the Unktehi are still there, along with their promotion of this belief desecrates/defiles those areas, rather than makes them "more sacred." And I believe that, according to the Dakota belief, the presents of a Unktehi, or more than one Unktehi, in any area has always meant the defilement of those areas...and that their presents was thought of as a temporal necessary evil and that by tolerating and placating the Unktehi they could gain a few good gifts from them, while tolerating their predominantly destructive ways and malice.

The deceptive Dakota activists and their white historian allies are not only using the Dakotas traditional belief in Unktehi in an untruthful way for the purpose of gaining leverage to accomplish their activist goals, they are also, as previously mentioned, using other deceptive tactics to accomplish their goals. Their deceptive tactics are being exposed (in on-line book reviews, article comments, on-line articles and web sites) by historians and activists who know the truth and are working to put an end to their deceptions.

In the book Lakota Belief and Ritual, James R. Walker is quoted: Unktehi is a mythical being like a goblin whose disposition was malicious. It presided over floods, drowning and, accidents in water.

Unktehi at Mille Lacs Lake: "To the Sioux Mille Lacs was an awesome thing. Beneath its waters dwelt a capricious god, who was prone to sudden fits of anger. A warrior could start out upon its glassy surface with every indication of a calm and uneventful passage, and before he could reach the farther shore the waves might be running high enough to swamp his canoe."

When writing about the part Unktehi played in the development of land/earth above the waters that covered the whole earth...Bruce White conveniently and deceptively left out the part of the Dakota story that reveals the true character of the water monster Unktehi. This is the part that White did not mention: "Unktehi assembled in grand conclave all of the water animals, he ordered them to bring up dirt from beneath the water, and proclaimed death to the disobedient. The beaver and others forfeited their lives. After many animals tried and died in the effort the muskrat went beneath the waters, and after a long time, appeared at the surface nearly exhausted, with some dirt." White deceptively failed to mention that the water monster Unktehi ordered all the water animals to bring dirt from beneath the water, and proclaimed death to the disobedient. And that many of the animals forfeited their lives because it was impossible for them to do what Unktehi ordered them to do.

Bruce White wrote: A male Unktehi was addressed as grandfather, the female, grandmother, while the name Unktehi was not normally used. Instead the term Taku-wakan or "that which is wakan," or sacred, was used to describe these spirits.

James R. Walker wrote that the term Taku-wakan means (things that are mysterious). The malevolent Unktehi were mysterious, but not sacred. All of the Wakanpi (supernatural beings) both those which were good and those that were evil expected the proper ceremonies to be given them. Walker wrote: "The earth is animated by the spirit of the female, while the dwelling place of the male is in the water. It is on this account that the Dakotas address their prayers to the earth as their Grandmother, and the water as their Grandfather."

The Dakotas did not want to address the Unktehi with terms of kinship endearment, they had to, in order to curb some of their unjust wrath and lure them into giving them some protection and other gifts.

In a Circle article about Coldwater Spring and the Unktehi, or evil supernatural beings (resembling goblins), who once lived and defiled waters, Waziyatawin is quoted: "For those of us who value the site today, I think it's about reconnecting and reestablishing a spiritual relationship with these beings and with our homeland." Waziyatawin is one of the leaders of the deceptive Dakota activists that I often refer to in this document. She is a published author, and the Indigenous Peoples Research Chair in the Indigenous Governance Program at the University of Victoria in British Columbia.

The Iowa tribe has officially declared Coldwater Spring to be a sacred site of theirs. I doubt if the Iowa people want some of the Dakota people resurrecting an evil watermonster that defiles waters and then placing it in their sacred Coldwater Spring water.

The Dakota people do NOT believed that Coldwater Spring is [the] dwelling place of Unktehi. And none of the Dakota people ever traditionally believed that [the] dwelling place of Unktehi was in Coldwater Spring. At one time, many year ago, the Dakota people could have believed that the spring was the dwelling place of one of the many Unktehi. And today, a small minority of the Dakota people [say ?] they believe that Coldwater Spring is THE dwelling place of Unktehi.

There is some value in there being Dakota stories about the Unktehi once-living in places that the Dakotas believe are traditionally and currently sacred. These oral and written stories present evidence of how much their traditional religion is interconnected with the landscape within their sacred places. The Mendota/Coldwater Spring and Mille Lacs areas are sacred places to some of the Dakota people. The Dakotas sacred places were like temples to them. How can they truly practice their traditional religion today, when their sacred "temples"/places have been taken from them?

OPPOSING THOSE WHO ARE TRYING TO GIVE THE MDOTE AREA A MEANING AND POWER FOR THE DAKOTA THAT IT DID NOT HISTORICALLY HAVE:

Another statement in the National Park Service report reads: "The NPS must also consider another point. There is the danger that we would be giving a site a meaning and power for the Dakota that it did not historically have. If the evidence does not support historical use of the spring by the Dakota for any day to day or special ceremonial use, then maybe it was not special to them. If this were the case, then we (and all those non-Dakota interests who support giving the spring a special designation) may be creating Dakota history, rather than recording it. Since this process will be well documented, what we say now about Coldwater Spring will become permanent fact."

It is also true that there continues to be a danger that the radical distortion of Dakota history associated with the Coldwater Spring deception [left unexposed] could further give (in some uniformed Dakotas and the general publics' view) the whole Mdote area a meaning and power that it did not historically have.

And do so, by attributing the area as (1.) the ONLY PLACE that there is a Minnesota Dakota origin creation story and site (really, a fake origin creation story and site, the real place of Dakota origin is near Mille Lacs Lake)...and (2.) the ONLY PLACE that the Dakota (actually, only some of the Mdewakanton Dakota) have considered "the center of the world" and located "immediately above the center of earth." For sure, the Dakota do not currently consider it to be "the center of the world," nor do they believe that it "lies immediately above the center of the earth," as some Dakota claim. Besides, the Dakota no long believe that the earth is flat and that there is an underworld where the Dakota once dwelt, a place called the "center of the earth."

