MY REVOLUTIONARY MILLE LACS MESSENGER LETTER TO THE EDITOR

by Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer


Introduction: On Wednesday, February 20, 2019, the Mille Lacs Messenger, a Minnesota county newspaper, published the following letter of mine. The letter is in response to a February 13, 2019, MLM article . The letter is titled 1W1P. The 1W1P is an agreement between several counties located in the Rum (Wahkon) River Watershed, as well as the respective soil and water conservation districts and the Rum River Watershed groups. The purpose of the 1W1P is to recognize the importance of partnerships to plan and implement environmental protection and restoration efforts for the Rum River.

The first paragraph of my letter is about the 1W1P agreement. The rest of the letter is about, both, my mission to restore the Dakota/Lakota/Nakota Native name Wahkon to the Rum River and my related Wahkon River Watershed and global environmental mission.

1W1P

I am glad that the Mille Lacs County Board of Commissioners decided to sign the final memorandum of agreement to join several other counties in a Rum River one watershed one plan project to collectively plan and implement environmental protection and restoration efforts for the Rum River. I am a co-founder of the Rum River Name Change Organization, and I am also its director. The mission of this organization is to restore the sacred Dakota/Lakota/Nakota name to this river. The name I am referring to is Wahkon, which when translated into English means spirit, holy, sacred, and it was originally the name of the Dakota/Lakota/Nakota people's Great Spirit.

Years ago, David Gonzales, an Indigenous environmental activist, advocated, as stated in a Star Tribune article, the formation of a group of Indigenous environmental activists who would canoe from Mille Lacs Lake down the badly named Rum River (a phrase found in a book published by the Minnesota Historical Society) to its confluence with the Mississippi River. And do so, in an effort to change the dominant culture's collective attitude toward the rivers in particular and water in general. I have been working for years to establish a Wahkon River watershed environmental organization whose Native American members would canoe down the Rum (Wahkon) River with the same mission that Mr. Gonzales proposed.

Tom Wisner, a nationally renowned singer, song writer and environmentalist, made the movement to restore the sacred Lakota/Dakota/Nakota name to the "badly named Rum River" the centerpiece of his 2005 Winter Solstice radio broadcast, a two hour show that was presented live on the internet. Mr. Wisner was given citations by two governors and was named a major figure in land-conservation work by President Reagan's Commission on the Out-of-Doors.

In an email message to me, Mr. Wisner wrote: "Thanks for including the affirmation for my support of the Wahkon River cause in your recent writings about the Rum River name change! I think the idea of a Native American canoe journey down any river could be beneficial to the political interest to legislate for clean water. The image of the whole watershed is an important ecological piece in the story."

Nowadays, Wahkon is often spelled Wakan. Russell Means (1939 - 2012) was an internationally renowned American Indigenous activist. He sent me the following Nov. 04, 2003 letter of support. "To Whom it may Concern: I hereby support the movement to change the derogatory name of a Minnesota River, the White Man named Rum River. In my language, 'Wakan' is Holy. I support the effort to return this Minnesota River to its rightful name Holy Water. Perhaps it will quit being polluted as well."

Steven Newcomb is an internationally renowned Indigenous activist. He is one of the leaders of the global decolonization movement, a movement that is also an environmental movement. Mr. Newcomb helped me edit an on-line article about my Wahkon River Watershed environmental mission, an article titled Promoting Native Environmentalism And The Ecotheology Of Matthew Fox. Rev. Matthew Fox is an internationally renowned eco-theologian who has given his support for the Rum River name change.

And Albert Bates, an internationally renowned environmentalist, recently sent me a message wherein he wrote, in respect to my global environmental mission - a mission that is centered on the Wahkon River Watershed, "I am with you."

Thomas Ivan Dahlheimer
Wahkon

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My revolutionary Mille Lacs Messenger letter is displayed on the Messenger's website. The letter is located HERE

News: The head of the Doctrine of Discovery Study Group posted my above article on the group's site. One of the world's most renowned Indigenous activists who are leading the global movement to rectify the injustices caused by the Doctrine of Christian Discovery and Domination of Indigenous Peoples is Steven Newcomb. He is the most prominent member of the group.

Two related article of mine are titled Global Paradigm Change | Rights of Nature: Now A Global Movement and Global Paradigm Change