........ Oceti Sakowin Rights Activist Initiatives

.....................................By Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer

I am an indigenous peoples' rights advocate with several Mille Lacs Lake area initiatives. The Mille Lacs Lake area of Minnesota is the sacred ancestral homeland of the "Seven Council Fires" or Oceti Sakowin (Och-et-ee shak-oh-win), the proper name for the people commonly known as the "Sioux". They are also known as the Dakota, Lakota and Nakota people. In this article I present information about the Oceti Sakowin's heritage in the Mille Lacs Lake area as well as detailed information about my activist initiatives.

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

revised on July 12, 2010

The original sacred homeland of the Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate (people) is located in North Central Minnesota in an area near present day Mille Lacs Lake. One of their many villages was located at or near the confluence of the currently named "Rum River" and Lake Mille Lacs, with other Dakota villages dispersed throughout the area.

The Mdewakanton (mde + lake' + wakan + sacred' + ton + village'), known as the "sacred lake village' people, are one of the four subdivisions of the "Santee Sioux". The other three subdivisions of the "Santee Sioux" are the Wakpekutes, Wahpetons and Sissetons. Santee or Isanti refers to the Knife Lake and Mille Lacs Lake people of the Dakota nation.

The Mdewakanton are considered in the oral tradition, one of the most ancient divisions of the Oceti Sakowin. In time, the original Dakota people divided into three groups - the Dakota, Lakota and Dakota, each moving in different directions, but still maintaining close ties to one another. The sacred lake (Mille Lacs) figures prominently in Oceti Sakowin creation stories. The lake (according to one Oceti Sakowin creation story) is considered sacred because the original Dakota people, who consisted of seven closely related tribes - including the Mdewakanton, Wakpekute, Wahpeton, Sisseton, Yankton, Yantonai and Teton - merged from it as human beings into this world.

On the Kathio Landmark Trail located in Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, Leonard E. Wabasha, a hereditary Mdewakanton Dakota chief who is a member of the Lower Sioux Mdewakanton Community and who is also the Director of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux (Dakota) Community Cultural Resource Department a well as a renowned Mdewakanton Dakota activist, has an interpretive sign. On his interpretive sign, Chief Wabasha is quoted as saying:

"My people are the Mdewakanton Oyate. Mdewakanton means the People of Spirit Lake. Today that lake is known as Mille Lacs. This landscape is sacred to the Mdewakanton Oyate because one Otokaheys Woyakapi (creation story) says we were created here. It is especially pleasing for me to come here and walk these trails, because about 1718 the first Chief Wapahasa was born here, at the headwaters of the Spirit River. I am the eighth in this line of hereditary chiefs."

On his interpretive sign, Chief Wabasha used the term "Spirit River" instead of the official United States or dominate culture's profane and derogatory name for the river "Rum". I believe that when he used the term "Spirit River" instead of "Rum River" while in the process of making his statement for a Mille Lacs Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign he was showing due respect for his people's heritage in the Mille Lacs Lake area.

I also believe that the Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate have just recently entered into a very important stage in the evolution of their culture. And believe this, because there is currently a local, national and international movement to change the profane and derogatory name of the "Rum" River to either its sacred Oceti Sakowin name Wakan, or to at least its correct English translation (Spirit).

Links to websites where there is information about several businesses, a community medical clinic, a nature area, a youth club, a Christian church group, a substance abuse treatment center and a city street named after Chief Leonard Wabasha's originally chosen new name for the badly named Rum River, it being Spirit, can be found by clicking Spirit River

In respect to explaining the official name-changing legal process, this movement is being guided by the Minnesota DNR and the effort to change the river's name is supported by two Mdewakanton Dakota Communities, Chief Leonard Wabasha, several national and internationally renowned Indigenous activists, the Minnesota Historical Society's Indian Advisory Committee, the United Nations Secretariat of the Permanent Forum On Indigenous Issues, Archbishop Harry Flynn, Bishop John Kinney, and by many other organizations and prominent individuals.. link to complete list of supporters

An open letter to Mille Lacs Kathio State Park planners:

Dear park planners,

Greetings from Wahkon, Minnesota, where the headquarters of the movement to revert the profane and derogatory name of the "Rum" River back to its sacred Oceti Sakowin name (Wakan) are located.

It is a wonderful thing you are doing at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park. The Oceti Sakowin Oyate must appreciate how you are revitalizing their appreciation of their heritage on the headwaters of the beautiful but badly named "Rum" River.

I am also on a mission to revitalize the Oceti Sakowin Oyate's appreciation of their heritage on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River. I am doing this, primarily, by spearheading the local, national and international movement to revert the "Rum" River's current profane and derogatory name back to its sacred Oceti Sakowin name (Wakan), or to at least its correct interpretation (Spirit).

As you probably know, there is a long standing and well documented derogatory history associated with how the "Rum" River received its current name; and that it is because of this derogatory history that a lot of people believe that white explorers performed a "punning" and "perverted" translation for the ancient and sacred Oceti Sakowin name for the "Rum" River, (Wakan). And it is also commonly believed that they did so, by taking the ancient and sacred Oceti Sakowin name for this river (Wakan), translated Spirit, and then intentionally translated it incorrectly to mean an alcohol spirit, the alcohol spirit rum; and that they then unfortunately used their faulty translation name "rum" to name this sacred Oceti Sakowin river with the profane and derogatory name "Rum".

According to historical documents found in the book, "Minnesota Geographic Names: Their Origins and Historical Significances" by Warren Upham, published by the Minnesota Historical Society, 1969 (reprint of 1920)...in the late 1700's, white men gave the "Rum" River its current name by way of a "punning translation" that "perverted the ancient Sioux name Wakan". Note: The name "Sioux" is a misnomer.

The "Rum" River flows out of Mille Lacs Lake. And on the Minnesota DNR's website there is an article about Minnesota's geographic place names that are mistakes due to incorrect interpretations of non-English names as well as one deliberate misinterpretation of an American "Indian" name for a geographic place.

In respect to the deliberate misinterpretation of an American "Indian" name for a geographic place, a Minnesota DNR website article states: "Not so the name for the river flowing out of Mille Lacs. The lake was known to the Dakota as Mde Wakan, 'spirit lake.' They called the river by the same name. But traders made a pun with the name of the spirituous liquor that caused such misery and destruction during the fur trade." (Explanation: The "Rum River" name is not just a accidental misinterpretation name, like some other names, it's a deliberate misinterpretation name.)

In 2002, I established a non-profit organization to help change this river's profane and derogatory name. My non-prophet organization's name is Rum River Name Change Organization, Inc.. And I have also created a Web site to help change this river's derogatory name. My Web site is located at: http://www.towahkon.org.

While reading the Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive signs at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, I was pleased when I discovered that both the sacred Oceti Sakowin name for Mille Lacs Lake (Wakan) as well as the positive history associated with how this lake received its Mille Lacs name were displayed on one of the trail's interpretive signs. But I was disappointed when I discovered that the ancient and sacred Oceti Sakowin name for the river that runs through Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, the river that "white explorers" unfortunately named "Rum", was not displayed on any of the trails interpretive signs; and that neither was the negative or derogatory history associated with how this river received its current profane and derogatory name. I find it appalling that all up and down the Wakan/"Rum" River there are Historical Markers (1.) (2.) (3.) that present the derogatory history as to how this river received its current profane name, but nowhere on any of the Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive signs is it presented.

I believe that the negative or derogatory history associated with how the "Rum" River is thought to have received its current name should have been displayed on at least one of the trail's interpretive signs, and that it should have been displayed in order to show due respect to trail visitors (especially Dakota trail visitors) expecting to receive both the positive as well as the negative history when reading the Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive signs about the history of the Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, a park located in the Oceti Sakowin Oyate's sacred ancestral homeland.

It seems to me that you should add another Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park, an interpretive sign that would both mention the ancient and sacred Oceti Sakowin name for the "Rum" River (Wakan) as well as the negative or derogatory history associated with how the river is thought to have received its current profane and derogatory name. And it also seems to me that you should display on a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign that there is a local, national and international movement to change this river's profane name. And that this movement is incorporated with the State of Minnesota as a non-profit organization, and that the legal geographic name-changing process is being guided by the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and that the effort to change the river's name is supported by the Minnesota Historical Society Indian Advisory Committee, two Mdewakanton Dakota Communities, hereditary Mdewakanton Dakota chief Leonard Wabasha, the United Nations Secretariat of the Permanent Forum On Indigenous Issues, and several national and internationally renowned Indigenous activists and by many other organizations and prominent individuals.

I believe that if you would have initially displayed both the derogatory history associated with how the "Rum" River is thought to have received its current name, as well as displayed information about the movement to change this river's profane and derogatory name, on at least one of the trail's interpretive signs, all of the Mdewakanton Dakota Communities, as well as a lot more other Native American communities, Native American organizations, internationally renowned Indigenous activists, Minnesota legislators, human rights organizations, multicultural organizations, religious leaders and other prominent people might have already given their support for the effort to change this river's profane and derogatory name.

Therefore, I believe that if you would have initially displayed the derogatory history associated with how the "Rum" River is thought to have received its current name, the river's name might have already been changed. And, consequently, a source of racial antagonism might have already been eliminated. By not presenting the derogatory history about how the "Rum" River is thought to have received its current name on any of the Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive signs, I believe that you park planners who approved the displaying of the present interpretive signs avoided attracting controversy and activism. And by not presenting information about the movement to change the "Rum" River's name on any of the Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive signs, I believe that you further avoided attracting controversy and activism. And by doing so, I believe that you have put a stumbling block in the way of the movement to change the "Rum" River's name.

