On April 8, 2015, the Mille Lacs Messenger, a Minnesota county newspaper, published the following
letter of mine.
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Letter to the Dakota Oyate
by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer
Indian Country Today Media Network recently posted a comment of mine on an article, titled,
An open letter to the Dakota Oyate. It's author, Melvin Lee Houston (Dakota), describes the
Dakota Oyate's (people's) political and geographic divisions forced upon them by colonization.
"The church, the settlers and the cavalry divided us into 'good' Indians and 'bad' Indians. The
'bad' Indians were those that wanted to keep their Dakota culture, language and lifeways. The 'good'
Indians [loyalists] were those that were willing to give up their Dakota identity, adopt
Christianity and assimilate."
"The term loyalist became known again in modern times as a result of the lawsuit
filed against the U.S. government by Sheldon Wolfchild and other descendants of the loyal
Mdewakantons." [It claimed land and revenues from three Dakota communities in Minnesota.]
"They did not understand the full consequences of identifying as a loyalist or what the term
meant historically."
"They are telling the story of our resistance and claiming it as their own.
They've been misrepresenting and misinterpreting it for too long."
My comment reads: I agree with Mr. Houston's position on this topic. The
two lawsuits filed by Sheldon Wolfchild have caused a lot of division and
suffering among the Dakota Oyate. I am a white activist who works with Leonard
Wabasha, the hereditary chief of the Mdewakanton Dakota Oyate and cultural resources
director for the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community. I am working to help the
Dakota Oyate to regain their sacred Mille Lacs Lake ancestral homeland in Minnesota.
I believe that Wolfchild has been "misrepresenting and misinterpreting" Dakota
culture and history for quite a while. For over a decade I have been protesting
his radical distortions of Dakota Oyate history. Chief Leonard Wabasha has
an interpretive sign at Mille Lacs Kathio State Park. On it he states: "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." In a youtube.com video Wolfchild says that there is no Mdewakanton
Dakota Oyate creation story at Mille Lacs Lake and that his people's
creation story is at the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi
rivers. A band of the Iowa tribe lived at this confluence until 1685.
For hundreds of years before the 1600s the Dakota Oyate lived at their
Mille Lacs Lake homeland and believed it was the place of their origin.
I believe that Wolfchild and his close associates are stealing the Dakota
Oyate's sacred site history at Mille Lacs and other places and moving it
to the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi rivers in order to
gain leverage to accomplish their active goals in the area.
Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer
Wahkon
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Related articles:
Regaining the Dakota Oyate's Mille Lacs Lake ancestral
homeland
The Coldwater Spring Deception
A History Of The Dakota People In The Mille Lacs Area
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