And by (3.) creating and promoting the deception that the Unktehi were traditionally considered "good" or "sacred", are "currently alive and still sacred" and "the most important Unktehi is still dwelling in Coldwater Spring as traditionally and currently believed by the Dakota people." And by (4.) creating and promoting the deceptive story that "the Dakota are the original people of the Mdote area", when in fact the Iowa people were the original people of the Mdote area.

Therefore, the Mdote area is NOT the Dakotas' most sacred place, as is being falsely claimed by a group of deceptive Dakota activists and their deceptive white "historians". And it is also, therefore, not the central and most important place (as long ago prophesied) that the Dakota will return to, reclaim, regain and protect as the Dakota's most sacred site, as some Dakota claim today. I believe that the Dakota's Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) traditional/ancestral homeland is the sacred place that will be given this honor and respect.

In 2009, an article titled Dakota Land And Tradition was published in The Circle. Its introduction statement reads: "A growing chorus of indigenous cultural leaders agree that the reclamation of traditional lands, including prime real estate in the Twin Cities area, is crucial to solving the Dakota crisis."

In the article the Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) area is identified as the most important area for the Santee Dakota (Eastern Dakota), and NOT the Mdote area. The article is almost entirely about the Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) area.

After the introduction sentence the article then goes on to state that the Santee Dakota are beginning to return to their Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) ancestral homeland to reclaim and regain it, and that it was where they "first lived before they were exiled."

The article states: "Wyatt Thomas stood on the shore of Ogechie Lake, gazing down its distinctive hooked shoreline, lost in thought. He had never seen this lake before. He traveled to Mille Lacs County from Nebraska, where he lives on a reservation along the Missouri River as a member of the Santee Dakota Tribe. But Minnesota, and this lake in particular, was, to him, home...Thomas was on a mission to scout his tribe's ancestral lands, an expedition that covered a wide swath of Minnesota. It was a small but important first step in reintroducing the Santee Dakota to their original homeland....Turning to face the saddle-shaped burial mounds rising from the trees in the distance, Thomas identified the clearing between the shoreline and the woods as the village site of his direct forebear, Chief Wapahasa...There are innumerable forces working against the reclamation of Dakota Lands, but tribal leaders like Thomas say they must succeed, that the very future of the Dakota Nation hinges upon it."

Wyatt Thomas is a member of my Facebook group Regaining The Dakota Oyate's Mille Lacs Homeland

There is a group of deceptive Dakota activists who want to [cash in] on the "prime real estate in the Twin Cities area," especially including the Mdote area. They, unfortunately, are trying to steal the Dakota's Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) ancestral homeland's sacred site history and move it to the Mdote area to accomplish their disgraceful agenda.

Some members of the group of deceptive Dakota activists who participated in the movement to acquire tribal management control of the Coldwater Spring site, and who are continuing, to this present-day, with their efforts to gain leverage throughout the Mdote area have some good initiatives, but unfortunately they have been using deceptive tactics to accomplish their goals. And the deceptive tactics are desecrating the sacred Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) Dakota ancestral homeland. They are committing, as Dave Fudally says, "Dakota history genocide."

Videos and pictures of "the lakes at the head of the Rum River" (including Mille Lacs and Ogechie) where the Dakota (Oceti Sakowin) "sprang into existence," or where the first Dakota origin creation story says the Dakotas' place of origin is located, can be viewed by clicking here

The Coldwater Spring site did not receive a special designation. However, the Coldwater Spring site that was formally occupied by the U.S. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Mines, became federal property of another agency, the National Park Service. It will manage Coldwater Spring for all peoples. The deceptive group of Dakota natives and their chief white historian, Bruce White, are not accepting the NPS's decision to manage Coldwater Spring. There are indications that they are getting ready for another protest at Coldwater Spring. ref.

The leading Dakota activists who are trying to create a permanent false Dakota history/tradition, and doing so, by writing and speaking misinformation that deceptively describes the Mdote area as the ONLY PLACE that there is a Minnesota Dakota origin story and site (or "Garden of Eden"), when all there is, is a newly made up [fake] Mdote area Dakota origin site, and do so in books, newspapers articles, on-line articles, press conferences, Dakota history conferences, radio programs, videos, TV shows, etc. are Chris Cavender (Mato Nunpa), Angela Wilson (Waziyatawin), Jim Anderson, and Sheldon Wolfchild. Gary Cavender was also one, but he died.

Several years ago Jim Anderson told me that because the white man got us with alcohol, it is therefore alright for us to now get them with casinos. This reasoning and conclusion of his is equivalent to the statement, the white man used lies to steal our land, so it is therefore alright for us to now lie to get our land back. I believe that this is the logic and lying behavior of Anderson and his close associate activists. During a meeting with the mayor of Anoka I told the mayor that there is a Dakota origin creation story at Mille Lacs Lake. Anderson then told the mayor that the Dakota origin creation story at Mille Lacs Lake is [one] of the Dakota's origin creation stories. Now-days, when ever Anderson is making public statements about his people's origin, he says that the Mdote area is where the Dakota's [single] origin creation story/site/tradition is located, he says "it's our Garden of Eden."

MINNESOTA HISTORICAL SOCIETY

In the month of April, year 2013, the Minnesota Historical Society sent me a reply email to a message of mine about the MN Historical Society's U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 website. In my message I wrote:

Incorrect statement: 'Where the two waters come together,' otherwise referred to as Bdote, is the center of Dakota spirituality and history. This is where the Dakota people began.

The Dakota's original creation story is at Mille Lacs Lake. For more information about this topic read my on-line article, The Coldwater Spring Deception. I am the director of Rum River Name-Change Organization and work closely with Chief Leonard E. Wabasha. My article presents a link to Wabasha's interpretive sign at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, or at Mille Lacs, where the Dakota people began.