Therefore, I believe that both the Upper Sioux Mdewakanton Community and the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community as well as organizations and concerned citizens who want the "Rum" River's current profane and derogatory name changed are being hurt by your neglect to display interpretive sign information about this negative aspect of Mille Lacs Kathio State Park history.

A hereditary Mdewakanton Dakota chief [Leonard E. Wabasha] supports the effort to change the "Rum" River's profane and derogatory name. And Jim Anderson, the Cultural Chair and Historian for the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community, not only supports the effort to change the name, he has also helped me to gain support for the effort to change the river's profane name, including the support of the internationally renowned Native American activist Clyde Bellecourt. And Christina Morris, Field Representative of Midwest Office for Historical Preservation wrote: "We recognize the historic and cultural significance of the Wakan River to the peoples of Minnesota, and we commend you in your research of its history, and your efforts to revitalize the Mdewakanton Dakota Community by raising awareness of their heritage."

About activism at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park's - Kathio Landmark Trail

The Kathio Landmark Trail is becoming an increasingly active location for both Mdewakanton Dakota activists as well as Mdewakanton Dakota rights activists who are on a mission to rectify a number of injustices being perpetrated against the Oceti Sakowin Oyate (people) within their sacred ancestral homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River.

(1.) On a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign, (Dakota activist) Tim Blue, the Education Director at Eci Nompa Woonspe in Morton, Minnesota is quoted as saying: "The name of this place should be Isanti (E-sawn-tay`) State Park, because that is correct, whereas Kathio is incorrect. Isan means 'Knife' and Isanti refers to the Knife Lake and Mille Lacs Lake people of the Dakota nation."

(2.) In an article titled: Call it "Spirit", an article published in the July 14, 2004 edition of Mille Lacs County's official newspaper, the Mille Lacs Messenger, a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign statement was quoted in order to inform residents of Mille Lacs County about what hereditary Mdewakanton Dakota Chief Leonard Wabasha is quoted as saying. In his interpretive sign quote Chief Wabasha referred to the badly named Rum River as "Spirit River" instead of its current derogatory and profane name (Rum). I view Chief Wabasha's interpretive sign term "Spirit River" as a (Dakota activist) statement. This is another example of why I believe that Kathio Landmark Trail is becoming an increasingly active location for activists to both express their grievances as well as offer you park planners solutions to these problems. Note: The mentioned above article titled "Call it 'Spirit'" can be found by clicking Call it Spirit.

(3.) On a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign, a statement is displayed that deals with a controversy between archaeologists, you park planners, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and some Isanti Dakota bands. A controversy associated with the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe oral tradition that tells a gruesome terrorist account about how a cohesively displaced (by European colonists) band of Ojibwe (the Mille Lacs band's ancestors) who were armed with European colonists guns and gun powder violently forced the, unarmed with European weapons, Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate from their sacred Mille Lacs Lake homeland; an account that some archaeologists and yourselves are describing as probably incorrect. Therefore, the Kathio Landmark Trail is a location where a controversy between the position of some Isanti Dakota bands, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and an opposing position by some archaeologists and yourselves is being addressed by Dakota activists, non-Indigenous Dakota rights activists, some archaeologists and yourselves.

(4.) And there is my Oceti Sakowin rights (activist) initiative to influence you to add an interpretive sign on the Kathio Land Mark Trial that displays the sacred Dakota name for the river that runs through Mille Lacs Kathio State Park.

(5.) And there is my Oceti Sakowin rights (activist) initiative to influence you to add an interpretive sign on the Kathio Land Mark Trial that displays the derogatory history associated with how the "Rum" River is thought to have received its current profane and derogatory name.

(6.) And there is my Oceti Sakowin rights (activist) initiative to influence you to add an interpretive sign on the Kathio Land Mark Trial that displays information about the movement to revert the "Rum" River's profane and derogatory name back to its sacred Dakota name.

(7.) And there is my Oceti Sakowin rights (activist) initiative to influence you to add an interpretive sign on the Kathio Land Mark Trial that would inform its readers that the name "Nadouesioux", a name displayed on a Kathio Landmark Trial interpretive sign, was a derogatory name for the ancient Dakota people.

(8.) And there is my Oceti Sakowin rights (activist) initiative to influence you to remove a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign with incorrect historical information on it, information that misinforms its readers, by stating that the Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate left their Mille Lacs Lake ancestral homeland on their own free will. And in respect to this activist initiative of mine, I not only request that you remove this interpretive sign but also request that you add an interpretive sign that would inform its readers that the Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate were "forced" or "pressured" to leave their sacred ancestral homeland in the Mille Lacs Lake area. (ref.)

(9.) An article about the Santee Dakota activist Wyatt Thomas's visit to Ogechie Lake on Kathio Landmark Trail can be viewed and read by clicking Dakota Rising, by Jon Lurie

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C. D. Floro, the editor of the Sisseton-Wahpeton "Sioux" Tribe's Lake Traverse Reservation newspaper, a newspaper named Sota Iya Ye Yapi, has given his support for the effort to change the name of the "Rum" River to Wakan River, and he has also published several Open Letters To The Oyate of mine in the Sota Iya Ye Yapi. In one of my Sota Iya Ye Yapi letters there is a link to this article. Lake Traverse Reservation is located in South Dakota and is home to 10,840 Sisseton-Wahpeton "Sioux" (Dakota) people. The Sisseton-Wahpeton Sioux Tribe is composed of descendants of the Isanti people. Isan means 'Knife' and Isanti refers to the Knife Lake and Mille Lacs Lake people of the Dakota Nation. ______________________________________________________________

The following information came from a website about the history of the Flandreau Santee "Sioux" Tribe. This tribe is comprised primarily of descendents of "Mdewakantonwan", a member of the Isanti division of the Great Dakota Nation, and refer to themselves as Dakota, which means friend or ally. The Flandreau Santee Dakota "Indian" Reservation is 2,500 acres of land located along and near the Big "Sioux" (Dakota) River in Moody County, South Dakota."

"In 1656, the Dakotas were living near Mille Lacs, in five villages numbering about 5,000 people. It is possible the Tetons and Yanktons had at this point already begun 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 Yankton and Yantonai left Mille Lacs at about this time. In the battle of Kathio, which was suppose to have occurred about 1750, the Santee were defeated by the Chippewa; the Mdewakanton band settled at the Falls of St. Anthony in 1760. The departure of the various bands of Sioux from the Mille Lacs area began a transition from a woodlands culture to a culture on the fringes of the Great Plains."

"By 1800, after a hundred and fifty years of sporadic contact with Europeans, the material culture of the Santee Sioux had been substantially altered. They were now using steel weapons and tools, brass and metal cookware, European cloth and blankets. While their religious and social organization was largely unchanged at the time. They had begun a stage of transition into a new culture with their expulsion from their traditional homeland around Mille Lacs."

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I recognize the historic and sacred cultural significance of the Wakan River to the seven tribes of the Oceti Sakowin Nation. The Dakota Nation is now located within, both, a four state area, including Minnesota, South Dakota, North Dakota and Nebraska, as well as in Canada.

I am on a sacred mission to help revitalize the Oceti Sakowin - by raising awareness of their sacred heritage on the headwaters of the Wakan Wakpa.

Around 1750, a band of Lake Superior Ojibwe, now known as the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe - a band that had been forced west by Europeans into the Dakota Oyate's Mde Wakan (Mille Lacs) territory and who had also been tricked by European colonists to instigate a terrorist attack against the Mdewakanton Dakota, so as to violently force, with the help of the European invaders' guns and gun powder, the last remaining Mille Lacs Dakota tribe (the Mdewakantons) from their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan River.

After forcing the Mdewakanton Dakota from their sacred homeland the Lake Superior Ojibwe band took up residence in the Mille Lacs area, where they remain to this present day.

When the Mdewakanton Dakota were forced from their homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan River all of the Oceti Sakowin Nation's tribes lost a sacred connection and relationship with their heritage in the Mille Lacs area. I am trying to recover the Oceti Sakowin Nation's sacred connection and relationship with its original ancestral homeland in the Mille Lacs area.

I am hoping and praying that in the near future there will be a big Oceti Sakowin Nation gathering and homecoming event held on the sacred land surrounding the mouth of the Wakan River, or, in other words, on Mdoteminiwakan, the Oceti Sakowin name for this sacred land. And I am also hoping and praying that there will be annual Oceti Sakowin Nation gatherings and homecoming events held on this same sacred land. (On June 30, 2010 a Oceti Sakowin Nation homecoming committee was established.)

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Mille Lacs Kathio State Park's name should be changed:

On a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign there are the words: "The park name is steeped in plenty of history. 'Mille Lacs,' a French term used by early explorers and fur traders, means '1,000 lakes,' and referred to the region. The word 'Kathio' has a more dubious pedigree. Well-known explorer Daniel Greysolon, Sieur duLhut collectively referred to the area as 'Izatys,' a name the Mdewakanton Dakota people gave themselves. Sieur du Lhut's poor handwriting caused a wrong translation of the word 'Izatys'. The 'Iz' was transcribed as a K, and further error caused the name to be Kathio, a word that translates to nothing. 'Kathio' became a name so attached to the area that the park bears that name today." reference

And on another Kathio Landmark Trial interpretive sign the following statement is displayed. "Izatys was DuLhut's phonetic spelling of a Dakota word that was also recorded as Issatis, Isanti, and Santee. These spellings of the same term referred to a collection of villages along Ogechie Lake, Shakopee Lake and Lake Onamia..."

