MinnesotaHistory.net

Dear Jane:

I have to admit that I am greatly in doubt of your statement that your door “is open to ideas from anyone on how we can bring the truth forward.” I think I have listed a number of things that you can begin discussing publicly:

the bounties on Dakota People - Are you and your Sesquicentennial Commission talking about bounties, and asking what kind of people are these Euro-Minnesotans who did these things? This is genocide, “killing members of the group”, from the UN Genocide Convention of 1948;

the broken treaties - e.g. the Treaty of 1805. Most of St. Paul and Minneapolis are on this land. This land was not paid for. The land is Dakota land. Are you advocating justice for the Dakota? are you advocating land reparations and/or restitution for the Dakota

the concentration camps - the one at Mankato for the Dakota men, and the other at Ft. Snelling for the women, children, and elders. Are you talking about this topic?

the hanging of the 38 Dakota at Mankato - This was the largest mass execution in the history of the United States. Minnesota out-Texased Texas in death executions. Are you talking about this? That this was illegal? That this was legalized murder? You might want to read Carol Chomsky’s article about this. Is this being discussed by you and your commission?

the forced marches - 1,700 Dakota people, primarily women, children, and elders were force-marched 150 miles from southwestern Minnesota to the concentration camp at Ft. Snelling. Many were killed along the way, including my grandmother who was bayoneted in the stomach by a soldier on horseback. Then, hundreds more were killed in the concentration camp during the cold Minnesota winter of 1862-63;

The concentration camps and the forced-marches are genocide, “deliberately inflicting conditions upon the group calculated to bring about the physical destruction of the group in whole or in part,” from the UN Genocide Convention of 1948; the forced removal - or “ethnic cleansing” of the Dakota People from their traditional homelands, Mini Sota Makoce, “Land Where The Waters Reflect the Skies, or Heavens. This is genocide!

the perpetrators of genocide - Ramsey, Sibley, Marshall, et. al. along with the Euro-Minnesotan citizenry. It was under the administration of Ramsey that the bounties, concentration camps, forced marches, mass executions, and forced removals, etc. occurred. Ramsey was a genocidaire, a perpetrator of genocide. Sibley, along with Sully, perpetrated genocide upon the Dakota People in the Dakotas, sometimes killing many innocent Dakota in his blood-lust, killing people who had nothing do to with what happened in Minnesota. William Rainey Marshall was the commander of the troops who force-marched the 1,700 Dakota women, children, and elders 150 miles. Forced marches fulfil the criteria of genocide, according to the UN Genocide Convention of 1948. Ramsey, Sibley, Marshall, et. al. were Genocidaires, perpetrators of Genocide!!!

Other things that need to be addressed but cannot be discussed in detail here include: suppression of our language: suppression of our spirituality and our religious practices and ceremonies; residential boarding schools (which is genocide, “forcibly transferring children from one group to another” the 5th criterion of the UN Genocide Conventions of 1948); nuclear waste storage upon the Prairie Island Dakota Community which has and is causing disease, tumors, sterility, etc.; the lack of curricular materials in the schools which deal with the TRUTH of what really happened in the state of Minnesota; the continuing discrimination against the Dakota People and the other Indigenous Peoples of Minnesota; the use of Native Peoples as sports mascots and names, using Dakota People (”the Fighting Sioux”) for the white people’s fun and games; etc. etc. etc.

You ask the question “How can the truth come out if people are unwilling to participate in its telling?” I think you need to look in the mirror. You, the Sesquicentennial Commission, the Minnesota historical Society and other colonial institutions, et. al. are the ones who does not wish to tell the truth. You met with several Dakota people - Neil McKay, Ramona Stately, Janice Bad Moccasin, Joanna Bryant, and Waziyata Win - and they told you that there was nothing to celebrate until you, the Minnesota Historical Society, and the state of Minnesota and its Euro-Minnesotan citizenry address the legacy of genocide, ethnic cleansing, and the on-going injustices perpetrated against Dakota People (like not being paid for the millions aof acres of land stolen by the U.S. government, the State of Minnesota, and its Euro-Minnesotan citizenry.

You and your Sesquicentennial Commission refused to support the book that has ben written for the purpose of telling the truth of what really happened in this state. It was suggested to you that the Commission fund only those projects which would address the TRUE history and engage in truth-telling but you couldn’t do that.

You say, “We, too, must confront our own heritage of invasion and occupation.” I wish you could include “GENOCIDE” in your list, for that, too, needs to be confronted by you and your fellow Euro-Minnesotans!! You and other Euro-Minnesotans need to begin telling the truth! You could help Dakota People by helping to hold white people accountable for what they gained at Dakota expense - their blood, their lives, their language, their ways of life, their loss of millions upon millions of acres, the treaties with the Dakota People broken by the U.S. government, the State of Minnesota, and the Euro-Minnesotan citizenry, etc. You could start saying “The Dakota People need to be paid a fair price for the lands we stole from them.” You could say, “we need to honor the treaties with the Dakota People of Minnesota, especially the Treaty of 1805.” You and other Euro-Minnesotans could say, “My family and I benefitted from Dakota genocide and ehtnic cleansing and this is how….”

Instead, you are more concerned with “celebration.” You and your Commission are putting in these little blurbs in the Minneapolis Star Tribune which have “MN 150″ over them, blurbs which tickle the ears of white people and make them comfortable. As Waziyata Win says about those people who either deny or refuse to tell the truth, “You are more concerned about the perpetrators than the victims.” Further, Waziyata Win writes, “You would not suggest to the Jews (you mention Dr. Stephen Feinstein) that they should convey their Holocaust experience in a way that will make the Nazis or their descendants comfortable,” which is, of course, what you, the Sesquicentennial Commission, and the Minnesota Historical Society are doing!!!

I am submitting my response and your email to the Minnesota Indian ListServe because I wish them to see and contrast how you are talking with what you are doing.
Thank you for responding to me.

Chris Mato Nunpa, Ph.D.
Associate Professor
Indigenous Nations & Dakota Studies (INDS)
Southwest Minnesota State University
Marshall, Minnesota 56258

<-About the author: Whitefish is a political blogger.->