Introduction
The following article was posted on Indigenous Peoples Literature (IPL).
IPL is a site where internationally renowned Indigenous activists articles are often posted. This
IPL posted article of mine can be viewed and read by clicking Indigenous Peoples Literature
.
Lake Traverse Reservation is located in South Dakota and is home to 10,840 Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota people. It 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. In the month of May, 2008 the editor of the Sisseton-Wahpeton Dakota Nation's
on-line
newspaper published the following article.
The following article was posted on the Mendota Mdewakanton Dakota Community's sister-website.
It can be viewed and read by clicking article on MMDC's sister-website
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Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission's Native American Partnering and
Truth-Telling Mission
By Thomas Dahlheimer
The Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission has a web site with a homepage link to a blog site that
is guided by Sesquicentennial Advisory Committee for Native American Partnering (SACNAP).
Statements displayed on the MN Sesquicentennial Commission's site:
"The Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission is committed to raising awareness and educating Minnesotans about
our past, recognizing the indigenous people of Minnesota, and learning from complex and diverse cultures
that have come and continue to come to Minnesota."
"As StarTribune columnist Lori Sturdevant wrote in October, 2007, 'There's likely no better opportunity for some
serious truth-telling about early Minnesota than the yearlong history lesson this state is about to commence.'"
"The lesson should reveal this truth: Minnesotans share a place, a climate, a government. But they do not
share one culture. They never did. And this state's success -- maybe now more than ever -- depends on its
people's ability to respect cultures other than their own and peacefully resolve conflict between cultures."
The staff of the Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission have a page on their web site titled May is American Indian
Month in Minnesota. The statement is intended to "...bear witness to the tragic side of Minnesota Statehood
in 1858 and acknowledge the pain, loss and suffering of the Native American culture in Minnesota."
The Sesquicentennial Commission and its volunteers will strive to increase pride in Minnesota by:
(2.) Raising awareness and educating Minnesotans by telling the stories of our past, recognizing the indigenous
people of Minnesota, learning from them..."
The public is being asked to get involved. Griff Wigley, Project Leader of SACNAP, posted a comment of mine
on the SACNAP blog site, which includes a link to my (on-line)
Dakota Human Rights Violations In Anoka
document. Anoka is located within the Dakota's Wakan/"Mille Lac" (northcentral MN) or
Wakan/"Rum" River Watershed ancestral/traditional homeland.
Mr. Wigley recently informed me that he will soon post my (on-line)
Healing the painful wounds of a
genocide in Minnesota article.
Also, Waziyatawin Angela Wilson, historian and a leading MN Dakota Indian activist, has information about
her perspective on Minnesota's genocidal history display on SACNAP’s blog site. In an audio/recorded radio
broadcast, Wilson said that she hopes that the Dakota will eventually regain some of their Mille Lacs (northcentral MN)
ancestral homeland wild rice grounds. In respect to my (on-line) Regaining The Dakota's Sacred Mille Lacs
Ancestral Homeland article, Wilson told me "your doing good work".
SACNAP's blog site
Waziyatawin's audio/recorded radio broadcast