I believe that in order to show due respect for the Dakota people, Mille Lacs "Kathio" State Park planners should find a legislator who would craft and introduce a state bill to change the park's name to a spelling and pronunciation of the Dakota people's choosing and that the bill should be passed and the name changed to Isanti.

On a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign, Tim Blue, the Education Director at Eci Nompa Woonspe in Morton, Minnesota is quoted as saying: "The name of this place should be Isanti (E-sawn-tay`) State Park, because that is correct, whereas Kathio is incorrect. Isan means 'Knife' and Isanti refers to the Knife Lake and Mille Lacs Lake people of the Dakota nation".

A petition to change the name of Mille Lacs Kathio State Park can be found by clicking Name Change.

"The Santee Sioux Tribe consists of the members of the Isanti and Ihanktowan divisions of the Great Sioux Nation. The Isanti or Dakota people are comprised of four bands that lived on the eastern side of the Dakota Nation." reference

An interpretive sign should state that the name "Nadouesioux" is a derogatory name.

On a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign, there is information displayed that informs its readers that: "In 1679 duLhut planted the flag of France at a place he described as the great village of the Nadouesioux, called 'Izatys'." The name Nadouesioux is a derogatory name. Therefore, I believe that when this derogatory name was presented on an interpretive sign, park planners should have also presented a statement that mentioned that Nadouesioux is a derogatory name. And I believe that they should have also explained, on that interpretive sign, why it is a derogatory name. This injustice could be rectified if park planners would make a new interpretive sign with this new information on it and then display it on the Kathio Landmark Trail.

The Web site reference source where I learned that the name Nadouesioux is a derogatory name can be found by clicking reference. On this Web site there are the words: "The name 'Sioux' was given to all Dakota bands in what is now known as the Mille Lacs area by the French. These fur-trappers and mapmakers corrupted the name 'Nadowessi,' or 'Natawesiwak,' from the now more northern Chippewa, who referred to the Sioux as enemies. The word which means 'enemy' or 'snake,' became 'Sioux' when the French added the plural form ('oux') [and] the first part was dropped."

Another reference source can be found by clicking reference. On this reference source Web site, a Web site titled: "Where did the Blackfoot Sioux live in the 1700- 1800s?" there are the words: "'Sioux' is the name given this tribe by the US Govt, who got it from a bastardized version from the French, who shortened the Algonquin compound, nadowe ('snake') plus siu ('little'), spelled Nadoussioux, by which a neighboring tribe, the Ojibwa or the Ottawa, referred to the Lakota/Dakota/Nakota people. This term was meant as an insult, but today the Federal Government of the United States has applied this name to represent this entire group of Siouan people."

Another reference source can be found by clicking reference. On this reference source Web site there are the words: "The Santee Sioux are members of the Great Sioux Nation. The people of the Sioux Nation refer to themselves as Dakota or Lakota which means friend or ally. The United States government took the word Sioux from (Nadowesioux), which comes from a Chippewa (Ojibway) word which means little snake or enemy. The French traders and trappers who worked with the Chippewa (Ojibway) people shortened the word to Sioux."

An interpretive sign should state that the Mdewakanton Dakota were forced to leave their sacred Mille Lacs Lake area homeland.

On a Kathio Landmark Trial interpretive sign there is misinformation displayed where in park planners imply that there may have been a little Ojibwe pressure put on the Mdewakanton Dakota to leave their sacred ancestral homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River, but not a lot of Ojibwe pressure as some historians claim. And then park planners went even further with their misinformation propaganda and displayed radical misinformation on this interpretive sign by imply that even if there was a little Ojibwe pressure put on the Mdewakanton Dakota to leave their sacred Mille Lacs Lake area homeland they all would have never-the-less eventually left without any Ojibwe and/or white European pressure at all. Or, in other words, park planners imply on a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign that the Mdewakanton Dakota left their Mille Lacs Lake area homeland on their own free will.

However, on a combined Minnesota Highway Department and Minnesota Historical Society plaque located near the mouth of the Wakan/"Rum" River there is a presentation of a radically different historical account as to why and how the Mdewakanton Dakota left their sacred Mille Lacs Lake area homeland.

On the combined Minnesota Highway Department and Minnesota Historical Society plaque there are the words: "In this vicinity stood the great Sioux village of "Isatys" where Duluth planted the French arms of July 2, 1679. The settlement was visited by Father Hennepin in 1680. About 1750 the Chippewa moving westward from lake Superior captured the village, and by this decisive battle drove the Sioux permanently into southern Minnesota.

The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe oral tradition tells of a mid-1700s battle between the Band's Lake Superior ancestors and the Mdewakanton Dakota who lived in the Mille Lacs Lake area at the time. The Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe oral tradition also tells that their Lake Superior ancestors invaded the Dakotas Mille Lacs homeland and during the mid-1700s battle of "Kathio" used the European colonists' gun powder bombs to violently force the Mdewakanton Dakota from their sacred Mille Lacs Lake area homeland; and that that is how they took possession of the Mdewakanton Dakota's sacred Mille Lacs land that they now live on.

On a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign there are the words: "Historic records of the late 1700s show that the inhabitants of this region to be the Ojibwe rather than Dakota. Why the change? Most historians agree that the Mdewakanton Dakota moved out of this area around 1750. There are different stories as to how this came about. The Ojibwe oral tradition tells of a massive, three-day battle in about 1745. In this story, the Ojibwe forces defeated the Mdewakanton Dakota in what has become known as the "Battle of Kathio". This decisive victory is said to have pushed the Mdewakanton Dakota from this, their homeland, forever. Dakota oral history does not address such a battle. University of Minnesota archaeologists report that after years of study no evidence has been uncovered at any of the Kathio village sites that would substantiate the claim that a large battle took place here. They contend that although there may have been small scale skirmishes between the two nations. The Mdewakanton Dakota were a population already in transition by the mid-1700s. Moving more and more permanently to the proximity of trading posts to the south and prairies to the southwest."

I find it hard to believe that when archaeologists and park planners wrote and displayed the above statement on an interpretive sign that they did not believe that the main reason why some of the Mdewakanton Dakota were in transition by the mid-1700s was because of problems they were having with the Ojibwe, including violet attacks or "skirmishes" as well as concerns about future terrorist attacks by the Ojibwe, who wanted their land for themselves and did not have a moral problem acquiring gun power from the white "settlers" in order to gain an advantage over the Mdewakanton Dakota.

In the above mentioned Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign statement, University of Minnesota archaeologists and park planners seem to be covering up the truth in order to hinder the Mdewakanton Dakota from ever being able to reclaim their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River. Park planners conveniently failed to mention in the above statement that the Ojibwe were forced out of their homeland on the East coast by white European colonists and that that was why the Ojibwe were in Mdewakanton Dakota territory causing the Mdewakanton Dakota problems. It does not matter if there was a large battle or small skirmishes, the Ojibwe were where they should not have been and they were there because they were forced out of their East coast homeland.

And the archaeologists and park planners also failed to mention the historical evidence that indicates that it was the strategy of the white European colonists to use the tribes that they forced out of their homelands to force other tribes out of their homelands as they moved westward. And their convenient presumption that because some Mdewakanton Dakota had left the region they therefore would not ever have returned to their sacred Mille Lacs Lake area homeland and that the Mdewakanton Dakota who were still living in their sacred homeland would have soon moved away from their sacred Mille Lacs Lake area homeland without any further pressure from the Ojibwe and Europeans is appalling.

"As Europeans settled the East coast, they displaced eastern tribes who then migrated west to get away from the White civilization, and they, in their turn, displaced weaker local tribes they encountered, and pushed many of those tribes farther west as they took over their homelands or the original tribes left voluntarily as living conditions became crowded and territories shrunk." reference

A quote from Anton Treuer's book The Ojibwe in Minnesota, "From 1641 to 1701, the Dutch and then the British armed and encouraged the Iroquois Confederacy (in the eastern Great Lakes) to attack the French in order to disrupt their trade. They also encouraged the Iroquois to attack various Indian tribes as the Huron and Ojibwe in order to push them westward and obtain exclusive access to their trapping grounds."

While migrating west, a displaced band of the Ojibwe, now known as the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, displaced, with the help of the white man's gun powder, a local tribe, the Mdewakanton Dakota.

Minnesota DNR information:
"The upper river valley has one of the highest concentration of prehistoric sites in Minnesota. The area is rich with Indian history, dating back to more than 3000 years ago. Burial mounds, ricing pits, copper tools and other artifacts have been found throughout the area. 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. Furs were the early push for settlement in the area, and later efforts turned towards lumbering, which quickly established settlement throughout the area." reference

During the fur trading era European colonists used the Ojibwe's weakness to abuse alcohol to force the Mdewakanton Dakota from their sacred Mille Lacs homeland.

Governmental authorities would not regulate the fur trade so that the alcohol abuse related genocide and ethnic cleansing of native peoples would come to an end.

One historian wrote: "The difficult problem of alcohol in the fur trade was never eliminated. In fact, its effect on the Indians increased as the fur-bearing animals were depleted and the Indians began to surrender their lands."