The MHS's reply email reads: Thank you for writing regarding the MN Historical Society's U.S.-Dakota War of 1862 website. MHS has been tracking information and sharing where appropriate on the website. The page you've referenced has been tweaked to reflect that the Bdote creation story is one creation story and readers are invited to read further information on the Mille Lacs and Black Hills creation stories.

On the FLANDREAU SANTEE SIOUX TRIBE'S website there is the following statement: Some authorities place the Sioux originally along the eastern seaboard, in what is now North Carolina. According to Schell, the people speaking languages of the Siouan linguistic stock, lived in the Ohio River Valley. Forced out by the Iroquois, they split into smaller branches, with the branch which was to become the Sioux or Dakota drifting west. ref.

"Their Siouan-speaking ancestors had migrated to the upper Midwest from the area of South Carolina in the present-day United States; colonists named the Santee River in present-day South Carolina after them. Over the years they migrated up through Ohio and into Wisconsin. Facing competition from the Chippewa and other eastern Native American tribes, the Santee moved further west into present-day Minnesota." ref.

John O. Anfinson, historian, author and the Chief of Resource Management for Mississippi National River and Recreation Area, wrote: "Around 1,000 years B.P., a new pottery type, called Sandy Lake, suddenly replaced the Kathio/Clam River ceramic series across central Minnesota. Archaeologists interpret the sudden advent of Sandy Lake ceramics as evidence of the arrival of a new people." ref.

In other words, Anfinson expressed that around 937 A. D., or around 1076 years ago, a new people arrived at Mille Lacs, whom archaeologists interpret to be the ancestors of the people who would become the Dakota nation.

A Mille Lacs Kathio State Park interpretive sign, in part, reads: "800 years ago a house stood along the banks of the river on the south side of the Peninsula. Some scholars think that these ancient occupants of Petaga Point were some of the ancestors of the people who would become the Dakota nation." ref.

Two Dakota creation stories place the Dakota's origin at Mille Lacs. However, archeological evidence indicates that the people who would become known as the Dakota were "new arrivals" in Minnesota and Mille Lacs around 1076 years ago and that they came to Minnesota and Mille Lacs, as well as Sandy Lake, from the eastern seaboard of the United States.

"The Sioux have a tradition (Williamson in Minn. Hist. Coll., 1, 296) that when their ancestors first came to the falls of St Anthony, the Iowa occupied the country about the mouth of Minnesota river." ref.

Lance M. Foster, an Iowa tribe historian, wrote: "Our traditions hold that our Iowa and Otoe peoples were the first people in southeastern Minnesota, from at least A.D. 900 to 1700, from the maps and oral testimonies by our Ioway elders No Heart and Waw-no-que-skoona, documented in the 1830s and 1840s." [The Iowa and Otoe peoples were the first people in southeastern Minnesota, beginning at least 1113 years ago.]

So if the people who would become known as the Dakota came from the eastern seaboard of the U.S. around 1073 years ago they would have, based on archeological evidence, discovered the Iowa at the mouth of the Minnesota river. Therefore, both, archeological evidence and the Dakota's oral tradition place the Dakota in Minnesota around 940 A. D.. The Iowa were in MN beginning around 900 A.D., or before the people who would become known as the Dakota emigrated to Minnesota.

There is no evidence of the Dakota dwelling in Minnesota "thousands of years ago," as presented on the Minnesota Historical Society's website. On the site, a Dakota person wrongly/deceptively states that the Dakotas' oral tradition says they have been in Minnesota for "thousands of years."

In order for the deceptive Dakota activists and their white co-conspiring historians to make a seemingly "credible" claim, in reality a deceptive claim, that the original Dakota origin creation story was at the mouth of the Minnesota river and then wrongly moved to Mille Lacs, they had to convince a lot of people to believe that the Dakota dwelt in Minnesota and at the mouth of the Minnesota river [before] the Iowa, or "thousands of years ago." Another way for them to accomplish this goal of theirs would be to deceive a lot of people to believe that the Iowa did not ever dwell at the mouth of the Minnesota river, that would also work. Or, as they discovered, a combination of both methods would work best. In addition, they also had to make up a new "oral creation story", which is basically the Mille Lacs creation story-fraudulently presented as the Coldwater Spring/Mdote area creation story, and then call it a "traditional oral creation story" that the tribal councils of the Dakota communities did not know about "because they were assimilated."

This is exactly what they did, and they have been getting by with their deceptive agenda/scam up until just recently. Thank goodness, it appears that the Minnesota Historical Society is beginning to awake up to the truth, that it has been radically deceived by their propaganda.

Because of a story idea e-mail message that I sent to a few columnists for the Star Tribune, Minnesota's best-selling state-wide daily newspaper, this newspaper's editorial board now knows about this controvercy. The newspaper is waiting for a news worthy event to occur before it publishes a story about this issue. The Minnesota Historical Society has spent a lot of the tax-payers' money on promoting the deceptive activists' false Lakota/Dakota history. It will be difficult for the Society to fully admitt its serious mistake. And it will take quite a lot of money to correct the problem.

On the Minnesota Historical Society's website there are the words: Many organizations seek to educate Native and non-Native peoples in acts of reconciliation and commemoration.

Historian John Labatte wrote: What does reconciliation mean? We cannot have reconciliation until there is conciliation. We cannot have conciliation until all of these incorrect statements are corrected.

Incorrect statement on the MHS's website: Pike Island ~ the origin of the Dakota people, that's where we came from ~ the center of the universe.

In response to the above incorrect statement that the MHS needs to correct, Labatte wrote:

"That this was the center of the universe is a relatively recent interpretation of what Gideon Pond wrote in 1851. See Pond, "Gatherings from the Traditional History of the Mdewakantonwan Dakotas", Dakota Tawaxitku Kin, September 1851. "...the mouth of the Minnesota river (Watpa Minisota) lies immediately over the centre of the earth and under the centre of the heavens." Pond did not say this was a place of creation. That this is the place of Dakota origin is a relatively recent belief. In the same article, Pond wrote, "The Mdewakantonwan tradition...asserts that they sprang into existence about the lakes at the head of Rum river." This is the Mille lacs Lake area. Dakota have believed for more than 150 years this to be their place of origin.

