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Introduction
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3 Introduction M innesota is a Dakota place. The Dakota people named it and left their marks in the landscape and in its history. Yet the relationship of the Dakota people to their traditional lands in Minnesota is little understood by Minnesotans today. Many history books describe the Dakota as a fierce, warlike people who lived in Minnesota prior to the arrival of whites, then disappeared. Others tell the story of the 1862 Dakota–U.S. War as though those events were the only ones of significance in Dakota history. Among the Dakota people, the importance of this place to their history and identity is well known. It is part of the oral tradition and knowledge of the people. In the written record of European encounters with Dakota people that go back three hundred years, explorers and missionaries described the Dakota, this region, and places in it, though perhaps sometimes in incomplete and garbled form. Even from these sources, the enduring eloquence of Dakota people about their connection to the land can be heard. In an account from around 1720, an unknown Frenchman recorded the Dakota belief that the first of their people came from the ground on the prairie between the mouth of the Minnesota River and the Falls of St. Anthony. In April 1754 Dakota chiefs gathered with a French diplomat, Joseph Marin, at a fort along the Mississippi River to complain about incursions by Ojibwe into their territory. One of the chiefs laid before Marin a map of the region and said, No one could be unaware that from the mouth of the Wisconsin to Leech Lake, these territories belong to us. On all the points and in the little rivers we have had villages. One can still see the marks of our bones which are still there, which are the remains from the Cristinaux [Cree] and the Sauteux [Ojibwe] having killed us. But they never can drive us away. These are territories that we hold from no one except the Master of Life who gave them to us. And although we have been at war against all the nations, we never abandoned them.1 Such statements about the Dakota’s connection to this region continued, reported by many writers, whether French, British, or American. William WestermanWhite.indd 3 7/16/12 8:31 AM 4 introduction H. Keating, a geologist who came to the Minnesota area on an exploratory expedition in 1823, observed, “The Dacotas have no tradition of having ever emigrated, from any other place, to the spot upon which they now reside; they believe that they were created by the Supreme Being on the lands which they at present occupy.” A writer in the early 1850s, probably one of the white missionaries among the Dakota, reported that “One great natural fact which perhaps ought to be recognized and recorded at the start, is this, viz: That the mouth of the Minnesota river (Watpa Minisota [Mni Sota Wakpa]) lies immediately over the center of the earth and under the centre of the heavens.” The writer of that statement may have been the missionary Stephen R. Riggs, who later stated, “The Mdewakantonwan think that the mouth of the Minnesota River is precisely over the center of the earth and that they occupy the gate that opens into the western world.”2 The Dakota connection was not only to the entire region of Minnesota but also to specific places, rivers, lakes, rocks, landforms, and village sites, all imbued with meaning by generations of experience and knowledge. At treaty negotiations at Prairie du Chien in 1825, Dakota leaders were asked to describe their territory so that federal officials could differentiate the lands of various nations. Dakota chiefs gave eloquent accounts of where they lived and where they belonged. A Wa®petuåwaå leader known as “the Little” stated, “I am of the prairie. I claim the land up the River Corbeau [Crow River] to its source & from there to Otter Tail Lake. I can yet show the marks of my lodges there and they will remain as long as the world lasts.” Tataåka Naœiå, Standing Buffalo, a Sisituåwaå leader from Lake Traverse and Lac qui Parle, stated that his lands commenced at Ottertail Lake and ran north to Pine Lake and the Pine River, which emptied into the Red River.3 Wanataå, the Ihaåktuåwaå leader from Lake Traverse, said, “I am from the plains and it is of that part of our Country of...