When addicted tribes' lands were depleted of fur-bearing animals they would surrender their lands and often invade and steal other tribes' original lands to acquire furs for more alcohol.

Another historian wrote: "The Ojibwe had used up most of the beaver on their own lands supplying the French. This forced them to rely more on hunting territory shared peacefully with the Dakota and to look with a jealous eye on the fur and rice lakes the Dakota had in Minnesota. ... These conflicts became exacerbated with the arrival of the White cultural, especially with the trading posts selling guns and whiskey."

reference - Mille Lacs Messenger letter... More information on this topic

And on a website open to the public, the Lower Sioux Mdewakanton state their historical perspective on this subject. The following two quotes present the Lower Sioux Mdewakanton perspective on why their ancestors left their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the "Rum" River around 1750. (1.) "Long ago, the Mdewakanton Dakota lived around Mille Lacs Lake in central Minnesota. Around 1750, our ancestors were displaced by another nation, the Anishinnabe, and they relocated throughout the southern portion of the state." (2.) "This was not the last time the Mdewakantons would be forced into a new home. Treaties in 1851 and 1858 resulted in nearly 7,000 Dakota people being moved onto a narrow reservation along the Minnesota River." reference.

On Nebraska's Santee Tribe Web site where is an article with the heading SANTEE SIOUX AGENCY 1918. In the article, this former Minnesota Dakota (Santee) Band states that: "The Santee's defeat by the Chippewas 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. reference

And the Flandearu Santee Sioux Tribe states on a website about their history that the "Santee Sioux" bands "had begun a stage of transition into a new culture with their expulsion from their traditional homeland around Mille Lacs.

In the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe book about their heritage, including information about the "Battle of Kathio" there are the words: "Here the Chippewa also drove them out. The last of the Spirit Lake Dakota escaped south down the Rum River in their canoes."

Nowhere on any of the Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive signs is it mentioned that the Dakota were "displaced", "forced", "expelled" or "driven" from their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River. Nor is it mentioned on any of the trail's interpretive signs that the Dakota were "pressured" by hostile Ojibwe migrating into their central Minnesota territory to leave their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River. Here again, I fine it appalling that some more of the negative or derogatory history of Mille Lacs Kathio State Park is not mentioned on any of the Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive signs.

Therefore, it seems to me that once again park planners are attempting to avoid controversy and activism by covering up some more negative or derogatory history associated with Mille Lacs Kathio State Park. But by attempting to avoid controversy and activism they, I believe, have been putting a stumbling block in the way of a righteous movement aimed at rectifying (not covering up) injustices being perpetrated against the Dakota Nation in the Mille Lacs Lake area.

The impression that I receive when reading an interpretive sign on the Kathio Landmark Trail is that the Mdewakanton Dakota simply moved on their own free will, without any pressure from white explorers/setters or any other tribe or band, to a different location. But according to the Lower Sioux Mdewakanton Community, the Flandearu Santee Sioux Tribe, the Santee Tribe of Nebraska and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe that is not how the ancient Mille Lacs Lake area Dakota left their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River.

Therefore, I believe that the interpretive signs on the Kathio Landmark Trail do not, in respect to this subject, give an accurate and respectable historical account as to why and how the ancient Mille Lacs Lake area Dakota left their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River. And I believe that this is another injustice that park planners are committing against the Dakota people.

I do not trust white Euro-American historians to give accurate historical descriptions about what happened in a particular area if a truthful description could cause the people of the dominate culture to have to make restitution justice to this land's indigenous people for what happened, as is the case (I believe) with the Kathio Landark Trail interpretive sign "history" about of the Mille Lacs Lake area. If the Dakota simply moved on their own free will and without any pressure from white explorers/setters or any other tribe or band to a different location then they would not be able to justifiably reclaim any rights to their sacred ancestral homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River. Therefore, I believe that this could be the real reason why University of Minnesota archaeologists and park planners have presented a different historical account than that of the Lower Sioux Mdewakanton Community, the Flandearu Santee Sioux Tribe, the Santee Tribe of Nebraska and the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe when it comes to answering the question as to why and how the ancient Mille Lacs area Dakota left their sacred ancestral homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River.

In a Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe book about the Band's heritage, titled: "Against the Tide of American History: The Story of the Mille Lacs Anishinabe, there are the words: "As is true of all the Anishinabe or Chippewa who live in Minnesota, the history of the Mille Lacs people reaches back into ancient times and other settings in the eastern part of the United States where their ancestors lived before they came into the forest and lake country of eastern and northern Minnesota." "The Anishinabe oral tradition tells "of a great migration of the Anishinabe from the east to their present location near the Great Lakes.

And the following statement can also be found in the Mille Lacs Band's book about their heritage: "The Dakota, according to Warren, occupied the lake (Mille Lacs Lake) at two large villages, one being located at Cormorant Point (Nay-Ah-Shing Point) and the other at the outlet of the lake. A few miles below this last village, they (the Dakota) possessed another considerable village on a smaller lake, connected with Mille Lacs by a portion of the Rum River which runs though it. These villages consisted mostly of earthen wigwams...'. At Nay-ah-shing the Chippewa attacked and destroyed the Dakota village. A few survivors escaped to the next village at the outlet of the Rum River. At this village, the Chippewa warriors threw bags of gunpowder into the smoke holes of the earth lodges. They exploded killing those inside. The few who escaped from this village moved to the last village on the smaller lake. Here the Chippewa also drove them out. The last of the Spirit Lake Dakota escaped south down the Rum River in their canoes." "After 1750, the Mille Lacs region became a permanent homeland for many Chippewa families."

Rev. Sequoyah Ade, an internationally regarded essayist and Indigenist political commentator, wrote:

"Throughout the 500-plus years of European colonial presence in the Americas, the practice of heaping indignities upon those displaced has served only to solidify the resolve of those so imposed. By naming this sacred body of water the "Rum" River, Europeans sought to extinguish the ancestral ties these Aboriginal people have with the land, their ancestors and the spirit world. Evidence of this practice has shown itself time and time again throughout the Americas and is now facing international pressure in an effort to correct the sins of the present by recognizing and addressing the history of this nation. I fully support the effort to rename this special body of water in respect for the people who belong to the river. We will win."

Evidence indicates that in the mid-1700's, there was a successful conspiracy committed by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, together with the white European ( French) "settlers"/invaders, to violently "drive" the Mdewakanton Dakota from their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River. And that after they were violently forced from their ancestral homeland, another indignity was laid on them by white men who performed a "perverted" and "punning" translation for the sacred Oceti Sakowin name for the "Rum" River, and did so, by translating the sacred Oceti Sakowin name for the river, Wakan , translated as (Great) Spirit, to the alcohol spirit "Rum", the poison that was used to steal the Mdewakanton Dakotas sacred homeland located on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River. And after over ten years of there being a movement to change this river's profane and derogatory name, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe and the County Commissioners of the "Rum" River corridor still have not given their support for the effort to change this river's profane name. Therefore, I believe that their lack of support is another indignity being committed against the Oceti Sakowin people.

And I believe that the reason why the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe has not yet given their support for the effort to rename the "Rum" River is because the movement to change the name is revitalizing the Oceti Sakowin people's appreciation of their heritage in the Mille Lacs area; and therefore the Mille Lacs Band is concerned that if this revitalizing effort continues because of the growing support base for the effort to rename the river, the Oceti Sakowin people's increasing appreciation of their heritage in the Mille Lacs area could cause the Mdewakanton Dakota to return to their sacred ancestral homeland in the Mille Lacs Lake area; and do so, by (the first step) making frequent pilgrimages to their sacred ancestral homeland to have pow wows, participate in spiritual ceremonies etc.; and that because of this concern, the Mille Lacs Band Assembly has not yet given its support for the effort to change this river's profane and derogatory name.

When Don Wedll was the long range planner for the Mille Lacs Band Of Ojibwe, he gave me feedback in respect to what prominent members of the Mille Lacs Band thought of my effort to revert the "Rum" River's profane and derogatory name back to its sacred Dakota name. At the time I found out that they were opposed; and that the reason why was because, as they stated, "It is ours now".

A Mille Lacs Messenger letter to the editor of mine presents some Mdewakanton Dakota/Ojibwe discussion about the effort to regain the sacred Dakota name for the Wakan/"Rum" River. It can be found by clicking Political Involvement

Many members of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe do not like my effort to revitalize the Dakota people's appreciation of their heritage in the Mille Lacs area. And as previously mentioned it seems to me that the reason why, is because they selfishly want all of the Mille Lacs Lake region for themselves. But there are some members of the Mille Lacs Band who support all of my Mille Lacs area Oceti Sakowin rights activist initiatives.

Restitution Justice:

If the Mdewakanton Dakota were "displaced", "forced", "driven", "pushed", "pressured" or "expelled" by European colonists' influenced hostile Ojibwe to leave their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River, then they should be able to justifiably reclaim and regain at least part of their sacred ancestral homeland in the Mille Lacs Lake region. Therefore, I believe that this is probably why the Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive signs do not present the correct history about why and how the Mdewakanton Dakota left their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River.