The written account of a Dakota origin creation story at Mille Lacs Lake goes back 150 years. The Dakotas' oral tradition of a creation story at Mille Lacs goes back hundereds of years.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: "Mdewakantonwan (currently pronounced Bdewákhathuwa, also M'DAY-wah-kahn-tahn) are one of the sub-tribes of the Isanti (Santee) Dakota (Sioux). Their historic home is Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota,..." ref.

The following historical statement contradicts the MHS's deceptive Dakota activists' statement: Pike Island ~ the origin of the Dakota people, that's where we came from ~ the center of the universe.

In the book Landscapes of Clearance: Archaeological and Anthropological Perspectives, two professors of anthropology, Angele Smith and Amy Gazin-Schwartz, wrote: Gibbon (2003: 38-46) proposed a model for the origin of the Dakota out of a wild rice-gathering complex called Psinonani near Mille Lacs Lake, Minnesota, area which he says "suddenly replaced this Terminal Woodland lifeway about AD 1300" (Gibbon 2003:38). ref. Guy Gibbon is professor emeritus of anthropology at the University of Minnesota. He is the author or editor of several books, including The Sioux: The Dakota and Lakota Nations and Archaeology of Prehistoric Native America: An Encyclopedia.

MINNESOTA HUMANITIES CENTER

A Minnesota Humanities Center (MHC) on-line article for students titled, THE US DAKOTA WAR, presents the deceptive Dakota activists' and their white historian supporters' deceptive revisionary history.

A statement in the article reads: The Dakota creation stories (there are several) clearly show that we have not emigrated from any other place and although we have traveled to and from other places throughout North America throughout the centuries, we have always lived here.

One of the Dakota creation stories clearly states that the Dakota's place of origin was in the Black Hills of South Dakota. So how do "the Dakota creation stories," including the Black Hills creation story, "clearly show" that the Dakotas "have not emigrated from any other place," and that they "have always lived here" in Minnesota. If the Dakota's place of origin was in the Black Hills they had to have, according to one of their "several creation stories," emigrated to Minnesota to get "here."

Three more sentences in the MHC article read: The joining of the two rivers, the Minnesota and the Mississippi is called Bdote, what is currently called Mendota. This sacred junction can be viewed from Fort Snelling. There is no question in the Dakota historical accounts and oral history that Minsota makoce has always been the homeland of the Dakota.

Angela Wilson (Waziyatawin) wrote the above statement and it was presented in the MHC article. Here's a Dakota historical account and oral history that contradicts the above statement: "The Sioux have a tradition (Williamson in Minn. Hist. Coll., 1, 296) that when their ancestors first came to the falls of St. Anthony, the Iowa occupied the country about the mouth of Minnesota river." ref.

According to contradicting Dakota historical accounts and oral history "the homeland of the Dakota," their original homeland, is in the Black Hills of South Dakota and also at Mille Lacs Lake in Minsota makoce, or Minnesota. So, according to Dakota historical accounts and oral history, including their conflicting oral creation stories, there [IS] a question as to "where the Dakota's homeland has always been." Because the Dakota creation stories in Minnesota say the Dakota's place of origin was at Mille Lacs, the Mdote area should NOT have not been singled out in the article, wrongly indicating that it is the Dakota's most sacred or most important Minnesota site.

Originally the Black Hills creation story was a Lakota (Western or Teton, Sioux) creation story that said the first human beings who lived on the face of the earth came from an underground cave in the Black Hills. The first one to emerge from the cave was Tokahe, then six others who were of the underworld Buffalo Nation emerged from the cave. They would become the founders of the "seven campfires", or the Great Sioux Nation. The story was later adopted by the other Sioux sub-divisions and hence became one Dakota [Oceti Sakowin or Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation] creation story. ref.

In a 2012 Indian Country Today Media Network article titled Black Hills Auction: Saving Pe' Sla, its author wrote "To the Oceti Sakowin [the Seven Council Fires of the Great Sioux Nation], Pe' Sla is The Heart of Everything. Not only does this sacred site play a key role in our creation story, it is said to be the place where The Morning Star plunged to earth, and saved the People from seven creatures who had killed seven women. The Lakota hero then placed those women in the night sky as 'The Seven Sisters,' called 'The Pleiades' by western astronomers. Pe' Sla, also called "Old Baldy," is vital to Oceti Sakowin star knowledge and provides evidence of our historical ties to the Black Hills. ref. .... ref. CNN report

According to archaeological evidence, Dakota historical accounts and oral history, as well a written/documented history, the Mdote area was the homeland of the Iowa tribe when the Dakota emigrated to Minnesota - and the Cheyenne were also located on the Minnesota River when the Dakotas emigrated to Minnesota. Minnesota was the homeland of these two tribes before the Dakotas ever paddled a canoe into Minnesota.

The original Black Hills creation story says that the Lakota (Western or Teton, Sioux) tribes have always lived in the Black Hills. ref. This referenced story is a good example of how a creation myth can be taken literally, even though there is evidence that proves it is only a myth and does not present the truth. Likewise, it is only a myth that "the Dakota were always here" in Mi-ni So-ta Ma-ko-ce (Minnesota). The Dakota creation stories/myths should not be taken literally by anyone. And individuals as well as organizations, including the MHS, should not publish material by deceptive activists who pretend that they believe the Dakota creation stories literally present the truth, and do so, in order to gain leverage to help them accomplish their activist goals.

