September 11th aftermath changes traditional Sioux movement patterns.

Introduction

This paper will look at the movement and settlement patterns of the Mdwankanton Dakota focusing on the Lower Sioux, Mystic Lake and Prairie Island groups. I will first look at the larger Dakota and Lakota settlement patterns from the time of European contact until the beginnings of the 1900's. From there I will begin to look at what life was like on the reservations of the Lower Sioux, Mystic Lake and Prairie Island groups. I will look at historic events, such as both of the battles at Wounded Knee, as they help shape the thinking, religious and settlement patterns of the Dakota and Lakota over the last one-hundred and thirty years. The focus will then move to the changes in the reservation economy and infrastructure due to the legalization of gambling and how that has affected the settlement patterns of the modern Dakota. Finally, I will take a look at how the Patriot Act, enacted after the attacks on September 11, 2001, has affected the civil rights and movement patterns of shaman and American Indian Movement members.

The Mdwankanton Dakotah; Traditional Locations, Historic Locations & Related Movement Patterns.

The Dakota and Lakota are related clan groups within the Great Sioux Nation. The traditional spelling of their names includes an "h" on the end (Dakotah and Lakotah). I was taught early on that you speak Dakota if you were east of the Red River of the North (the river that is the border for Minnesota and North Dakota) and you spoke Lakota if you were west of it. Currently the Mdwankanton Dakota live on four reservations in Minnesota; Upper Sioux, Lower Sioux, Prairie Island and Shakopee (Mystic Lake). Long before the Dakota people saw any white settlers they had been touched by them through contact with new diseases. Small pox and Rubella (German measles) were the two biggest killers of native Dakota and Lakota peoples. Early ethnographers like James Mooney estimated from their observations that about 90% of the Native American groups like the Dakota and Lakota died from these diseases before they ever saw their first white person. (Palmer 2008) As Europeans moved west and traded with the Dakota and Lakota they also brought with them alcohol, guns and other goods. Native American's had never distilled alcohol before European contact, let alone drink it. Their bodies were not accustomed to processing this new chemical, thus it had a stronger effect on them. Later, the term "drunken Indian" will haunt the Native peoples of this country for many years. In Minnesota the traditional Dakota society was fast disappearing and a new way of life was taking over. "The Yankton and the Lakota moved onto the plains to trap the beaver desired by the European traders. Meanwhile the Dakota, the middlemen, adopted the European Broadcloth as a part o their regular attire, a process that was expedited by the loss of precious game, hence hides, in their territory as they competed with white settles for food and territory." (Palmer 2008)

"The Dakota first laid eyes on whites when they met French explorers Pierre Radisson and Seur des Groseilliers in 1660. At the time, the Dakota were living in northern Wisconsin. They later moved to the Mille Lacs Lake area but were pushed south after battles with the rival Ojibwa. The two Indian nations had a long series of conflicts stretching from 1736 to the mid-1850's. In 1825 the Ojibwa and Dakota reached an agreement that set a boundary that ran diagonally across Minnesota, from what is now Stillwater to the Fargo area. The Dakota were south of the line, including the Minnesota River Valley. (Krohn 2008)

First Conflicts in Southern Minnesota

"In 1837, a treaty was signed giving all Dakota land east of the Mississippi to the government. Much of the money that was to go to the Indians instead went to traders who said--sometimes falsely--that they were owed debts by the Dakota. In 1851, on of the nation's most important treaties was signed at Traverse des Sioux between the government and the Wahpeton and Sisseton bands of Dakota. In the treaty, the Dakota gave up 24 million acres of land in southern Minnesota, Iowa and South Dakota. In exchange, the Indians were given a tract of land 10 miles wide on each side of the Minnesota river, from near Fort Ridgely to the South Dakota border. There were to receive just more than $3 million in payments over 50 years.