On a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign, it is stated that there is no archaeological evidence that indicates that the Mdewakanton Dakota were violently forced out of the Mille Lacs Lake area. But what are the changes of finding such evidence? Very little I suspect. And it is also stated on an interpretive sign that there is no Mdewakanton Dakota oral account of such a battle. But if, in the past, the Mdewakanton Dakota would have announced to the public an account of the "Battle of Kathio" and then asked for restitution justice they would have been mocked. And this would have hurt them. Hence they probably decided not to give an oral account of this battle in their public discourse with non-Indigenous people. And it seems to me that the Nebraska Santee (Dakota) Tribe, since 1918 at least, have claimed that the Mdewakanton Dakota were forces out of the Mille Lacs Lake area during the "Battle Of Kathio". And even if there never was a "Battle of Kathio", the Mdewakanton Dakota were never-the-less pressured to leave their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River.

If park planners would acknowledge on a Kathio Landmark Trail interpretive sign that the Dakota were violenty forced to leave their sacred Mille Lacs area by the European (French) colonists' trickery and exploitive manipulation of a band of Ojibwe, and also mention on the sign that the Ojibwe were forced out of their East Coast homeland by European colonists using two other tribes to do so, and then also mention that after the Ojibwe settled in an unoccupied area, which became their new homeland, European colonists used the Ojibwe's weakness to abuse alcohol to violently force the Mdewakanton Dakota from their Mille Lacs homeland by using the European colonists gun powder bombs to do so, and did so after the European (French) invaders instigated fights between the Mdewakanton Dakota and Ojibwe and then sided with the Ojibwe, it would help to heal the Mdewakanton nDakota people's wounds. And if park planners would do this the Mdewakanton Dakota would be more likely to reclaim at least a part of their sacred ancestral homeland at the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River.

And if the Mdewakanton Dakota were to ask for the right to return to their sacred ancestral homeland...or, in other words, to Mille Lacs Lake and the land surrounding this sacred lake and its outlet river, the sacred land/lake/river that white European invaders and a tricked/manipulate and exploited band of Ojibwe stole from them, their request would have even more validity because of the fact that the Mdewakanton Dakota have a "creation story" associated with Mille Lacs Lake. And because the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe claim that their ancestors used the white man's gun powder to help them violently force the Mdewakanton Dakota out of their sacred homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River this also would give added validity to their request for the right to return to their sacred ancestral homeland on the headwaters of the Wakan/"Rum" River.

I am trying to rectify injustices being perpetrated against the Oceti Sakowin in the Mille Lacs Lake area so that the Oceti Sakowin, the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, and all other people who live in the Mille Lacs Lake area can live in peace and harmony with each other. But park planners' neglect to display some negative aspects of the history of the Mille Lacs "Kathio" State Park on any interpretive signs is making my efforts to do so more difficult. And I hope that this injustice will be rectified in the near future.

Related articles:
Mille Lacs Messenger newspaper letters
Regaining The Mdewakanton's Sacred Mille Lacs Homeland
History of the Dakota Indians in the region now known as Anoka County
Supports name change for river
Minnesota Indian Affairs Draft Resolution
History of the Dakota people in Minnesota
History of the Anoka-Dakota Unity Alliance

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In a November 27, 2002 Mille Lacs Messenger letter to the editor of mine, titled: Regonition initiative, I asked (at the time) that the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe show due respect for the Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate by:

(1.) Supporting the effort to revert the "Rum" River's profane and derogatory name back to its sacred Mdewakanton Dakota name.

(2.) Make a public apology to the Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate for what their ancestors did to them during the "Battle of Kathio".

(3.) Give up their non-removable federally granted status that they gained by fighting against the Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate and other Dakota people in the 1862 Dakota uprising against the radically abusive mid-1800s whites.

(4.) Sponsor and welcome the Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate to a Mille Lacs area reconciliatory Pow Wow.

(5.) Offer the Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate land for both a museum and shrine.

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A Wahkon, Minnesota Oceti Sakowin rights activist initiative:

About the effort to change the name of a bar and liquor story in Wahkon, Minnesota.

Here is a link to a picture of "Wahkon Inn", a bar and liquor store in Wahkon with a [punning translation] profane name.

Out of respect for the Oceti Sakowin people, the City of Wahkon, a city located on the south end of Mille Lacs Lake, was named after the sacred Oceti Sakowin name for Mille Lacs Lake (Wahkon). But, unfortunately, much later a bar and liquor store in Wahkon was given a profane and offensive to the Oceti Sakowin name, that name being "Wahkon Inn". The badly named "Wahkon Inn" received its current name by way of its owner performing a punning and desecrating misuse of the sacred Oceti Sakowin word/name Wahkon. And did so, by changing the real meaning of Wahkon (Spirit or Great Spirit) to "walk on".

According to this bar and liquor store's owner, "Wahkon Inn" is, in a "joking" way, suppose to mean "walk on in". The owner of the so-called "Wahkon Inn" has produced and sold advertising tee shirts and sweaters that display an image of a prospector walking into the bar and liquor store, along with a display of the descriptive words "Wahkon Inn", meaning "walk on in", to describe what the prospector is doing. He is pictured walking into the bar and liquor store. Below that image and descriptive words, there is a display of that same image of the prospector, but he is now pictured drunk and crawling out of the bar. The owner of this bar and liquor store also have displayed, on these same advertizing tee shirts and sweaters, the words describing this despicable scene with the words "and crawl on out". Hence, the owner of "Wahkon Inn" used Wahkon, Minnesota's sacred Oceti Sakowin name (Wahkon) to promote alcohol abuse. By doing so, the owner of this bar and liquor store radically desecrated Wahkon, Minnesota's sacred Oceti Sakowin or Dakota traditional name for their Great Spirit (Wahkon)

The image of a prospector on these tee shirts and sweaters is the same image that is displayed on an advertising sign located on the front of the bar and liquor store named "Wahkon Inn". This advertising sign with the image of a walking prospector displayed on it, in a "joking" way, changes the real meaning of Wahkon (Spirit or Great Spirit) to mean "walk on". Hence, this advertising sign located on "Wahkon Inn" also desecrates the sacred Oceti Sakowin name for Mille Lacs Lake and their traditional name for their Great Spirit. When this advertising image of a prospector was used on "Wahkon Inn's" advertising tee shirts and sweaters it was used as a lead-in to an advertising "joke" that even further desecrates Wahkon, Minnesota's sacred Oceti Sakowin name [Wahkon].

The Rum River Name Change Organization, American Indian Genocide Museum and Archbishop Harry Flynn of the Archdiocese of Minneapolis and Saint Paul want the owner of "Wahkon Inn" to quit demeaning the real meaning of Wahkon, Minnesota's sacred Oceti Sakowin word/name [Wahkon] And the only way to do so, is for the owner of this bar and liquor store to change the bar and liquor store's offensive and derogatory name.

On October 16, 2001, I received the following letter from Archbishop Harry Flynn. In this letter Archbishop Flynn gave his support for my effort to inform and then influence the City of Wahkon to stop demeaning the real meaning of the sacred Dakota name for Mille Lacs Lake.

Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

October 16, 2001
Mr. Thomas Dahlheimer
485 West Broadway Street
Wahkon, MN 56386

Dear Mr. Dahlheimer

Thank you for your letter of early October in which you described your efforts regarding the Wahkon Inn. I agree with you that efforts to advertise this establishment through tee shirts and sweaters that demean the real meaning of Wahkon are at very least distasteful. I am sure that your work to engage the public through educational efforts will be helpful. It does seem appropriate for the Tribal Council to take a stand in this regard since it is their culture and their language that is being demeaned. I encourage you to continue working with them and applaud your request of them to assist the members of Sacred Heart Church to come to a greater understanding and appreciation of their culture.

With best wishes in Christ,

Most Reverend Harry J. Flynn, D.D. Archbishop of Saint Paul and Minneapolis

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About a moral responsibility to show due respect for Oceti Sakowin sensitivities in the City of Wahkon, a city named after, both, the sacred Dakota name for Mille Lacs Lake and also (indirectly) the sacred traditional Oceti Sakowin name for their Great Spirit (Wahkon).

A previous pastor of Sacred Heart Church in Wahkon (Father Ray Steffes) and I, came to believe that because Sacred Heart Church is located in a city named after, both, the Oceti Sakowin's sacred name for Mille Lacs Lake and indirectly after the sacred traditional Oceti Sakowin name for their Great Spirit (Wahkon), that, therefore, there were Oceti Sakowin sensitivities that Sacred Heart Church parishioners should be aware of and show due respect toward, and that this would include the development and practice of special morals and ethics associated with these sensitivities.

I believe that Sacred Heart Church parishioners and all the residents of Wahkon, Minnesota, especially including the City Council of Wahkon, should be brought to an understanding of what these special Oceti Sakowin sensitivities are, and their moral and ethical responsibilities associated with them. And I hope that in the near future some Oceti Sakowin people will come to Wahkon to help get this message across so that, both, their sacred Dakota name for Mille Lacs Lake and indirectly their sacred traditional name for their Great Spirit (Wahkon) will be appropriately respected in the City of Wahkon.

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In respect to Wahkon's moral responsibilities associated with showing due respect for the Oceti Sakowin's sensitivities associated with this city's sacred Oceti Sakowin name, I have been inspired to develop a number of Oceti Sakowin rights activist initiatives.

I hope to influence the Roman Catholic hierarchy to bring revolutionary changes to the Wahkon Sacred Heart Church. Revolutionary changes that will help deliver the indigenous peoples around the world from the Roman Catholic Church's degrading subordination of indigenous peoples and their homelands.

Some of my Oceti Sakowin rights activist initiatives are presented in the following open letter to Bishop John Kinney of Saint Cloud Diocese. Wahkon, Minnesota's Sacred Heart Church is located in his diocese.