In respect to this topic, a deceptive Dakota activist wrote:

The Dakota Were Always Here -- Chris C Cavendar (Mato Nunpa) 1988- excerpt from Hennepin County History Magazine:

Most Dakota people whom I know believe not only that they were here first in Mi-ni So-ta Ma-ko-ce but also that they were always here! In fact, this statement can probably be generalized to all the people of North America. That is, they believe not only that they were here first but also that they were always here. A common saying among Dakota elders of another Indian nations when they hear about the theory that Indian people came to North America from Asia across the Bearing Straight is this: "I'd like to go up to the Bearing Strait. I bet the footprints point in the other way.

In Dakota language, mdo-te refers to the joining of one stream with another. This can mean the joining of a creek to a river, the joining of a river to another river, or the joining of a river to a lake or ocean. That is why the juncture of the Minnesota river and the Mississippi River is called mdo-te or Mendota. This was the most important mdo-te, according to what I heard when I grew up in the Upper Sioux community, but it wasn't until I was an adult that I learned from Mde-wa-kan-ton-wan elders from Prairie Island why Mendota was so important.

They told me that it was there that creation occurred. It was there that the first human being appeared on the face of the earth from the underground. ref. [located after Pond's article]

Mato Nunpa's so-called oral Dakota origin creation story at Mdote is not an authentic/valid oral Dakota origin creation story/tradition. Dakota storytellers often told tales, and occasionally some Dakota elders would mistakenly understand some of the tales to be authentic/valid Dakota oral traditions. If some Dakota elders told Nunpa that the Mdote area was where the Dakota's origin creation story is located, their statement was probably a tale they heard from a Dakota storyteller. Even if Nunpa's claim is true, the Prairie Island elder's supposed statement can not be rightfully classified as an authentic/valid oral Dakota origin creation tradition. If the tribal councils of the Dakota tribes, plus those tribes' holy men and the tribes' hereditary chiefs were to officially declair the Mdote area to be the place of Dakota (or Mdewakanton) origin, or declair the Mdote area to be where there is [one] Dakota (or Mdewakanton) origin creation story, only then should the story be considered an authentic/valid oral Dakota (or Mdewakanton) origin creation story/site/tradition.

In her book The Mysterious Lake, Elaine Jahner wrote:

Anthropologists who studied Walker's texts at the American Museum of Natural History recognized the need for a comparative data to serve as a check for the information Walker collected. Ella Deloria was chosen to corroborate Walker's texts.

Walker believed that there was a secret holy men's society whose members were the "sole repositories" for certain mythic lore.

When storytelling Dakota narrators were commissioned to entertain with legends, and were given handsome rewards, they always went at it with the attitude, 'Oh, for something new to tell! 'Or I could tell anything.'

Deloria mentioned a storyteller name Left Heron, who she said was "an especially keen storyteller with a skill for inventing his own tales." And that some of his "stories are the fanciful weaving together of certain elements in the lore of the Dakotas into fictionalized form" and that "the stuff of which they are built is Lakota," but that the tales, as such, had never been in the oral tradition."

Mato Nunpa's Hennepin County History Magazine article about his people's "creation stories" acknowledges the Black Hills creation story and the (fake) Bdote/Mdote creation story, but totally leaves out the Dakota's longstanding written and oral Mille Lacs creation stories. Who is he trying to fool! And who has he fooled? Anyone who is so extremely deceptive as Mato Nunpa can not be believed by any righteous and sane human being.

The Dakota origins did not literally occur in Minnesota, as their MN creation story says. Our (humanities) evolution toward becoming completely human began around 5 million years ago in Africa when we evolved from an animal similar to gorillas and chimpanzees. The origins of earliest members of the genus Homo are Homo habilis evolved around 2.3 million years ago in Africa. And all modern-day humans, with the exception of the indigenous people now living in South-East Africa, have migrated to where they are now living, including the people who are now known as the Dakota. There are no people or tribes whose place of origin is anywhere in the Americas.

Modern humans or Homo sapiens originated in Africa, where they reached anatomical modernity about 200,000 years ago and began to exhibit full behavioral modernity around 50,000 years ago. Homo sapiens proceeded to colonize the continents, arriving in Eurasia 125,000~60,000 years ago, Australia around 40,000 years ago, the Americas around 37,000 years ago (the last wave of these colonizing migrates arrived around 15,000 years ago), and remote islands such as Hawaii, Easter Island, Madagascar, and New Zealand between the years AD 300 and 1280.

Archaeological evidence, language analyst and the DNA of the first peoples of the Americas reveal that a wave of these people migrated to the Americas from Asia around 15,000 years ago, and that some of these people migrated from Asia at an earlier date. It is not a "theory" that the first peoples of the Americas migrated here. And the migration of modern-day humans began in South-East Africa between 62,000 and 95,000 years ago. We spread out from there, populating the whole earth from there. However, the leaders of the deceptive Dakota activists are refuting, or pretending to refute the scientific evidence that reveals the truth that their creation stories, like the Biblical creation story (or Judeo-Christian-Islamic creation story) as well as many other peoples' creation stories, are myths that do not express the truth. ref. ref.

Chris Mato Nunpa and the Lakota/Dakota Natives who agree with him on this issue have stolen Africa's sacred site history of the origin of humans, and in respect to the Lakota/Dakota segment of the human race, moved it to the Mdote area of Minnesota.

So if an individual Dakota (such as Chris Mato Nunpa) says he heard some Dakota elders of a particular Dakota community say the Dakota origin creation story is at Mdote and not at Mille Lacs Lake, as a long standing written and Dakota oral tradition says it is, and then he gets his daughter (Waziyatawin) and brother (Gary Carvender) to help him promote his fake/fraudulent, or at least invalid story, by presenting it in on-line articles, creating youtube videos with the story in it, presenting the story in documentaries and at press conferences, getting newspaper writers to publish it and presenting the fake/fraudulent or invalid story in interviews and books, etc., and by doing this gets more and more people, including an ever increasing number of Dakota people to believe the lie, or invalid story, and the Minnesota Historical Society then witnesses how many Dakota people now believe the story and then decides that it has to respect the story because so many Dakota people believe the story, this is how a false Dakota cultural tradition gets established and Dakota history genocide is executed. Even at this stage of the deception, this problem can be resolved.

