The other side of Minnesota’s sesquicentennial: Native Americans plan counter-commemoration

One hundred fifty years of statehood is something for Minnesotans to celebrate, right? Not for everyone. To counter next week’s official sesquicentennial events, members of the Twin Cities Dakota community and their allies are planning events to show an often-unseen side of Minnesota’s founding — the experiences of their ancestors at that time.

“Opposition to the sesquicentennial events is one way for Dakota (and all native people) people to not only honor our ancestors by acknowledging the suffering they endured, but it is also a chance to tell the truth about Minnesota’s shameful ethnic cleansing of its Indigenous people,” wrote the event organizers. “We ask Dakota people, other Native people, and Minnesota’s non-Native citizenry to support us in this opportunity to demand a narrative of truth and the decolonization of the Dakota homeland Minnesota Makoce (Land Where the Waters Reflect the Skies).”

Friday afternoon a Truth Telling Protest will be held along the Mendota Bridge during rush hour (from 4 to 6 p.m.), and on Saturday a ceremony and vigil will be held at Fort Snelling. On Sunday a rally will be held at noon at the State Capitol to coincide with the sesquicentennial activities.

An attempt at telling the narrative of the history of the indigenous people of Minnesota has been a part of the sesquicentennial planning. The  Minnesota Sesquicentennial Commission has issued a statement and created a Web site 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.”

Continued: Click “Read More”Several events are planned throughout the summer recognizing the suffering, pain and loss of Minnesota’s indigenous people.

“What I’ve learned from Dakota people is that many of them see the events that surround statehood as something to be mourned,” Jane Leonard, executive director of the sesquicentennial commission, told the Star Tribune. “Statehood came on the backs of many Indian people who were pushed out, so farmers could have land.”

In addition to statehood celebrations, May is also American Indian Month in Minnesota. As Nick Coleman of the Star Tribune wrote last week, it’s an opportunity for Minnesota to issue an apology to the first peoples.

“A lot of Indians don’t see the sesquicentennial as something to celebrate,” Leonard Wabasha, a Dakota told Coleman. “It’s just another year and an anniversary that reminds us of what was taken away, and what we lost.”

On May 16 the Dakota War will be the topic of discussion at the sesquicentennial events in Winona. That war ended with the largest government mass execution in U.S. history when 38 Dakota people were hanged in Mankato.