Dear Bishop John Kinney,

I am in the process of trying to persuade some of my relatives, friends and activist acquaintances to form into an activist group that would then stage protests against injustices being perpetrated against Indigenous people at Sacred Heart Church in Wahkon.

If this activist group becomes manifest, we will be gathering near Sacred Heart Church in Wahkon, Minnesota in order to protest against the Roman Catholic Church's participation in extreme injustices being perpetrated against indigenous peoples. Injustices that I believe the Holy See, U.S. Catholic Bishops (including yourself) and Sacred Heart Church parishioners are complicit in.

If this activist group becomes manifest, we will be standing with protest signs near Sacred Heart Church before, during, and after weekend Masses. Some of these protest signs will be similar to the protest signs displayed on the Web site www.hiddenfromhistory.org.

The signs will be protest signs against both the racist name of the Knights of Columbus and the radically unjust [Christian Doctrine of Discovery], a series of 15th-century papal bulls or degrees that established white European Christian dominion over indigenous pagan peoples. This injustice has not yet been apologized for nor restitution justice offered by the Holy See. In America, this imposition of domination over this lands red indigenous peoples was transferred to the United States from Great Britain by way of the 1783 Treaty of Paris and incorporated into United States federal "Indian" law. The Holy See and United States Conference of Catholic Bishops have not repented from their support for the unjust subjugation of Indigenous peoples in the United States.

We will also be holding up protest signs that protest the use of a chemical weapon of warfare in the ongoing genocide against the indigenous people of the Americas, it being alcoholic, including wine located on Sacred Heart Church's alter during Masses

References: Protesting against the racist name of the Knights of Columbus

Changing The Racist Name Of The Knights Of Columbus
Colonial Pirate Christopher Columbus
Protest Against Columbus Day Parade
Calling For Abolition of Columbus Day

Here is a youtube video wherein I protest against the racist
name of the Knights of Columbus


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Protesting against the 15th Century Papal Bulls/Doctines which are collectivily called the Christian Doctrine of Discovery.

World Conference Against Racism Document - Declares That Two Papal Bulls Instigated Racism In The New World And Africa.

According to a United Nations World Conference Against Racism website document: "In the fifteenth century, two Papal Bulls set the stage for European domination of the New World and Africa. Romanus Pontifex, issued by Pope Nicholas V to King Alfonso V of Portugal in 1452, declared war against all non-Christians throughout the world, and specifically sanctioned and promoted the conquest, colonization, and exploitation of non-Christian nations and their territories." In Pope Alexander VI's papal bull of 1493 (Inter Caetera), he stated his desire that the "discovered" people be "subjugated and brought to the faith itself." By this means, said the pope, the "Christian Empire" would be propagated. These Papal Bulls, or "doctrines of discovery", sanctioned Christian nations to claim "unoccupied lands", or lands belonging to "heathens" or "pagans".

Newcomb: On Indian title of "occupancy"

According to Cohen, implicit in Vitoria's argument "is the doctrine that certain basic rights inhere in men as men not be reason of their race, creed, or color, but by reason of their humanity."... What about the argument that the pope had granted Indian lands to the kings of Spain and Portugal? Cohen said that Vitoria responded to this argument by contending that "the Pope had 'no temporal power over the Indian aborigines'" Vitoria further argued that "a division of the New World by the Pope could serve only as an allocation of zones for trading and proselytizing purposes, not as a distribution of land."... Cohen also explained how Vitoria had responded to the argument of "title by discovery." He summarized Vitoria's argument as follows: "Discovery gives title to lands not already possessed. But as the Indians 'were the true owners, both from the public and the private standpoint,' the discovery of them by the Spaniards had no more effect on their property than the discovery of the Spaniards by the Indians had on Spanish property."

Episcopal Church repudiates Doctrine of Discovery

The resolution renounces the doctrine "as fundamentally opposed to the Gospel of Jesus Christ and our understanding of the inherent rights that individuals and peoples have received from God," and promises to share the document with its churches, governments within its boundaries, and the U.N..

When it comes to property rights, the inherent rights that peoples have received from God were not based on race, creed, color, nor civilized or un-civilized status, but by reason of their humanity. Therefore, indigenous peoples' homelands fully belonged to them when Europeans "discovered" them and the European colonists and later European Americans had no right to claim them and subjugate their indigenous habitants. Therefore, the indigenous peoples' homelands in the "New World" fully belonged them and they still fully belong to them. A new paradigm is beginning to be established, in part, on this reasoning and conclusion.

Appropriate respect for indigenous peoples would help the people of the dominate culture in the United States to fully appreciate the wisdom found in traditional indigenous knowledge, and by doing so, open up the process of bringing radical transformation to this nation's dominate culture, a transformation that would cause the people of the dominant culture to become tribal people who would be dominated (ruled over) by this lands indigenous peoples.

Giving appropriate respect for U.S. indigenous peoples would cause a radical transformation of the dominate culture. This, however, will not occur until after the extreme arrogance of the people of the dominate culture has been eliminated. It's a type of arrogance that has kept them from seeing the truth about themselves, their history, culture and religion. It will be newly revealed evidence of the colonists and later Euro-American's radical abuse of this land's indigenous peoples that will cause cultural mainstream Americans to recognize their extreme arrogance and repent.... more...

d'Errico: 'Full and equal members of the UN family'

To say that indigenous peoples are "full and equal members of the U.N. family" is to break with a line of thinking far older than the United Nations itself, going back to and before the foundation case of U.S. federal Indian law, Johnson v. M'Intosh....The defendant in that case, M'Intosh, "denied the right of the Indians to be considered as independent communities," and argued that Indians "have never been admitted into the general society of nations." Chief Justice Marshall borrowed from this argument to write the decision in the defendant's favor, holding that "Christian discovery" was the "foundation" of the "paramount title" of the United States.

Dahlheimer: Regaining the Dakota people's sacred Mille Lacs ancestrial homeland

Therefore, when Duluth planted the flag of France on the Mdewakanton Dakotas sacred Mille Lacs area homeland he was proclaiming that the Mdewakanton Dakota's Mille Lacs homeland now belonged to France. The indigenous people of the Americas were red pagans, and not white European Christians, therefore, according to fifteenth century papal bulls (or, the Doctrine of Discovery), they did not own the land that they were living on, nor did they have a moral or legal right to own any land. Therefore, the unoccupied land that the indigenous people discovered and were living on could be claimed (as a European nation's property) by the first European Christian explorer to plant his nation's flag on it.

Note: After Christian European conquest indigenous peoples were permitted to occupy portions of territory over which they had previously owned. These "occupancy rights" were sometimes terminated without any legal enforceable obligation to compensate the indigenous peoples. And there was an evil thieving process that was used to force the ancient indigenous habitants to abandon their homelands, which would then cause the white man, according to his own deranged conscience, to justify taking full ownership of those ancient habitants homelands. And after indigenous habitants abandoning their homelands for game (which the white invaders drove away) and furs (to trade for alcohol, to satisfy their addition cravings ref... ref.) they would often (armed with the white man's guns and ammunition) invade and force other (un-armed) tribes to their west from their homelands. Having arrived in other tribes original homelands the white man would often instigate fights between the displaced tribes and other tribes and then help the displaced tribes to force the original tribes from their homelands. Then, after they helped force the original indigenous habitants from their homelands they would give the tribe that helped steal their neighbors land occupancy rights to some of it and take full possession of the rest of it, leaving the original indigenous habitants with no land and no compensation at all.

Two Papal Bulls Call For European Domination Of The Americas

The world's indigenous peoples - or "first peoples" - do not share the same story of colonization. In the New World, white European colonizers arrived and settled suddenly, with drastic results. The indigenous peoples were pushed aside and marginalized by the dominant descendents of Europeans. Some peoples have disappeared, or nearly so. Modern estimates place the 15th century, or pre-Columbus, population of North America at 10 to 12 million. By the 1890s, it had been reduced to approximately 300,000. In parts of Latin America, the results were similar; in others, there are still majority indigenous populations. But even in those areas, indigenous people are often at a disadvantage. Indigenous peoples in Latin America still face the same obstacles as indigenous peoples elsewhere - primarily, separation from their lands. And that separation is usually based on distinctions originally deriving from race.

Dahlheimer: Alcohol in fur trade ...News for Natives post

"By 1780 there was not a single Dakota village north of the Minnesota River. When the United States was established, it was founded on the racist "Doctrine of Discovery" and it also approved of the use of spreading alcohol addition amongst tribes for the propose of having them steal other tribes' original land. Therefore, it did not give the Dakotas' northern Minnesota land back to them. It took possession of it and gave the Ojibwe occupancy rights to some of it. The Dakota remain an exiled people to this present-day."

Dahlheimer: Reclaiming the Wakpa Wakan

LeMoine LaPointe, director of the Healthy Nations Program at the Minneapolis American Indian Center...says "reclaiming the Rum River is important to the health of the Dakota community"..."These young people (Dakota youth) are taking the initiative to scout the length of the river in order for their tribe to become familiar with it, and in so doing, reclaim their tribal legacy," "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."

Dahlheimer: Sacred Homeland

The federal recognition of "sovereign nation status" for Indian tribes is insufficient because U.S. tribes were fully independent sovereign nations and were not subjugated by any other nation, as they are today.