If the people of the dominant culture think that the deceptive Dakota activists actually believe that their MN Dakota origin creation story actually tells the literal truth, "that they were always here," then they will want to respect this religious belief of theirs, and by doing so, the deceptive Dakota activists will gain some more inappropriate leverage to accomplish their activist goals.

The leaders of the deceptive Dakota activists do not want their people's creation stories discredited by the scientific fact that all people living today, with the exception of the indigenous peoples of South-East Africa, have migrated to where they are how living, so they refute, or pretend to refute, the scientific facts/truth, and in doing so expose themselves as either delusional or extremely deceptive.

The deceptive Dakota activists' claim that because the Lakota/Dakota are "the original people of Minnesota" and have "always lived here" (a false/deceptive claim), that therefore they are (1.) Minnesota's most important people, (2.) they have always been MN's most important people, (3.) all of Minnesota belongs to them, (4.) all the non-Dakota tribes that have dwelt, or are now dwelling, in Minnesota were, or currently are, trespassing on Dakota land, (5.) the mouth of the Minnesota river and surrounding land belong to the Dakota, and the Dakota have the right to reclaim and regain it, because it does not belong to the Iowa or the United States, (6.) their creation story is at Mdote (the confluence), and this is true because the Dakota were there before the Iowa tribe, and (7.) they, therefore, had a right to force the Iowa from their homeland at the mouth of the Minnesota River, and (8.) vast amounts of land throughout the whole state of Minnesota should be given back to the Dakota. (At a Coldwater Spring protest gathering I heard Waziyatawin's daughter hollering "All of Minnesota belongs to the Dakota." )

The Minnesota Humanities Center took in, hook, line and sinker, the deceptive Dakota activists' and their white historian supporters' propagandizing lies, and it is now teaching them, as true history, to Minnesota school students.

DECEPTIVE ACTIVISM AT MDOTE HURTS DAKOTA ACTIVISM AT MILLE LACS

Because of the very important work that Dakota and Dakota rights advocates are doing to rectify injustices being committed against the Dakota (Oceti Sakowin 'Seven Council Fires") people in their sacred Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) ancestral/traditional homeland (ref. 1. .. 2. .. 3. .. 4., .. 5. the people who are wrongly claiming that THE Dakotas' MN creation story and origin site is in the Mdote area, or THE Mdewakanton Dakota creation story and origin site is in the Mdota area, are radically hurting the Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) area Dakota and Dakota rights advocates' work. And I believe that by doing so they are not only radically betraying their own Dakota people but also betraying all other colonized aboriginal tribal peoples.

DECEPTIVE THREE-DAY DAKOTA CONFERENCE AT MARSHALL, MINNESOTA

During a three-day Dakota, or Ocetisakowin 'Seven Council Fires', conference at Marshall, Minnesota's Southwest Minnesota State University, a conference that addressed the history of the European colonists' and later Euro-American's extreme mistreatment of the Dakota people, Angela Wilson (Waziyatawin) and her father, Chris Cavender (Mato Nunpa), told the conference participates that the place referred to as Bdote (called Mendota in English) is where THE (only) Dakota origin site is, and that this belief of theirs is bases on the Dakota's origin creation story.

Soon after the conference, I began corresponding with Chris Cavender (Mato Nunpa). At the time, he sent me a message wherein he wrote that he was going to tell Jim Anderson to quit working with me. And do so, because I believed and publicly taught (in contradiction to what he and his daughter Waziyatawin teach) that there is, according to a Dakota origin creation story [also] a Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) Dakota origin creation site. Then, after Jim Anderson was told by Mato Nunpa to quit working with me Anderson quit working with me.

Originally, I thought there was a credible/valid Mdote area Dakota origin creation story/site/ tradition. I thought so, because the deceptive Dakota activists told me there was. But after doing research on the topic I came to believe that there is not an authentic/valid Dakota creation story that places THE (or even one) Dakota origin site in the Mdote area. And I also came to believe that neither is their a valid Mdewakanton creation story and origin site in the Mdote area.

On a regular basis, Anderson and I had been meeting with the mayor of Anoka to establish a Anoka-Dakota Unity Alliance. And I had set things up for Anderson and other members of the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community to meet with the Anoka Human Rights Commission. And I had spoken with the mayor of Cambridge, Minnesota and she was planning on scheduling Anderson and I to address the Cambridge City Council. And I had set things up for Anderson to address the Anoka-Hennepin School District Indian Education Parent Committee and staff, etc. And this all came to an erupt and rude end because of Mato Nunpa's corrupt influence over the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community's Cultural Chairman, Jim Anderson.

The three-day Dakota conference in Marshall had an agenda that totally left out [ignored] the history of the Dakota who lived in their sacred Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) homeland, where Europeans first made contact with the Eastern Dakota. The history of how and why the Europeans used a band of Ojibwe, armed with French guns, to violently force the Santee/Isanti Dakota from their sacred Mille Lacs Lake homeland was not told. The Marshall conference started with a statement about Dakota people living in the Mdote area. It left out the eight hundred year history of the Dakota people living in the Mille Lacs Lake area.

The following important information was not mentioned by any of the conference's organizers, nor guest speakers.

(1.) The eight hundred year history of the Dakota people living in their sacred Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) homeland ref. .. ref.

(2.) The sacred Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) Dakota origin creation story, which is based on a written and traditional oral Dakota origin creation story. ref.

(3.) The history of the "doctrine of discovery" associated with DuLuth setting up France's Coat of Arms (flag and Christian cross) in the sacred ground of the Eastern Dakota people's main Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) area village and then claiming sovereignty over the (unconverted to Christianity) pagan/heathen Dakota natives and also assumimg paramont ownership of all of the Dakota people's Minnesota homeland for France. ref. ref. ref. ref... ref... ref.