By the winter of 1861 and 1862, the Indians were in dire conditions. Promised food and money didn't arrive. According to the Redwood Gazette newspaper at the time, the Indians had resorted to eating most of their dogs and many horses to survive. The Dakota were not only starving and felt betrayed but a sense of weakness among the Minnesota frontier settlers, brought on by the departure of many of their young men to fight in the Civil War. The spark came on Aug. 17, 1862, when four young Dakota warriors murdered five settlers near Acton. On Aug. 18, Indians at the Lower Sioux Agency rebelled, killing most of the settlers on their reservation." (Krohn 2008)

The final battle took place September 23 at Wood Lake near Birch Coulee at a battlefield between Granite Falls and the town of Echo. Three days later, the Dakota released 269 captives they held west of Montevideo and surrendered. A military commission was set up to decide which Indians should be punished. In the end, the commission sentenced 303 Dakota to death. President Lincoln was under pressure to give the final order for execution. Missionaries wrote letters to the press calling for new, fair trials for the condemned. Lincoln eventually ordered the execution of only 38 Dakota.

"At 10 a.m. on December 26, 1862 the 38 ascended a specially made timber gallows erected in Mankato. Mounted Scout William Duly severed the rope to hang the Indians. The bodies were buried, but because of high demand for cadavers for anatomical study, the graves were opened and the bodies distributed among local doctors. The Dakota did not begin returning to the reservation lands until the 1880's." (Krohn 2008)

Life and Movement Patterns from 1862 to early 1900's

In the winter of 1862 the defeated Dakota were in a prison camp at Fort Snelling near the city of St. Paul, Minnesota. Pneumonia and other diseases were rampant in the camp and nearly one-third of the population died that winter. In the spring the Dakota were crowded onto cattle boats and shipped to Nebraska for relocation. Here the remaining members of the Dakota were given a small plot of land that was arid and mostly unwanted and unusable for the settlers. They were told that they were to become farmers and work the land. Even today with modern agricultural techniques the land that was given to the Dakota cannot sustain a cash crop; it certainly didn't support one over one-hundred years ago.

"In the wake of the Dakota Conflict, Dakota people moved up the Minnesota River and onto the plains beyond. This exodus has often been presented as if the refugees fled either to the Dakota Territory or to Rupert's Land, as if the boundary presented a real barrier once crossed. In reality, Dakota fled to the borderlands and then moved back and forth between American and British Territory. Although the boundary had not yet been marked on the ground (this would not happen until 1873-74), Dakota peoples were very much aware of its existence, and they took advantage of the opportunities it offered during the 1860's." (McCrady 2006, 17)

After the uprising of 1862 this border will become a significant factor in determining how their present day ancestors see each other. In the 1970's there was still a lot of people who remembered which families were in the prison camps and which families fled the battle; but most importantly, who were the families of the 38 who were hung in Mankato (Lawrence 2006). This was one of the difficulties the founders of the Mahkato Wacipi had to face when they were organizing their first pow-wow. If the Dakota wanted to "reunify" with the whites, they must first "reunify" among themselves. They must put aside the hard feelings about Mankato and the war. The first Mahkato Wacipi was in 1972. Today, my observations are that most of it has been put aside, but every once in a while it pops up again in an occasional heated argument.

In a story told to me by Eli Taylor, I was told that the Dakota who moved to Sioux Valley, Manitoba, Canada were originally from the Mankato area in Minnesota. I was told that after the uprising started many Dakota, heeding the words of warrior Chief Little Crow and realizing his insight; "if you kill one, two, ten and ten times ten will come to kill you" fled the Mankato area and moved north. Eli said those years before the uprising a number of Dakota had gone to England and visited with the Queen, who they referred to as "Queen Mother." The story, as Eli had heard it, said that the Queen had a wonderful conversation with them about "star people, life and the world around them, how it works and how to we should live in it. " They felt that they understood each other very well. The Queen made his family comfortable while they were there and when they left they were told that if they ever needed protection that they should go north, to Canada, and she would protect them. Eli said that "Grandpa told me that when the uprising started, his family remembered the stories about this original meeting with the Queen and they moved north to seek her protection. They didn't know if they had gone far enough for it to be safe, so they just kept going, until they reached the area that was to become Sioux Valley, Manitoba." The valley is extensive and you can see long distances. On the ridge of the valley, the story goes, was a church. On top of the church's steeple was a large cross. To the Dakota this is the sign of "the four directions" one of the central symbols to their religion, thus they felt they were finally safe from the U.S. Army. They settled in the region and have lived there ever...