You also wrote: "'So, what I am seeing in this draft is basically another attempt to return all land previously occupied by the aboriginal natives 200-plus years ago to the current tribe members.' The draft is not attempting to do that. The draft states: "Redress can include restitution of traditionally owned or otherwise occupied or used lands and resources. Or if return of original lands is not possible, compensation shall take the form of lands, territories and resources equal in quality, size and legal status,..."

Note: In the above quote the term "return of original lands" means, according to the United Nations, returning subjugated occupancy rights to the indigenous peoples' dispossessed original lands. To me the term ultimately means recognizing the inherent full independent sovereignty nations status of the indigenous tribes, then allowing them to exorcize their sovereignty rights by returning to them absolute root ownership of their original lands.

Dahlheimer: Catholic Diocesan newspaper letter to the editor

Roman Catholic bishops are finally starting to understand that 500-plus years ago their church instigated an injustice against the indigenous peoples of the Western hemisphere. They need to apologize for what happened, work toward stopping the ongoing injustice, and offer restitution to the indigenous peoples of the Americas, which includes protesting against the current proposed legislation to make "illegal" immigrants felons. It's time to give the indigenous peoples' homelands back to them and quit imposing our culture on them.

Mexica Movement

We are Nican Tlaca, the indigenous people of Canada, U.S., Mexico, Central and South America. We reject all European divisions of our continent. We reject the artificial border divisions of our people....We reject the White Supremacist ideology that claims Europeans are permanently endowed with the right to define who we are as a people... We include "First Nation" and "Native American" and "Indigenous People" all as one Indigenous Nation....We say, "no to occupation!" We say, "this is still our continent!" We say, "Europeans are the illegals---since 1492.

On the Mexica Movement Website, the movement states that "Europeans have a homeland: EUROPE. We are only asking unwelcomed guests (racists) to leave our home. These racist Europeans have a home to go to. The non-racists can be part of a transition to our full independence, it's not as if Europeans are being asked to go into the Atlantic Ocean. They have a beautiful home called Europe.

The Roman Catholic Church instgated a holocause against indigenous peoples

Brothers, sisters, in the spirit of peace and harmony, we are here again to condemn more than 500 years of disregard and criminal pardon given by the Catholic hierarchy to adventurers to the new world, thereby, seeking to justify the immoral slaughter, the maiming, the enslavement of our native ancestry, including millions of people throughout the western hemisphere.

In short, for those who do not understand or feel the magnitude of our reprehension, we are simply here to uncommemorate "Columbus Day." Surely, our stand here today will draw criticism from some, especially those who love legends like that of the infamous Christopher Columbus or Captain Cook, and wish to forgive any immoral culpability that these characters may have had in gruesome encounters with our native ancestry. Indeed, this is exactly why we are here, to bring attention to the naivete, and how the edicts of the Catholic Church given by its Pope, professing to have a sanction from God, printed on round documents, the bulla, more commonly known as the papal bulls, which authorized these crimes before they were even committed.

In essence, the Catholic Church is responsible for unleashing those ravishing dogs upon our people. The Church instigated a holocaust bigger and greater than any holocaust--our holocaust--the native peoples of the Americas. Do we simply forget or do we, as we are doing, continue to strive for a system of education that recognizes our right to honor the native souls who came before us, their courage, their achievements, their wisdom, their gifts to us, of custom and culture, and their horrific, honorable sacrifice.

Hidden From History - The Canadian Holocaust

"Our exposure of the Canadian genocide has simultaneously indicted the social order that gave rise to it. Euro-Canadian Christian society as a whole stands condemned in the dock alongside those persons who ran the Indian residential schools, sterilized and murdered children, spread smallpox, and dug mass graves."

"Despite their best efforts to ignore this fact and contain the whole matter with pseudo "apologies", the Canadian government and its partner Catholic, Anglican and United churches now face the same kind of historical reckoning that Nazi Germany did after its defeat in 1945: an awakening to their own criminal nature.

Dahlheimer - Minnesota Reconciliation Resolution

"I then contacted Steven Newcomb, an internationally renowned Indigenous activist who is on the forefront of the movement to influence Pope Benedict IV to publicly revoke the Doctrine of Discovery, and asked him for his support and assistance with the draft resolution, which he did give. Newcomb is a columnist for Indian Country Today (ICT) newspaper, the world's leading Indian news source. A letter to the editor of mine about my correspondence with Newcomb and the draft resolution that I was asked to write was published in ICT."

I recently sent information about the resolution and Newcomb's and my correspondence to Robert Miller, another renowned leader of the movement to rectify "Doctrine of Discovery" injustices being committed against Indigenous Peoples. We now correspond. Miller's article "Will others follow Episcopal Church's lead?" was publish in ICT. As was also an article about his book, "Native America, Discovered and Conquered: Thomas Jefferson, Lewis & Clark, and Manifest Destiny."

"I am hoping that this resolution will cause the Vatican to break its cover-up silence associated with the Doctrine of Discovery injustice issue, so that the Minnesota Catholic Conference can give its support for the passage of this resolution, which would be a big step in the right direction toward setting Indigenous People free."

Protesting the 1493 Papal Bull Inter Caeters:

"The UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues called for Pope Benedict XVI to revoke the 15th century papal bulls collectively known as the Doctrine of Discovery. Inter Caetera is one of the Doctrine of Discovery papal bulls. reference

National Catholic Reporter, "Indigenous demand revocation of 1493 papal bull." - October 27, 2000

Video of Tony Castahya, a leader of the movement to influence the Vatican to revoke the papal bull Inter Caetera

"After Tony Castanha, an internationally renowned leader of the movement to influence the Roman Catholic hierarchy to revoke the 15th century Papal Bull [Inter Caetera] read my article "Changing The Racist Name of the Knights of Columbus" and watched my youtube.com video "Protesting The Racist Name Of the Knights of Columbus" he contacted me and gave his support for the work I am doing to change our state's derogatory names, influence the Roman Catholic hierarchy to revoke Inter Caetera, and put an end to the glorification of Christopher Columbus and his knights, who, according to a U.N. World Conference Against Racism document, committed a genocide against the native people they came in contact with, and did so, by following the edicts of 15th century popes, as put forth in their Papal Bulls, including the Papal Bull, Inter Caetera."

Both Kevin Annett, the leader of the Canadian movement to expose and put an end to the radical injustices still being perpetrated against the aboriginal people of Canada as well as the Board of Directors and Advisory Board for the American Indian Genocide Museum, a group of American Indian activists who are exposing and working to put an end to the radical injustices still being perpetrated against the aboriginal people of the United States, have both given their support for the effort to change the name of the "Rum River" back to its sacred Dakota name (Wakan). And they also believe that the Papal Bull Inter Caetera instigated and sanctioned the European and later American/Canadian subjugation of the indigenous peoples of North America and that the Vatican still promotes this subjugation injustice.

Kevin Annett, the American Indian Genocide Museum and twenty-three organizations at the 2006 Summit of Indigenous Nations at Bear Butte have stated that they want Pope Benedict XVI to formally revoke the 1493 Papal Bull Inter Caetera. I also want the Pope to revoke this Papal Bull. And I want him to come to Wahkon, Minnesota to formally revoke Inter Caetera, and do so in the presence of both international renowned Indigenous activists of the Western Hemisphere as well as internationally renowned Indigenous activists located in other areas of the world where this Roman Catholic Papal Bull is still hurting/oppressing indigenous peoples.

A delegation of indigenous people of the Americas, a delegation that went to Vatican City in order to ask the Pope to revoke the Inter Ceatera Bull of May 4, 1493, were received at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

In a statement presented on their Web site reference, they wrote, when referring to the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace: "This is where we have been sending our appeal to the Vatican." We met with a Monsignor under the President of the Council. He assured us we were on the track, and that the Council was an important player along with the Secretariat of State. The issue of the revocation of the Bull "Inter Caetera" has now been submitted to a commission at the Secretariat of State. This is a victory indicating for the first time that the Vatican will be seriously considering this issue. Hopefully, it will not be "studied to death"!

A more recent Vatican response: Links to Newcomb's June 2010 Indian Country Today newspaper articles about the Vaticans response to the United Nations Permanent Forum On Indigenous Issues April 20, 2010 preliminary study of the Doctrine of Discovery are displayed here. Newcomb: The Holy See's response misses the point...Newcomb: More on the Vatican's response

The following two statements were made by the indigenous people's delegation to the Vatican.

(1.) "The recent rehabilitation of Galileo and a papal statement condemning Christian complicity in the Jewish Holocaust warrants a few questions that have remained unanswered for many descendants of those who endured, resisted and survived European dominion for over the past 500 years: What has the Roman Catholic hierarchy had to say about the 60,000,000 to 80,000,000 indigenous inhabitants of the Western hemisphere who had perished by the end of the 16th century?; What have they had to say about the probable 100,000,000 native peoples who were 'eliminated' in the course of Europe's ongoing 'civilization' of the Western hemisphere"?

(2.) "The answers to these questions have been touched upon in recent papal statements and in the Pope's New Year's 2000 message for peace when he writes that, "There is no true peace without fairness, truth, justice and solidarity." "Fairness," "truth," "justice" and "solidarity" means overturning the laws of an inherently corrupt system based on Christian dominion that continues to drain the spirit of all peoples. The Vatican has acknowledged, in theory, its respect for and the equality among the many religious traditions of the earth, so where's the beef? in order to promote a culture of peace! There will never be any hope for "true peace" until this degree is repudiated.