(4.) The history of how and why the European colonists used the Mille Lacs Dakota people's weakness to abuse alcohol to lure many of them from their sacred Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) homeland to far away trading posts. ref. ref.

(5.) The history of how and why the European colonists tricked and used a band of Ojibwe to violently force most of the remaining Dakota from their sacred Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) homeland and spiritual center ref... ref.

(6.) The history of how the forced expulsion of most of the remaining Dakota from their sacred Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) homeland caused the U.S.-Dakota war of 1862 and terrible aftermath which has still not been resolved. On the Nebraska Santee Tribe website where is an article, it states: "The Santee's defeat by the Chippewas (Ojibwe) at the Battle of Kathio in the late 1700s forced them to move to the southern half of the state which would bring them into close contact and eventually conflict with the white settlers. From that point on, survival for the Santee Tribe would become a daily struggle." ref. The "daily struggle" eventually caused the historic U.S.-Dakota war of 1862. ref.

(7.) The movement to change the profane name of the "Rum River," by restoring the river's name back to its sacred Dakota name [Wakan] or [Wahkon]. ref..

(8.) The establishment of the beginning stage of an Anoka Dakota Unity Alliance . Anoka, Minnesota is located at the confluence of the Mississippi and "Rum" rivers.

(9.) The activist work near the confluence of the Mississippi and "Rum" rivers to influence the Roman Catholic Church to change the racist name of a Catholic organization named the Knights of Columbus and to also revoke the 15 century papal bull (Inter Caetera] ref., a papal bull that is the source of the establishment of brutal colonialism and hateful racism against the Dakota people in their Wakpa Wakan ("Rum River") watershed ancestral homeland, especially including the Mille Lacs Lake area where they had their villages and still have their origin creation site. ref. ref. ref.

(10.) The work to change the derogatory name of Mille Lacs Kathio State Park to Mille Lacs Isanti State Park ref.

(11.) My draft Minnesota Indian Affairs Council resolution (which the MIAC asked me to write) supporting the bill to change our state's derogatory geographic place names that are offensive to Natives, including the profane "Rum River" name ref.

(12.) The work (supported by Archbishop Harry Flynn) to change the profane name of a bar and liquor store in Wahkon, Minnesota, a town located on the south shore of Mille Lacs Lake ref.

(13.) Jim Anderson's Rum River name-change movement activist activities ref.

(14.) The work to regain the Dakota people's Wakpa Wakan ("Rum River") watershed ancestral/traditional homeland, including the Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) area. ref. ref. ref.

There is a group of deceptive Dakota activists who are so obsessed with the Mdote area that they have become delusional, thinking that the Mdote area is where it is all at for the Dakota people and that there are no other significant sacred Dakota places. Instead of working with activists who are working to rectify injustices being committed against the Dakota in other sacred Dakota ancestral homelands, they have become hatefully competitive against them. They want all the attention on themselves and the Mdote area and will use whatever evil tactics they want to discredit other activists and their work. They have become like a delusional cult.

The history of the Dakota in their Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) ancestral homeland:

"Father Louis Hennepin visited the Sioux at Mille Lacs Lake in 1680 and reported that it was the sacred lake of these Indians and the focal point of the whole nation, from which the tribes and bands spread out over a wide area. (Wilford 1944:329)." ref.

"In 1656, the Dakotas were living near Mille Lacs in five villages numbering about 5,000 people. It is possible that the Tetons and Yanktons had at this point already began migrating west, although Hennepin found them above the Falls of St. Anthony on the Mississippi River in 1680. In 1701, they were at Lake Traverse. The Yankon and Yantonai left Mille Lacs at about this time." ref.

"From what was written on this subject by Hennepin, La Hontan, Le Sueur, and Charlevoix, and from the maps published under the superintendence of these authors, it is sufficiently clear that in the latter part of the 17th century the principal residence of the Isanyati Sioux [Mdewakanton, Wahpeton, Wahpekute, and Sisseton] was about the headwaters of Rum river, whence they extended their hunts to St Croix and Mississippi rivers, and down the latter nearly or quite as far as the mouth of the Wisconsin. " (Minn. Hist. Soc. Coll, I, 295, 1872.) ref.

"The Mille Lacs area is rich in Native American history, from ancient tribes from the Old Copper Tradition dating back over 4,000 years, to the early Dakota people, a band called the Mdewakanton 'the people who live by the water of the Great Spirit.'" ref.

"Hundreds of years before Europeans settled in the region, the Dakota people established permanent villages along the shores of Ogechie Lake, and the Rum River. These people came to be known as the Mdewakanton, which translated means 'Water of the Great Spirit.'" ref.

According to one Dakota creation story, a creation story that "figures prominently in the Sioux Nation's or Ocetisakowin 'Seven Council Fires' creation stories, the sacred lake Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) is where the Dakota emerged as human beings into this world." The sacred lake is one of the Dakota's Garden of Eden sites. Evidence indicates that it is their original or primary Garden of Eden site, and that it is the Garden of Eden and Jerusalem (Holy Land) from which they were forced out, and to which they will return. It is where one of their creation stories says their nation was born. And it is where their original genesis site is located, it's, therefore, their "Garden of Eden." And it is where their genocide first began.

Angela Wilson (Waziyatawin), one of the leading deceptive Dakota activists, wrote: "This area the Dakota refer to as Bdote, Mendota in English, is the site of both Dakota genesis and genocide. The Bdewakantunwan Dakota creation story places Dakota origin at this specific site." ref.