On October 4, 2007, I sent an e-mail to Tony Castanha, a leader of the international campaign to influence the Vatican to revoke a 15th century Papal Bull that was responsible for the atrocities committed against his descendents when Columbus and his knights invaded his people's homeland in 1492. In my e-mail to Mr. Castanha I mentioned that my article titled Changing The Racist Name Of The Knights Of Columbus was recently posted in Indigenous Peoples Literature. In response to my e-mail, Mr. Castanha wrote: "This is great work you're doing. Please keep me updated. Best regards, Tony

Tony Castanha also sent me an e-mail wherein he asked me and people all around the world to participate in the annual Papal Bull burning or ripping protest on October 12. After receiving the e-mail, I contacted Jim Anderson and mentioned that I would like to get a group of people together and burn a copy of the 15th century papal bull Inter Caetera in front of the Catholic Church of Saint Stephen in Anoka, Minnesota. He said, "WE SHOULD DO IT" but also mentioned that it was a "strong statement". On October 12, 2007 I decided to rip up a copy of Inter Cartera in front of the Catholic Church of Saint Stephen in Anoka. Anoka is located at the confluence of the Wakan/"Rum" and Mississippi rivers and is a part of the Dakota people's traditional homeland as well as a sacred site. To view a video of me ripping up a copy of the Papal Bull Inter Cartera click the arrow in the following video picture.



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References:
Protesting Against Wine On Sacred Heart Church's Alter In Wahkon, Minnesota

Note: When I wrote the following two articles I was a Roman Catholic. I am not longer a Roman Catholic, nor am I a Christian. I now believe in religious syncretism and am of the New Age Religion.

Protesting the use of wine in the sacrament of the Eucharist

Stopping The Alcohol Abuse Epidemic

I believe that by drawing attention to the Rum River name-change issue "white guilt" will increase, because of a heightened awareness of the catastrophic consequences caused by white settlers introducing and selling alcohol to American Indians; and that this increase of "white guilt" will, in a lot of ways, cause the dominate culture to offer all American Indians their long over due restitution justice, especially when it comes to making amends to help American Indians to free themselves from the plague of alcoholism.

State Bill To Ban Alcohol Sells Near Sacred "Indian" Sites - Articles Calling For An Alcohol Free Mille Lacs County

Mendota Mdewakanton Letter Discribing Alcohol As A Poison

Colonial Lagacy Of Subordination Of Aboriginal People Contributes To The Alcohol Abuse Epidemic (see pages 20 - 22)

Almost every day, I see alcoholic drunkard aboriginal Native Americans from the Isle reservation going to both the Isle and Wahkon liquor stores to pick up more alcoholic beverages to keep their health destroying alcoholic binges going. Over the last thirty years, I have witnessed many alcohol abuse related deaths of local Native Americans. Why can these Native American go to Isle or Wahkon and buy alcoholic beverages but not cocaine, heroin, meth, or even marijuana?

Answer: There are liquor stores in Isle and Wahkon where alcoholic drunkard aboriginal Native Americans can buy alcoholic beverages because the prohibition of alcohol laws came to an end and they have not yet been reestablished. And I believe that the primary reason why they came to an end and have not yet been reestablished is because the Roman Catholic Church was opposed to prohibition (it was the only church to oppose prohibition) and it still believes in and promotes the legalization of alcohol throughout our nation, where a multitude of Native Americans suffering from a - largely Catholic influenced - genocidal alcohol abuse health epidemic. Note: Two published Mille Lacs Messenger letters to the editor of mine about this issue, along with information about a state bill to protect Sacred Native American sites by criminalizing bars and liquor stores near them, can be found by clicking reference

The Roman Catholic was opposed to prohibition, a stance that influenced a lot of people to brake the prohibition laws, which in turn caused legislators to repeal prohibition. Hence we now have liquor stores in Isle and Wahkon.

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Reference:
History of Prohibition:


Reference quotes from History of Prohibition:

(1.) "Speaking in behalf of Blaine (a U.S. Republican Presidential candidate) at a New York City rally, Presbyterian minister Samuel Burchard denounced the Democrats as the party of "Rum, Romanism, and Rebellion".

(2.) "Every successful temperance movement of the last century has been merely the instrument-the machinery and equipment through which the fundamental principles of the Christian religion have expressed themselves in terms of life and action."

(3.) "The fundamental principles of the Christian religion (with the exception of Roman Catholic "Christian" fundamental principles) damned not only rum, but all of the kindred vices, profaneness and gambling and beseeched members to discourage...by... example and influence, every kind of.....immorality."

(4.) "Largely middle class, rural, Anglo-Saxon and Protestant comprised the temperance movement and they confronted the urban and industrial communities head-on.

(5.) "Calling itself "The Protestant church in action", the Anti-Saloon League concentrated single-mindedly and evangelically on the cause of temperance."

(6.) "The focus of the League's indictments included not simply alcohol, but the saloon itself, as the purveyor of spirits. The myriad League publications denounced the saloon for annually sending thousands of our youths to destruction, for corrupting politics, dissipating workmen's wages, leading astray 60,000 girls each year into lives of immorality and banishing children from school."

(7.) The League stated: "Liquor is responsible for 19% of the divorces, 25% of the poverty, 25% of the insanity, 37% of the pauperism, 45% of child desertion, and 50% of the crime in this country, the League determined. And this, it concluded , is a very conservative estimate."

(8.) "League posters appeared everywhere depicting the saloon-keeper as a profiteer who feasted on death and enslavement."

(9.)"...while Jewish and Catholic groups generally opposed their (the AntiSallon League's) objective.

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And during prohibition neither did the Roman Catholic Church's hierarchical leaders decide that grape juice be used instead of an alcoholic beverage (wine) during the last supper segment of the Mass, as I believe they should have. And I believe that the longer the Catholic Church continues to both use wine instead of grape juice on the Church's alters during Masses, as well as does not promote the reestablishment of the prohibition of alcohol laws, the more it will be stacking up sins for the day of God's judgment.

The hereditary chief of the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe is quoted, in a Mille Lacs Messenger article, as saying - to a large gathering of band members; "Alcoholism is not our traditional way. We need to try to pull together and away from alcohol because it is destroying our people."

Alcoholism is a disease that is destroying Indigenous People throughout the Americas. And the reason why I believe that they are vulnerable to this disease is because they have been deeply hurt by the ongoing genocide that the Roman Catholic Church instigated in 1493 and still promotes today. The Roman Catholic Church sees that Natives are being destroyed by alcohol but continues to promote the legalization and availability of alcohol near their homelands, and this is an example of how the Roman Catholic Church continues to commit genocide against the Indigenous People of the Western Hemisphere.

And this is why I hope to get an activist group together to protest the use of wine on Sacred Heart Church's alter during Masses. I am trying to put an end to the European and Euro-American "Christian" genocidal system that promotes the legalization and availability of alcohol within the homelands of the aboriginal people of the Americas. Catholic leaders can see that alcohol is destroying these aboriginal people, along with a lot of other people, but never-the-less continue to support the legalization and availability of alcohol in the Americas.

And I also believe that the Roman Catholic Church's attitude and teachings about alcohol are the primary reason why there continues to be a multi-racial health epidemic and related social atrocities associated with the legal use and abuse of alcohol in not only the Western hemisphere but also within many other parts of the world where alcohol is still legal and available.

I am on a mission to (first) establish dry (alcohol free) counties within the "Rum River corridor area, or Mille Lacs, Isanty, Sherburn and Anoka counties. Then, I'll be working to make Minnesota a dry state. And after Minnesota becomes a dry state I'll be working to make the United States a dry nation. And then I'll be working to make all other nations throughout the world dry nations. The alcohol industry is going down!

Our protesting near Sacred Heart Church will hopefully influence the Pope to come to Wahkon, Minnesota in order to:

(1.) Apologize for the Roman Catholic Church's instigation and participation in the process of genocide, ethnic cleansing, slavery and grand theft of indigenous peoples lands as well as for the church's present-day support for the subjugation of these people and their lands. And do so, in part, by publicly revoking the 1493 Papal Bull Inter Caetera and also by repudiating the Doctrine of Discovery. And then also repent by making a public statement that the church no longer believes that nation states should be keeping indigenous peoples and their lands in a state of subjugation.

(2.) Tell the Knights of Columbus to change their racist name.

(3.) Help stop the ongoing alcohol abuse genocide of indigenous people by performing a sacred ceremony in Wahkon, Minnesota wherein he discontinues the use of the alcoholic beverage (wine) during the last supper segment of the Mass. And also by sending a letter from Wahkon, Minnesota to the governments of the nations throughout the world where alcohol is a legal substance, advising them to criminalize alcohol.

(4.) Make a pronouncement to the world community of nations that the age of multiculturalism, an age wherein the Church has been going in the wrong direction by being extremely Euro-centric, has, from the Church's view point, come to an end. And that the age of globalization has arrived. An age wherein the Church - after it has been disestablished (by eliminating old outdated dogmas) and then re-established as a non-Christian universal religion - will work to evangelize all nations and tribes into a new universal religion that will serve as the basis and principle of unity for a single unite global culture, a culture made up of the best of the past of all the earth's different peoples' traditions and cultures, a culture that will be wahkon (holy). Or, in other words, a culture predominantly permeated with the traditions and cultures of the aboriginal people of the Americas, a culture wherein the world will hopefully soon be united.