The "Bdewakantunwan" or Mdewakantonwan creation story places Dakota origin NOT at "Bdote"/Mdota, but at Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs lake). In English, Mde means Lake and Wakan means Spirit. Mdewakanton means "people born of the waters of Mde Wakan - Spirit Lake (Mille Lacs Lake). Mille Lacs Lake is where Europeans first made contact with the Dakota's homeland villages and it is the site of both Dakota genesis and genocide. Waziyatawin knows this is the truth. Why does she say it is not true? Maybe she is trying to gain leverage in the "Bdote"/Mdote area.

clarification: My above statement, [The Dakotas' Mille Lacs Lake ancestral homeland is their Jerusalem (Holy Land) from which they were forced out and from which they shall return] is associated with the belief that Israel is usually portrayed as the homeland of the Jewish people who were exiled 2,000 years ago and to which they have been righteously returned. I personally believe that the indigenous Palestinians being forced from their lands by Israel and ethnically cleansed far more closely resembles the experience of American Indians. more...

The MN Sesquicentennial Commission's Participation In The Coldwater Spring Deception:

Griff Wigley was the Project Leader for the Minnesota Sesquicentennial Advisory Committee for Native American Partnering (SACNAP). Despite my public protesting on Wigley's interactive blog, he continued to defend and display some of the above mentioned Dakota activists' radical distortion of Dakota history on his official State of Minnesota or SACNAP blog. ref..

During a publicly posted debate between Wigley and I, a debate on his Native American Partnering or SACNAP blog, Wigley wrote: "As I said to you that day at Coldwater, it doesn't matter to me right now whether there are one, two, or many Dakota creation stories. Everyone agrees about the importance/sacredness of the B'dote (M'dote) and Coldwater areas. That's all that matters, so leave it at that."

So, according to Griff Wigley, it was alright (during that particular time, that is, before the federal government decided for or against giving Coldwater Spring a special designation) for some Dakota activists to lie to both the federal government and the general public, and also for him to post their lies on his SACNAP blog...and do so, in order to help influence the federal government and general public to believe that the Coldwater Spring site and the Mdote area in general is more important to the Dakota people than it is, and by doing so, deceptively influence a U.S. federal agency to give Coldwater Spring a special designation that would create and preserve a false Dakota history forever, a false history that would demean and desecrate the Dakota's sacred Mde Wahkon (Mille Lacs Lake) ancestral homeland, forever.

Evidently, Griff Wigley believed that it was alright for him, Bruce White, and some Dakota activists to radically distort Dakota history, so that, (1.) the federal government would believe that the Coldwater Spring and mouth of the MN River site(s), located in the Mdote area, is the ONLY PLACE where there is a Dakota origin creation story, when actually there is no authentic/valid Dakota origin creation story there at all... and by doing so, help influence a U.S. federal government agency to decide to designate the Coldwater Spring site as a federally recognized Traditional Cultural Property, and, (2.) at the same time, discredit Chief Leonard Wabasha's and my activists work in the Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) area. The area where Minnesota's authentic Dakota origin creation story/site/tradition is located.

It seems to me that Wigley believed that only after the Coldwater Spring site became an official U.S. government designated Traditional Cultural Property, or the federal government decided not to give Coldwater Spring a special designation, would it be appropriate for him (providing, the mentioned above Dakota activists finally decided to tell the truth about Dakota history) to acknowledge that there is a Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) Dakota origin creation story/site/tradition, and that the Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) area is historically, and at this present time, actually more important to the Dakota people than the Mdote area.

Evidently, Wigley believed that only after the federal government made its decision about Coldwater Spring would it be the appropriate time for Wabasha and I to go forward publicly (with potentially his support) with the effort to rectify the injustices being committed against the Dakota in their sacred Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) ancestral homeland.

We are still waiting for the mentioned above Dakota activists and their chief white historian, Bruce White, to tell the truth about Dakota history.

At the time of this Wigley controversy, I contacted Jane Leonard, the Executive Director of the Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission, and informed her about this negative situation. She told me that she would speak with Wigley, but neither Wabasha nor I ever received an apology from Wigley, her, or any members of the Sesquintennial Commission, nor did the Governor of Minnesota, Tim Pawlenty, apologize. The State of Minnesota should not have participated in creating a false Dakota history. I am hoping that Governor Mark Dayton will address this issue. When he was a U.S. Senator he gave his assistance with Wabasha's and my activist work to change the profane name of the "Rum River"...by doing so, he also gave his assistance to protect and preserve Minnesota's sacred site history in the Dakota's Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs Lake) ancestral/traditional homeland.

I recommend and hope that Governor Mark Dayton will establish a Minnesota Truth And Reconciliation Commission to addresses the Coldwater Spring/Mdote area deception and other topics associated with Minnesota's Native history.

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On March 21, 2015, Indian Country Today Media Network, the world's largest Indian news source, published an article by Melvin Lee Houston (Dakota) entitled: An open letter to the Dakota Oyate. There are two selective comments to the article. The first comment is mine. It can be found and read at the end of Mr. Houston's ICTMN article or here on my site. The comment presents Leonard Wabasha's Mille Lacs Kathio State Park interpretive sign statement about the Mdewakanton's origin creation story at Mille Lacs. It also mentions Wolfchild's contradictory statement presented on a youtube.com video.

Note: Bruce White is a white historian who is a sympathizer and supporter of the deceptive Dakota activists who are trying to create and promote a false history to serve their scandalous agenda. He recently co-authored a book that presents the false history. However, his book has been getting bad reviews by historians who know the true Dakota history and they are now exposing how White knowingly tries to deceive his readers into believing the false history. Check out the book reviews at Amazon.com .

Dave Fudally's 7498 word book review is located here

Essays and reviews by John LaBatte Review – The Past is Alive Within Us – Video

Preserve Camp Coldwater Coalition website Sacred Land Controversy Explained

Preserve Camp Coldwater Coalition website Gideon Pond article (see commentary at end of article)

Link to Chris Cavender (Mato Nunpa)'s TCDP article and my comment titled Resolution

Link to my TCDP article Healing the Dakota People's Painful Wounds Of Ethnocide and Genocide

Here's the link to my article A History Of The Dakota People In Minnesota

My email address is Wahkonrainbow@gmail.com